Creative Curriculum

Hola Mexico! is our first topic and intends to consolidate all previous work on ancient civilisations. Children will compare life in Mayan society (non-European) with life in Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt, making connections and drawing conclusions about the significance of these civilisations. The Mayan legacy will be studied and valued.

Children will become familiar with the physical and human features of modern-day Mexico, its climate and the daily lives of its inhabitants. Mexican culture will be explored through the study of art, music, food, stories and festivals. The impact of tourism and other economic activity will help the children to understand what life is like in Mexico today.

Year Six’s key country is Mexico.

English- Literacy and Language

English

Over the next few weeks year six will study the story of Robin Hood. It has been chosen to develop a skill for writing from different viewpoints. Children will analyse the importance of using features such as ‘show not tell’ to explore a character’s viewpoint without telling the reader how they feel. Key grammatical features such as using expanded noun phrases effectively and personification will also be explored. Children will be learning how to correctly use a colon and semi-colon and will try to incorporate these in their writing. Year six have also started their class read, Holes, which is linked to their Hola Mexico topic. Using Holes they will apply their skills for writing using different viewpoints to produce a letter and diary by Stanlet Yelnats - the main character in Holes. The Non-fiction section will develop the children's understanding of report writing. They will analyse, evaluate and write newspaper reports. After half-term we will explore the Mexican celebration Day of the Dead. Children will produce a narrative based on the celebration. They will also produce a non-chronological report about the celebration and a holiday leaflet about the country of Mexico.

Every Friday children will take part in an essential English lesson, which has a key focus on spelling. Children will bring home a list of spellings to learn for the following Friday. 

Maths

Year 6 will continue on their Inspire maths journey. Inspire is the scheme that our school has invested in to develop the children's confidence in using and applying mathematics. During the first term, we will focus on place value, decimals, mean(average), percentages and angles. To support your children at home, we suggest that they use Freckle, SATs companion and TT Rockstars so that they develop fluency.

Science

This term year six will be learning all about light. They will learn all about how we see, shadows, reflection and refraction. The children will learn how light travels and how this enables us to see objects. They will work scientifically and collaboratively to investigate refraction, carrying out some fascinating experiments into the effects of bending light. They will work in a hands-on way to explore how light creates the colours we see. Finally, they will learn about Isaac Newton and his theory of light and colour.