Autumn Term Welcome Meeting Year 6

Year 6 staff: Year 6 Beech: Miss Freeman Mrs Fuller – LSA Miss Martin – TA, Thursday Unfortunately, staff are not available before school nor on a Monday or Tuesday after school due to meetings. Year 6 Juniper: Miss Young Mrs Sheail – TA all week PPA staff: Mrs Holman Mr Newland and Mrs Sheail

What the children will be learning this year:

All our subjects are part of the National Curriculum and are planned by all of the class teachers in your child’s year group. The curriculum overview details the topics covered over the year and is on the website. More detailed information under ‘Curriculum’ – like so…

Main topics Autumn term – Rainforests involving the Maya and South America Spring term – Saxons vs Vikings Summer term – Social Change in Modern Britain Please let us know if you have any special interest/knowledge in these areas and would like to come and talk to us!

Mastery in Maths What does it mean?

Maths Mastery The idea behind mastery is that all children need a deep understanding of the mathematics they are learning so that: future learning is built on solid foundations; there is no need for separate catch-up programmes; attainment is raised for all children The national curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils: become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics reason mathematically can solve problems The current national curriculum document says: “The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace…Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.”

Maths Mastery Teaching for mastery keeps the class working together on the same topic, whilst at the same time addressing the need for all pupils to master the curriculum and, for some, to gain greater depth of proficiency and understanding. Challenge is provided by going deeper rather than accelerating into new content. More time is spent on teaching topics to allow for depth and sufficient practice. Carefully crafted lessons provide a scaffolded, conceptual journey, encouraging pupils to reason and develop mathematical thinking. Achieving mastery is not just being able to memorise key facts and procedures and answer test questions accurately and quickly. It means being able to use one’s knowledge appropriately, flexibly and creatively and to apply it in new and unfamiliar situations.

Maths Fluency Children will take part in daily sessions (up to 15 minutes a day), rehearsing core facts from their curriculum, covering key areas which require increased practice. Regular rehearsal allows children to access the Maths curriculum more confidently and easily. Time is provided to allow them to assimilate facts that they have learnt and see these applied in a range of contexts. Over each half term the areas and question types stay constant but increase in complexity, gradually allowing the children to become more secure and confident.

Mastery in English For each year group, the Mastery English curriculum is built around high quality, whole-class texts which the class spend a half term exploring and enjoying. The texts are carefully chosen to link with other areas of the curriculum, particularly humanities. A typical learning sequence includes: A hook to fully engage and interest the children Responding to reading activities to allow immersion in and exploration of the text Capturing ideas which include drama and talk to support understanding and develop vocabulary Possibilities for contextualised teaching of grammar Sentence games to develop creativity, vocabulary, language and grammar A range of writing tasks including extended writing Opportunities to evaluate, edit and re-draft

Spellings There is more emphasis on spelling and grammar in the current Curriculum. We are following a spelling programme across KS2: ‘Read Write Inc. Spelling’ which is a 15-minutes-a-day programme covering all of the spelling requirements in the National Curriculum. It uses a proven approach underpinned by phonics. This means that spelling activities will happen daily and children will be tested regularly. Parents will be informed of the spelling rules and patterns. Please encourage your children to sound out words one sound at a time as this provides strategies to support them with ALL spellings. Year 6 is unique in the sense that we also review spellings from prior year groups. School website support.

Words to learn Homework books will also have their weekly spellings in and, for the majority of children, will look like :- Children will be tested on their ability to apply spelling skills in their written work – Year 6 standard. Exceptional spellers will be provided with commonly misspelt words.

Science This year we are continuing to use our exciting scheme called Empiribox. It is based on fun, practical activities, demonstrations and investigations. The children will learn about areas of Physics, Chemistry and Biology on a four year programme.

Enrichment activities for the year All visits organised by the school are important for your child's learning and development. They may not necessarily be a trip outside of the school, but could be a ‘day of enrichment’ provided within the school. Autumn Term Cycling Proficiency Rainy Rainforest Workshop Spring Term Viking History Day (including dressing up!) Summer Term Isle of Wight Please make sure you: Return permission slips on time Offer to come and help if you can!

Reading at home Bengeo Primary School places a lot of importance on reading, both at school and at home. Children are given many opportunities for reading and talking about books at school. We expect them to read at home and out loud to an adult as well as discussing the text. Year 6 do not have reading records.

Homework Homework helps to develop essential skills such as time management, organisation, task completion as well as responsibility. It also contributes to the mastery of key skills and knowledge. In Year 6 we expect daily reading and book discussion between children and parents. Weekly learning of number facts and spelling patterns. Fortnightly grammar, punctuation or composition tasks. Holiday homework – all research based and optional. There might also be additional revision tasks based on areas that children are finding particularly challenging.

PE PE days – Beech: Indoor PE – Friday; Outdoor PE – Thursday Juniper: Outdoor PE – Thursday; Indoor PE - Wednesday PE kit: navy blue shorts, white round-necked T-shirt, trainers for outdoor PE (and Zumba), tracksuit bottoms in cold weather. Bare feet for gymnastics/dance.

Break Time Snacks As part of our Healthy School’s status, we are trying to promote healthy snacks at break time. We have children in the School with severe allergies so we would appreciate your support by giving your child a healthy snack of fresh fruit or vegetables.

Wet weather Please ensure children bring in coats every day as they will be expected to go out at playtimes, whatever the weather! If possible children should have plimsolls in school to wear in the classroom if the weather is wet and the ground muddy.

Help in the class admin@bengeo.herts.sch.uk If you would like to help with reading 10:45-11:15 am any day of the week, please email a message via the School’s Office at: admin@bengeo.herts.sch.uk

Attendance and punctuality The doors will open at 8.45, registration is at 8.55 Please ensure children are supervised before entering the classroom, not running around and playing on equipment Please try and aim for an 8.45 start as the maths fluency sessions start immediately on entry into the classrooms The nature of mastery means that the children learn together at a similar pace – it is not easy to catch up if many lessons are missed

SATS and IOW The key stage 2 tests are timetabled from Monday 14 May to Thursday 17 May 2018 Reading (60mins) Mathematics 2 x reasoning (40mins each) an 1x arithmetic (30mins each) SpaG (45mins + spelling test) Writing is teacher assessed. SATs and IOW meeting later in the year

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