WELCOME TO Year 6

Here at Cavendish, our Year 6 classes are filled with enjoyment, learning and engaged children! We have high aspirations for all of our children and believe they can succeed and fulfil their potential if given the right opportunities. Therefore, we have designed a broad and intensive curriculum that is fit for all of our children and tailored for their individual needs. We strongly believe and encourage our children to be prepared for secondary school, and to this end, we motivate them to take responsibility and to develop their skills to enable them to become independent learners. In year 6, there are two members of the teaching team: Mrs Davis, who is the Assistant Head of phase 5 and 6 and the head of Maths, as well as Mrs Cooper who is the Writing, MFL and EAL Lead. The children are supported by Mr Taylor, Mrs Daddy and Ms Adams (1:1 Support).

Year 6 Newsletters, Knowledge Organisers & KIRFs Documents

Autumn Term:

Y6 Autumn Term Curriculum Overview

Y6 Autumn Term KIRFS

Y6 Autumn Term Knowledge Organiser - Place Value

Spring Term:

Summer Term:

READING

Reading is the key to success! In life, reading is one of the biggest determiners of outcome. In Year 6, we believe it is essential that children are encouraged and rewarded for their reading, both in and out of school, and especially when reading for pleasure. Reward and praise is given through the use of our Epraise system and the whole-school reading scheme: High Flying Reading Awards. We wholeheartedly recommend that you spend time enjoying and talking about books at home. We ask that your child reads at least four times a week at home and that they record this in their planner. 

We read some wonderful and engaging texts throughout the year. These texts have been selected to engage our children, develop vocabulary and challenge their understanding of how they see the world. These books are War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, Floodland by Marcus Sedgwick and Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. We read these during formal guided reading sessions, which are focused to meet the needs as set out in the National Curriculum. The National Curriculum is split into eight domains and guided reading sessions reflect this and incorporate tasks and strategies in order for children to be successful and high achieving readers in these fields.

Y6 Long Term Plan Reading Spine Spring 2023

WRITING

We regard reading as an essential component towards children becoming confident and innovative writers. Consequently, all of our writing stems from a high-quality text. We read a range of genres throughout the year to ensure all of our children have a well-rounded experience of writing as they move throughout the year. Writing is celebrated through high-quality displays so that children can see their work proudly exhibited for all to appreciate! Spelling, punctuation and grammar make an intrinsic part of the process. As a result, we also teach these aspects of the writing curriculum throughout our general writing journey. This embeds children’s understanding of these concepts as they can apply them in their work.

MATHS

We follow a mastery approach to the teaching of maths. This involves guided practice, fluency, variation moving into mastery challenges. Use of physical (concrete) and pictorial representation is encouraged in order to embed an understanding and apply mathematics to varying contexts. The use of oral repetition is important in lessons and this is reflected in our mathematical teaching. The knowledge of times tables and procedural fluency is essential to mathematical success. Hence, on a daily basis, we have a mental-oral session to begin maths sessions and outside of school children are encouraged to access Times Table Rockstars, which is an internet-based site which supports children in developing their knowledge, understanding and fluency in times tables and related division facts.

SCIENCE

We give children opportunities to enquire, hypothesise, question, debate and experiment throughout our curriculum within the scientific topics for year 6. We study evolution, light, electricity, humans and animals and classification as part of the year 6 science curriculum. Children are given the opportunity to take part in fascinating sessions that involve tasks as diverse as dissection of a heart, building working switches for circuits. We believe the best way to understand scientific concepts is by engaging with them on a practical level.

computing

In year 6, we consolidate our computing learning throughout our curriculum journey as well as getting ready for our move to secondary school. We do this by investigating Bletchley Park as we break codes and look at how we can ensure a password is secure. We continue to handle data as we find out how bar and QR codes are used as well as finding out about smart schools. The children write, record and edit radio plays set during WWII and look back at how computers have evolved and design a computer of the future as well as showcasing our skills by inventing a product through designing, evaluating and adapting to ensure it is efficient. By year 6, we will have become much more effective at using different technologies and are ready for the big, digital worlds which awaits.

WIDER CURRICULUM

Most of our curriculum is linked together through carefully selected topics. As such, our wider curriculum links and engages with what the children have learned in other areas of learning. Within our history teaching, we consider both primary and secondary sources and children are taught to make conclusions about a time period using this information. Our geography curriculum is focused upon developing a range of key skills that children can use throughout life. This engages the children as they see the real-world application for their learning. Underpinning Geography are a set of values that help children to engage with the diverse world around them and understand how it came to be. Within Art, children develop a range of skills including drawing, sculpting and using technology to create digital art. In DT, we make use of our learning in science to understand what makes a balanced diet and apply this knowledge when creating a healthy meal. We also investigate cam mechanisms and use these to create an automata toy.

As part of our PE curriculum, we encourage children to work as a team. Our PE curriculum is divided into half-termly units that teach children how to apply a range of skills, such as defending, attacking and outwitting an opponent, as well as challenging them to develop their skills for a range of games by using focused tasks and sessions. We use the country-wide PSHE scheme, which is Jigsaw that allows children the opportunity to express themselves, celebrate difference, learn about being safe and develop an understanding of others. Singing and music also form an important part of promoting health and well-being for children and as such we encourage children to participate in class sessions as well as school performances.

We also have a challenging computing curriculum that incorporates algorithms, spreadsheets, data interpretation and graphs! E-safety is also incredibly important in the modern age, especially as children engage with the internet and in particular social media, which means it is a core focus of our teaching when it comes to both Jigsaw and Computing. Our hope is that all children at Cavendish know how to be safe online and know how to deal with any problems that surface.

PARENTS AS PARTNERS

We recognise the importance of parental involvement in the life of our year group. In Year 6, we are committed to forging good, working and effective relationships between home and school. We recognise that Parents/Carers are the most influential driver in a child’s development and encourage involvement as much as possible. Our partnership with Parents/Carers will ensure that children become successful and independent learners as they grow in readiness for secondary school.

As part of this, we depend upon you to ensure that our child is completing all set homework, reading four times a week, has all necessary equipment and is prepared for their learning on a daily basis.

By working together, we aim to make a positive and meaningful difference to all pupils’ outcomes. Parents are regularly invited to take part in curriculum activities that support their child’s learning.

End of year expectations

The National Curriculum outlines these expectations as being the minimum requirements your child must meet in order to ensure continued progress.

All the objectives will be worked on throughout the year and will be the focus of direct teaching and investigation. Any extra support you can provide in helping your children to achieve these is greatly valued.

Mathematics

• Use negative numbers in context and calculate intervals across zero.
• Compare and order numbers up to 10,000,000.
• Identify common factors, common multiples and prime numbers.
• Round any whole number to a required degree of accuracy.
• Identify the value of each digit to 3 decimal places.
• Use knowledge of order of operations to carry out calculations involving four operations (+ - x ÷)
• Multiply 4-digit by 2-digit
• Divide 4-digit by 2-digit
• Add and subtract fractions with different denominators and mixed numbers.
• Multiply simple pairs of proper fractions, writing the answer in the simplest form.
• Divide proper fractions by whole numbers.
• Calculate percentage of whole number.

Writing

• Use subordinate clauses to write complex sentences (e.g. Tom, who was late for the match, wore his new goal keeper’s gloves.)
• Use passive voice where appropriate (e.g. A letter was written by Sam.)
• Use expanded noun phrases to convey complicated information concisely (e.g. The fact that it was heavily raining meant the end of a fabulous sports day).
• Use a sentence structure and layout matched to requirements of text type.
• Use semi-colon, colon or dash to mark the boundary between independent clauses.
• Use colon to introduce a list and semi colon within a list (e.g. Tom gave me the things I needed the most: friendship; honesty and his trust)
• Use correct punctuation of bullet points.
• Use full range of punctuation matched to requirements of text type (. , ! ? : ; - ……..)
• Use wide range of devices to build cohesion within and across paragraphs.
• Use paragraphs to signal change in time, scene, action, mood or person.
• Write legibly, fluently and with increasing speed in a cursive joined style.

Reading

• Refer to the text to support opinions and predictions.
• Give a view about choice of vocabulary, structure, text features etc.
• Distinguish between fact and opinion.
• Appreciate how a set of sentences has been arranged to create maximum effect.
• Recognise:

          - complex sentences with more than one subordinate clause

          - phrases which add detail to sentences

• Explain how a writer has used sentences to create particular effects.
• Skim and scan to aide note-taking.
• Accurately text mark to support oral and written comprehension questions.
• Provide expanded and detailed questions drawing closely on the information within the text and from own inference.
• Identify implicit and explicit views within a text.