Year 6

Thank You!

Dear Year 6 and Parents/Guardians,

Thank you so much for our beautiful cards, vouchers and gifts. It has been a pleasure to teach you all and we are so proud of each and every one of you. Thank you also for allowing us to be a part of your leavers' party last night - it was so lovely to watch you all enjoying yourselves so much! We will miss you next year but know that you will continue to flourish at your secondary schools. Have a great summer!

Miss Kropman and Miss Melchionno x 

Mini Police Assembly - Thursday 18th July

This morning, Year 6 proudly shared their learning from the last six weeks of Mini Police sessions with the rest of KS2. Each group shared knowledge about issues such as anti-social behaviour, online safety, bullying, environmental issues, drugs and road safety, presenting their ideas clearly and with impressive confidence. At the end of the assembly, the police awarded each member of Year 6 with a certificate to celebrate their achievements. 

Designing a Zen Garden for D&T Week - Monday 15th July

Year 6 began their D&T week brilliantly today! First, they were introduced to their task of designing a Zen garden for the elevated space next to the school car park. They evaluated the available space by looking at what is already there and by measuring the largest rectilinear space using trundle wheels. Back in the classroom, they then produced scaled diagrams on squared paper before beginning some internet research. During the afternoon, they created some wonderful mood boards and started to think about their own designs. 

Wheelchair Sports - Wednesday 10th July

Year 6 greatly enjoyed themselves in their wheelchair sports session this afternoon. After being inspired by Chris from WheelPower's wonderful assembly, in which he talked about his own disability and explained his route into weight lifting (and the incredible 22 gold medals he has won), we were all excited to try out the customised sports chairs! Joined by his colleague Leah, Chris showed us how to move the wheelchair and explained the function of the slanted wheels before we each got to have a turn. We practised remaining silent and then becoming a rowdy crowd (similar to that experienced at Paralympic Games) whilst each of us was travelling forwards and backwards around an obstacle course. Some brave volunteers even got to try this blindfolded, whilst guided by a partner! Year 6 then asked some fantastic questions within a mature discussion about disability. Miss Kropman was very impressed and would like to congratulate everyone that was sponsored for this event - thank you for raising money for what we have learnt to be a great charity. 

Mini Police - Wednesday 10th July

Year 6 had their second Mini Police session of the week this morning and enjoyed recapping their learning from the past six sessions. They then got into groups and began planning a presentation for an assembly which will take place for KS2 next week. We were also lucky enough to have Mr Avila, a school governor, present for the morning to find out about our links with the wider community.

Topaz's Creative Colouring Self-Portraits - Week beginning 10th June

With the rain somewhat scuppering opportunities to run the Daily Mile this week, Miss Kropman set Topaz a colouring challenge with a difference! For ten minutes each day, Topaz first created a self-portrait and then used blocks of pattern to colour these, inspired by the work of Chuck Close that we studied earlier in the year. Pictured below are some great examples - can you work out who they are?

Week beginning 10th June

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Drama - We Will Rock You! Rehearsal Week 2 - Acting, singing, dancing and making props

English - Exploring balanced arguments

Topic - Mayan Gods

Art - Magazine boards

Music - Singing - preparation for Village Day

PE - Cricket and athletics

Crucial Crew, Wednesday 5th June

Welcome back for the final half-term of the year! After two busy days of exploring balanced arguments, PE and learning play songs, Year 6 spent Wednesday morning at the University of Hertfordshire with many different council, charity and emergency services representatives in a series of eight workshops designed to teach us about safety. Each of these was extremely interesting and covered topics such as: local emergencies, anti-social behaviour, cyber bullying, railway safety, fire hazards, how to perform CPR, e-safety and emotional resilience. 

Week beginning 3rd June

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Drama - We Will Rock You! Rehearsal Week 1

PSHE - Crucial Crew trip on Wednesday 

English - Exploring balanced arguments

Geography - Local housing, planning where we would recommend a new development to be situated 

French - holidays

Music - Singing

PE - Cricket and athletics

Happy half-term!

Thank you to all of Year 6 for an excellent five weeks, culminating in a brilliant effort for their SATS week last week and a fun geographical and sporting past few days. There is no homework for the holidays other than to have fun with your family and friends! Miss Kropman and Miss Melchionno 

Oakmere Mini Marathon - Thursday 23rd May

Year 6 spent this morning competing in the district mini marathon at Oakmere School in Potters Bar. With the sun beating down, over 300 competitors to jostle for places with, and a tough 2.1km course, our children displayed excellent fitness and resilience to all complete the marathon. The elite group of runners all managed to come in top twelve positions and, most excitingly, Luke came FIRST in the boys race. Luke's time was 7''44, which was a good minute ahead of his nearest rivals - incredible work, Luke! Our other elite runners were: Joe, Harry, Thomas, Maya S, Kiera, Annabel and Libby. Miss Buttle, Miss Kropman and Miss Melchionno hugely enjoyed watching such brilliant running and would like to say a huge congratulations and well done to everyone. Thank you also to Mrs Bass and Mrs Bennett who came with us as parent helpers. 

Week beginning 20th May

This week, Year 6 will be taking part in a geography focus week, including learning map skills and taking part in a field trip around the village. We will spend time considering areas that could be built on and whether we would allow planning permission if we were members of the local council. We will also be holding auditions for our end of year production! In addition, we will also have:

French - holidays

Music - Rhythm focus

PE - Cricket, athletics and Thursday's Oakmere mini-marathon

Zumba in PE - Friday 17th May

With the weather looking a bit too unpleasant for a game of rounders this afternoon, Miss Melchionno shared her extra-curricular hobby of zumba with Year 6! Despite getting hot, sweaty and very tired, we absolutely loved it!

Samba Drumming Workshop - Friday 17th May

Year 6 were treated to an amazing workshop this morning arranged by Miss Kropman and led by Caz Wolfson from Potters Bar Music Centre. We learnt many different rhythms and got to try a variety of instruments, including the surdo and tamborim drums, the agogo (metal bells) and ganzas (metal shakers). Caz was incredibly impressed with Year 6's musicality and couldn't believe that both groups were already sounding like a samba band after just one hour! We would all like to thank Caz for such a great session and look forward to welcoming her back for Village Day. 

Topaz's art lesson with Miss Shaw - Artwork created from natural resources, Thursday 16th May

In desperate need of a relaxed afternoon at the end of our SATS week, Topaz had a lovely time creating artwork from natural resources. Miss Shaw began the afternoon by showing some examples of mandalas and of Andy Goldsworthy's outdoor installations. Topaz were then asked to get into groups of 2 - 4 and were given an hour to create a mandala and a sculpture of their choice using only natural objects. Their effort, behaviour and teamwork were exemplary and they proudly showed off their work at the end of the afternoon as part of a class gallery. Having been tasked with the difficult job of judging their work, Miss Kropman and Mrs Davies eventually settled on two winners. Well done to all of Topaz for their brilliant work, and congratulations to Emily J, Maya S and Maya W for creating the winning mandala and to Alex, Daniel and Joe for the victorious outdoor sculpture entitled 'Home'. 

 CONGRATULATIONS and well done to Year 6 for completing SATS week! 

SATS information for next week:

Dear Year 6 and Parents/Guardians,

We hope you have an enjoyable weekend ahead of next week's SATS tests. Whilst you may wish to do some revision, we would also like you to be well exercised, socialised and rested before Monday! Just a reminder that our breakfast club will run from Monday - Thursday from 8.20am. Please enter school via the annex door in order to attend this. The timetable is as follows:

Monday - Grammar and Spelling papers

Tuesday - Reading paper

Wednesday - Maths Arithmetic and Reasoning papers

Thursday - Maths Reasoning paper 

Good luck, Year 6. We are exceptionally proud of you and are rooting for you to show off your best work!

Miss Melchionno and Miss Kropman x

Week beginning 6th May

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Grammar revision

Maths - Revision for area and perimeter, money, time, graphs

Science - Plants, living things and their habitats  - the seven life processes

PE - Athletics and Cricket

Topic - Exploring Mayan Gods  

PSHE - Rights and Responsibilities 

Week beginning 29th April

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Grammar revision

Maths - Revision for co-ordinates, decimals, fractions and percentages

Science - Plants, living things and their habitats cold task 

PE - Athletics and Cricket

RE - The qualities of a good leader

French - holidays

Topic - Exploring past and present Maya civilisation 

Art - Colour

PSHE - Being part of a community

Topaz's PSHE lesson - Tuesday 23rd April

In our PSHE lesson today, we discussed the forthcoming SATS tests and any worries that we might have. We talked about why it is important to have tests to reflect the hard work that our teachers and ourselves do and also how we will always need qualifications for the next stage of our education. Most importantly, however, we also thought about all the amazing things that our class can do which won’t be measured by the SATS tests. Here are three lovely examples:

Week beginning 22nd April

Welcome back! Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Grammar revision

Maths - Revision for number and shape

Science - Forces 

PE - Athletics and Cricket

French - holidays

Topic - Exploring past and present Maya civilisation 

PSHE - Qualifications and what SATS cannot measure! 

NB Year 6 have been given a selection of CGP revision books to take home. We will advise them of pages that they can work on each evening, based upon topics which have been covered in our daily revision sessions at school. We would like them to spend a minimum of 90 minutes on this throughout each week on the run-up to SATS, please. This will replace their usual homework grid/sheets and reading comprehension work for this half term. 

Happy Holidays!

Thank you to all of the Year 6 children for their excellent work this term. We hope you manage to have a fun and relaxing break. Please see the Parentmail sent out on Thursday 4th April for revision homework instructions, but all homework activities can be found below this post.

Looking forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday 23rd April, 

Miss Kropman and Miss Melchionno x 

Week beginning 1st April

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Flanimals explanation text

Maths - Practice SATs papers

Science - Forces 

RE - Judaism - Pesach (Passover)

PE - Dance and Archery

Music - A musical Easter

Art - Colour focus

PSHE - Relationships

Week beginning 25th March 

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Flanimals explanation text

Maths - Revision focus

Science - Forces - Parachutes assessment task

RE - Judaism - Moses as an inspirational leader

PE - Dance and House curling competition

Topic - Mayans Cold Task

PSHE - Relationships

Topaz's RE lesson, Wednesday 20th March

After learning about Purim in our last RE lesson, we spent this afternoon experiencing some of the customs of this Jewish festival, which starts at sunset tonight. Firstly, we recapped the story and learnt a song which reminded us to make a great deal of noise whenever Haman's name was mentioned! Next, we designed and made masks and ate some Hamentaschen (triangular-shaped pastries, or 'Haman's ears') which had a hidden sweet treat inside to remind us of Esther's hidden identity in the story. We also drank grape juice to resemble wine that is often consumed to celebrate the festival. Finally, we re-enacted the story and, once again, Haman's name was drowned out with our boos, hisses and instruments! 

Topaz - Teamwork - Tuesday 19th March

Topaz enjoyed working collaboratively this afternoon in order to recognise useful skills for group learning. Working in small groups, they were tasked with creating a 3D animal out of just one sheet of A4 paper. The animal had to have four legs, be able to stand up unaided and be clearly recognisable. Miss Kropman was very impressed with the results! Following this, we identified leadership skills before creating a recipe for teamwork success.

Topaz's PSHE - Monday 18th March

Topaz worked hard this afternoon to identify how our actions can affect ourselves and others. We began by creating responses to a problem involving teasing take place on social media, before exploring how this platform often results in people saying things that they wouldn't normally say to someone's face. We discussed some of the pressures of being in a group and then role played different scenarios and exit strategies. There was some very impressive maturity shown as Topaz all recognised that, although adults and the school environment can help shape their actions, ultimately, they are all responsible for their own behaviour choices. 

Week beginning 18th March 

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Completing their narratives and beginning Flanimals! 

Maths - Algebra

Science - Forces - Friction

RE - Judaism - Purim celebrations

PE - Dance and football 

Art - 3D Space 

French - Planets

Music - 'The Planets'

PSHE - How our actions can affect ourselves and others 

Gifted and Talented Maths Event - Thursday 14th March

Four of our most confident mathematicians attended a maths event this afternoon at Sherrardswood School. Tasked with solving challenging Surds and Odd One Out reasoning problems, our team responded with great skill and positivity. Miss Kropman was blown away with their answers and was very proud to have taken them! 

Topaz exploring air and water resistance - Monday 11th March

Topaz had a fun afternoon of science today as they began their exploration of water resistance by identifying objects which would float and sink. They then studied objects which could move more easily through water, and attempted to create Playdough shapes which would sink the fastest. Our battle for this was won with a superb dart creation by Charlie D, as he recognised the importance of a streamlined shape with a fanned tail for stability. Following this, we explained the difference between water and air resistance and then held the second of our challenges - to make a paper aeroplane using only one side of A4 paper which would fly the furthest. We explored both shape and surface area and then put these to the test. The joint winners were Michael and Harry. Their planes are pictured below - can you work out why they were so successful?

Week beginning 11th March 

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Writing a gripping narrative

Maths - Pie charts, line graphs and algebra (quite a busy week, then!)

Science - Forces - Air and Water Resistance

RE - Judaism - Moses 

PE - Dance and football 

Topic - Life in Manaus, Brazil

Art - 3D Space 

French - Planets

Music - 'The Planets'

PSHE - Positive Friendships

Topaz's Forces Science Lesson - Monday 4th March

Today, Topaz carried out an investigation to explore the relationship between load and extension. Working in groups of three, we measured the length of one leg from a pair of tights. We then added load (mass) in increments of 50g and measured the extension of the tights each time. To keep this a fair test, we used the same pair of tights and metre sticks and we ensured we measured from the same point on the tights each time. When we had completed the investigation, we drew a line graph to show our results, before writing a conclusion. Miss Kropman introduced us to Hooke's law, which is a theory of elasticity, stating that the extension of a spring is proportional to the load applied to it. She was EXTREMELY impressed with our understanding of this and with our ability to relate it to our findings. 

Week beginning 4th March 

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Creating a gripping narrative

Maths - Volume and measures

Science - Forces - Exploring the relationship between load (mass) and extension

RE - Judaism - Purim 

PE - Dance and football 

PSHE - Relationships

NB World Book Day is on Thursday - please feel free to dress up! We will be completed reading related activities throughout the day. 

Week beginning 25th February 

Welcome back! We hope you had a lovely half term break.Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Creating a gripping narrative

Maths - Ratio and scaling

Science - Forces diagram and beginning to explore the relationship between load and extension

RE - Heroes and exploring the story of Esther 

PE - Dance and football 

French - Space vocabulary

Music - Exploring Holst's 'Mars' 

PSHE - Relationships

Half-term Homework

Thank you to all of Year 6 for their hard work this half term, culminating in an excellent set of mock SATS this week! Instead of CGP, IXL and reading comprehension homework, please spend time working through any corrections on your maths, reading and SpAG papers. For those who have few/no corrections to do, please complete selected questions from the advanced level maths and SpAG papers given to you today. All papers must be returned to school on Thursday 28th February. We hope you have a lovely break!

Miss Kropman and Miss Melchionno 

Mad Science Workshops - Tuesday 12th February

Year 6 had a brilliant day furthering their learning of forces and rockets, with two exciting Mad Science workshops. This morning we experimented with gravity, the spinning forces and what happens when forces combine with Nitro Nick. Following this, we explored Isaac Newton's three laws of motion with Kinetic Katie. We got to see how forces affect flight and learnt the purpose of the parts of a rocket in dealing with these. Excitingly, we then got to recreate this by launching a balloon! This afternoon, Nick and Katie invited us to a real rocket launch in the playground, which even left a mark on the takeoff site! We had a great day and would like to thank Mad Science for such fun and interactive learning. 

Week beginning 11th February 

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - The Piano narrative work

Maths - Practice SATS reasoning tests

Science - Mad Science workshop day on Tuesday

PE - Dance and football 

French - Space vocabulary

Music - Exploring Holst's 'Mars' 

NB Our Design and Technology project, 'Shelters', will take over all other lessons this week! 

PSHE - Zones of Regulations, Friday 8th February

Today, Topaz learnt about the 'Zones of Regulation'. This is a new initiative to help children consciously regulate their actions, leading to increased control and problem solving both in the classroom and outside of school. We looked at the four different colour zones - blue, green, yellow and red - and watched animated film clips to help us remember the behaviour of a person in each zone. These included looking at Mumble from 'Happy Feet' for the green zone, Eeyore from 'Winnie the Pooh' for the blue zone, Oh from 'Home' for the yellow zone and Darla from 'Finding Nemo' for the red zone. We then completed our own tool box of ideas for how we would feel, and things we could try, if in the blue, yellow or red zones, and contrasted these with the ideals of being in the green zone. Topaz will continue to refer to the zones throughout the term to support our learning behaviour. Pictured below is Evie's great work from today's lesson. 

Week beginning 4th February 

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - The Piano narrative work

Maths - Angles rules, reflection and translation

Science - Forces

PE - Dance and football 

French - Space vocabulary

Music - Exploring Holst's 'Mars' 

Art - Space 3D piece 

RE - Understanding Christianity - Forgiveness

PSHE - Zones of regulation 

Topic - Tuesday 29th January

Topaz worked exceptionally hard this afternoon to explore climate in the Amazon. We began the lesson by looking at images of a local forest (Heartwood Forest in Sandridge) and then began to find comparisons between this and our learning about the Amazon basin. We then studied climate graphs for both London and Manaus last year and compared our findings. Here is Joe's great example:

Manaus has a tropical climate and London has a temperate climate. London has four seasons, whereas Manaus clearly has two seasons - dry and wet. The wet season in Manaus lasts from December to May and the average temperature is 26 degrees. In the dry season, the average temperature rises to 28 degrees.The highest average monthly rainfall during this period was 320mm. In London, however, the highest amount of rainfall was surprisingly only 80mm, which was in January.

Week beginning 28th January

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - The Piano narrative work

Maths - Area and perimeter, reasoning practice

Science - Forces

PE - Dance and football 

French - Space vocabulary

Music - Exploring Holst's 'Mars' 

RE - Understanding Christianity 

PSHE - Learning how and when to keep a 'secret'   

Year 6 Distractions Training - Friday 25th January

Year 6 were visited by three members of Hertfordshire County Council's Safer Travel Scheme this morning in order to learn about how to remain safe whilst walking on the roads. Our first session involved watching a film about a Year 6 girl who was unfortunately hit by a car whilst texting a friend. We were taught about the dangers of using your phone to message or listen to music whilst crossing a road, and how crucial it is to be able to SEE and HEAR what is going on around you.  Next, we went into the hall and experienced how difficult it is to follow a set path whilst also writing a message on a phone, through practically acting this out (thank you, parents, for allowing your children to bring their phones to school for this!). Not one of Year 6 managed to complete the course safely whilst looking at their screens! We completed a role-play as a year group to look at who would be affected by a road accident before going back into our classrooms to create road safety posters in pairs. We had a really interesting morning and would like to thank Colette, Samantha and Angi for their time. 

Week beginning 21st January

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy and Topic - Completing our persuasive writing linked to the deforestation in the Amazon

Maths - Multiplying and dividing fractions

Science - Space

PE - Dance and football 

French - Space vocabulary

Music - Exploring Holst's 'Mars' 

RE - Understanding Christianity 

PSHE - Distractions training   

PSHE - Anti-bullying and dealing with conflict, led by Ms Griffiths

Year 6 were treated to an excellent PSHE lesson this morning which was led by Alex's mum, who is a teacher and a trained outreach worker. Ms Griffiths spoke to us about bullying and some possible reasons why people might be unkind. She used apples as an effective metaphor for the damage that name calling can do to us on the inside and also taught us some great strategies for dealing with conflict. Year 6 really enjoyed this lesson and would like to thank Ms Griffiths for giving up her time to lead this for us. 

RE, Tuesday 15th January

Topaz continued their Understanding Christianity unit today, firstly having a lively class poll about things that we love, and hate, about our world. We then revisited the Christian concept of a loving and holy God, and began to answer the question, what would such a God hate?. We studied Proverbs 6:16-19, and aimed to suggest modern alternatives for what a Christian God would find detestable. Can you work out which of the following our freeze frames represent? 1) Haughty eyes, 2) A lying tongue, 3) Hands that shed innocent blood, 4) A heart that devises wicked schemes, 5) Feet that are quick to rush into evil, 6) A false witness who pours out lies, 7) A person who stirs up conflict in the community. 

Week beginning 14th January

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy and Topic - Persuasive writing linked to the Amazon

Maths - Long division revision and arithmetic practice paper

Science - Space

PE - Dance and football 

French - Space vocabulary

Music - Exploring Holst's 'Mars' 

RE - Understanding Christianity 

Computing - Jobs linked to STEM

PSHE - Anti-bullying and how to deal with conflict session, led by Ms Griffiths   

Welcome Back!

Topaz's RE - Wednesday 9th January

Welcome back to school! I hope you all had a lovely break. Topaz would like to share today's RE work with you, where they explored stained glass windows linked to their learning about the Christian concept of a loving and holy God. The deeper thinking behind their design choices was most impressive!

'Our eagle symbolises important messages being carried across the world.' 

'We chose to create a tree, bearing apples, as a sign of peace and calmness in nature.' 

'Our dove represents peace, whilst the exploding star shows the Christian belief that glory comes from God's loving nature.'

'The red in our cross represents the Christian idea that God was so loving, He allowed his only son to die for us.'

Week beginning 7th January

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy and Topic - Persuasive writing linked to the Amazon

Maths - Order of operations and using algebraic equations

Science - Space

PE - Hockey and fitness

French - Space vocabulary

Music - Exploring Holst's 'Mars' 

Art - Street Art

RE - Symbolism within stained glass windows

PSHE - Responding appropriately towards feelings in others  

Last day of term! - Friday 21st December

Topaz have had an exciting end to the term today, rearranging our classroom with our brand new tables and chairs, as modelled by some of our lovely girls! We would all like to thank the PTA as they have completely transformed our room. We also managed to squeeze in an end of year quiz (congratulations to our winners, Emily P and Maya W!), Christmas problem solving activities and making a giant chain (well done Daryl, Libby and Maya S!). Thank you to all of Year 6 for a fantastic term. I hope you have a lovely Christmas break! Miss Kropman x

STEM Day - Wednesday 19th December

UKS2 enjoyed a fantastic day of Science Technology Engineering and Maths learning today, which centred around an exciting science investigation and the opportunity to design and create a coded microbit. For this activity, they were tasked with creating a coded interactive Christmas decoration! Miss Kropman was especially impressed with the digital leaders (trained to be experts by Miss Buttle) who supported both their classmates and also the children in LKS2 throughout the day - well done Emily P, Francesca, Charlie, Hugo, Sami, Katie, Tilly, Alex, Christopher, Ben, Harry, Juliet, Maya S and Maya W! 

Science - Friday 14th December

Topaz worked incredibly hard today (whilst wearing Christmas jumpers!) to complete a burning investigation. We aimed to explore what happens to the mass of a candle when it burns, weighing and observing any changes every ten minutes for an hour and a half. We used four candles to keep this a fair test and spot similar patterns, and then made a line graph of our results. Look how succinct and accurate Finn's conclusion was:

Our results show that the longer the candle burns, the lighter it gets. The reason for this is that, as it melts, the wax turns into a liquid. The heat from the flame causes some of the liquid to turn into a gas, which escapes as heat energy, leading to the decrease in mass.

Holiday Homework for Thursday 10th January

Thank you for all the excellent homework that has been completed this term! We do not expect any IXL, grid or reading comprehension homework to be handed in next week, but would like you to research a Christmas tradition (either from the UK or abroad) and present one side of A4 about this in your red book. This needs to be handed in on Thursday 10th January. Please do keep up with your reading, too, and hand in your reading record next Thursday (20th December) as usual. 

English - Wednesday 12th December

Year 6 have been exploring literacy heritage during their English lessons over the past two weeks. Using inspiration from The Hobbit and A Midsummer Night's Dream, we have been creating setting and character collages today whilst, yesterday, we focused on a description of Gollum to help inspire our own character choices: 

On the unpleasant rock of a hidden cave, the devilish, lean Gollum dripped with drool whilst crimson teeth dripped with blood. His eyes were like mirrors, penetrating windows to his soul with the harrowing glare he gave. The colour of a storm painted his skin as he waited to slaughter an unsuspecting fish from the sewer-like lake. Calling out the demons of his heart, Gollum’s croaky, deep voice echoed in the air. ‘My precioussss,’ he hissed as silence fell upon the cave. I shrieked in horror. Grabbing my arm, he pulled me into the darkness…

Bailey

Down in an old, gruesome cave there lived a slender figure. That figure was called a Gollum – a venomously nasty beast. His spherical eyes were blue as sapphires. His voice was chocked. Grey wires penetrated through his skull, magnifying his crooked teeth. Would they jump out and bite me?

Charlie D

Week beginning 10th December

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Literacy heritage

Maths - Angles

Science - Burning and a candle investigation

PE - WW2 Jive Dance/Gymnastics and Hockey

French - Clothes

Music - WW2 songs 

Art - Street Art

Topic - Life on the homefront during WW2 

RE - Should only Christians celebrate Christmas? 

Thursday 6th December - No IXL Homework for the next week!

As the children have been working so hard towards their spelling competition tomorrow, we have made the decision to not set any IXL homework for the next week. We will, however, still expect a piece of homework from their grid (red book) and their reading comprehension questions (green book) to be completed for Thursday 13th December. 

RE - Hanukkah, Wednesday 5th December

Year 6 spent their RE lesson learning about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah this afternoon. We revised the story before beginning to explore why it is still important for many Jewish people over two thousand years later. We looked at many different Hanukkiahs (including one of Miss Kropman's) and discussed the symbolism of light, suggesting our own hopes and reasons to be grateful. Here are some of our deeper thoughts:

Michael - 'The true meaning of Hanukkah should be that God will always be with you.'

Ollie - 'Hanukkah reminds Jewish people about the miracle that was the oil lasting for eight days in the temple.'

Daryl - 'I think the main meaning of the festival is remembering the experience that Jews went through and the true miracle that happened. The reason for my opinion is that my family light candles for eight days to symbolise this.'

Maya S - 'I think that, whatever you are going through, there will always be happiness at the end. There will always be light.'

Bailey - 'The festival is about remembrance, freedom, hope and celebration.'

Emily P - 'Some people say that Hanukkah is all about the presents and lovely fried food, but I disagree because I think it is about remembering that miracles can happen and that there can always be hope.' 

Charlie S - 'My hope for my family is that they are always kept safe.'

Hayden - 'I wish for our oceans to be free from plastic.'

Joe - 'I want our country to be free from violence.'

Charlie D - 'I hope that the world can be free from cancer one day.'

Examples below are by Mason and Emily J:

Week beginning 3rd December

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Literacy heritage

Maths - Area of parallelograms, exploring 2D and 3D shapes

Science - Burning

Computing - Purple Mash

PE - WW2 Jive Dance/Gymnastics and Hockey

French - Clothes

Music - WW2 songs 

Art - Street Art

Topic - Life on the homefront during WW2 

RE - Hanukkah 

IXL Homework due by Thursday 6th December

Please complete the following tasks:

English:

• D7
• D8

Maths:

• CC3
• CC4

WW2 Topic Lesson - Thursday 29th November

Topaz had a fun afternoon today learning more about what life would have been like for a child during World War Two. We compared our own food diaries (completed for a week) with that of a child from the war and were amazed to see how little rationing would have entitled you to at that time. The photograph below is of a WW2 child's ration of 50g butter, 50g cheese and 50g jam - can you believe that this would have had to last them an entire week?!

Dogs Trust Workshop, Tuesday 27th November

This afternoon, Year 6 enjoyed an interesting and informative workshop delivered by Jo from Dogs Trust. Jo revised ideas about dog safety from her morning assembly before teaching us how to care for a dog. We also examined case studies and interactively explored a dog's basic needs.

Week beginning 26th November

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Literacy heritage

Maths - Area of rectilinear shapes, area of triangles

Science - Changes of state and drawing an accurate line graph

Computing - Purple Mash

PE - WW2 Jive Dance/Gymnastics and Hockey

French - Clothes

Music - WW2 songs 

Art - Street Art

Topic - Life on the homefront during WW2 

PSHE - Dogs Trust workshop on Tuesday 27th (Miss Kropman can't wait!)

BBC Doctor Who Live Lesson - Friday 23rd November

UKS2 had a fun experience on Friday afternoon taking part in the BBC's Doctor Who Live Lesson. After hearing this advertised on the television, Miss Kropman registered us for the session and was delighted when our school received a mention at the start of the show! The lesson encouraged us to think about our science topic for next term - space - and featured many interactive activities. We learnt about the different planets and moons, gravitational pull and how light can be reflected, whilst also revising our knowledge of transparent, translucent and opaque objects. 

IXL Homework due by Thursday 29th November

Please complete the following tasks:

English:

• C4
• E8

Maths:

• P3
• P5

English, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Thursday 22nd November

Both Year 6 groups began their literacy heritage unit this morning by carrying out a cold task based upon A Midsummer Night's Dream. We spent time studying the basic plot outline and then created freeze frames which came to life. Our final challenge was to write out part of the narrative. 

RE, Wednesday 21st November

Both Topaz and Sapphire have been busy learning about the Christian concept of a holy and loving God in their RE lessons this week. We discussed what personal relationships mean to us before looking at bible verses by David, John and Isaiah, who claimed to have had this sort of relationship with God. Miss Kropman then set the challenge of creating a painting to demonstrate what we had learnt about Christian beliefs about God. Here are some excellent examples:

Week beginning 19th November

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Writing WW2 diary entries

Maths - Fractions, decimals and percentages

Science - Changes of state

Computing - Purple Mash

PE - WW2 Jive Dance/Gymnastics and Hockey

French - Clothes

Music - WW2 songs 

Art - Street Art

Topic - Life on the homefront during WW2 

RE - Understanding Christianity 

IXL Homework due by Thursday 22nd November

Please complete the following tasks:

English:

• D9
• J8

Maths:

• K2
• K10

Anti-bullying Week, Wednesday 14th November

Here are Thibaut's excellent ideas from today's PSHE lesson about what respect means within Brookmans Park School:

Roots are the gateway to kindness,

Everywhere there is love,

Saying kind things,

Picking up people when they fall,

Everyone goes together,

Creating happiness wherever they go,

Telling adults when they see bad behaviour choices. 

Science, Monday 12th November

Topaz completed a superb dissolving investigation today, having planned their own lines of enquiry to explore factors that might affect the rate of dissolving. Their chosen factors included: temperature of water; types of sugar; amount of sugar used and particle size. Here they are carrying out the investigation (ensuring they had created a fair test) before drawing a clear bar graph to display their results. They finished the afternoon by writing what they had found out, with possible reasons to support their theory, and adding any suggestions for how to improve the accuracy of their work. 

Week beginning 12th November

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Formal and informal language use connected to diary entries, ambitious punctuation

Maths - Fractions and percentages

Science - Dissolving - Completing and investigation and creating a graph to display our results

Computing - Purple Mash

PE - WW2 Jive Dance and Hockey

French - Clothes

Music - WW2 songs 

Art - Continuing our blitz scenes

Topic - Life on the homefront during WW2 

PSHE - Anti-bullying week.

NB Please don't forget that children can come to school wearing odd socks on Monday. They can also wear their own clothes around a 'spotty' theme for Children In Need on Friday for a £1 donation to the charity. 

English - Top Trumps, Friday 9th November

Miss Kropman's English group had an unusual start to the lesson, playing a game of Top Trumps! We then used our knowledge of this classic game to create Top Trumps cards for both Zlata Filipovic and Anne Frank, whose diaries we have been studying this week. In order to do this, we had to critically analyse features such as their writing style, reliability and formality, before ranking them against each other. Please see some examples of this below! 

IXL Homework due by Thursday 15th November

Please complete the following tasks:

English:

• H1
• N1

Maths:

• J4
• J5

Topaz's RE lesson, Tuesday 6th November

Topaz spent today's lesson reflecting upon their learning from the Shabbat workshop at SAMS. We watched a film clip about how an Orthodox family observe Shabbat and then discussed why these customs are followed by so many Jewish people, despite some of the challenges that might be faced in 2018 by having a day of complete rest. We had a fantastic debate, where we chose our strongest reason for or against why Jewish people should still observe Shabbat, placing ourselves along a skipping rope and trying to persuade others to join our side! After considering both sides of the argument, we wrote our own opinions in our books. 

Week beginning 5th November

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Features of diary entries, responding to Anne Frank and Zlata's diaries. Active and passive tense. 

Maths - Fractions

Science - Dissolving - Factors which affect the rate of dissolving

Computing - Purple Mash

RE - Challenges faced by Jewish people observing Shabbat

PE - Dance and gymnastics

French - writing letters to our new penpals in France

Music - WW2 songs 

Art - Continuing our blitz scenes

DT - Completing and evaluating our vehicles 

Year 6 half-term homework

Please note: no red book grid homework or IXL needs to be completed over the holidays! Instead, please complete your reading comprehension homework (green book) and the maths reasoning questions given to you by Thursday 8th November. 

Thank you for all your hard work this half-term; we hope you have a lovely break!

Miss Kropman and Miss Mechionno 

Year 6 RE Trip to St Albans Masorti Synagogue, Wednesday 24th October

Year 6 had an enjoyable morning today at St Albans Masorti Synagogue, consolidating their learning from RE lessons this term about Judaism. When we arrived at the shul, we were created by Rabbi Adam, who took us into the main hall and spoke to us about his faith. We were fascinated to see the Torah scrolls and particularly liked it when he read a portion to us. We had the opportunity to ask plenty of questions and to see many of the artefacts we have learnt about in our lessons. Following this, we took part in a shabbat workshop, learning about how shabbat is celebrated in a traditional Jewish household. After lighting the candles and hearing the blessings, we got to taste some kiddush wine (well, grape juice, actually!). Finally, we visited the kosher, dairy kitchen and had the opportunity to make some challah bread. Despite some of us finding it tricky to plait the sticky dough, everyone was successful in baking a roll to take home. The morning ended with a chance to share what we had learnt throughout the morning with some of the shul members. We are now looking forward to building on this knowledge in our RE lessons after half term! 

Black History Month, Monday 22nd October

Year 6 had an interesting and engaging morning today in our focus on Black History Month. Both English groups began the session by learning about why we celebrate Black History, focusing on key figures from both the present and past eras. We then looked at Martin Luther King, learning about segregation in the USA and listening to his famous 'I have a dream' speech. We studied the speech in detail, highlighting key phrases and discussing their meanings, before writing our own speeches for the modern day. Miss Melchionno's group chose to develop these key phrases into a word cloud, whilst Miss Kropman's group studied another famous figure in Nelson Mandela. This group learnt about apartheid in South Africa, and held mature discussions about whether violence can ever be justified within protests. We ended the morning by creating a wonderful portrait of Nelson Mandela, based on the portrait work of American artist Chuck Close. Miss Kropman is sure you will agree that our final piece looks immense! 

Week beginning 22nd October

This week will be our Design and Technology focus week, where we will be individually creating our own WW2 moving vehicles. This will take over the majority of lessons; in addition,Year 6 will be learning about:

Literacy/PSHE - Black History Month and creating our own 'I have a dream' speeches

Computing - Purple Mash

RE - Visit to St Albans Masorti Synagogue on Wednesday 

PE - Netball and Tag Rugby

French - writing letters to our new penpals in France

Music - WW2 songs 

Art - Continuing our blitz scenes

Joy of Reading at The University of Hertfordshire, Friday 19th October

Year 6 had a fantastic experience this morning getting to know children's author Ashley Harrold. We listened to some of his famous poetry and extracts from his books in an entertaining presentation, before being given the opportunity to meet him outside the auditorium. Many of us have purchased Harrold's books and look forward to reading them over the weekend!

IXL Homework due by Thursday 25th October

Please complete the following tasks:

English:

• E1
• E3

Maths:

• E1
• J1

UKS2 Cross Country, Thursday 18th October

Well done to Year 6, who all competed in today's UKS2 inter-house cross country race. Every child ran with spirit, determination and effort and should be very proud of completing a tough course. The total house points earned and the overall winning house will be announced in tomorrow's celebration assembly. Well done to the Year 6 girl winner and boys winner and runner-up!

Week beginning 15th October

REMINDER: TOPAZ CLASS ASSEMBLY, WEDNESDAY 17TH AT 9.10AM - PARENTS/CARERS WELCOME TO ATTEND!

Year 6 will be learning about the following this week:

Literacy - Historical news report write-up and how to tackle reading papers!

Maths - Formal problem solving 

Science - Dissolving - Factors which affect the rate of dissolving

Computing - Purple Mash

RE - Synagogue visit preparation

PE - Netball and Tag Rugby

French - writing letters to our new penpals in France

Music - WW2 songs 

Art - Continuing our blitz scenes

Topic - Evacuation

IXL Homework due by Thursday 18th October

Please complete the following tasks:

English:

• H1
• H2

Maths:

• D1
• D7

Year 5&6 Gunpowder Mills Trip, Monday 8th October

On Monday, Years 5&6 visited the Gunpowder Mills in Waltham Abbey to learn more about what life was like for children in WW2. We had a brilliant day!

I enjoyed going inside the shelter for safety. We heard a real air raid siren and got to find out who was a spy! - Mason

My day was fantastic! Four ladies reenacted WW2 roles: a warden, a shopkeeper, an army trainer and an evacuee officer. They taught us so much information. My favourite part of the trip was when we received our army training - even though I had to do 5 push-ups! - Bailey

We did loads of fun activities! My favourite was when we went inside the shelter, as it felt like we really were experiencing an air raid. I also enjoyed marching up and down the road, pretending I was in the army. We learnt about rationing by visiting a WW2 shop! - Harry

I thought it was amazing to go in a bomb shelter. I really think I understood how people would have felt at the time. - Lucy

I enjoyed learning about ARP wardens and what they had to do during blackouts. If someone had left their lights on or their curtains open, ARP wardens were allowed to go inside their house to make sure it was completely dark! Wardens would also make sure that everyone had their gas masks with them. - Samson

Week beginning 8th October

Year 6 will be learning about:

Literacy - Historical news reports 

Maths - Formal written methods

Science - Dissolving - Factors which affect the rate of dissolving

Computing - Purple Mash

RE - Kosher food laws

PE - Netball and Tag Rugby

French - writing letters to our new penpals in France

Music - WW2 songs 

Art - Continuing our blitz scenes

Topic - Trip to the Gunpowder Mills!

IXL Homework due by Thursday 11th October

Please complete the following tasks:

English:

• A4

Maths:

• C2
• E5
• E6

PSHE - Rights Respecting School, heading for our Silver award! Tuesday 2nd October

In our PSHE lessons, we have been exploring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, inline with our Unicef Rights Respecting School journey. Today, Topaz studied the book, 'We Are All Born Free', and worked in groups to highlight the nine rights that we felt were most relevant to us as Year 6 learners. Next, we created a Diamond 9 of these in our groups and then held a class discussion to justify each group's choices. As a class, we held a democratic vote and finally settled on the nine rights we feel are most important to us. These will be shared with both Mrs Davies and the RRS committee. Miss Kropman was very impressed with the maturity and deep thinking shown in today's lesson - well done, Topaz! 

Week beginning 1st October

Year 6 will be learning about:

Literacy - Historical news reports 

Maths - Factors and multiples 

Science - Dissolving - Separating our own mixtures

Computing - Purple Mash

PSHE - The Universal Declaration of Rights

PE - Netball and Tag Rugby

French - writing letters to our new penpals in France

Music - WW2 songs 

Art - Continuing our blitz scenes

Topic - The start of WW2 

IXL Homework due by Thursday 4th October

Please complete the following tasks:

English:

• D4
• D6

Maths:

• C1
• C4

Year 5&6 Tag Rugby Festival, Thursday 27th September 

Well done to all of the Sapphire and Topaz children who competed in the tag rugby festival at Welwyn RFC this afternoon. Mrs Davies and Mr Conway were very impressed with their effort, sportsmanship and the high number of tries scored. Although this was not a competitive event, our teams should be proud of their multiple wins! 

Maths

Miss Kropman's maths set have been looking at different mental strategies to solve calculations. Today, we worked in groups of 3 or 4 to share our ideas about how to complete some Year 6 arithmetic questions. We then discussed the importance of estimating to check our answer is sensible and began to employ some 'cheat' methods! For example: 60 x 20

 Step 1: Ignore the 0s!  Step 2: 6 x 2 = 12  Step 3: Remember to put the 0s back in! Step 4: You can now answer the question: 60 x 20 = 1200

Week beginning 24th September

Year 6 will be learning about:

Literacy - Historical news reports 

Maths - Multiplication problems, general arithmetic 

Science - Dissolving - Separating mixtures

Computing - Purple Mash

RE - The 10 Commandments

PE - Netball and Tag Rugby (30 children will also be taking part in the Tag Rugby Festival on Thursday afternoon - please see separate letter invite)

French - writing letters to our new penpals in France

Music - WW2 songs 

Topic - Creating a WW2 timeline 

Sing Out Day at Lochinver House!

On Friday 21st September, Year 6 attended a singing festival at Lochinver House in Potters Bar, along with pupils from Lochinver, Stormont and Little Heath. We spent the morning rehearsing various warm up songs and teaching each other singing techniques, before learning some new collaborative pieces. In the afternoon, each school performed one song to each other, before family and friends had the opportunity to hear both these and our joint pieces in a spectacular concert. We performed 'Believe' by Lin Marsh absolutely brilliantly and Miss Kropman was welling up whilst conducting due to the effort, focus and beautiful sound being made! Thank you very much to Mrs Hobbs for filming us performing. Well done, Year 6 - Miss Kropman, Miss Melchionno and Mrs Oakley were very proud of you today! 

IXL Homework due by Thursday 27th September

Please complete the following tasks:

English:

• L1
• M7

Maths:

• A8
• A11

Science

Topaz and Sapphire combined forces in science this afternoon whilst many of our classmates were busy cycling. We worked hard in groups of 4 in order to plan and carry out an investigation, selecting our own questions to explore. Some groups chose to look at factors that would speed up or down the rate of dissolving, whilst others chose to explore reactions that might occur when placing different solid materials in oil, lemonade or water. As you can see, this was a very popular lesson!

'This was my favourite lesson so far this year!' Immi

'I really enjoyed this lesson as it was very messy and there was a lot going on!' Katie

'This was so fun!' Gabby

'I found this really interesting!' Jack 

'My favourite subject so far this year has been science as we have been doing awesome lessons. I love working with my friends for investigations.' Lucy

See if your child can explain how they kept their test fair and what they found out today! 

Week beginning 17th September

As this is our cycling proficiency week, we will not be splitting into our morning groups. Instead, we will be completing a range of activities around our cycling sessions, including:

Literacy - Grammar

Maths - Problem Solving

Science - Dissolving

Computing - Purple Mash

RE - Yom Kippur

PE - Netball and Tag Rugby

Art - Creating a Blitz background using acrylic paint 

Music - FRIDAY'S SING OUT DAY AT LOCHINVER HOUSE! Please see separate ParentMail for all relevant details

PSHE - Only One You

In today's PSHE lesson, Topaz looked at Linda Kranz's book 'Only One You'. To celebrate our uniqueness and what we can contribute to the school community, we designed and decorated a pebble representing our individuality. 

'I really enjoyed this lesson because we were allowed to let our creativity out. Our stones look really cool because they are unique!' Elise

IXL Homework due by Thursday 20th September

This week's online homework supports our figurative language learning in English and our place value and rounding Maths lessons. Please complete the following tasks:

English:

• O1
• O2

Maths:

• A2
• A4
• A7

English

Here are some of our finished metaphorical poems:

The Blossom

The blossom is a pink flamingo,

Delicate and light.

She flutters about, such a beautiful sight.

Gracefully floating down to the stream,

As if travelling across a very special beam.

She balances on one leg in the trees,

Yet, she scarcely sees,

Flying off into the chilly breeze.

By Emily P

The Fire

The Fire is a flock of fire-flies,

Evil and encompassing.

He flies in the sky all day,

With his burning eyes, a menacing glare.

Hour upon hour he grows,

The red, hot flames,

That burn, burn, burn, burn!

The giant fire-ball moans,

Smoking his heated hands.

By Charlie S 

English

In Miss Kropman's English group we have been learning about figurative language in poetry. We have studied James Reeves' poem 'The Sea' and enjoyed reciting this in groups, as you will see below! We are now busy writing our own metaphorical poem! See if your child can explain the following terms used in our lessons this week:

alliteration, metaphor, onomatopoeia, personification, simile

Week beginning 10th September

Year 6 will be learning about:

English - Figurative language in poetic writing

Maths - Place Value

Science - Dissolving

Computing - Purple Mash

PSHE - Celebrating being unique

RE - Judaism, Rosh Hashanah

PE - Netball and Tag Rugby

History - WW2 Topic - The start of the war

NB If you have any family connections to WW2 and can provide information and/or photographs, please bring into school any day this week. 

French - greetings

Music - WW2 songs 

WELCOME!

Welcome to our Year 6 blog for the 2018-19 academic year! We have had a lovely first few days back at school and we have really enjoyed getting to know your children. Here are Topaz in our class garden, making 'webs of connections':