Hempland Primary School Year 6 Guide 2024-25

Hempland Primary School Welcome to Year 6 2024-25

Meet the Team Teachers: Mr Dyer, Mrs Huffer, Mrs Sherif Teaching Assistants: Mr Irons, Mrs Forman, Mrs Hields, Mrs Andrews, Miss Sinclair

Life in Year 6 Children will be taught the Year 6 curriculum, building on learning from Year 5, filling gaps where appropriate. Home-school communication every morning and afternoon, there will be a class teacher on the door. There is also a communication section for short messages in children s planners. You can contact the school office via phone or email, and messages will be forwarded to teachers. Pupils arrive at school between 8.40am and 8.50am and home time is 3:20pm. Children can walk/cycle home independently if they have permission on their collection form. If you are unsure, or would like to change your permissions, please contact the office or class teacher. PE Tuesday (dance) and Thursday (Football). Please ensure that your child arrives at school in the appropriate PE kit (both indoor and outdoors) and can take earrings out. Children may bring a mobile phone if this is absolutely necessary. This must be turned off immediately upon entering school grounds, handed in at the door, and not turned on again until leaving grounds at the end of the day. Smart watches must not be worn, even on aeroplane mode.

Life in Year 6 Timetable in the morning, typically we will teach English, guided reading and Maths. In the afternoon, we teach foundation subjects (art, RE, PE, History, Geography, computing, Technology, Music, MFL and Science) This term, the children have lessons in PE, PSHE, History, Music, French, DT, Science, and Computing! They will have a broad and balanced curriculum, crafted to inspire the children and promote interest and engagement in their learning. Alongside the subject curriculum, we will also be supporting the children to develop their resilience, independence and responsible attitudes, supporting them to develop characteristics of effective learners. This will help to prepare them for secondary school and life. On the school website, there is an optional homework grid which children can access and complete. We d love to see what they produce please bring them in to share!

Expectations in Year 6 Learning behaviours are underpinned by our four Hempland values: respect, opportunity, ambition and resilience. Reading - please encourage your child to read every day and record the book and pages in their planner at least 4 times per week. Practising reading and enjoying books is extremely important. Teachers will check planners once a week please sign your child s planner weekly. Spellings - children will be expected to spell all of the KS2 statutory spelling words (Year 3 & 4 and Year 5 & 6). Weekly assignments will be set on Spelling Shed, and checks done in class on a Friday morning each week. New spellings will be set on a Friday. Some weeks will be words form the statutory list and other weeks spelling rules and patterns. Maths Homework this will usually be in the form of work from the CGP books (to be handed out). The red study book gives guidance, and the white book has the questions. Questions should be answered in the gridded homework book and will be marked in class on a Friday. Regular times tables practice is also still useful in Year 6. Children have access to Times Tables Rockstars in school and at home please encourage this. Homework club is on a Monday lunchtime from 12.30 1.00 and we encourage the children to come to this if they are struggling to find the time at home or need some support with it.

Secondary School Open Evenings A letter may have been sent to you by the council (it has been in previous years) but usually the dates of secondary school open evenings are posted by the schools on X/school websites. Some have virtual open evening presentations on their websites but you can contact the schools directly to book your places. If we hear about the dates, we will forward them to you (but we don t normally hear before you do!) Tuesday 1stOctober, 7pm Tuesday 24thSept, 7pm

Curriculum & Topics Our topic this half term is World War One. We will be learning about alliances, causes, trenches, the home front, the role of women and conscientious objectors. In computing, we will be learning about the internet and how to collaborate; frame structures in DT; the classification of animals in Science; collaboration and positive relationships in PSHE and football and dance in PE. Our text this half term is War Horse by Michael Morpurgo.

Rewards We promote the four key values of Resilience, Opportunity, Ambition and Respect. We also have class charters that are specific to our classes. Children are rewarded in one of 4 ways: Stickers Team Points Headteacher s Sticker Headteacher s Postcard home.

E-Safety A large focus this half term, and this year, will be online safety. This will involve learning how to be responsible online, and the potential dangers and impacts of social media. We STRONGLY recommend that primary age children do not have access to apps such as TikTok, Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat etc. All of these have minimum ages in their terms and conditions because they know that these platforms are not suitable for the primary age range, due to potential dangers, and risks of children being exposed to unsuitable, upsetting or confusing materials.

E-Safety We are also very aware that children are exposed to these accounts, and many will already have them, and use them safely. We advise that you regularly monitor the children s use of apps such as WhatsApp, particularly the groups that they are part of. Also, we encourage children to be very open about things that they encounter online that they feel are wrong, and ensure they know who they can approach if they see something that makes them uncomfortable or upset. We regularly share guidance or advice through the Hempland School weekly newsletter. If you feel like you need some guidance, please get in touch and we can see if we can help. Over the last few years, we have discovered open communication between children, parents and school is essential to keeping the children safe and responsible digital citizens.

Key Events and Dates On Wednesday 23rdOctober, we will be going on a walking tour of key WW1 sites around the centre of York. On Friday 25thOctober, we will be having a WW1 day for which we are inviting children to dress up. There will be a variety of activities in the morning, and in the afternoon, we will be watching War Horse. The PGL residential will be from 16thto 18thOctober. There has been a parent session, and the information provided is available through the school website. In the Spring term, there will be SATs - we will share more information and hold a separate parents meeting about this in due course.