Key information for Year 6 parents:

• Year 6 children are to arrive at school at 8:45 am and line up sensibly on the yard.  The end of school is 3:15 pm.

• On a Tuesday and a Friday please can all Year 6 children attend school in their P.E kit which includes their hooded jumper, this is the day they will have both sessions of P.E.

• Reading books in Year 6 will be changed and diaries will be checked each Monday.

• Homework is set every Thursday and homework books should be returned the following Thursday for marking.

Welcome to Year 6! Our teacher is Miss Heath and our classroom support is Mrs Forrest. 

Summer Term, 2024

Welcome back!

We hope you all had a lovely Easter break.

Calendar Art Morning

Wonka Bar Film Afternoon

Letters of Complaint

The children have worked really hard this week planning and then writing a fantastic letter of complaint to a restaurant manager.

Art

Mini World Light Boxes

Year 6 Theatre Workshop

Red Nose Day 2024

World Book Day 2024

Spring 2 Week 2

This week, Year 6 have started their exciting new topic in art - BRAVE COLOUR.

The children have been introduced to a new, exciting artist Yinka Iloria. 

Spring 2 Week 1

We've had a busy first week back in Year 6. The children have enjoyed the start of their new topics and were particularly thrilled to get started with their new Rock and Roll music focus! Yesterday, the children started to learn the dance moves to Hand Jive and the lyrics to Rock around the Clock. It's shaping up to be a fun half term! 

Hopefully everyone has received their invitation to our new SATs club, which commences from Monday 4th March.

Have a lovely weekend :)

Year 6 Week 4

Microorganisims

This week, Year 6 investigated the question, 'Is yeast a living thing?'

We revisited the seven signs of life and decided that as yeast gives off carbon dioxide when it consumes sugar, that this could possibly be respiration!

We conducted an experiment to see if this was true!

Spring 1 Week 3

Year 6, Super Scientists!

Classification keys

A key is a set of questions about the characteristics of living things.

You can use a key to identify a living thing or decide which group it belongs to by answering the questions.

This week, we investigated and explored CLASSIFICATION KEYS. With the help of a large bag of Liquorice Allsorts, we worked in small groups to make a variety of Classification Keys. Great fun!

Spring 1 Week 2

We've had a great week in Year 6 this week!

English

I have been particularly impressed with the children's writing in English. They have produced some fantastic letters which were written to the Selfish Giant. The children expressed their disgust with the Giant for banishing the children from his garden. Using the subjunctive form, the children informed the Giant on what they would do if they were him. They also made suggestions on how he can rectify his poor decision! Excellent work Year 6!

Maths

This week the children have spent time revisiting and revising their work on fractions. Their fluency when adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying with fractions has greatly improved! We have also started our unit on Ratio which will continue into next week.

Art

On Thursday we took part in an Art afternoon which was great fun. The children are really enjoying their new topic, 'Activism in Print'. They have been thinking of messages that they would like to share with the world, based on their own thoughts and opinions. The children have been really sensible in thinking about the things in life that really matter to them. We can't wait to start our screen printing and adding our messages on to our very own tote bags!

Computing

Our blogging unit is well underway now. The children have generated their own blogging topic and spent the afternoon designing and making a start to their actual blog! There are some fantastic blogs in production, including those on mountain biking, dog breeds, World War 2 and numerous football teams, to name a few. The children used their skills of saving and uploading images to enhance their blogs and to add visuals to their text. Once complete, their blogs will go 'live' so that classmates can take a look and even comment!

Science 

Our new topic, 'Living Things and their Habitats', has been great fun this week in our double science lessons. We have enjoyed grouping and classifying animals based on their skeletal structure and their nutritional needs. This afternoon, we worked in small groups to sort animals by 2, 3 and even 5 categories. 

Here are the key questions that we have been focusing on this week:

Can you name the 5 broad groups of animals?

What is an invertebrate animal?

Do all animals have a skeleton?

What is an exoskeleton?

Can you decide on the criteria to sort these animals?

How could you classify animals according to their nutrition?

Welcome back - Spring Term 2024

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Mrs Forrest and I would like to thank you all for our lovely Christmas gifts and cards. They were very gratefully received and appreciated.

We've had a great first week back in school. The children are very enthusiastic and excited about our Spring Term topics which they have been introduced to across the week.

In English, we will be exploring Oscar Wilde's 'The Selfish Giant' and will continue to work towards the Year 6 Mastery Keys within our writing. Features such as expanded noun phrases, subordinating and relative clauses, sentence and paragraph openers, as well as demonstrating a range of punctuation, shall continue to be worked on within a range of text types.

In Maths, we have spent the week working on metric measures. The children have used metric measures to calculate, convert and solve problems successfully.

Well done everyone!

Year 6 Celebrate Christmas

What a fantastic end to our extremely busy Autumn Term!

Year 6 celebrated the start of the festive period in style! It all began when the children entered the classroom on Thursday and were treated to a 'North Pole Breakfast'. The children enjoyed helping themselves to a delicious breakfast, which included: pain au chocolate, reindeer crumpets, hot, buttered scotch pancakes, nutella, fresh fruit, a selection of biscuits, cereal, fruit juice and, of course, chocolate coins!

Following that, and with full bellies, we headed off outside and were greeted by two beautiful reindeer and the big man himself, Santa! 

Our afternoon involved a movie with hot chocolate, squirty cream, marshmellows, candy canes, popcorn and a selection of crisps! As if that wasn't enough, we then joined the rest of the school for a superb festive Christmas singsong!

We certainly do wish that everyday could be Christmas!

What a way to spend our last Hugo Christmas <3

D&T Electrical Systems: Steady-hand Game

Year 6 demonstrated great talent and enthusiasm during our latest D&T project. We learned all about function and form and used our new learning to design and then create our own steady-hand game! By applying their previously taught knowledge of circuits, the children worked in teams to create a circuit with a buzzer within a game! Every time contact was made with the metal loops, the circuit became complete and the dreaded buzzer rung out for all to hear! Once function of the product was perfected, the children then turned their focus on the less important form (design).

Great work Year 6!

Food and Nutrition - Come Dine With Me

It was the turn of our 'dessert' children to create a delicious wartime dish this week and what fantastic bakers they turned out to be! All of the group are extremely proud of their dessert and we are certain that they will taste as fantastic as they look! Enjoy them after tea with a scoop of ice-cream or a drizzle of custard!

All that is left for us to do now is to review the wonderful creations that the children have made over the past three weeks. We will be making our own three-course wartime menu based on our learning and cooking experiences from this half term and scoring our dishes based on appearance and taste.

What a fun few weeks we've had! Well done Year 6.

Food and Nutrition - Come Dine With Me

It was the turn of our 'mains' children to create a wartime dish this week and what a super job they did! All of the group whipped up a delicious cheese and potato dumpling dish. We hope you enjoyed tasting their creations at home. We are looking forward to next week when the 'dessert children' will be serving up an apple crumble!

Food and Nutrition - Come Dine with Me

This half term, as part of our Design and Technology topic, we are linking our cookery lessons with our current WW2 topic. We have investigated the rationing system that occurred during the 1940s and have even devised our own wartime recipe book using basic ingredients! 

This half term we will:

• Find a suitable recipe for their course.
• Record the relevant ingredients and equipment needed.
• Follow a recipe, including using the correct quantities of each ingredient.
• Write a recipe, explaining the process taken.
• Explain where certain key foods come from before they appear on the supermarket shelf.

Today, it was the turn of the 'starter' children to use their ingredients, equipment and recipe to make delicious cheese pinwheels. The children demonstrated superb culinary skills and thoroughly enjoyed their time creating their wartime starter. Well done to you all. Next week, the 'main course' children will be serving up a hearty cheese and potato dumpling dish - we can't wait!

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Nelson Mandela

Fieldwork Fun - Planning and Data Collection

We've had a super week this week working on our fieldwork enquiry, 'How is population impacting our environment'. Our fieldwork investigation followed a full enquiry structure which saw the children carefully plan out their investigation. Using two local but different enquiry sites, the children planned to collect three sets of data in two locations.

The first location was in Market Drayton. Here the children predicted that by having a larger population number, the environment would not be as pleasant. Our geographers conducted a traffic survey, average noise pollution recordings using a decibel meter and they also spoke to members of the public to gain their opinions on the environment by using a Likert Scale. 

Our second fieldwork location was in Loggerheads, just outside of the school gates. This area was much less populated as the children predicted. Data was collected here to discover if this much quieter location has a better quality of environment than the more densely populated Market Drayton.

By comparing our traffic surveys, decibel meter recordings and public opinions recorded on our Likert Scales at both locations, we will analyse and present our overall findings to answer our enquiry question, 'How is population impacting our environment'.

We can't wait to present and share our findings next week!

A VERY Energetic Week!

This week in Year 6, we have been lucky enough to take part in FOUR active sessions! We have enjoyed our two usual PE slots as well as experiencing a special taster tennis workshop (which was fantastic) and a scientific experiment where we measured our heart rate! 

The children have been continuing to enjoy our end of day novel, Letters from the Lighthouse, which is introducing them to the ways of life for three children during World War Two, ready for our Autumn 2 History topic.

There has also been some fantastic spelling work taking place this week. The use of dictionaries and spelling rules when adding suffixes is helping us to improve on our accuracy when spelling longer and trickier words.

Well done everyone!

We've had a very busy week in Year 6 this week!

PE

Every single child earned the Bee Active Star of the Week award this week due to their amazing teamwork and resilience during our Invasion Games lesson with Jamie. The children showed great technique and listening skills as they continued to master their ability to 'switch the play'. I was really impressed with their tactics and ability to play the long ball to their fellow team members in order to make three continuous passes. Well done to the yellow team who were the overall team winners this week.

Geography

This week, the children have been using atlases to identify population density across the world. The children were also able to interpret a pie chart to determine which areas of the world have the greatest/lowest population distribution. Some fantastic locational knowledge was demonstrated. 

French

Our new French topic focuses on 'Going to School' (a l'ecole). We all enjoyed learning what the different subjects are called in French and discussing the importance of which determiner to choose.

An excellent week for all! Well done, Year 6!

Our First Week in Year 6

What a fantastic start to Year 6! The children have settled into their new class brilliantly.  We have been really impressed with their positive attitude and super maturity. They have all come back to school ready to learn and this has been fantastic to see!

It has been a busy start to Year 6 with us getting to grips with numbers up to 10, 000, 000 in Maths and the workings of our circulatory system in Science. In Geography, we have made a start on our topic based on population change and in PE the children have started to work on their invasion games skills. 

I'd like to say well done to everyone for completing their first set of Year 6 homework and for taking the time to learn their spellings this week. Keep it up!

We can't wait for next week.

Y6 SATs support for students

Click on the links below to support your learning in preparation for your SATs in May:

• Free KS2 SATS Online 10-Minute Tests | CGP Books

• Primary Maths Assessments Online - Instant Marking and Gap Analysis

• KS2 SATs - English SATs - Maths SATs - SATs Revision Practice - BBC Bitesize

• Year 6 Maths - BBC Bitesize

• SATs year 6 - Topmarks Search

• English quizzes

• Maths quizzes

• Spelling games

Pure determination & grit!

This week Year 6 have shown excellent resilience and determination as well as maturity when tackling a series of problem-solving and reasoning and application questions, independently.  They have shown what they know and what elements of their learning they may need further practice on or clarifications they need.  This may be in terms of the methods they may use or the process/terminology they need to further understand.

In Music, the children have began learning about how Music teaches us about our community.  This Unit of Work celebrates a wide range of musical styles. During this unit the children will: be listening, singing, playing, composing, and performing. The Musical Spotlight is ‘Exploring Notation Further’. The children will continue to learn about all the Foundational Elements of Music with a focus on notation, while working implicitly with all the other elements of music as they go through the steps of the unit. Notation was formally introduced in Year 3 and the children will perform their own composition at the end of the unit- we look forward to hearing their pieces performed

RE- Our Easter visit to our church 

Year 6 took part in a pilgrimage retelling the story of Easter with actors telling their version of events in and around the church grounds. The children collected souvenirs along the journey and made an Easter garden from biscuits and sweets - yum!

Geography fieldwork- 4 and 6 figure grid references

The children have conducted a Geographical fieldwork in and around the school grounds. They found twelve eggs in varying locations and write the four and six figure grid references related to our school map. 

British Science week at Hugo 🧪 🧫 🧬 
Oh no! There's been a robbery! Someone has broken in and stolen all our science chemicals!

Luckily, the fantastic Forensic Scientists in Year 6 were on duty to solve this mystery.

Firstly, our highly skilled teams used chromatography to identify which suspect's pen was used to write a threatening note found at the crime scene. After narrowing our potential suspects to just two, fingerprint analysis of prints 'lifted' from the chemical shelf provided conclusive evidence that Mr Williams - the Science Teacher - was the guilty party. He is currently awaiting trial and thanks to our teams efforts we are hopeful of a conviction.
#BritishScienceWeek2023

Art- Activisim

This term in Art Year 6  have explored how artists use their skills to speak on behalf of communities.  They have made art about things they care about and done this through:

• Seeing how artists use their skills to make art which speaks about things which matter, often on behalf of whole communities.

• Exploring how they can find out what they care about, and find ways they might share their ideas with us.

• Seeing how their classmates may have different things they care about, or share things they care about, but they are all valid.

• Creating visuals and text which communicate their message.

• Using line, shape and colour to make their artwork.

• Using typography to make their messages stand out. 

• Combining different techniques such as print, collage and drawing

• Reflecting and articulating about their own artwork and artwork made by their classmates

Children's Mental Health Week

Throughout the week, year 6 pupils have been completing activities aimed at promoting their mental well-being. In these activities, children have had to consider: things that promote their well-being; the things which may affect their mental health andd how to cope with feelings of anxiety, stress, and nervousness. They have also focussed on the importance of spending quality time doing the things they enjoy and reflecting on the various things which make them, them! Pupils have also looked at how our school values can positively impact upon their mental health, as well as how a growth mindset allows them to develop and aspire to achieve their very best.

Safer Internet Day

Across the day children completed a series of activities, they completed a quiz to test their knowledge of internet safety in a fun and interactive way.  They read the story 'Hanni and the magic window' and reflected on the magic window story, thinking about how they can ask for help and support when accessing the internet.  They also conducted a role play where they were given a series of scenarios which allowed them to consider how to approach difficult situations, consider how to find support and think about the people who are there to help them.  Finally, they designed a poster of how to stay safe online.  The children got a lot out of the day using the knowledge they acquired to provide helpful information to help their peers to navigate difficult situations which they may be presented with online.

Geography- We are Britain - Human Geography

This week Year 6 have learned more about how humans have changed

the landscape of the United Kingdom.  Children investigated their local area and highlighted the various human changes.  They drew a range of human features in the UK and described each feature giving reasons why.  

Key Questions that children investigated:

• How have humans changed the UK landscape in the past?
• How can humans sometimes damage the UK's landscape?
• In what ways can human activities sometimes improve the
• UK's landscape?
• How might humans affect the UK landscape in the future?

Maths - Fractions

Key learning this week:

• Equivalent fractions  and ordering on a number line
• Comparing and ordering fractions according to their numerator
• Comparing and ordering fractions according to their denominator
• Adding and subtracting simple fractions
• Adding and subtracting mixed numbers

Year 6 have been working on completing questions to do with fractions (see above) and have worked on some tricky fraction problem-solving. They have also been recapping various mental arithmetic methods and improving their speed when completing the maths blasts and maths hammer questions, applying what they know to various scenarios.

Can you solve the following problems?

English - Classic narrative - The Selfish Giant

This week the children contributed to discussions and asked questions to improve their understanding, they used the image of the front cover and the book to make predictions and provide justifications using reasons from what they could see.  They then wrote a short description of what they could see in the image using expanded noun phrases and appropriate prepositions as well as precision language from the text.  After this, they discussed what was so special about the giant’s garden, why the children loved playing in there, and read the picture - finding all the attractive elements of the giant’s garden.  We then looked at the vocabulary in the text and explored how the author described the garden, the type of vocabulary, and then the more formal descriptions e.g. delicate blossoms of pink and pearl compared to a more informal description e.g. bright pink flowers.  After our discussions children wrote a classic poem using their noun phrases by finishing the line: This is the garden where… e.g. This is the garden where delicate peach trees blossom and the flowers shine out from the grass like stars in the night sky.

Geography - We are Britain

The children discussed the United Kingdom and how it includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as each country in the UK's capital city: London (England),Edinburgh (Scotland), Cardiff (Wales) and Belfast (Northern Ireland).  we located the UK in the continent of Europe ad where we were in the UK, discussing the division of counties and how Loggerheads is in the county of Shropshire (although it has a Staffordshire postcode). We are located in Staffordshire in the middle of England.  We then used atlases to recognise that the UK is an Island and is surrounded by Oceans/seas: The North Sea, The Atlantic Ocean, and the English Channel.  Using all this knowledge we firstly labelled the countries, cities, and oceans of the U.K and then the counties

Shelters galore and more!

This half term in Design and technology focussed on a unit called ‘Structures’. It explored and extended children’s knowledge of structures through the brief of designing and making a small scale shelter that was the following:

• to be stable and sturdy
• to be waterproof
• to be weatherproof
• to be attractive
• to house people/creature
• to have a strong foundation
• to be durable 

They then investigated the use of simple joining methods to creating frameworks with art straws, sticks and square section wood. Through this brief the children were challenged to investigate the different ways and techniques in which to join and make their shelters as well as consider what other methods and materials they would need to ensure it was weather and waterproof.  Children used glue, string, cardboard, wood, lollipop sticks and laminated sheets to create their shelters. Take a look below to see them in action…

Early 🎄 Christmas 🎅🏼 fun!

What a fantastic morning Years 6 had watching and enjoying Aladdin at the Festival Centre in Market Drayton today! Oh, yes it was!!!
There was fun and laughter, singing and dancing and lots of silliness and obligatory shouting and cheering thrown in (all at the right times of course). It was British pantomime at its best! Thank you to our amazing PTFA for funding the coaches making this festive tradition a little more affordable 👍🏻🎄

This week we also enjoyed celebrating the beginning of advent with our Open the book team, making Christingles and paper candle folds 🕯️ to represent Jesus the light of the world 🌎. 

Resilience and application is key...

This week Year Six has been focused and very resilient when completing a number of assessments, particularly in Maths and Reading. it has been great to see many children applying their learning so far this year but also to see what we need further help and support on.  We have also been using our non-fiction learning from our literacy pathways unit, using the skills to write fact files not only about endangered animals in English but also to answer the historical question - what was the impact on the West Midlands region in World War II? Take a look below to read some of our fantastic fact files where you will find information about how our locality was affected in World War II and key information, particularly about Stoke-on-Trent, Shropshire and Reginald Mitchell. 

Celebrating our uniqueness 

To kick off Anti-bullying week we came to school with odd socks.  This was where adults and children wore odd socks to celebrate what makes us unique.  We discussed the four different types of bullying and conversed about different scenarios and what we would do to combat the bullying and how we would act.  This week has also been Road Safety Week- in these sessions we learnt about how to stay safe as a pedestrian, the different road crossings and what they meant as well as the green cross code. 

We ended the week raising money for Children in Need.  A charity that

• Runs activity centres where children with difficulties can try new sports

• Who give special care for families who child has died,

• Provide help to children with disabilities

• Run centres where children with many needs can stay. To give carers a bit of a break

• Support families who do not have enough money for clothes and food

Our Year 6 assembly - Remembrance and WWII

Today we came together as a school to mark our respects with a minute’s silence for those who died in military conflict. 

During the afternoon, we took a moment to remember through song and then we shared our learning of WWII and what life was like as an evacuee. We ended our remembrance on a time of reflection with a number of poems and prayer for those who have fallen.

Science - The Circulatory system and heart dissection 

The blood circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the entire body of a human. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, that consists of the heart and blood vessels. This week in Year 6, the children got to see a real life heart and we’re taken through a short dissection showing each area of the heart and what it does.
 

The dissection was lead by our very own Mrs Hollins, a former secondary Science teacher. 

Our World War II workshop

This week, Year 6 took part in an informative and active World War II workshop. They learnt about what it was like to be an ARP warden during the war and how to administer first aid in the field. They also learnt how to put out fires 🔥using WW2 equipment, suffocate a firebomb and how to dispose of it safely! They also got to see many artefacts and see and feel these first hand. Take a look to see many of us hard at work! 🪣🪖💦

Computer Science - Coding

This half term Year 6 have focused on coding.  In this unit so far they have learnt to:

• Design a playable game with a timer and a score.
• Plan and use selection and variables.
• Understand how the launch command works.
• Use functions and understand why they are useful.
• Understand how functions are created and called.
• Use flowcharts to create and debug code.
• Create a simulation of a room in which devices can be controlled.
• Understand how user input can be used in a program.
• Understand how 2Code can be used to make a text-adventure game.

Key additions to our coding knowledge:

Some key questions we have been focusing on during this unit:

How can you use Tabs in 2Code Gorilla?  What is a function in coding? Can you give an example that you have used in 2Code Gorilla?  In 2Code Gorilla, how can a program receive user input?  

We look forward to seeing what children come up with on Monday when they design their own games using the 2Code program.

English

Over the last few weeks Year 6 has got stuck into their new first text, a historical fiction book called 'Star of Fear.  Star of Hope' which is based on WW2.

Once we had investigated the book and how it linked to our History unit WW2 pupils wrote a description of the scene using dialogue and expanded noun phrases to describe the atmosphere in the café.  After this they participated in discussions, drawing inferences (characters feelings, thoughts and motives); justifying with evidence from the text and provided reasoned justifications for their views.

The children then used expanded noun phrases to convey complicated information concisely and integrated dialogue to convey character and advance the action through reported speech in their diary entry. 

After this, children discussed the feelings of each of the characters – Madam Eleven O’clock, parents, Lydia and Helen, discussing each character on a scale of 1 to 10, one being relaxed and calm to ten feeling petrified again justifying their reasons and giving an explanation using evidence from the text.  We then looked at the text together and looked at how the author followed the rule ‘new line for a new speaker’ consistently. We looked at some of the dialogue used and how it moved the action forward.  They then investigated Madam Eleven O’Clock’s dialogue and we looked at a range of techniques in the text, these included – adverbials, conjunctions, repetition, tense choices, ellipsis, and the use of a variety of nouns and pronouns. All of these will then be used in their writing next week during a recount from Helen's point of view.

French

In French, this term Year 6 are learning all about school - L'ecole.

In this lesson we consolidated the new school subject vocabulary from last week and then extended what we were able to say by introducing a wider range of opinions. Children were introduced to the vocabulary in the normal style with lots of visual support. We concentrated on the target question ’Est-ce que tu aimes…?’ (‘Do you like…?’) and taught children how to answer by incorporating the school subjects and a selection of opinions:

Key Language Est-ce que tu aimes…? = Do you like...?

Oui, j’aime... = Yes, I like...

Oui, j’adore... = Yes, I love...

Non, je n’aime pas... = No, I do not like...

Non, je déteste... = No, I hate...

Amusant = Fun Utile = Useful

Intéressant = Interesting

Facile = Easy

Ennuyeux = Boring

Difficile = Difficult

Inutile = Pointless

Parce que c’est = Because it is

Car c’est = Because it is

Et = and

Year 6 enjoyed using their key vocabulary to share in pairs which subjects they enjoyed and which ones they didn't particularly like using the prompts and example provided (see below).

Maths

This week Year 6 have got into the swing of a 'normal' routine of learning.  In Maths this week they have recapped their Year 5 learning by exploring numbers up to 1,000,000, understanding that place value columns follow consistent patterns – ones, tens, hundreds, then (one) thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, before reaching millions – this was key.  They have used Place value charts, Gattegno charts and place value counters/drawings to support understanding of the relationships between columns and the construction of numbers.  We have also revised partitioning and explored both standard and non-standard ways of composing numbers.  Children have also wrote large numbers in words, following a 3 part sentence to help them.

Key mathematical questions

• Where do the commas go when you write one million in figures?
• If 1,000,000 is the whole, what could the parts be?
• How else can you partition the number?
• What is the value of each digit in the number?
• Which columns will change if you add/subtract 10, 100, 1,000, … to/from the number?
• When do you use placeholders in numbers?

At the end of their week they also learned more about Queen Elizabeth II and how her qualities as a leader link to our school values and our school vision - "Life in all its fullness'

For example: The Queen said 

“I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.” 

Her whole life was devoted to serve the people of the UK and the crown.  She always put her country first – incredible devotion to the people she loved and cared for. Linking to our value - Loving and caring.

We then shared our findings and links to our values during our special celebration assembly, where a selection of pupils from Year groups presented their work.

Our first week back...

We have had a fantastic, first week back here at Hugo.  We have been getting reacquainted and quite frankly it's like we never left each other!  Year 6 have hit the ground running and have really shown what they are made of this week, completing a number of grammar hammer activities, maths challenges, Magic 96, reading assessments and guided comprehension, to name but a few.  They have also begun learning about school (a l'ecole) and the various subjects in French and they have also completed their Year 6 front page in Art (see below for examples).  We look forward to beginning our week with Computing and Science on Monday morning.  Well done Year 6, lots more of this next week! 

Key information for Year 6 parents:

• Year 6 children are to arrive at school at 8:50 am and line up sensibly on the yard.  The end of school is 3:15 pm.

• On a Friday please can all Year 6 children attend school in their P.E kit which includes their hooded jumper, this is the day they will have both sessions of P.E.

• Reading books in Year 6 will be changed and diaries will be checked each Wednesday.

Friday 8th July, 2022

The highlight of the week for Year 6 was our fabulous trip to Blackpool Pleasure Beach, where the children had fun on rides, shopped on the promenade and ate fish and chips on the sea front. A fantastic day was had by all and some very special memories were made.

A huge well done to all of the children who behaved impeccably and made us all very proud. Please see the school webpage for photographs of the day.

Friday 24th June, 2022

Despite the heat this week, Year 6 have had some fun singing, acting and dancing their way through the Leaver's Assembly rehearsals. They are really enjoying seeing how the production is coming together. Alongside all this creativity, they have also found time to begin to explore our local significant historical figure, Charles Darwin. We combined our computer skills and historical research skills to find out about his life and his major discoveries and the impact on the way we see the world. They also learned about how he clashed with the Church over his controversial ideas around evolution and the legacy he left for the world when he died.

We have also been busy consolidating our Maths reasoning skills, by solving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division arithmagons.

On Thursday, Year 6 had a visit from Mr Dale from Madeley High, who talked through any worries the children had about transition to Year 7. We found out some really interesting and important information to add to our transition fact files.

Friday 11th June, 2022

On Tuesday, Year 6 had an art day, to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee. They practised drawing with proportion, mixing paints to create highlights and lowlights and painted some fabulous portraits of Queen Elizabeth 11.

This week, we have started our new Science topic, Evolution and Inheritance, by learning about how offspring inherit certain characteristics from their parents. We also explored variation and created some of our own species of animals by considering the many possible combinations of characteristics the animals could inherit. They came up with some very interesting inventions!

In PSHE, the children have discussed gender stereotyping and how it affects people choices and actions in every day life, especially in the work place.

In RE, the children learned about Pentecost and took part in some very interesting workshops, including drama, clay and art, throughout the day.

The children have also started to learn their lines and practise songs for our Leaver's Assembly.

A very busy, but fun week had by all!

Tuesday 24th May, 2022

Today, Year 6 spent the day learning about diversity, by taking part in 4 workshops across the day. They investigated migration and the reasons, both positive and negative, that people move to different places in the world. They then took the British Citizenship test (which was surprisingly hard!) and learned about the lives of refugees and Asylum Seekers from around the world.

During the Woman In Black workshop, the children explored Islam and why some Muslim ladies choose to wear traditional dress such as the Burka or Hijab as part of their religion. The children then spent a very creative afternoon, learning to write and speak Urdu and mastering their Chinese calligraphy skills. 

Friday 20th May, 2022

This week, Year 6 have started one of their post SATS projects, and have produced some fantastic work. They have written biographies of Queen Elizabeth 11 and learned all about her duties as Monarch. They have researched and written about the Commonwealth and compared it to Queen Victoria's Empire. Using atlases, they have located the Commonwealth countries and labelled their capital cities. They have also researched the flags of various Commonwealth countries. On Tuesday afternoon, Year 6 had a DT afternoon and learned how to make pasta and a tomato sauce from scratch. Everyone agreed the end product was delicious. In PE they have enjoyed the sunny weather and practised their cricket and athletic skills on the top field. 

Friday, 13th May, 2022

Our Year 6 children have been superstars, completing their SATS this week. They have proven themselves to be determined, resilient and good humoured in their approach to what has been a tiring and challenging week for everyone. All of us at Hugo are so proud of everything they have achieved this year and we are looking forward to creating more memories together in their final half term with us. Have a super, relaxing weekend, everyone. You deserve it!

Friday 6th May

Year 6 have had a final push with their SATS revision this week and we could not be prouder of how hard they have worked. We wish them all the very best of luck next week - Year 6 you are all superstars.

Friday 1st April, 2022

Year 6 have been fully immersed in SATS practice this week and have really improved how well they can work under time restraints.

We are all exhausted and deserve a well-earned break this weekend!

We couldn't be more proud of the children's determination and drive to achieve their very best. Well done, Year 6! Keep up the hard work and you will smash those SATs!

Friday 25th March, 2022

Year 6 have worked so hard this week to complete their assessments to the best of their abilities. The resilience they have shown has been incredible and I am so proud of them all. In PE, they have taken part in a very well deserved yoga and mindfulness session, followed up with a cricket session in the sunshine. Their batting, throwing and catching skills are improving and we have had some exciting games of diamond cricket. The children have also been excitedly monitoring the growth of their sunflowers too, which are shooting up with surprising speed!

Friday, 18th March, 2022

This week, Year 6 have been thinking about the theme of growth, for Science week, 2022. As part of their PE lesson, they created their own outdoor gym circuits, thinking about how exercise is essential for healthy growth, while at the same time, looking for signs of new growth around the school grounds. It was lovely to be outside and keeping for on such a glorious Spring-like day. On Tuesday, the children decorated pots and planted their own sunflower seeds, which will be monitored weekly for growth and recorded  in line graphs as part of our Maths lessons over the coming weeks. We're very excited to find out who amongst us has the greenest fingers! The children have also entered a the Science Week 2022 competition, designing posters around the theme of growth. There have been lots of interesting entries, including posters showing the impact of population growth, life cycles of various animals and even the evolution of man.

In Maths, the children have continued to improve their arithmetic skills and have been working hard in particular, to find percentages of amounts. They have also learned how to convert fractions into decimals. As part of Poetry Week, the children have enjoyed sharing several poems during Guided reading sessions ad have recapped how pets use imagery to tell stories through poems. They have written some beautiful poems, using metaphors and similes to describe the sea.

Friday 4th March, 2022

A fantastic first week back after half term for Year 6, the highlight of which has been our World Book celebrations. The children came dressed in some very cleverly thought out costumes and we had great fun guessing the words linked to each costume. During the morning, the children listened to Barrack and Michelle Obama read the book 'The Word Collector' and then created their own collections of special and powerful words. They also worked along with the BBC Live lesson, where they explored the structure of story writing and created a advert to sell their favourite book. 

In Maths, the children have been working on recognising and ordering decimals, and multiplying and dividing decimals by 10,10 and 1000. In English, they have continued with our class reader, The Selfish Giant, exploring the use of formal language conventions and the use of semi colons to join main clauses together. In RE, the children had a visit from Father David, who talked about the process of confirmation in Christianity and in French, they have started a new unit of learning about clothing. In PE, the children improved their throwing and catching skills, by taking part in a Chance to Shine cricket session.

Friday, 10th February, 2022

This week has been packed full of fun activities in Year 6, as we've taken part in activities related to Children's World Mental Health Week and Safer Internet Day. On Monday, we kicked off Mental Health Week with a relaxing and mindful yoga session, at the end of which, a few of us were so relaxed that we fell asleep! Throughout the week, Year 6 have taken part in lots of circle time discussion activities, thinking about how we grow emotionally as well as physically. The children have written some wonderful acrostic poetry around the theme of Growing Together. For Safer Internet Day, the children considered and talked about how to show respect and keep safe while gaming online and designed some fabulous Gaming Guide characters to help advise other children when they're gaming online.

In Maths, we have finally reached the end of our new learning about fractions and have cracked finding the whole one, when given a fraction. In English, we have started our new class reader, The Selfish Giant, by Oscar Wilde and made predictions about the story. We have explored the use of more formal and archaic language used by Oscar Wilde and practised turning active sentences into passive.

Friday 4th February, 2022

In Maths this week, Year 6 have been working on finding fractions of quantities and have worked on some tricky fraction problem solving. They have also been recapping various mental arithmetic methods and improving their speed when completing the maths blasts.

In English, the children have done some wonderful extended writing pieces as the final piece of work on our class reader, Star of Fear, Star of Hope. Their style, grammar and punctuation have all improved hugely since the start of the year, which is thanks to their hard work and determination. They have also been working on recognising phrases and different types of clauses in sentences, and practised using commas correctly.

On Monday, we welcomed a visitor into school to talk to us all about how to keep our teeth healthy. We investigated the sugar content on food packages and bottles of fizzy and explored how we could make healthier choices to protect our teeth. In PSHE, we investigated the role of pressure groups and researched groups which appealed to our own interests. In Science, we have started our new topic, Animals including Humans, by learning about the role of the heart in the circulatory system.

Friday 20th January 2022

Year 6 have worked incredibly hard once again this week and have cracked some really tricky concepts in their Maths lessons. They have worked to improve their arithmetic strategies and have improved their fluency when multiplying fractions, by either an integer or another fraction. 

In English, Year 6 have have produced some fabulous writing as we near the end of our class story, Star of Fear, Star of Hope. They have managed to empathise with the main character and have written both a letter and a diary extract from her perspective. There was some great examples of the children using and applying the grammatical concepts we have been learning about this half term, including parentheses, cohesion, the passive tense and expanded noun phrases.

In the afternoons, the children have practised their hula hooping skills during PE and located and explored the regions and cities of the United Kingdom in Geography. They were also visited by a group of artists and created a painting based on the theme of January, which will be entered into a competition. I really don't envy those with the job of choosing the winners - they were all fantastic!

Friday, 14th January, 2022

In Maths this week, Year 6 have been working on adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers. They've also been solving some tricky multi step problems and honing their arithmetic skills.

In English, the children have learned about how to identify the object and subject in a sentence and have used this to begin to write identify and write their own active and passive sentences. They have investigated spelling rules for homophones and drafted a key scene from our class reader, Star of Fear, Star of Hope. They all worked really hard to improve their writing too, by editing and proof reading their work.

In Science, the children planned and carried out experiments to discover whether the length of the wires in a circuit would affect how well the other components worked and in Geography, they explored the United Kingdom's physical and human features, using an atlas. 

Friday, 7th January, 2022

It has been lovely to welcome all of our Year 6 children back after the Christmas break. They are all refreshed and ready to face the learning challenges awaiting in the Spring term. Over the past few days, they've tackled comparing and ordering fractions by finding a common denominator, evaluated the wooden structures they made in DT last term (photographs to follow) and refreshed their knowledge of how to punctuate parenthesis in their writing. They've also investigated spelling rules for near homophones, using our brand new school dictionaries. We can't wait to find out what we can achieve during the rest of this term!

Friday 10th December, 2021

In our penultimate week of the Winter term, Year 6 have been very busy completing their work on our World War Two topic. They have investigated and compared Anderson and Morrison shelters, and used their research to help design their own Morrison shelters. They have begun work on their DT topic by using their designs to create a shelter frame, using wood and a range of joining, strengthening and stabilising methods. They have worked extremely sensibly to measure and cut their wood accurately, using saws and clamps.

In PSHE, the children have learned about how to keep themselves healthy as they reach puberty and have created leaflets to help keep others safe and healthy too. In gymnastics, the children practised various roles and added them to their final performance of their group sequences. They have made superb progress in their gymnastic abilities this half term.

In Maths and English, Year 6 have been addressing misconceptions from last week's assessment papers, including recapping plural spellings and reasoning with multi step word problems. They have also been working on how to place fractions on number lines. 

Friday 3rd December 2021

Year 6 have worked incredibly hard this week to complete their assessments to the very best of their abilities. We are very proud of their superb attitude to learning ; they are a real credit to Hugo.

In the afternoons, the children have continued with their PSHE topic about puberty and in History, they have explored the use of propaganda by the German and British Governments during the war. In Science, they have practised drawing electrical circuits, using scientific symbols.

Friday 26th November, 2021

Year 6 have tackled their new maths topic, fractions, with great enthusiasm this week. They have recapped unit and non unit fractions, found equivalent fractions, simplified and started to convert between mixed numbers and improper fractions. I have been very impressed with how they've approached some quite tough reasoning and problem solving too.

In English, Year 6 have written diary extracts in the role of characters at key points from our class story, Star of Fear, Star of Hope. They have practised using commas for different purposes in their writing and also started to learn about active and passive sentences.

In the afternoons, they have continued to impress with their gymnastic skills, honing their sequences and practising different jumping techniques. In Science, Year 6 learned about the impact of the invention of electricity on modern life and researched the contributions of several significant scientists, including Michael Farraday. In PSHE, the children explored the changes that happen to boys and girls during puberty and how they might be affected emotionally by these changes. They wrote some very insightful and mature responses to problem page letters written by young children, struggling with emotional changes during puberty.

Friday 19th November, 2021

Year 6 have worked really hard this week to spread the message of One Kind Word in support of this year's Anti-bullying Week.

They took part in a live lesson and role played various situations, giving advice to each other on how to deal with the issue of bullying. They had fun designing their own pair of odd socks, to represent how our differences should be accepted and celebrated by others. They also designed some very thought provoking posters, to display around the school to encourage the younger members of our school community to spread a little kindness too.

In Maths, Year 6 have completed their calculations topic by tackling a new concept - BODMAS. They worked hard to get their heads around the order of calculations and are fully prepared to begin their new fractions and decimals topic unit, next week. In English, the children have explored the feelings of characters in our class text, Star of Fear, Star of Hope, investigating how the author creates a sense of fear and foreboding through clever language choices.

We have also started to share our WW2 topic work and the children are really enjoying sharing all that amazingly creative ways their friends have presented their research. Well done Year 6!

Friday 12th November

In Maths Year 6 have been exploring number, focusing on factors, multiples and primes in particular. They have learned about the rules of divisibility to help them identify prime and composite numbers and found common factors and multiples. They have demonstrated some excellent reasoning and problem solving skills and enjoyed investigating with number.

In English, the children have been learning about phrases and have identified expanded noun phrases using adjectives and prepositional phrases. They even had a go at writing some of their own, ready to start applying them in their own writing next week. They also wrote some fantastic reports about life on the Home Front as a follow up to their History lesson this week. As Historians, they investigated how Britain was able to stand firm against the German threat during World War Two, using the Chrome books to research an aspect of the Home Front, before presenting back to the rest of the class.

In Science, Year 6 started their new topic, Electricity, and completed a quiz to find out about how much they remembered from their Science lessons in Year 4.

A number of the children also took part in our Remembrance assembly, where they showed off some of their fantastic work completed as part of the homework project set last term.

Friday 5th November, 2021

It's been a super first week back for Year 6, who have thrown themselves back into their learning with enthusiasm this half term.

In Maths, we have worked hard to crack the long division method and have practised writing remainders as fractions and decimals.

In English, we have started our new class text, Star of Fear, Star of Hope - a short story about a young girl's experience of living in France during the Nazi occupation. This term ,we will be exploring ways to improve our story writing, starting with using dialogue to advance the action and to appeal to the reader. 

During the afternoons, we have started our final piece of artwork in our Henry Moore topic - photos will be uploaded of our finished masterpieces. We think you'll be very impressed with our artistic skills! We have also completed our topic on Light, by investigating how shadows change size and shape.

Friday, 22nd October, 2021

In  Maths this week, we have moved onto recapping the short division method and learned about remainders, including how to represent them as fractions. As usual, there has been lots of problem solving and reasoning involved!

In English, we explored the point of view of the main character in our book, The Paper Bag Prince and took part in the drama activity, Conscience Alley, with enthusiasm.  We then wrote persuasive letters to the council in character, working hard to show off everything we've learned this half term about cohesion, precise language choices and persuasive devices. We've also had lots of editing and proofreading practice this week, looking particularly for spelling and punctuation errors. We have a class of budding teachers on our hands in Year 6!

During our afternoon lessons, we have explored Newton's Colour Theory and investigated how to create a spectrum of colour, using prisms and torches. In Art, we have practised our sketching skills, by drawing the human form in different positions. As historians, we improved the BBC ' Eric the Evacuee' animation by adding our own information to create a more balanced  perspective of what the evacuee experience was like. 

What a fantastic first half term the children have had! They've worked hard to show that they are more than up to the challenges of Year 6 and we're very excited to see what they will achieve in the coming months.

Friday, 15th October, 2021

Year 6 have worked incredibly hard once again this week and have completed some fabulous writing assessments, which showed off all they have learned this half term in their English lessons. We have been really proud of them all.  In Maths, the children have revisited using the formal written method for multiplication and completed some quite challenging reasoning and problem solving activities. They have also worked with Mrs Gleave to recap classifying of 3D shapes and investigated nets. In Science, they had lots of fun carrying out experiments to prove how light is refracted when it travels through different mediums. In Art, we continued to improve our sketching skills by exploring how to create shade and texture in our drawings, using different techniques. During our History lesson this week, the children used various sources to find out about the experiences of a range of evacuees during the war. Using their history skills, they were able to consider and question the reliability of photographic evidence, which suggested that the evacuee experience was overwhelmingly positive for most children. During our enquiry we found out that many children had miserable experiences during evacuation and this led us to think about about the Government's use of propaganda to uphold public morale during the war. We have some budding historians on our hands in Year 6!

Thursday 7th October, 2021

Year 6 had a very thought provoking trip to the National Memorial Arboretum on Tuesday. They were shown around the site and explored the many memorials on display, including a sculpture dedicated to the evacuees of World War Two. They also learned about the Bevin Boys, who worked in dangerous jobs as coal miners during the War. In the afternoon, they took part in a workshop, where they were asked to be detectives in order to find out about the lives of several different evacuee children. Our guide was very impressed with Year 6's reasoning and problem solving skills! The children were impeccably behaved and very much enjoyed their World War Two experience.

We also took part in a Remembrance Service to honour all those who have served and continue to serve our country.

Back in school, the children used what they learned at the Arboretum to write some fabulous diary extracts from the point of view of evacuated children.

Friday 1st October, 2021

Year 6 have had another busy week. In Maths, we've been learning about how to find the value of various intervals on different number lines. We've also moved onto our second topic, in which we will cover mental and formal methods of calculating with all 4 operations. The children got off to a flying start by recapping the column addition method and completing lots of challenging reasoning and problem solving activities, including missing number puzzles, which they loved! Column subtraction here we come!

In English, the children have planned and drafted some fabulously persuasive letters, asking the local council to improve the situation for residents living near to the Poison Pool in our book, The Paperbag Prince. They've explored the use of informal and formal language and various persuasive devices. They have also been working on their punctuation skills by proof reading and editing.

In Science, the children investigated and proved the Law of Reflection, using torches and protractors to measure the incident and reflected rays in diagrams they drew. They also learned about how periscopes work by reflecting light from an object, to mirrors and into the eye.

Year 6 also started their Art topic by learning all about the artist, Henry Moore and how his work was influenced by the Second World War. The children explored his work and recorded their own responses to his drawings and sculptures in their sketch books.

Year 6 have had a fabulous week and have especially enjoyed learning about the build up to World War Two in our history lessons.

They had a great debate about whether Chamberlain's policy of appeasement towards Hitler's Germany was the best action to take during the 1930s. The children came to different conclusions, but were able to justify their reasoning and thoughts. We're all very much looking forward to our upcoming trip to the Arboretum.

In English, the children's writing has been progressing brilliantly and they're making sure that they have used cohesion to make their paragraphs flow. The children's writing is beginning to have a real 'Year 6' feel to it, with the use of subordinating conjunctions and adverbial phrases. They have also explored the use of modal verbs to show possibility and certainty in their writing.

In Maths, we've come to the end of our unit on place value, by learning about negative numbers in context. Every day, the children have been taking part in a times tables challenge and have made super progress in both their accuracy and speed.

On Wednesday, we visited the church, where we explore the building and learned about baptism. The children worked hard, listened well and behaved impeccably. A great day was had by all!