Dear Parents and Carers,

 

I hope that you and your families had a wonderful Christmas break! It has been great to see the children return to school so rested and full of enthusiasm for the new term.  We have hit the ground running in Year 6 and have already made a start on our new project: Brazil. We have also started learning about evolution and inheritance in Science.

 

In English, we are learning about balanced arguments and we have already had some really quite animated debates. Going forwards, we will be exploring the question: could Jack have survived the Titanic? As part of this, we will be watching some sensitively chosen clips from the 1997 film, showing what the ship was like and the characters’ attempts to get onto the door. The film has a 12 rating, so if you have any concerns about, or objections to this, please let me know.

 

In Maths, we are continuing our work on calculating with fractions, and will be beginning to look at imperial and metric measures. Please do take any opportunity to discuss these with your child in real-life contexts, such as when on journeys or when baking. It would really help support our work in class if you could also help your child practise converting between units of measurement. The most common metric units they will need to convert between are as follows:

 

• kilometres and metres
• centimetres and metres
• centimetres and millimetres
• grams and kilograms
• litres and millilitres.

Our Project, based on Brazil, will incorporate the following areas of learning:

 

• The human and physical features of Brazil.
• The climate in Brazil and how this compares with that of the United Kingdom.
• Investigating the main reasons why so many Brazilians have moved from the north of the country to the south, and making comparisons with push/pull factors in the United Kingdom.
• Comparing the lives of young people in Brazil with their own lives

 

For additional subject-specific detail about this half-term’s curriculum, please see the separate project map.

 

PE will continue to be held on Mondays with Mr Bain and on Fridays with myself.

 

Supporting your child at home

 

Thank you so much for your positivity and support regarding the weekly arithmetic homework. The children’s confidence (and their scores) are coming on in leaps and bounds, which has been a joy to see! It is also impacting really positively upon their confidence across the Maths curriculum. I am really proud of them for all their hard work and effort!

 

Alongside this, please do continue regular times tables practise at home. To help develop a more targeted approach, I will be sending home a ‘heat map’ of your child’s confidence with each of the times tables, which will (hopefully!) make it clearer as to where they need to focus their energies.

 

As always, please continue to encourage your child to read for a minimum of 20 minutes (ideally half an hour) at least 5 times a week.

 

Upcoming Events/Diary Dates

 

Monday 2nd February 3.15-4pm

 

London Trip and SATs information meeting with Mr Towe and Miss Harris

This meeting will offer an overview of both the London Trip and SATS week, and will be an opportunity to ask any questions that you may have. A separate letter will shortly be sent out regarding payment instalments for the trip.

 

Fundraising for London

 

We currently have two events planned to raise money towards our London trip but dates are not yet confirmed. Further information will follow:

• Bag packing at Tesco
• Bake sale

It goes without saying that the more we can raise, the more we can bring down the cost of the trip!

 

I do apologise that this has been rather a long newsletter. As the term progresses, please do keep an eye on Class Dojo for updates and, as always, please do message me with any questions and concerns you may have.

 

Thank you so much for your ongoing support and positivity.

 

With kind regards,

 

Miss Donna Harris