(Year 6) Phoenix

Welcome to Phoenix

Year 6

Ms Roxby - Class Teacher Tuesday to Friday

Mrs Meah - Class Teacher Monday all day and Wednesday afternoon

Mrs Hall - Learning Support Assistant

Welcome back to you all.

We hope you had a great Christmas and we would like to wish you all a Happy New Year.

Thank you very much for the lovely presents and cards- your kindness is much appreciated.

We are so pleased with the way the children have really taken on the responsibility of being in year 6 and the effort they are putting into their learning. This is a very busy and hardworking term in Phoenix. The preparation for SATs and high school will continue and we are confident that, with their continued commitment and enthusiasm, the children will make good progress.

The SATs tests this year will be the week of 11^th to 14^th May. Please do not book any holidays or appointments that week. We will be giving the children plenty of practice in the tests so they feel confident and prepared when the actual week of testing takes place. Thank you if you have already started supporting your child, by encouraging them to have a go at the work over the holidays. Please return the test as soon as possible and we can then mark, teach and consolidate concepts. If you notice your child is having real difficulties with anything please let us know and we can put in some 1:1 teaching sessions to close any gaps.

Homework will continue to be set Monday to Thursday. Usually there will be English based homework on a Monday and Tuesday and maths on a Wednesday (all of which needs to be back the next day), and topic/science on a Thursday which has to be back the following week.

Our topic this term will be an extended history project about the development of the settlement and industry in Leeds: if anyone has any artefacts they can lend us, or experiences to share, we would be delighted to hear from you.  We are planning a trip to Armley Mills to support the topic- more information to follow!

In science we are finding out about light and sound, electricity, evolution and adaptation. This will include sessions on reproduction in mammals, linking with our PSHE topic on relationships and sex education. There will be a permission letter sent home at the end of the week – please read and sign to say your child can take part – and do not hesitate to contact Ms Roxby via email or in person if you would like more details of what is taught.

Our work in maths is to build our understanding of place value, fractions, decimals and percentages and to use the four operations +, - x and division in 2 step problem solving. We are also doing work on ratio and proportion, nets, data handling, angle, shapes and graphs.  It is REALLY IMPORTANT everyone learns any times tables they still aren’t confident about and is able to tell the time confidently using digital and analogue clocks as these as life skills and help when tackling written problems.

In English we are doing work on writing narratives, with an emphasis on scene setting and characterisation. We will also be doing newspaper style reports, biographies, explanations and balanced discussion texts.

Last term the children identified that they needed more support in spelling punctuation and grammar. We will be working on this in class and during this term, the children will need to learn the words on the year 5 and 6 spelling list. 

Although all Year 6 children have learnt to read, it is still vitally important to talk to them about their reading and share books and stories together. The reading SATS paper has three long pieces of text to read, so everyone needs to practise sustained reading and skimming and scanning for information. This can be practised at home by reading for 15 minutes each night- as the news reports have been saying, reading before bed is much better for you than watching a screen, so this is a good time to relax and have reading time.

Remember everyone needs indoor footwear, as shoes get really muddy at this time of year. P.E kit should be brought in on a Monday and taken home on a Friday. Trainers and shorts, t-shirt, sweat shirts and tracksuit bottoms are needed.  Please could all clothing be labelled so it is easy to reunite children with lost property!  We will usually have PE on a Tuesday and Wednesday. This term we will be doing a session of real PE skills and a short games session.

It is important that all children bring a water bottle to school to stay hydrated throughout the day. Please could you ensure that only water is in these bottles, as consistently sipping on juice is not good for teeth.

Finally parents, we would love to invite you in at any time to chat to us, see what your child is doing, or even come and join in with a lesson, especially if you would like to see how we teach a particular concept in maths or literacy.

We also have an open reading session each week on a Thursday afternoon from 2.40pm and you are welcome to come and support your child- just turn up!

Please see us any night after school, or send an e-mail or letter if you need any information or would like to discuss any issues. We look forward to hearing from you.

We will keep you informed about the SATs tests and arrange another meeting after half term to look in more detail at the sample papers.

Booster groups will continue from Monday 13^th January, with the same arrangements as before- finishing at 4.30pm.

Finally, our Bewerley Park trip is from 18^th to the 20^th  March. We are super excited and will be having a meeting on Tuesday 14^th January at 3.15 to discuss arrangements; an email will go out at the end of the week with details.

Thank you for your continued support,

                                                 Ms Roxby, Mrs Meah, Mrs Hall.