Hello, and welcome to another weekly update from Year 6. First and foremost, we wanted to say how impressed and proud we are of your children so far. They really have hit the ground running, already producing some excellent work. They have earned a nice weekend!

This week, we have been up to the following:

• In literacy, we completed a setting description of The Watertower, using literary devices such as similes, metaphors, personification and rhetorical questions. Next week, we will be having a go at our first set of SATs (see below).
• In maths, we’ve continued our work on place value.
• In history, we discussed the subject of sources when discussing the Titanic. We learned the difference between primary and secondary sources, and thought about which might be better and more trustworthy.
• In RE, we learned all about the Hindu creation story.
• In art, we began a self-portrait project, based on our hall display topic of ‘Outside’.

Spelling words

This week, the children were learning words with the long vowel sound /igh/ spelled ‘y’. They were apply, hygiene, hyphen, identify, multiply, occupy, python, recycle, rhyme and supply.

SATs practice

Next week, we will ask the children to have a go at the 2025 suite of SATs papers. This might seem a little early, but I thought it would be helpful to explain why we’ve chosen to do this:

1. We want to make sure that the children are as comfortable as possible with the format of SATs, both in terms of what the papers actually look like and what they will be asked to do.
2. This will prove very helpful in terms of starting to determine access requirement (scribes, extra time, etc.)
3. It will also help us to identify learning gaps that we can then address in lessons and through interventions.

We have made it very clear that there is no pressure at all on the children to do well. It is all practice.

PE

Do remember that PE is on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and at the moment, they are both outdoors. Please make sure that you children have the right kit.

Secondary school applications

Mrs Rae has posted a very useful guide on applying for secondary schools on the website. It includes the important dates and some useful links – you can find it here.

We hope you have a lovely weekend, and we will see you bright and early on Monday morning.

The Year 6 team