Welcome to the UKS2 Blog for Summer 2026 

Week beginning 8th June

Please see below what we have been doing in school this week!

Year 6 English - Monday 8th June

Today in English, Year 6 continued looking at the opening of 'Treason', a wonderful piece of historical fiction by Berlie Doherty set in the Tudor era and fitting perfectly with our history learning. We discussed the mood that it created before completing a Thesaurus Challenge to find some more powerful verbs. Mrs Carson then asked Year 6 to re-write the first few sentences to include these, with some excellent results. Here are two super examples:

We sprang off our horses and bolted ahead of Father along the shore. Waves smashes themselves against the rocks, sending cascades of spray high into the air, before rummaging back across the sand like starving dogs, snuffling into every crevice.

‘I’ll race you to the cave!’ bellowed Matthew, panting like a tired wolf. A crashing wave bounced within the stones, filling our boots to the brin. Regaining my balance, I stumbled straight towards the cave…

By Max

We dismounted our horses and careered ahead of Father along the shore. The vicious wind made the sand harshly whip unto our faces, whilst the waves hit the rocks like they were taking part in a hidden war.

‘I’ll race you to the cave!’ challenged Matthew. I began running towards it with all my might…

By Cian

Week beginning 1st June

Welcome back to school for the final half of this academic year! This week, play rehearsals have ramped up whilst Year 6 have also been busy helping EYFS and KS1 with their Sports Day. We hope you enjoy looking at what we have been up to!

Year 6 enjoyed their second session with Watford FC's Community Trust for their Positive Minds programme. We spent the afternoon exploring the links between body, mind and resilience. First, we looked at the differences between physical and mental health, before moving on to focusing on examples of when we have had to be resilient in the past. Amy lead a brilliant discussion around coping strategies to reduce the effects of stressful events, and taught us a super technique called box breathing, which she recommended being used in the future as a discreet way to help us keep calm. We ended the session with a year group league of rock, paper, scissors, where we certainly had to use some of today's strategies and display resilience! 

This afternoon, Years 5 and 6 were treated to a visit from local award-winning author Tamsyn Murray. Tamsyn met with us to inspire a love of writing, sharing her own path to becoming an author before talking about where she gets her ideas from. We loved learning that Rolo (the badly-behaved, eating machine dog from the Completely Cassidy series) is, in fact, based entirely on Tamsyn's own dog, Lily! Tamsyn also read an extract from one of her books before telling us about her 'pen name' for the books she writes for an older audience. At the end of her talk, we had the opportunity to ask questions before one Year 5 and one Year 6 had the amazing privilege of receiving their new, signed copies of Tamsyn's most popular book! This was a fabulous afternoon visit and we would all like to thank Tamsyn and also Mrs Johnson, who arranged this for us.

Week beginning 18th May

Welcome to the last week (just four days, due to Friday's INSET day!) of our half term. We have been busy starting to learn the songs for our production, 'What a Knight!', with Year 6 also auditioning for main parts and solos. This week's highlights, of course, were Tuesday's Magistrates' Workshop and Break The Rules Day on Thursday!

Thank you to all of UKS2 for their hard work and energy over the past six weeks. I hope you all have a lovely half-term break and look forward to welcoming you back to school on Monday 1st June.

Mrs Carson x

Topaz and Turquoise quickly settled back into routine after last week's SATS by starting a new art unit, focusing on self-portraits. Today, they rehearsed sketching facial features using mirrors for more detailed explorations of their eyes, noses, lips and ears. 

Years 5 and 6 had a wonderful opportunity to enrich their 'Crime and Punishment' topic this morning with a team of four local magistrates coming in to lead a workshop. We were first treated to an interesting presentation about the role of a magistrate and were asked many quick-fire questions before looking at whether an incident would result in an arrest or not! The magistrates then rearranged the classroom into a court set-up before introducing us to a case scenario...

An eighteen-year-old woman was accused of stealing a phone case from a shop, with a key witness claiming to have seen this happen. Each class had to decide whether or not the defendant was guilty or not. The magistrates (played by class members), supported by a cast of witnesses and lawyers, were then sent to decide the defendant's fate. She was found guilty and sentenced to a fine and ordered to pay compensation to her victim. 

This was a wonderful workshop that was very thought-provoking, too. We would all like to thank the magistrates for volunteering their time. 

Year 6 began their Positive Minds programme today, led by Watford Football Club's Community Trust. Caoimhe and Amy came to deliver the first of our workshops designed to support well-being and to prepare both classes for Year 7. Today, we focused on mental health and then discussed what makes a positive relationship. This was a useful start to our transition work as the children prepare for life beyond Brookmans Park Primary School. 

Week beginning 11th May

Good luck to our Year 6 children, who are sitting their SATS exams this week! 

And just like that...Year 6 have finished their SATS! Well done to every single of them for being resilient, risk-taking superstars this week as they reflected on their learning throughout KS2 to complete the papers. Mrs Carson, Mrs Davies and Mr Fossey could not be prouder and are now VERY excited to begin post-SATS life in Year 6! At the end of the morning, we allowed the children some free time outside, with Topaz also watching some of 'Wonder' (our favourite class book from last term). This afternoon, Mr Fossey has been running Kahoot quizzes, whilst Ms Karpasitis (covering Topaz) has had great fun with Just Dance! Freedom has never tasted so sweet!

Week beginning 4th May

We have managed to fit a great deal of learning into our 4-day week. Please see some examples below!

This morning, the whole school was treated to an assembly led by James Aston, who has lived experience of autism and ADHD. James talked openly and honestly about things that he has found difficult throughout his life and then positively spoke about things and people that have helped him. We were invited to ask James questions, whilst some of UKS2 stayed behind to speak with him in a smaller group. Thank you to James for giving his time to us and to Ms Finney for organising such an interesting assembly.

Topaz continued their learning about crime and punishment in history this afternoon, focusing on the Medieval period. We reminded ourselves about William the Conqueror’s invasion of England in 1066 and then explored how he kept many of the Anglo-Saxon punishments. We were shocked to learn, however, that wergild was now often ordered to be paid to the King, rather than the victim’s family! We learnt about William’s new forest laws and how they affected ordinary people before taking on the role of Medieval court jurors in our table groups and deciding on suitable punishments for crimes committed. We ended the lesson by placing ourselves on a continuum line to demonstrate whether we believed the real Medieval punishments given were fair or unfair.

Year 6 spent their morning revising maths and grammar, whilst also celebrating David Attenborough Day (marking his 100th birthday)! We began our day by being explorers in the wilds of Brookmans Park School's ground, discovering many features of nature...which all had a mathematical term found within them! After taking photographs and recording these on clipboards, we returned to the classroom to view clips of David Attenborough's remarkable commentary style. After break, we wrote scripts to accompany our photographs, with Mrs Carson tasking each group to label the grammatical features they had used, such as prepositions, relative clauses and adverbials. To end the morning, we had great fun filming our clips! 

Week beginning 27th April

We hope you enjoy seeing what we have been doing in school this week!

UKS2 launched their Crime and Punishment topic in history this week, focusing particularly on the Anglo-Saxon period. After some excellent discussion regarding crimes that we are aware of, and what we already know of the British system for trialling suspects, we explored possible punishments that would be given today. We then began to look at crimes from the Anglo-Saxon era. We learnt about the tithings and ‘Hue and Cry’ method of keeping people in order within a community, before being taught about ‘wergild’ – a system of paying money to a victim and/or their family. The children all loved exploring this interactively, by placing post-its on a group member in accordance with their injuries and amount owed! Finally, we learnt of the horrific Saxon ‘trial by ordeal’ method of judging whether someone was guilty of committing a crime, and had great fun acting out some possible scenarios! Please see some pictures of Topaz and Ruby in action!

In today's PSHE lessons, Year 6 explored the concept of risk. We discussed what is meant by this - both in terms of putting yourself out of your comfort zone to achieve a desired success but also with regards potential dangers. Mrs Carson explored the risks of vaping and smoking with each class, before looking at current statistics affirming that only 2% of 11 - 15 year-olds in England vape or smoke. We discussed peer pressure and how some people might make you feel that you are the 'only one' not doing something. To make this a more likely scenario for Year 6, we used the case study of Chris, whose friend was trying to persuade him to lend him a new pair of (expensive) goalkeeping gloves. In pairs, we created possible things that Chris could say and then acted out a conscience alley, where Chris was being given opposing arguments from each side of the class. To end the lesson, we created some assertive statements for Chris and discussed how to respond if we are ever being asked to do something that we feel uncomfortable about. 

Week beginning 20th April

Despite the revision ramping up in Year 6, our oldest children have still managed to have fun with this! Year 5, meanwhile, have continued to work exceptionally hard in their learning, too. We hope you enjoy seeing what we have been up to this week!

This afternoon, Year 6 investigated whether the distance of the light source affects the size of a shadow. We began the lesson by revising our key word of 'opaque' to describe an object which does not allow light to pass through it, making it impossible to see through. After this, we used the darkest possible classroom (Turquoise, with all the blinds pulled down!) to measure the size of a shadow at eight different distances from a light source (torch). Mrs Carson and Mr Fossey were very impressed to see excellent group work to accurately record their findings. This allowed everyone to have an accurate set of results to plot a line graph from - a key cross-curricular skill.

At the end of the lesson, Year 6 were challenged to write a conclusion that included both scientific language and clear reasoning. Here is Raya's excellent example: The closer the light source is to an opaque object, the bigger the shadow will be. This is because the object blocks more of the light spreading out, so the resulting shadow appears much larger. 

Earth Day is an annual international event held on 22^nd April and is recognised by over a billion people around the world. In school today, UKS2 learnt about Earth Day’s aim to raise awareness for our planet and the environmental challenges it faces. Each class explored why Earth Day is so important before discussing opportunities for people to show their support for the environment and come together to take action to help protect Earth. In pairs or threes, we then tasked to make an attractive poster to encourage people in the Brookmans Park community to protect our planet. Every group worked hard to produce a catchy and memorable slogan and eye-catching images. Look out for our finished posters around the school!

Week beginning 13th April

Welcome back to school for the Summer Term! It has been lovely to be back together in school this week and we hope you enjoy seeing some examples of what we have been doing.

This morning, Year 6 began their revision of 3D shape ahead of the upcoming SATS. We firstly explored a range of 3D shapes by sorting them according to chosen properties. In our groups, we then talked about the meanings of key vocabulary used to describe 3D shapes, including edge, face, vertices and net. After observing nets of some of our shapes, we were then set the challenge of making the net of a cube using six square faces. Some worked, whilst some didn't, promoting plenty of discussion!