Spotlight on: Year 6
Mrs Sarah Cliff and Mrs Jane Freebairn share stories from Year 6
Happy New Year to all of our girls’ parents, and welcome to what is the penultimate term at the Junior School for our Year 6 girls. As usual, this term will be a busy but exciting one for the girls, as we cover the topics of Europe and World War II – please read more about these two topics below.
We will be visiting a number of places of interest locally and further afield and, as part of the school’s transition programme, the girls will also be visiting the Senior School to participate in the academic scholars’ ‘Balloon Debate’. This event is always inspiring, fun, and is also a great way to give the girls another experience of what life may be like as Secondary School students.
In October 14 Year 6 pupils attended the ‘CoSpace Virtual Robotics Taster Day' – the first stage of the ‘UK National CoSpace Championships’, which culminates in a Grand Final in June. The girls finished fifth out of the 75 participating teams and are now looking forward to taking part in an Improvers Session on Thursday 12 January.
This term Year 6 pupils will be learning about and playing netball and doing gymnastics during their sports lessons on Thursdays. There will also continue to be netball fixtures throughout the term for our U11 netball teams.
Bikeability will be in school for those girls who have signed up, taking place from Monday 6 to Thursday 9 March, and one of the highlights of Year 6 – the eagerly anticipated residential trip to the Isle of Wight – will take place at the very beginning of the Summer Term.
Europe
The Europe topic will entail a detailed look at the physical geography of Europe, with a specific focus on mountain ranges. The girls will take on the mantel of travel writers in English lessons. Each girl will undertake a project focusing on a particular country and produce a travel brochure, which details places of interest, the climate and geographical features, and cultural and tourist information. This work will then be built upon in the Information Technology strand of the girls’ Computer Science lessons to produce an interlinked multimedia web page, combining text, images, video and sound.
World War II
After half term the focus on Europe will lead to learning about World War II. The girls will learn about the road to war in Europe and the effects this had on those left to fight on the Home Front. The girls will look at Churchill’s speeches and how these inspired national spirit and encouraged those at home to do their bit. On Monday 13 March, we will be going to IWM Duxford to find out more about The Blitz, the Battle of Britain and the Home Front.