Year 6 Learning
Academic Year 2024-2025
British Science Week Celebrations
March
Year 6 enjoyed a busy Science Day on 11th March with a number of different activities.
Firstly, we made smoothies with Aspens by choosing our own portions of fruit and then cycling fast to power their machine that blended our fruit choices. We taste tested these and voted on our favourite.
Secondly, we carried out our Ultimate Bridge Building Challenge where we worked in teams of 4 to explore the properties of different materials by designing and constructing a bridge using only recyclable materials. Last week, we looked at different properties of materials including metals, ceramics, wood, plastics and composites. We discussed types of bridges and then designed our own before collecting the resources ourselves. This afternoon we had time to construct our bridges before testing them with weights and looking at how they withstood this pressure.
Thirdly, we completed our own investigation to look into heart rates and pulses. Last week, we planned a practical experiment where we had to think of a question to answer about exercise and how it effects our heart rate. The children needed to use their pulse to help measure their results. For example, one group posed the following question “Would I have a higher heartrate whilst running on the spot and throwing a tennis ball in the air compared to just running on the spot?” After completing their investigation today and comparing results, they found that they had a higher heart rate when just running on the spot. They concluded that this may be the case because whilst running they did not have to concentrate on anything else and therefore would be running quicker. Each group worked together to answer their own posed question and we had a range of conclusions and evaluations!
Finally, to conclude our learning in British Science Week, we joined a live lesson to look at adaptation and inheritance, including meeting a cow geneticist and seeing some zebus (humped cattle that look like camel cows). We also met a plant physiologist who talked about how selective breeding in plants can create plants which fight climate change. Then, we met a specialist chef who is on the hunt to minimize food waste by cooking zero-waste meals.
Fairtrade Trade Fair
February
On Thursday 13th February, to conclude our topic work on Fairtrade, Year 6 worked in groups of their choosing to create and make a new edible treat! They had to find and amend the recipe, provide the ingredients and equipment then bake it with only minimal help from the adults. They also enjoyed preparing a stand, which included posters, logos and leaflets, as well as showing off their topic book work. In the afternoon, we invited parents and friends to look at our new Fairtrade products, aiming to impress our guests and persuade them to vote for us! It was a lively afternoon, after a busy morning cooking. Everyone worked so well together to create their amazing brownies, delicious cookies and mouth-watering cake options! The children raised over £100 for the Fairtrade Foundation and their amazing work.
Perse Maths Quiz Afternoon
February
On Monday 3rd February, Year 6 ventured out to The Perse School for an afternoon of Maths with a twist! We met Sixth Form students who gave us a number of Maths challenges including code breaking, Bingo and an energetic quiz, all while testing our Maths brains. Thank you to our parent volunteers who came with us – we all had a fun and challenging afternoon.
Y6 County English Challenge
January
Wednesday 29th January saw four members of Year 6 head out to a county English competition at Bellbird school, Sawston. They had 3 rounds to tackle including those on books, text types and a ‘basic skills’ round which tested their grammar and punctuation too. All four worked brilliantly as a team and really made us proud!
Fairtrade Topic
January
Our new topic is Fairtrade and so Year 6 are learning about the importance of trade, the rights of the farmers and how we can have a positive impact on helping them to meet their basic needs. Children have been really interested in finding out about the types of product that can be Fairtrade and how these are grown, harvested and then transported to the UK. In one lesson, we looked at how bananas make their way to our shop shelves and the many groups of people responsible. We then debated how much each entity should receive from the sale of the banana. When we looked at the real breakdown we were shocked! In another lesson, we played a game in groups as different countries, where we learned how it felt to trade.
English Encyclopedia Entry
January
To start off our writing in 2025, we wrote a fact file on animals in a habitat in South America. We researched three animals whose habitat was in South America (e.g. Amazon Rainforest, Atacama Desert, Pernambuco Beach or the Andes Mountains) and used a high quality text called The Wonder Garden to give us inspiration. We were asked to complete a double page spread about our animals and the habitat they live in and we were able to design it however we wanted. As you can see, there were loads of different ideas!
Hockey vs Queen Emma
December
Year 6 children walked over to take part in a Hockey tournament at Queen Emma Primary. All children played well as a team, showing excellent understanding of the sport and of each other. This time, Queen Edith won the matches. We look forward to a footballing challenge in the Spring term! Well done to everyone!
RE – Christingles
December
In RE, we finished our unit on Christianity and incarnation by making Christingles. We learned about what each part represented for Christians and how this light-giving object reminds them of the purpose of the incarnation.
Christmas Card Making
December
As always, Year 6 are given the responsibility of creating Christmas Cards for all our support staff in school – to say thank you for such a great job throughout the year. This year our theme was origami. We loved creating and crafting our cards.
Maths Jigsaw
December
In Maths, Miss Thurston’s group spent time trying to solve a jigsaw that tested our fraction operation knowledge. We had to match equivalent sides by calculating a range of fraction questions and worked hard in our pairs!
Music – Sea Shanties!
December
This half term, Year 6 have listened to and learned the history of sea shanties. We have learned some of our own and performed these with body percussion to help everyone keep the beat.
Science – Understanding Inheritance
November
We have been learning about inheritance in animals and plants so we used Little Miss and Mister Men characters to help us! Using these characters and their easily distinguishable features, we recognised that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents.
Fraction Fascination
November
In Maths, Miss Thurston’s group spent time on an NRich problem about fractions. We started off with just a copy of the image and read the problem together. We worked in pairs to investigate a pattern and try to solve the problem, giving our explanations at the end.
Science – Presentations
November
In Science, we worked in groups to research an unfamiliar animal, looking particularly for details such as its scientific name, its classification and its habitat. We then were challenged to look more deeply at how that particular animal was adapted to its habitat and how they had evolved (changed over time) to best survive! After research time, we shared our ideas with the rest of the class and learned lots about many different animals such as echidnas, glass frogs, okapis and more!
Remembrance Art
November
After spending some time chatting about Remembrance Day and recognising the importance of learning about the recent past with our World War 2 topic, Year 6 spent some time creating beautiful 3D art, representing how the hope of future peace is in their hands by being able to remember the past.
Tag Rugby vs Queen Emma
November
On 6th November, our Year 6 children invited our Federation counterparts over to take part in a Tag Rugby tournament. Queen Edith won 40-30 yet all students played well as a team, showing excellent understanding of the sport and of each other. Many thanks to Mr Laker for hosting and organising; we look forward to more sports tournaments in future!
World War 2 Topic – Homework Projects
November
For our English homework, which concluded our World War II topic, children all crafted, wrote and presented some astounding World War II projects! Numerous topics were displayed, such as the Blitz and shelters, amazing animals, some family history, aeroplanes, information about battles, tanks, ships and submarines and even some evacuee information! Many students had original ideas that were explained perfectly. Congratulations to all!
Landscapes inspired by Paul Nash
October
After learning about war artist Paul Nash, Year 6 have spent time planning and creating their own landscape based on the Blitz. In History, we looked at major cities in Britain that were bombed and used this to help inform our silhouettes, which we drew with a pencil and cut out. We were required to think carefully about the moment in time that we were depicting and some of the artwork is from before, during or after the Blitz. As this was an aerial raid that took place at night, we used sombre colour schemes with greys linked to smoke, blues to the night sky and some reds to link to the fires that would have occurred.
World War 2 Experience Day
October
To celebrate the end our World War II topic, Year 6 enjoyed an experiential day where we participated in a range of exciting activities. These included baking honey cakes with rationed ingredients, creating replica paper spitfires, embroidering individual pieces of fabric to create our celebratory bunting, writing telegrams and Marconigrams, thinking about what we might take in an evacuee’s suitcase and translating Morse code messages. This year we had a special treat and had lots of fun looking at an amazing Jeep from 1945.
Science – microorganisms
October
Pupils learned that microbes are very tiny living things that can only be seen using a microscope. They can be found in and on our bodies, in the air, in water and on objects around us. We discussed fungi, bacteria and viruses before using our new knowledge of microorganisms to create our own. We looked at whether it might be helpful or harmful and noted any special features it may have.
Fitness in PE
October
In Autumn A, pupils have been looking at how we keep our fitness up. We trained in circuits, looking at our stamina and strength. We worked in large groups to ensure that we had friends to hold us accountable and cheer us on to perform to our best!
Visit to Duxford Imperial War Museum
October
This half term, Year 6 spent a wonderful day at Duxford Imperial War Museum as part of our topic on World War 2. We visited Hangars 8, 4 and 1 to look at the vast array of different exhibits and followed trails made by our teachers to really ensure that we were looking closely. We especially loved their ‘Heavy Drop’ exhibit, looking in the Ops Room which was used by those in Duxford during the war, and walking through Concorde. It was great fun!
Science – timeline walk
October
In order to try and understand just how long ago the creation of earth was, as well as understanding evolution and how long it takes, Year 6 took to our lovely outdoor space for a timeline walk. We all started at one end of our field and as we walked forward, counted the number of million years between each significant event. Each step that we took represented 10 million years and we had to make these steps smaller as we reached the other end of the field. When we looked back, it was amazing to see just how far away these events happened.
Paired Reading
September
Year 6 have paired up with a buddy from Year 3 to enjoy sharing books. The Year 3’s have enjoyed reading to the older children and, in turn, the Year 6’s have felt very responsible being allowed to write in their reading records – even awarding house points! We’re looking forward to more lovely times working together and synergising!
Anne Frank Biography
September
One of our first writing tasks has been to create a biography of Anne Frank. After reading a couple of books and then watching part of a drama about her, we have loved independently researching more about Anne’s life and incredible story.
Science – creating a branching database
September
Our Science topic this half term is Inheritance and Evolution so in the first few lessons we have learned about classification and how different plants and animals might be grouped. Carl Linnaeus was a Swedish scientist who published the first system for classifying all living things. An adapted version of this system is still used today – the Linnaeus system. Pupils went outside to collect a range of leaves before creating their own version of a branching database within table groups.
Artistic techniques
September
We have been looking at different pencil drawing techniques this half term and today tried out some of our own! We looked at hatching, cross hatching, scumbling, stippling and more.
Mathematics
September
Year 6 have been revising and investigating negative numbers and played a bingo style game in pairs using dice. We had great fun and had lots of practise with subtracting across zero.
Bikeability – Safer Cycling
September
Year 6 have been participating in some exciting Bikeability training. We spent a day on the playground learning how to start and stop safely, and how to look after our bikes. Then we went out on the nearby roads to test our skills and learn how to be safe around others – pedestrians or vehicles.
World War 2 Topic
September
This half-term, Year 6 are learning about World War II. In one of our first topic lessons, we looked at the countries that were involved and whether they were allies, neutral or an axis power. We used our geographical knowledge from previous lessons, our own research, and the atlases to help us colour code our own maps of Europe.