Curriculum outlines spring 2022 - Year 6

Year 6 Curriculum outline Spring 2022

Year 6 Curriculum Outline Spring 2022 Stop, Think, Do More! ~ Born Identity

Humanities - Social Understanding In the first half of term in Humanities, our topic is Stop, Think, Do More! Pupils will focus on settlements and land use in the UK, and geographical similarities and differences, particularly when we think about human and physical geography and different types of maps.

We will also think about sustainability, especially responsible consumption and production

and different forms of energy. We will understand that priorities can appear to shift, for example, in our use of plastics for products needed in the Covid pandemic. Finally we will try to make a difference in our school community and contemplate how this will impact the world.

In Born Identity after half term, pupils will sequence the changes that have happened in the UK over time. Pupils will develop an understanding of how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of primary and secondary sources. We will investigate significant people in British history and pupils will have the opportunity to investigate their own family tree. We will consider how the current crisis will be documented for future generations in our technological age.

In RS we will continue to explore the beliefs and traditions of Judaism, focusing on the ways in which the commandments from God shape the lives of Jewish people and also major Jewish celebrations. Pupils will then find out about rites of passage in the major faiths.They will understand that rites of passage mark a person's entry into a new stage of life and include birth, moving on and change. They will consider how ceremonies help people to understand their new roles in society, and can also help others learn to treat people in new ways after they experience certain rites of passage.

Language and Communication In English Year 6 will participate in a variety of activities each week that will allow the children to develop all aspects of their English skills. Weekly spellings will be given and tested the following week. Grammar and punctuation skills will generally be taught in context as part of our lessons, although certain topics may be taught discretely as necessary. This term, our writing will link to our themes around sustainability and the text types include discussion texts, stories that raise issues and newspapers. To support this we will be reading Greta Thunberg’s “No-one’s Too Small to Make a Difference” and Quentin Blake’s “A Sailing Boat in the Sky” before half term. Thereafter we will be using poetry to link in particular to our PSHEE theme around diversity and equality.

How to help at home: ● Encourage your child to read and share their reading with them when you can. Foster a love of reading. ● Encourage your children to write in their own words and proofread their work, this is especially important when researching and using other sources from the internet. ● Talk to them about their writing target and encourage them to use it in homework. ● Remind them of the Expectations for Writing in Y6 (on Google Classroom) Pupils will complete independent writing tasks each half term to identify next steps in their learning. ​ ssessment A PTE (Progress Test in English)

In Modern Languages, whilst maintaining a focus on communicative skills, pupils will be looking at and trying out strategies for learning and memorising language in order to boost their active vocabulary and develop good learning habits. In French there will be a focus on talking about their families and homes in greater detail and talking about to whom things belong. Pupils will revise and consolidate numbers up to 100 along with basic, everyday vocabulary. They will reinforce their understanding of ER verbs and familiarize themselves with the irregular verbs AVOIR and ETRE. In Spanish they will be exploring and learning verbal structures. They will also have a cultural focus and learn about key festivals in the Spanish-speaking world, which will lead into learning how to give opinions and justifications in Spanish.

Mathematical Understanding This term we will begin by looking at decimals, including identifying the digits in a number up to 3 decimal places, multiplying and dividing decimal numbers by 10, 100, 1000 and by integers not divisible by 10. We will also relate decimals to fractions and complete word problems relating to this topic including looking at how we use decimals in a real-life context.

Our next topic this term is percentages - finding equivalence between fractions, decimals and percentages and also finding percentage of amounts.

We will then focus on Algebra which will be covered in terms of forming expressions, substitution, forming equations and finding one or two unknowns in an equation.

Next we move on to measures, specifically converting between different metric units and solving problems relating to different measures. We will also look at some imperial units and focus on relating this work to a real-life context. Then do some work on area, perimeter and volume before moving onto ratio and scale and solving problems relating to these topics.

Our final topic is ratio. Here we will begin to use relevant vocabulary to describe relationships between amounts such as ‘for every’ and ‘in every’ and relate this to its mathematical representation including as a fraction. We will also look at scale factors, particularly in the context of shape, to describe enlargements and patterns.

Physical Education and Well-being In PE lessons at Fitzwilliam this term pupils will take part in health related fitness and touch rugby. At Dame Bradbury’s, pupils will take part in dance and indoor athletics.

Netball, hockey and football will form the basis of games lessons for the children this term.

Development of key skills, refinement of technique and a focus on integrating tactics into match play will be key features of lessons this term. For hockey, pupils will need shin pads,

moulded gum shields and hockey sticks. More information about fixtures can be found at www.stephenpersesport.com or www.damebradburyssport.com Do encourage your child to get involved with any of these sports outside of school by joining local clubs, and discuss the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle.

In PSHEE, pupils will learn about healthy lifestyles, understanding that there are a range of influences on the choices they make about diet and exercise, including the media, peers and adults. They will learn that they have responsibility for making choices to enable them to be physically and mentally healthy. Pupils will also consider mental health and well-being including individual emotions such as boredom, worry and stress and consider the support that is available and how to build confidence. Children’s Mental Health Week will focus on ‘expressing ourselves’ and they will take part in a range of activities to support their wellbeing. Pupils will continue to address online safety and know what to do if they are worried about anything online. They will also reinforce their understanding of using technology safely and effectively throughout the term, with Safer Internet Day on 9th February having a focus on an internet we can trust, using critical thinking skills to check the reliability of information online. Finally, pupils will study financial responsibility and competence, including debt and saving.

Creative and Performing Arts In Music, pupils will continue to study aspects of musical evolution by exploring key features of the elegant Baroque and Classical periods. Through studying key works in the musical canon from these periods, pupils will explore more complex musical aspects within composition. These will include some of the key harmonic ideas we hear in popular music today which, in fact, originate from the Baroque period. Pupils will explore the Baroque and Classical periods of music through ensemble performances and compositional projects, and will have the opportunity to use their own instruments, where appropriate. Pupils will regularly improvise, and will develop an increasingly broad and mature bank of music terminology.

Each week, pupils will develop their instrumental technique and ensemble performance skills as members of differentiated flexible performance groups. As a member of each ensemble, pupils will build their confidence and fluency with reading staff notation and learn how to convey expression and more detailed musical markings.

Dame Bradbury’s pupils will prepare for their 500th Anniversary Concert at Saffron Hall, taking place on the 25th March.

In Create Design Engineering we will move from a variety of printmaking techniques or iPad art where we look at replicating designs several times to achieve a mass produced design to possibly pinhole photography, or using Cubism as inspiration. We will then return to the more traditional art of portraiture and use our drawing and painting skills as a starting point to create a more sculptural representation, manipulating wire, using supports and taking the project in a direction best suited to our own individual skills. At Fitzwilliam, we will develop Rube Goldberg designs, initially on paper and then practically through ideas, trial,

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error, evaluation and redesign, incorporating complex marble runs, pulley systems, seesaws and other forms of chain reactions. CWP and ELM In Drama pupils will use improvisation to focus on the use of body language in performance in order to achieve a specific audience reaction, including double-take and pause for humour.

Bringing together skills of mime, movement and tableaux, they will consider the body language of whole groups of characters.

Pupils will learn to make deliberate choices about how a character travels, reacts and freezes in context. In vocal work, they will use deliberately chosen vocabulary, vocal tone and clear audible speech in performance. They will put this into practice by creating their own audiobooks.

Students will also devise their own scenes based on the theme of climate change for which we will use peer assessment and learn to respond to criticism positively, acting on suggestions for improvement.

Towards the end of term, students will start exploring the storyline and characters of their annual production in preparation for their auditions.

Scientific Understanding This term, in Biology, pupils will learn about Adaptation and Evolution, covering how living organisms can be classified into groups based on their features, what fossils tell us about ancient life and the changes that have happened over millions of years, and what genetics tells us about how characteristics are passed on from one generation to the next.

In Physics, they will learn about Electricity, deepening their understanding of how to construct electrical circuits and how they work, the use of circuit symbols to represent components in circuit diagrams, the variables which affect the amount of current flowing through a circuit and the differences between series and parallel circuits.

In Chemistry, they will learn about Elements, covering how chemical elements are arranged on the periodic table based on their properties and how our understanding of the structure of atoms underpins this cornerstone of modern Chemistry.

How you can help: Visit local museums, such as the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Saffron Walden Museum and Cambridge Science Centre.

These institutions have extended their online resources during lockdown, as has BBC Bitesize Science. Look out also for science programmes on TV or YouTube.

Digital

The Inner Wheel With the Google apps at the heart of digital curation our pupils use Google Classroom to complete work digitally and hand in work that is produced in a variety of ways. We have identified 7 main apps, our EverGreen apps, that help to showcase our pupils’ learning. An animation, movie or annotated piece of work provides richer feedback for the teacher and ultimately helps to make greater progress.

Explain Everything www.explaineverything.com Green Screen www.doink.com Stop Motion www.cateater.com Strip Design www.vividapps.com/Strip_Designer/ Notability www.gingerlabs.com Book Creator www.bookcreator.com Puppet Pals www.polishedplay.com The Outer Wheel We have a number of apps that we use consistently throughout our curriculum that lend themselves to our creative approach. We avoid apps that are specific to a particular outcome, preferring content free apps that can help to enhance our pupils work and understanding. Some examples are: Minecraft, iMovie, KeyNote, Pages and Padlet.

Coding Another aspect of our digital curriculum is the coding/programming skills that are embedded in all subjects or taught discretely in Years 5 and 6. We have identified a progression of apps that help to develop our pupils ability to code. The apps provide variety and challenge and help to develop the computation skills that are crucial learning in our digital work.

We combine the coding experiences with physical output. Using Spheros, BBC Micro:Bits and Ozobots provides visual outcomes that bring our code to life. As our pupils develop further they transition on to written code.

Thinking Toolkit Alongside and underpinning our curriculum we ensure that our pupils are developing as active learners and active thinkers. Throughout each subject area pupils are encouraged to use their range of thinking tools and reflect on when and how they are using them. Pupils are encouraged to reflect on how their thinking tools underpin all aspects of their learning and not just in the more obvious ways. How are they creative in maths?

How do they enquire in English? How are they critical in Music? How do they think computationally in PE?

Inclusion This curriculum map outlines the core curriculum for each year group each term but at the heart of our wheel is the individual learner. Each subject area has a progression of skills which enables staff to stretch or support individuals as and when they need a little help, a bit of a push or a just a different way in. Within our classrooms through planning, teacher knowledge and interactions work is differentiated to suit the needs of each individual.