What we are learning about in Autumn One?

Whole School Book

We will begin the term with an exciting and magical whole school book 'Leon and the Place Between'. I can't reveal too much at this stage but I am sure that magic will fill the air and the children will love our arts and crafts on the first day back.

Maths

To start off the term, we will be focusing on the place value of numbers up to ten million including negative numbers, learning through investigative tasks. We will then remind ourselves of the formal methods for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, using this knowledge to solve multi-step problems.

Writing

After the whole school book, our writing this half term will focus on the Lighthouse animation recapping and learning all the comma rules. In Reading Adventures, we will be transported to Johannesburg in South Africa and learning about the journey of two brave siblings. We will focus on our comprehension skills in this text using inference to make impressions. 

Science

What keeps us alive? We will be studying the circulatory system in great depth and have the opportunity to observe a heart dissection to consolidate this understanding. Using scientific skills, Year Six will design their own experiments with heart rates and plot their findings on graphs.

Geography

We are very excited to start our new Geography units. This half term we will be developing our map skills which will be vital at Laches Wood! We will delve into learning about ocean currents and the impact that these have.

RE

Do scientists' beliefs and theories about the beginning of life clash with those held by members of the  Christian community? Children explore a range of views, from the diversity seen in Christianity, to those held by different scientists. This is a fascinating unit, whereby the children consider how others tackle issues, and consider how beliefs impact an individual's sense of responsibility for the earth's resources. 

Computing

The children will be examining how the internet is used as a communication tool, learning how we find information on the World Wide Web. They will be learning how search engines work (including how they select and rank results) and what influences searching, and through comparing different search engines. Investigating different methods of communication will follow this, before the children focus on internet-based communication, evaluating which methods of internet communication to use for particular purposes.

Art

Art will involve you becoming skilled at taking and altering digital images and combining these with your own created backgrounds, experimenting with depth and perspective. We know that by the end of the unit, every child will be proud of their work as an artist!

DT 

After considering some incredible designers from the UK and beyond, the children will investigate the use of cams to create purposeful movement. We will experiment, break, fix and improve, before creating our own designs to meet a very specific brief. Safety will be of the utmost importance, as children develop their use of saws and drills during the unit.

Spanish

In Spanish, the unit is titled, ‘My Town’ and, in keeping with this, the children will be learning how to say where they live and how to write their address. They will describe some features of Stafford and compare these with those in Spanish cities. After revising their number learning from last year, they will be extending this to saying, reading and writing numbers to a hundred. Spanish/English dictionaries will be used to extend the children's vocabulary and introduce them to further ways to check spellings or translations. Do let us know if you have any expertise in this area: we’d love to hear from Spanish speakers in our community.  

Music

The children will enjoy our 'World Unit' unit during which they will be maintaining steady pulses in complex rythms, improvising scat sounds and maintaining parts in a complex rhythmic and action patterns. Within the final piece of music, there will be a simple three-part harmony too. Listening, as part of our music history in school, will focus on pieces by Florence Price and Ethle Symth. 

Allergies

Some lessons across the curriculum may involve a few sweets or ingredients, so please do inform us if your child has any allergies that we are not already aware of. Our school risk assessments will be fully followed in lessons, such as DT, when the children will have the opportunity to sample a number of globally produced fruit and vegetables.

We can't wait for the new term to begin!