6SM

Welcome to Year 6 2022/23

"Don't stop until you're proud!"

NSPCC - Speak out, Stay safe 

Today we had a KS2 assembly from the NSPCC. We learnt about speaking out - sharing our worries - and how this keeps us safe. The children are always able to talk to members of staff and they all have a safeguarding paw with their five chosen staff members. 

There are lots of different, fun activities that the children can complete at home. The link is attached below and I have also included some top tips from the NSPCC about having potentially tricky conversation with your children. 

Friday 10th March - School Closure Work

Hello children!

We hope that you enjoy your time in the snow tomorrow and keep wrapped up warm. Below you will find some tasks to complete. Work has also been set on SATs Companion. 

Look out for our pictures in the snow from today. They will be uploaded shortly. 

See you all on Monday. We cannot wait for our adventure to Wales with you!

Miss Broadbent and Mrs McConvery 

We are very lucky to have access to both SATs Companion and Language Angels.

You can access both websites from the links below. 

World book day 

The children once again impressed us, this time with their inventive costumes for World Book Day. Well done to helpers at home, who we are sure put in lots of time and effort, it doesn’t go unnoticed! Everyone has received a token that can be exchanged for a £1 book, or put towards a more expensive book. More information can be found here - https://www.worldbookday.com/books/

Take a look at a selection of photos from the day. We carried the theme of world book day (living sustainably) through all of our lessons. 

------Spring 1------

Outdoor Day

We had another successful outdoor day, despite the very cold weather. The children have been writing their scripts ready for their Mayan assembly and practicing their acting. We have some gifted actors and can’t wait for you come into school and watch them perform!

Villa coach

We have been lucky enough to work with a coach from villa this half term. Our focus was on team work and developing resilience and independence. 

Mayan Homework projects 

We have had some wonderful projects sent into school, as well as some lovely digital presentations. Thank you to the children who have put some much work into their home learning! 

Recycling workshop

We were lucky enough to have our second workshop this week. The children created beautiful cork fish, which will be used on our RE display. Jesus said to his disciples that he would make them fishers of men. These beautiful fish will be a shining reminder of Jesus' words to his followers. 

Jumanji art

During the spring term we are focusing on Jumanji and Middleworld as our class texts. We have been designing book covers for Jumanji and creating watercolour art pieces inspired by the different animals in the story. We clearly have some very talented artists in 6SM. 

Mayan Sundials 

The children were inspired by the Mayan invention of sundials. Theirs usually featured Kinich Ahau, the Mayan sun god, who they believed ruled both light and time. 6SM also included Kinich Ahau in the centre of their designs. 

These beautiful, colourful designs have certainly livened up our history display! Well done 6SM  ☀️

Villa Coach

This half term we will be working with a coach from Villa during our PE sessions. So far we have worked on our team work skills and are focusing on a Plan-Play-Action approach. It has been great seeing the children working together and sharing their ideas with one another. Hopefully, we can start to see these communication skills used throughout break times and even in the classroom. 

Wow – what a great start to the year! Between outdoor day, starting our new topics, learning quidditch, a visit from Bishop Challoner and launching our new Italian learning, we’ve been very busy!

I’ve been so impressed with the level of history knowledge displayed this past week – and the enthusiasm for the subject! I was also particularly impressed during our outdoor day with your orienteering skills.

I can’t wait to find out more of your hidden skills and see the wonderful work I’m sure you will produce this year.

Great start 6SM – Keep it up! 

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Thinking like palaeontologists

This week we have been thinking like palaeontologists across our lessons. We have focused on Mary Anning and her amazing discoveries. The children have produced wonderfully informative biographies about Mary and the interesting life that she led based on their own research!

A personal highlight for me was teaching ratio through thinking about diplodocus and stegosaurus fossils, that Mary could have found. Well done children; you have all worked so hard! 

Golden time activities 

Outdoor day

Outdoor day was a wonder Mayan experience! Taking our Topic learning outdoors really helps to bring it to life – although thankfully we managed to avoid the more gruesome areas like human sacrifices and instead focused on their art, music and religious beliefs. We even learnt a Mayan game called Pok-A-Tok, which involves scoring goals with your hips – very tricky but hilarious!

Jumanji!

Following on from our English and Topic work based around our class book Jumanji, we have been creating board games in our Maths lessons. We have tried to include questions that will challenge our classmates, and some revision questions too! It has been lovely to see how creative we all are, with some groups even including traps and secret passages!

We've had an unwanted visitor in 6SM this week. His name in Boppy, he's short, sticky fingered and constantly up to no good! He has made a glitter angel; set up a swing in our doorway; stolen sweets and stationary to make his own grotto and gotten himself tangled in our blinds so far. We can't wait to see what he gets up to next week! 

To celebrate the start of Advent we have worked with our faith friends to create Advent wreaths together. We used our handprints to represent the evergreen leaves, symbolising God's eternal love for us. We wrote words on our handprints which we think best represent the message of Advent. We also decorated our hands with lots of glitter, as it is getting to that special time of year where everything sparkles - including the carpet! 

It was lovely that we were able to create two wreaths that can be displayed in both our classrooms, so that we can remember to pray for each other during this special time. 

Congratulations to all of the children who achieved a travel tracker badge! I can see that 6SM are really trying their best to walk or park and stride to school! 

This week the children have been creating play scripts based on our class text, War Horse. Coincidentally, we also happened to be looking at shadows in our Science topic - Light. What are the chances! So we took the opportunity to perform our playscripts using our handmade puppets and shadow theatres!

We all had a brilliant time trying to hide under tables and giggling at improvised lines. Excellent work 6SM!

We have loved starting to create our own WW2 interpretive dances this week. Take a look at some of the children working together to be creative and turn their thoughts and feelings of the Blitz into dance moves - not an easy job, but one they all tackled brilliantly! I can't wait to see the finished dances!! 

Usually, our weekly 'Big Write' is an independent, quiet lesson, however this week we have worked in pairs to type up our work. The children completed their own research about how different animals were used in the war and then created informative texts. I was very impressed with both their computer skills and their team work! 

Anti-bullying week! 

Our theme for anti-bullying week is 'One kind word.' We are all working to use our words to have a positive impact on other people. We want everyone to feel cared for, happy and included. We have spent time this week talking about how we can make a difference to those around us, and how we can be good friends and classmates to each other. 

I have been very impressed with the number of beautiful anti-bullying posters that were submitted for the competition! Great work 6SM!! 

We have been extremely lucky this week to have Charlotte's Nan come into school to visit us! She had some wonderful artifacts to show us and some amazing stories! We were all fascinated learning about Operation Mincemeat, the Little Ships at Dunkirk and the fact that spitfires were built right here in Birmingham!

We are so lucky to have such supportive families! Thank you! 

This week in school is Maths Week! We have taken part in an online lesson for the Maths World Cup and joined a fun maths workshop, where we learnt lots of interesting maths games and amazing tricks! 

Don't forget children, we are in a time table rockstar competition with 6EB! Make sure you're logging in and earning those coins!! Good luck 

We have all worked very hard in Design and Technology lessons to create models of Anderson Shelters. Did you know that the original Anderson Shelters were made of only 6 pieces of corrugated iron? Although we didn't have any spare sheets of corrugated iron laying around to use for our models, the children quickly worked out that by ripping the top sheet of paper off thick cardboard they can create a similar effect, and with a bit of grey paint you would hardly know the difference! I was very impressed with their creativity! 

We have started our new science topic this week - Light! So far we have learnt all about how light travels and why we are able to see the objects around us. 

Take a look at the periscopes that we made in science. We experimented with light and different mirror angles to make periscopes fit for the trenches! 

Wow, what a fantastic first week back after our half term break! We have been so busy this week between outdoor day, our Confirmation meeting, starting a new topic in Science, continuing our Black History work, school visitors and coding week!! You have all been brilliant, mature role models this week! Keep up the good work!

Take a look at some of our inspirational work from Black History Month. We learnt about some amazing key figures in our Guided Reading sessions, and also looked at some more modern figures throughout our English lessons. I think we have all felt inspired and impressed with the wonderful changes that they have helped to make in the world! 

I was very impressed with your poppy projects! Here are just a few of the wonderful projects that you have all produced!! 

Take a look at our outdoor learning day. We became evacuees for the day, making our own name tags, planning what we would pack and learning about different styles of music from the era. We all had a brilliant day, and even managed to complete our Maths and English learning outdoors too! 

We have had a fantastic afternoon learning some African dance moves! Who knew we had so many brilliant dancers in 6SM! 

Preparations for National Poetry Day! 

Take a look at some of the brilliant projects that Year 6 have completed over the summer. You are all so creative and have clearly put in lots of time and effort – well done!

We have been completing some silhouette art to complement our history topic. We have used our watercolour blending skills to create Blitz or soldier inspired artworks. These have really brightened up our classroom and are so eye catching!

Dear Year 6 children and parents,

My name is Mrs McConvery and this is my second year at St. Edward’s. I was mainly teaching in Year 6 last year, but I spent some time teaching in Year 2 during lockdown – so I know some of your younger brothers and sisters!

As I’m fairly new to St. Edward’s I’m looking forward to getting to know you all better this year, now that we are allowed out of our bubbles!

Year 6 can be very busy, and we do work very hard, but we will also be making some wonderful memories during your last year at primary school.

Our homework will be sent home every Friday, to be returned by the following Friday. Please also try your best to read every night and make a note of this in your reading records. You will have access to our school library, but you are welcome to read whatever takes your fancy! Personally, I love a national geographic magazine or any book series containing magic.

Our PE days are Monday and Tuesday (weather permitting), so make sure you wear kit to school on those days. Please remember no earrings should be worn for health and safety reasons and a white round neck t-shirt with the school badge and plain blue or black shorts/ tracksuit bottoms should be worn.

We have had a fantastic start to the year, and I am very much looking forward to a brilliant year together.

Take care,

Mrs McConvery