Welcome to Succeed Class - Year 6

"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you."

James 1:5

Welcome to Year 6 - Succeed Class. We have 29 children in Succeed class this year, all striving to achieve their own personal goals. I, Miss Fleming, am the Year 6 teacher and alongside myself will be Mrs Lord, who will teach the class on Monday's, and Miss Milner and Mrs Burgess as our class' Teaching Assistants. We all share the same goal - to guide, to support, to learn, to laugh and to ensure that memories are made. We are looking forward to the exciting, and hard-working, journey ahead!

Now that the children are in Year 6, they will have many responsibilities around the school such as: leading by example as school role models to the younger children; taking the lead with School Council; participating as senior members of the GIFT Team; supporting younger children in reception with key reading skills; demonstrating sound knowledge of Internet Safety as members of the Internet Warriors; assisting within whole school assemblies; and representing the school at the various sporting competitions that we will be participating in throughout the year. It is sure to be a busy year!

As the year progresses, we will move onto discovering about our local environments through our 'Coasts' topic in Geography; finding out about the ancient civilisation of Baghdad; learning how important Greek History was to our own language and society; discovering the history of evolution through science and where electricity came from. All of this, as well as preparing for our SAT's and the not-to-be-missed end of year musical production, which is always a highlight in the children's calendar!

Your child's well-being is of vital importance to us and we want to ensure that they are happy and progressing. If you ever have any queries, questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us via our staff email:

nfleming@olsa.lancs.sch.uk

Routines in Class

At the start of the day, children will enter the classroom where they will settle into some basic daily arithmetic practise. Collective worship will happen every day at 10:45am.

Morning break will be at 11am. If you wish, you may send a healthy snack in with your child for them to consume at this time.

Reading:

We ask that you read with your child as often as possible. Your child will have a reading record that can be signed by yourself every time your child reads or is read to. In KS2, children will be expected to quiz regularly on Accelerated Reader upon completion of their book. As a minimum, we generally expect that children quiz at least once every fortnight. This helps aid their fluency and stamina to digest larger volumes of text that are expected within the Year 6 curriculum. This term, we have set the children a challenge to read at lead 50,000 words by the end of the term to receive a reading prize.

PE:

PE in Spring Term will be on Tuesday afternoon (FUNDA Coach Tom) and Wednesday morning (Teacher Led focusing on attack and defend games.) Children should come into school dressed in their PE kits. This consists of: Plain black leggings/joggers (no logo's or patterns), PE Top and hoody, jumper or cardigan. Please ensure that all earrings and jewellery are removed for sessions. 

Homework:

Homework now will predominantly be practise and retrieval of key areas of learning within class in order to prepare them for the SAT's in May. This will vary from arithmetic papers, comprehension, short SPAG focus areas or maths reasonong problems for fluency and familiarity. It is important that your child gets sufficient time to practise these skills learned in class to ensure that they are well versed with speed and accuracy to assist them as they transition to high school at the end of the year. 

SPRING TERM 2 LEARNING

Welcome back to another busy term of learning for your children. This term we will begin the term learning about the plight of migrants and refugees through the text, The Journey. Here we will explore key stereotypes and identify the reasons why people may migrate to other countries in a sensitive way. We will consider current issues within the news and create a narrative of our own involving journeying to another place. We will then move onto persuasion texts, exploring the issue of fairtrade (which is closely linked to learning on Geography) before finally finishing with formal letters to persuade on fairtrade.

In maths, we will be looking at percentages, ratio, algebra and area and perimeter this term. Alongside these topics, we will continue to develop our arithmetic and reasoning skills through discrete sessions to aid familiarity and fluency.

In Geography, we will explore the Manchester Ship Canal and the importance of this within the local area and nationally. We will link closely with History to identify the rise and fall of this giant of industry and how it affected us. We will explore key map work and grid referencing skills alongside learning key vocabulary such as trade, economy and empire. Learning here will be closley linked with Literacy to explore the importance of free movement of both goods and people.

In science, we will be learning all about the topic of Evolution. Here we will study key theories and identify how animals have adapted through the years to their environment. The children will create their own experiments to investigate how animals have adapted over time and how genetics play an important role in our daily lives today.

In Art, we will create our own portrait drawings - a real skill to master. Here the children will develop their ability to draw key facial aspects such as the eyes, nose and mouth, before replicating to draw their own chosen character. All work will then be displayed in a gallery for parents to come and view.

In computing, we will be introduced to spreadsheets through Microsoft Excel. Again, this will be closely linked to learning in Geography where they will create their own database linked to the distribution of energy, food and water over time from the Ship Canal.

In RE, we will be moving into the Lenten period where we cover Death and New Life in preparation for our Holy Week and Easter. Lent will begin the second week back and we will be focusing upon our Lenten journey in school and within the wider community. There will be many activities occurring this week, especially the Ash WEdnesday service with Father Chris in Church which all parents are invited to. I class, the children will explore the story of the crucifixion and the impact, before performing their own interpretation of an element of this for parents.

In PE, the children will continue their work with Coach Tom on Tuesday in FUNDA and discrete teacher led PE on Wednesday sessions focusing on fitness and well-being, ranging from football to drills. 

Today for World Book Day, the children took part in a book cafe where they were chose from a selection of texts to read whilst having a hot chocolate and biscuit treat.

On Friday, 24th January, Emma from the Coram Life Bus came in to talk to us about well being and our mental health. We completed lots of activities that help us to calm and express our worries in a more positive way. Finally, we got to meet Harold the Giraffe at the end - the thing we were most looking forward too!

On Friday, 17th January, class Succeed prepared their own assembly to inform all about their learning on organisms we have discussed in class - microbes! The children had created their own facts and some even produced their own piece of music, written by themselves and placed to a techno-track that they have been developing within their music sessions! The children explained their learning very clearly and were highly entertaining - well done!

As part of their learning in science, the children have been classifying plants, animals and micro-organisms. The children have understood the conditions needed in order to be classified as a living thing but we needed to identify whether yeast was classed as such. The children discovered whether sugar could saturate the yeast and, also, whether the increase in temperature could have an effect. The results were surprising - not as surprising as the bottle exploding over Miss Fleming on its release!

On Thursday, 19th December, Succeed visited Manchester Palace Theatre to see the world famous production of Wicked! The experience was amazing for the children and as ever, behaviour was exceptional!

We were invited by Rochdale Town Hall to come and explore the building after all of the renovations have been completed. The children learned a great number of facts from the date, linking to prior learning they have done through the years at OLSA: exploring the Victorian industry in the local area, including the cotton mill industry; exploring the links with trade through the Co-operative Society and how it linked to their topic of South America with the exportation of cocoa beans; the impact of war upon the town and how rules and precedents are set through time. The building was exceptional - full of fascinating history and was a sight to see. The children were thoroughly engaged throughout - their only request was when could they go back to explore the jail!

In class mass, the children have been practising the creed as part of the formal service. To help them understand the different elements and parts, the children designed and presented their own artistic interpretations of the Creed.

This term, the children of Succeed invited parents and carers into school to share their learning with them. The theme this time was based around creating a South American themed jungle setting as described in the book we are reading in class, Journey to the River Sea. The children could use a variety of media to create an Amazon inspired piece to use alongside their descriptive writing later on in class. Thank you to all the parents and carers that attended, your support was very much appreciated.

This term, Succeed class were visited by Bacup Fire Service for a talk all about fire safety. The children learned a lot of information that would prove very useful.

On Monday, 11th November, children in Succeed class attended the Whitworth Cenotaph along with children from other local primary schools to pay their remembrance respects. The children were incredibly well behaved and very respectful - they were a credit to the school.

In Geography, we have been exploring the continent of South America, in particular the country of Brazil. The children explored the many countries included in South America and the regions in which the Amazon River travels through.

At the end of term, we welcomed Maggie from CAFOD to talk to us about Catholic Social Teaching. The children were presented with various scenarios through the session to discuss and relate to the principles of Catholic Social Teaching. The children were extremely respectful in their deliberations and explanations of how these are applied in their daily lives.

This term, the children visited Whitworth Museum as part of their learning on turning points of WW2. The children had the opportunity to explore real artefacts of the era including: bayonet, shell casings, helmet and gas masks. We explored the impact of war upon the local area including looking at the impact of evacuees on the town and also, how incendiary bombs were dropped, damaging St John's Church. The children had a great time and learned lots of facts, bot to mention enjoyed taking part in their very own air raid emergency with full sirens blaring!

Each week in Succeed class, children volunteer to lead sessions of collective worship in class. The children take responsibility to select the readings, music, items for the table and the activity the class will perform. All sessions are very respectful and the children enjoy the opportunity to reflect upon scripture and see how it can be applied to their daily lives.

For the month of October, children in Succeed class, along with the rest of KS2, learned how to pray with the Rosary. As a collective, each section was explained to the children and then time was given for classes to practise back in their collective worship sessions.

This term, the children participated in a Pobble 365 live writing session based around the theme of dinosaurs. The children were introduced to an interactive dinosaur as the stimulus to create an interesting and exciting setting description. Alongside many other schools across the world, including Portugal, the children discussed and improved their techniques of writing under the guidance of expert authors. The final written pieces were very engaging and showed a lot of writing flair. We will look forward to the next session, scheduled in November in time for Christmas.

To help understand the main parts of the heart, the children made clay sculptures to label and inform following their exploration of real hearts previously. They had a fantastic time modelling the hearts and adding veins, arteries and valves.

As part of their learning on the circulatory system, the children had the opportunity to explore real animal hearts. The children had to investigate the strength of the heart, identify where the atrium and ventricles were and notice the aorta valve for the circulation of blood.

On Tuesday, 17th September, Succeed class visited the local library to learn all about WW2. The children listened to stories about D-Day. Th children then had time to explore the library to make bookmarks, complete WW2 quizzes and use the computers to research.

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