Welcome to the UKS2 Blog for Summer 2026 

Week beginning 20th July

As we reach the end of term, I would like to congratulate all of Ruby, Sapphire, Topaz and Turquoise for a fantastic year. The children have all made excellent progress in their learning and have contributed hugely to the phase - both academically and in extra-curricular pursuits. We are all exceptionally proud of you, UKS2. Thank you to all of the Year 5 and 6 staff for their hard work in making this all possible. Congratulations, also, to this term's Head Teacher Award winners:

Effort - Eliza, Xanthe, Nicholas, Cally-Jaxx

Achievement - Ariana, Isla, Harry, Alberto

Citizenship - Jesse, Liam P, Ellie, Ruby L

We will greatly miss our Year 6 children and wish them the best of luck as they depart to their secondary schools, whilst we look forward to welcoming our current Year 5 children back for their final year on Wednesday 2nd September.

Mrs Carson and the UKS2 Team x

This morning saw the annual Year 6 vs Staff Rounders match, which was fiercely competed today! Mirroring England's fabulous performance on Saturday evening, the staff were able to defeat Topaz 6 - 4, whilst Turquoise also pushed the staff in their game, narrowly losing 3 and 1/2 to 6 rounders. Overall, therefore, the staff won by 12 and a half to 7 rounders, but this was much closer than in previous years! Well done to everyone who played!

This morning, Topaz completed their final transition PSHE lesson. We began the session by talking about some of the positive things from Brookmans Park School that we would like to take with us on our journey to secondary school, such as being inclusive, friendly and having Golden Time! The children were then tasked to draw themselves a 'secondary island'. Working in friendship groups, they added both practical and hopeful suggests for their ideal secondary school (Mrs Carson's favourite suggestions were a go-kart track and Jellycat shop!). We then drew boats to transport ourselves there which represented the positive attributes we have to make Year 7 a success. At the end of the lesson, we wrote a message to ourselves which remains private and can only be opened on the first day of Year 7, serving a reminder of everything we have achieved during Year 6 which will lead to success in our new schools. 

Week beginning 13th July

Our last full week of school for the academic year was, once again, a busy one! One definite highlight was the Year 5 ukulele concert on Monday. Please see further details below!

This afternoon, Year 5 performed a ukulele concert to their family members and Year 6. Taught by Leigh Miller from Hertfordshire Music Service, Year 5 have enjoyed weekly 30-minute class lessons throughout the year. Today's performance featured pop classics such as 'Count On Me', 'Senorita' and 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' and had the audience showering applause and singing along. Thank you so much to Year 5 for entertaining us all and for having worked so hard in class music lessons and thank you to Leigh for her excellent teaching. 

This morning, we travelled to St Albans Museum and Gallery for a workshop about Crime and Punishment in the Victorian era. We split into our classes for two separate activities. Firstly, Topaz were taken into a large space that had been recreated as an exact Victorian courtroom. We were given roles for two court hearings, featuring the theft of apples and the poaching of rabbits by children, and learnt of the strict punishments for minors. Whilst one was given a fine, another was sent to prison for 21 days and then subject to hard labour!

During a short break, a museum volunteer showed us real Roman artefacts found in St Albans and looked up our family history for crimes in Hertfordshire (oh dear, oh dear the two people whose ancestors broke into a house and robbed a church in the 1700s!). We then went into a classroom to look at a variety of genuine items that the first Victorian policemen would have owned and newspaper reports about local crimes. The highlight of this session, however, was having the opportunity to go underneath the courtroom to see the cells that defendants would have been held in pending their trial. 

Thank you to all of the staff at the museum for an excellent morning. Year 6 (and their teachers) really enjoyed this fantastic finish to our history topic. 

In the last of our Positive Minds lessons, Year 6 explored the difference between fixed and growth mindsets. We learnt about the benefit of having a growth mindset through famous role-models such as Michael Jordon and J.K Rowling, before turning our attention towards setting goals for the future. We discussed how a growth mindset can help us to achieve these by improving our work rate, confidence and resilience. At the end of the session, we had a chance to ask questions about things that might be concerning us for Year 7, and Amy gave some excellent advice in return. Thank you so much to Watford FC for these fantastic sessions this half-term.

This morning, we celebrated reading for pleasure in our school, with a fabulous assembly led by our reading ambassadors. Thank you so much to the Year 6 ambassadors who have helped to inspire others with their reading, and especially to Joel and Chikamji for hosting this morning's celebration. Congratulations to all of the Year 5 and 6 winners:

Reading Award - Sebastian S, Benny, Jessica G and Will

Highest AR Points - Anabella, Jessica S, Harry and Chikamji

Winning Class in UKS2 for average AR points per child - Sapphire

Week beginning 6th July

What a start to the week, with England's exceptional World Cup win being celebrated by multiple children (and staff) and Sports Day having taken place all by lunchtime on Monday! We hope you also enjoy looking at the other things we have been up to this week in school!

Topaz enjoyed their history lesson today, where we explored crime and punishment throughout the Tudor period. We began by observing a range of primary and secondary sources of different punishments, and had to guess what they were and how they were used. Following this, we learnt about the crime of vagrancy - being poor and homeless and having to beg for food and money. We discussed why the Tudors would have believed this to be such a serious crime. Mrs Carson then handed out a collection of Tudor names and scenarios which had led them to being accused of a crime. In pairs, we were tasked with working out what the crime was and then, using sources around the room, discovering their punishments! 

In our Positive Minds session with Watford FC's Community Trust today, Year 6 focused on body image. We began the lesson with an interesting exploration of celebrities. First, we looked at images of famous people as children and had to guess who they were, with a sliding point-scale based on the number of clues we needed. Next, we were taught about the mental health and body image issues that they have all suffered throughout their lives, despite their great successes. Amy encouraged us to celebrate what makes us unique and to focus on the features of our appearance that we like, rather than those which worry us. We ended the afternoon by watching an inspirational short film featuring Paralympic athletes and musicians who have achieved incredible things. 

Following their Year 7 Transition Day yesterday, Topaz had a PSHE lesson today about moving through change. First, we booked twelve different time-slot appointments with different 'new' classmates. As Mrs Carson called each time out, we had to meet with our partner, introduce ourselves and role-play a short scenario where we would ask each other questions, imagining we had never met each other before. These included topics such as how to get to our next lesson and what we thought about our new form tutor. After twelve appointments, we discussed how to initiate conversation and create successful interactions throughout our first week at our new schools. Later in the lesson, Mrs Carson divided the classroom into four distinct areas, which were labelled: hopeful, confused, content and denial. We then had to move to the area that answered how we were feeling about issues such as travelling to our new schools, leaving behind our friends at primary school and having a fresh start. We realised that everybody has different feelings, which are all valid, and that they will continue to change as we begin Year 7.

Week beginning 29th June

With our phase reunited this week, we have enjoyed a fabulous visit from Electric Umbrella as part of our Diversity Week celebrations, in addition to excellent learning inside the classroom, too!

On Monday 29th June, Years 5 and 6 kickstarted Diversity Week with a visit from Electric Umbrella, a band which promotes difference. During the morning, they held a concert for us, featuring our Brookmans Park favourite 'There's No Such Thing As Normal' in addition to numerous other hits. The afternoon featured a fantastic workshop for our children, with a focus on self-love. We had a choice of using spoken word or singing to complete the sentence stem 'I Am', celebrating all the unique things which make us special. UKS2 greatly enjoyed their time with the band and would like to thank Electric Umbrella immensely (and Mrs Yeldham, too, for organising this for us!). 

We were once again joined by Amy from Watford FC's Community Trust this afternoon. As part of our Positive Minds programme, and in planning for life in secondary school, Year 6 spent the session exploring social media. We discussed the positives and negatives of using various social media platforms before learning about catfishing and the dangers of speaking to people online that we have never met in person. Amy then asked us to name a number of different apps and to guess the age restrictions currently in place, with a clear focus on the government's decision to ban all social media for under 16s next year. Towards the end of the lesson, we looked at a number of well-known figures in turn, and had to predict whether the amount of social media followers they have is higher or lower than the previous celebrity. Mrs Carson and Mr Fossey were very impressed with Year 6's maturity in explaining how a person's self-worth should never be judged by the amount of followers that they have. Well done, Topaz and Turquoise! 

Year 6 transition PSHE - Monday 29th June

As part of our transition work for leaving primary school (sob!), Year 6 spent their PSHE lesson today considering what they need to know to be ready for secondary school. After discussing the importance of mental health at the start of Year 7, we explored how to maintain and improve our own and that of others. We then made some lovely posters to record important ideas for starting our new schools. 

To end this week's unit about drugs and alcohol awareness, Year 6 began their lesson with a circle time to discuss when children might feel happy, sad, confident or worried. We talked about different people that we can ask for help and then got into groups of 4 to be given a problem page dilemma. After role-playing the scenario, we wrote back to the person with the problem to give them some advice about how to tackle their issue. Well done for doing this so effectively, Year 6!

It was Topaz's turn to experience a wonderful morning of Design and Technology today. We were joined by Eva and Sam from Computer Xplorers, who introduced us to Lego designs...with a motor! After learning about pulley systems, bevel gears and crown gears, we built simple machines and then coded them to move. Following break, we designed our own fairground rides and then had the opportunity to create them! Congratulations to our top 3 rides, judged by Mrs Davies for their use of motors and creativity, made by: Juliette and Christian C, Raya and Will, Sophie!  

Just before Golden Time, Year 6 were visited by two Brookmans Park ex-pupils who are now in Year 10 at Chancellor's. In an effort to ease any worries that our Year 6s have, Jamie and Lexi kindly gave up their time to talk to both classes about the school day, uniform, behaviour and homework expectations in Year 7. They answered (a lot!) of questions and even stayed for Golden Time. We would all like to thank Jamie and Lexi, and publicly wish Jamie a happy 15th birthday! 

Week beginning 22nd June

It's the week of Year 6's residential to Wales! Please follow our Instagram page and separate Wales WhatsApp group, which will be updated when WiFi allows! We hope the Year 5s have a lovely week in school and enjoy some of the extra responsibilities coming their way! 

Week beginning 15th June

Welcome to the week of 'What a Knight!' play performances, which we hope you all enjoy on Wednesday and Friday. Please note that tickets are not required. Each child is welcome to have two guests at each performance.

I hope you love these pictures from today's dress rehearsal! The children have been acting, singing and dancing SUPERBLY, and can't wait to show you the result of our hard work over the past three weeks! Pictured above are some live action shots and then class photographs (Year 5) and group shots (Year 6).

Whilst some of the year group were at a rounders competition, the remaining Year 6s worked exceptionally hard to improve their portrait work, focusing particularly upon ensuring all of the facial features were in proportion. Mrs Carson set the challenge of a continuous line drawing before progressing to a more detailed observational sketch. All of the children made huge improvements throughout the lesson and should be very proud of themselves! 

This morning, Sapphire took part in three hours of design and technology, creating a moving fairground ride with Neil from Computer Explorers. Neil tasked Sapphire to build a model using Lego, which they then coded using Chromebook technology to enable it to move. Mrs Thompson reported back that the children LOVED this experience, being motivated and engaged throughout. Thank you so much to Neil for providing us with such a great morning. Ruby Class look forward to their turn next Friday, and Topaz and Turquoise the weeks following this. 

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!