In Year 6 our English and Mathematics work is based on the Primary Framework for Literacy and Mathematics.

In all other curriculum subject areas we have customized and adapted the QCDA schemes of work to suit our school and our pupils’ needs. We aim to give them a broad base in their Primary education. Each child’s individual needs will be met when possible enabling them to achieve to the highest level.

 A very brief summary of the objectives for Year 6 follow below.

 English:

 Year 6 are taught English through the daily "Literacy Hour", building upon the individual child’s previous learning, extending their knowledge and understanding. This work is divided into three main areas:

Speaking and listening:

·         Use oral techniques to present engaging narratives

·         Criticise constructively

·         Present persuasive arguments

·         Participate in debates using appropriate language

·         Explore and discuss ideas, issues and topics

·         Adopt a range of roles in discussion – promote/oppose/explore/question views

·         Evaluate how speakers present points through language and gesture

·         Make notes from sustained listening activities

·         Distinguish between formal/informal language

·         In drama: use strategies to explore themes (hope, fears, desires); identify dramatic ways of conveying characters and ideas; identify dramatic ways of building tension; devise and adapt performance for particular audiences; improvise a range of situations through drama.

 (1) Word level work: phonics, spelling, vocabulary

  Spelling strategies: identifying misspent words, use patterns to spell similar words

  Spelling conventions and rules: investigate and learn spelling rules

  Recognise spelling and meaning of prefixes e.g. auto-, bi- and suffixes –icon, -ship etc.

·   Powerful verbs

·   Similies

  Distinguish between homophones, investigate antonyms and synonyms

  Understand correct use of possessive pronouns e.g. mine, ours, yours

  Use dictionaries to explore spelling roots, meanings and derivations

  Investigate idiomatic phrases and expressions e.g. to get into hot water etc.

 (2) Sentence level work: grammar and punctuation

·          Investigate word order, re-order simple sentences

·         Understand how to order sentences into paragraphs

·         Active and passive sentences

·         Formal and informal sentences

·         Difference between direct and indirect speech

·         Revision of the different kinds of noun, function of pronouns; agreement

·         Adverbs to qualify verbs

·         Verb tense – verb forms, active, interrogative, imperative

·         Person: first, second, third

·          Prepositions

·         Using punctuation marks accurately in complex sentences e.g. using commas to separate clauses within sentences

·         Using apostrophe for possession e.g. the boy’s pencil etc.

·         Investigate clauses – main, subordinate, adjectival

·         Use connectives to link clauses and sentences e.g. unless, until, where, before

(3) Text level work: comprehension and composition

   a) Fiction and poetry

·           Reading comprehension: Analyse, compare, identify features from a range of texts including stories, adventure, spy, time travel, plays and poems.

·         Investigate genre, plot

·         Investigate character types

·         Investigate terms describing different kinds of poems identifying typical features e.g. A haika

·           Writing composition: Record ideas, reflections and predictions about a book. Write own version of stories, legends, myths and fables. Write play-scripts evaluating script for dramatic interest. Write poems conveying feeling, reflections and mood. Reviewing and editing own text. Write in “genre” style.

  b) Non-fiction

  Reading comprehension: Investigate features of recounted, instructional and explanatory texts: letters to inform, protest, complain, persuade. Distinguish between fact and opinion. Note making

  Writing comprehension: Write letters for a real purpose. Making notes for different purposes. Planning, composing, editing and refining non-chronological and explanatory texts. Write: news reports, biographies, balanced arguments, brochures, discussions

 Mathematics:

 The children build on their previous knowledge and skills and follow the National Numeracy Strategy. Logical thinking is essential and children must always check their work.

The key objectives of the Year 6 course are:

·         Multiply and divide decimals mentally and integers by 10, 100,1000 and explain the effect

·         Order a mixed set of numbers with up to three decimal places

·         Understand the relationship between percentage, fraction and decimal

·         Reduce a fraction to its simplest form by cancelling common factors

·         Use a fraction as an operator to find fractions of numbers or quantities (e.g. 5/ 8 of 32, 9/1000 of 4000 centimetres

·         Understand percentage as the number of parts in every hundred, and find simple percentages of small whole- number quantities

·         Carry out column addition and subtraction of numbers involving decimals

·         Devise quick division factors corresponding to multiplication tables up to 12 x 12

·         Carry out short multiplication and division of numbers involving decimals

·         Carry out long multiplication of a three-digit number by a two-digit number and long division of three-digit numbers by a two-digit number

·         Use a protractor to measure acute, obtuse and reflex angles to the nearest degree

·         Calculate the perimeter and area of simple compound shapes that can be split into rectangles

·         Investigate number sequences and patterns

·         Read and plot co-ordinates to all four quadrants

·         Translate, reflect and rotate 2D shapes

·         Name 3D shapes

·         Begin a basic understanding of mean/mode7median and calculate probability

·         Identify and use the appropriate operations (including combinations of operations) to solve word problems involving numbers and explain methods and reasoning

·         Solve a problem by extracting and interpreting information presented in tables, graphs and charts

·         Identify factors, square and prime numbers

·         Investigate positive and negative numbers

Science:

·          Adaptation & Interdependence: In this unit children extend their knowledge of the way in which plants and animals in different habitats depend upon each other and are suited to their environment. They relate feeding relationships to knowledge of plant nutrition.

·         Micro-organisms: Through this unit children learn that there are many very small organisms called micro-organisms which feed, grow and reproduce and which may be harmful or beneficial.

·         Forces in action: In this unit children apply their knowledge of a variety of forces, including magnetic attraction, gravitational attraction and friction. Children learn about the changes in motion which occur when forces act on an object. They consolidate their understanding that forces have direction and can be measured.

·         Changing circuits: This unit is designed to revise concepts to which children have been introduced in Year 2 and Year 4. The unit consolidates children's knowledge of materials which are electrical conductors, extends understanding of ways in which the brightness of bulbs or speed of motors in a circuit can be changed and develops children's understanding of the value of using conventional symbols for communication.

·         How we see things: In this unit children learn that mirrors and shiny surfaces alter the direction in which light travels and that when they see objects, light enters the eye. Children contrast reflection and shadow formation.

·         Reversible and irreversible reactions: This unit brings together and consolidates work that children have done before on reversible changes eg melting, freezing, evaporating, dissolving, condensing, introduces burning as a change that cannot be reversed and, like other irreversible changes, produces new materials.

·         More about dissolving: This unit consolidates and extends children's understanding of what happens when a variety of solids dissolve.

 Geography:

History:

·         The Victorians: In this unit children find out about the lives of Victorian children, how attitudes towards children changed, and the people who are remembered for their part in these changes. Children develop their understanding of the concept of change and continuity and their sense of period, by looking at the characteristic features of children's lives in the Victorian period. They build on their understanding of chronology by locating the Victorian period within a time framework, and by sequencing changes within the period. The children will investigate some of the ways their local area changed during the Victorian era, and some of the reasons for those changes. Children use the local area to explore characteristic features of Victorian times, how the area changed over time and the reasons for and results of these changes. Children develop their sense of chronology, and ask and answer questions, from buildings and other information sources.

·         The effects of Tudor Exploration: In this unit children learn about the reasons for, and results of, exploration of the world by people in the sixteenth century and its impact on sailors, settlers and indigenous peoples. Children investigate in depth one of the explorers and the problems associated with settlement.

·         A Study of the Life of a Modern Day Person: In this unit, children learn about aspects of recent history through the study of the life of John Lennon as an example of someone who made a significant impact on popular culture and entertainment, and whose life portrays some of the key social and cultural changes of the post-war period. We will adapt this unit to focus on another figure who has made a significant contribution to the recent history of Britain or the local area. The unit has links with citizenship, in that it introduces children to the idea of single-issue politics through a controversial figure from recent history. Links with non-fiction work in literacy are also strong; in particular this unit is designed to develop media and information-handling skills. Children will develop their historical understanding of the period, including the characteristic features and diversity of popular culture. They will learn about changes both within and across the period, and apply their skills of historical enquiry to a study of the recent past.

·         Chronological Order: Timeline covering all topics studied throughout the Primary school

French:

• The student is able to: 

• Recall most of the basic concepts (Greet other, introduce and describe himself or his family)

• Talk about activities, festivals and dates

• Give and understand instructions

• Count from 31-60

• Talk about the weather and places in France

• Give and understand basic directions

• Talk about food (going shopping, prices, opinions)

• Talk about activities at a party

• Discuss francophone countries

• Talk about clothes (give opinions, descriptions, ask and talk about prices)

• Talk about school subjects

• Tell the time

• ASSESSMENT IN YEAR 6: SPELLING (Every lesson), TEST (Each unit), PARTICIPATION IN CLASS, BEHAVIOUR IN CLASS.