This half term, our core text is ‘Pig Heart Boy’ by Malorie Blackman. It is the story of a young boy called Cameron who is in desperate need of a heart transplant and his only hope is to accept the heart of a pig. They will begin the half term exploring the text and the arguments around the use of transgenics before writing a 1st person dilemma narrative as Cameron detailing his feelings and emotions about the situation. Towards the end of the half term they will write a newspaper report including scientific vocabulary appropriate to the circulatory system.

In addition, we will be reading a range of fiction and non-fiction texts including news articles and science reports around animal rights and transgenics – transplanting the organs of one species of animal into another. We will practise various reading strategies such as predicting, summarising and inference. 

This half term our focus will be rites of passage. The pupils will begin the unit by identifying celebrations they have been a part of before learning about a range of different rites of passage such as birth and marraige through a range of religions.

In maths this half term, our main focus will be on place value and the four operations.

Children will build on their knowledge from last year by reading and writing numbers to ten million. They will develop their rounding skills and solve problems involving negative numbers. In the second half of this half term, children will use formal written methods to solve problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The children will continue to sit a weekly arithmetic test.

On Thursdays, the children will be improving their dribbling and passing skills which they will practise through basketball games with a sports coach. On Fridays, the children will learn the skills needed to play a game of tag rugby.

For the next six weeks, children will build on their knowledge and understanding of different systems within the human body. They will have the opportunity to dissect a lamb’s heart so that they gain a greater understanding of how this vital organ works. Children will then research the parts and functions of the circulatory system, focussing on how nutrients are transported around the human body. They will end the topic by planning and conducting a simple comparative test to identify the effect of different types of exercise on heart rate.

This half term our topic is Families and Relationships. We will begin by discussing respect, how it works two ways and why it is important. We will then move onto exploring the attitudes and ideas of others and learn how to challenge beliefs if they are negative. We will also explore stereotypes and the negative impact they can have. We will end the half term learning how to resolve conflict and disputes through negotiation and compromise.

This half term will be exploring and challenging preconceived ideas and assumptions about human and animal rights to understand difficult choices that society can face.  We will be focusing on various aspects that contribute to the change in our communities, from population to transportation to land use. This will lead to the children investigating local issues that encroach on their environment and their rights as local citizens, through geographical enquiry and fieldwork.

This half term we will be learning about the different ways of communicating online and evaluate the effectiveness of each method. We will also learn about the importance of internet addresses and how data is transferred across the internet.

Throughout this half term, we will be focusing on different artwork linked to human rights and the anatomical heart. Focusing on the works of artist Leonardo Da Vinci, we will discuss how he was able to sketch an anatomical heart. We will then use his techniques and create our own layered final piece. We will be using sketching

skills to create a heart sketch, to which we will add watercolour greenery and plants. Finally, we will layer our artwork onto a printed page of text.

This half term the children will be learning how to name items of clothing before adding adjectives to describe them.

PE kit

Please ensure your child wears the correct PE kit to school on Thursdays and Fridays. Having all PE items clearly labelled, with their full name will help reduce the need to replace lost items.

Water bottle

Please ensure your child has a named water bottle in school everyday.

Reading record

Children are expected to read for 20-30 minutes every evening. Their reading record should then be signed by an adult at home to confirm their child has read. Children will also bring home a reading passport to record their reads and receive a certificate every time they move onto a new passport.

• Monday 9th September - Year 6 Meet the Teacher Meeting at 3:30

• Tuesday 15th October - Parents evening (3:30 - 7)

• Thursday 17th October - Parents evening (3:30 - 6)

• Friday 18th October - Break up for half term

• Monday 28th October  - Autumn 2 term beings