Year 6: Blog items

Year 6 Blog Thursday 21st December 2023

Date: 19th Dec 2023 @ 9:42am

Our last week in December has been very exciting:

On Monday, we had a visit from All Hallows who gave super Christmas performances of dancing and singing. It was so nice to see past St Oswald’s pupils showing off their talents.

On Tuesday, Year 6 prepared and led a wonderful Christingle in church.

On Wednesday, it was Christmas jumper day, the school sang carols to the parents and we ate a delicious Christmas lunch.

Also on Wednesday, we said goodbye to Mr Mears after 13 years at St Oswald’s during a special assembly. We wish him all the best on his new adventure in Australia. 

Finally, on Thursday, we had our final Golden Assembly of the term!

Home Practice

You will have also noticed that there is no Sumdog being set for the Christmas break so you can have a rest and come back fresh and ready for the exciting learning in January!

BUT please keep reading as much as possible!

Year 6 Blog Friday 15th December 2023

Date: 15th Dec 2023 @ 8:21am

Welcome to our Year 6 weekly blog.

Home Practice

Reading – Please read for up to 30 minutes a night and complete your reading task.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we counted in decimals steps
  • Draw a line with some marks on it
  • Start with these numbers: 13.06 and 27.873 and count back 10 times then back up in 0.3s:

13.06, 13.36, 13.66, 13.96, 14.26, etc

and in 0.03s:

13.06, 13.09, 13.12, 13.15, 13.18, etc

• Number facts:
  • Please continue to learn your numbers facts, 9 + 7 = 16, 5 + 11 = 16.
  • This will help with questions with different powers of 10:
    • 90 + 70 = 160, 900 + 700 = 1600, 0.9 + 0.7 = 1.6
    • 09 + 0.07 = 0.16

• Sumdog (Lancashire Sumdog Winter Wonderland Contest)

This week’s Sumdog contest is once again against Year 7 from All Hallows. Try your best to get as many questions completed before next Thursday 21^st. The questions will be based on your Sumdog level and will vary across many topics.

REMINDER:

• Bring in spare trainers and socks for our last cross-country session next week.

On Wednesday, we celebrated a special Robinwood assembly for Year 5.  We shared our favourite activities, named the challenges we overcame and showed our Robinwood video.

On Thursday, we had a visit from the ‘Dogs Trust’ who came in to talk about how to keep safe around other people’s dogs.

On Friday, we had a visit from ‘Rock Steady’. Jacob, the performer, showed us how to play drums, guitar, bass guitar, electric keyboard and how to use our vocal chords to combine into a rock band. 

• In Maths, we learnt how to find percentages of numbers. Percent is defined as ‘out of 100’ and they are very easily related to fractions. We used hundredth fractions and bar models to help us solve questions.

• In English, following a visit from Year 3 last week who showed off their amazing writing of the wordless book, ‘Journey’ by Aaron Becker, we decided to return the favour. Year 6 created their own version of the wordless book, ‘Quest’, which is the sequel to Journey and showed our super writing on Friday. You can see the pictures here.

• In RE, we wrote a Christmas prayer related to what Christians expect at this time of year.

• In Design and Technology, we began our final design for our Christmas tree decoration using thread and needles. It has been great to see everyone develop their stitching skills this week. Check out the final pictures here.

• In Science, we learnt about the digestive system and how food travels from our mouth, through the oesophagus into the stomach, through the intestines and out as a stool.

• In Art, we learnt about Kate Deciccio, an activism artist. We were inspired to create our own activism art in the bold and colourful design of Romero Britto.

Have an amazing weekend!

Year 6 Blog Friday 8th December 2023

Date: 8th Dec 2023 @ 8:19am

Welcome to Year 6's weekly blog.

Home Practice

Reading – Please read for up to 30 minutes a night and complete your reading task.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings 

• Sumdog (A2 wk 6 silent letters)
  • guide, history, knee, know, lamb, often, parliament, recognise, rhyme, sign, separate, surprise, vegetable, weight, wrong.

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been mainly counting in fractions.
  • Draw a line with some marks on.
  • Start with these numbers: 6 1/7 and 13 2/6 and count back 10 times.  Then count back up in sevenths:

6 1/7, 6, 5 6/7, 5 5/7, 5 4/7, etc

and in two sixths:

13 2/6, 13, 12 4/6, 12 2/6, 12 11 4/6, etc

• Number facts:
  • Please continue to learn your number facts eg. 9 + 7 = 16, 5 + 11 = 16.
  • This will also help with questions with different powers of 10:
    • 90 + 70 = 160, 900 + 700 = 1600, 0.9 + 0.7 = 1.6
    • 09 + 0.07 = 0.16

• Sumdog (Times Tables A2 wk 6)

• Sumdog (Add and subtract fractions A2 wk 6)
  • For this week’s challenge, most of the questions will have ‘bars’ to help you add and subtract. Try not to guess the answers, but look for patterns – most of the questions are very similar. If it becomes too tricky, please let me know.

REMINDERS:

• CHRISTMAS HAMPER – This year, our class are collecting ‘PINK’ items to create a Christmas hamper. You can bring in biscuits, drinks, chocolates, etc. Thank you to everyone who has brought in items already. We have one more week to collect.
• PE - Bring in your spare trainers and socks for our cross-country session next week.
• DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY - Next week we will be continuing with our design and technology project, ‘sewing’. I have enough felt, ribbon, thread and needles for everyone, but if you wish to decorate it further with your own felt, thread or even buttons then you may bring them in on Monday 11^th (You do not have to go out and buy anything – this is just in case anyone has items in their house they would like to use to enhance their Christmas tree decoration.)
• Monday 11^th December is also our PTFA Sponsored Santa Dash, so you may wear a Christmas hat, Santa beard or even a full Santa outfit, if you wish. Please send your sponsor money in an envelope.

On Thursday, we had a very special performance of the Snow Queen by the Quantum Theatre. Thank you to the PTFA for funding the event!

On Friday, we had a visit from the South Ribble Sports Coaches who led a ‘Dance Festival’ for every class in the school. You can see our dance moves here on our St Oswald's TV

In Maths, we have been learning how to find fractions of numbers using bar models. We created two bars: one for the whole and one for the fraction. As an example, to find ¾ of 264, we would find one quarter of 264, which is 66. Then we need three of these, so 66 x 3 = 198.

In English, we learnt how to use emotive language and wrote a diary entry in role. We discussed the impact of word choice and how to use show not tell to describe our emotions.

In RE, we wrote a diary entry from Mary’s perspective about her expectations of becoming the mother of Christ.

In Design and Technology, we began our project - sewing a Christmas tree decoration.  We evaluated last year’s work, designed our own decoration, and practised two types of hand sewing techniques: running stitch and overstitch.

In Art, we learnt about Romero Britto. He is a Brazilian artist, painter, serigrapher and sculptor who combines elements of cubism, pop art and graffiti painting in his work. He is know for using vibrant colour and bold pattern as a visual expression of hope and happiness.

Have a super weekend everyone!

Year 6 Blog Friday 1st December 2023

Date: 1st Dec 2023 @ 8:23am

Welcome to our Year 6 weekly blog.

This week, we were visited by fire fighters who gave a talk to Year 6 about:

Fire safety – we learnt to:

Not to play with matches, how to stop, drop and roll, electrical safety and the importance of having a fire plan at home.

Road sense – Always:

Look out for cyclists, be visible to other road users, wear seat belts and cycle helmets.

REMINDER:

Please bring in your spare trainers and socks for our cross-country session next week.

Our learning this week:

• In Maths, we learnt how to add and subtract fractions with various denominators. We are using our times tables knowledge to become much quicker at these.

• In English, we learnt how to write a persuasive letter, to try to persuade Mr Mears to have extra play. We used formal sentence openers, emotive language and a range of modal verbs.

• In PE, we began our cross-country topic. The children did a super job of running the full distance. They will be working on improving their personal best time over the next few weeks.

• In Music, we continued to play Bacharach Anorak on the glocks, improvising at the right time. We composed with the song ‘Meet The Blues’ using notes C Bb G and F on the glocks. We sang the song Jazz is cool, discussing the texture and singing in groups. We finished by practising the Carols for Christmas – Starry Night and O little town of Bethlehem.

• In French, we caught up with our Cultural Understanding Project. With our groups, we started researching our chosen topics for our Christmas in France presentation. This will continue next week and should be ready to present to the class the following week.

• In Science, we completed a fair test to see which exercise would increase our heart rate the most. We discussed the results and learnt how to conclude our findings.

• In RE, we learnt that Advent is a time of joyful expectation. They wrote their own Advent expectations which were turned into an Advent wreath. We also started our Advent calendar, where each child wrote a prayer or an act of kindness that everyone in Year 6 must do during this festive period.

Home Practice

Please try to complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Please read up to 30 minutes a night and complete your reading task.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings 

• Sumdog (A2 wk 5 challenge words)
  • answer, favourite, bruise, actually, build, guarantee, certain, guard, definite, library, difference, muscle, exercise, doubt, environment.

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in fractions.
  • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class.
  • Start with these numbers: 2 1/4, 14 3/4, 5 1/5 and count up 10 times then back again in two quarters:

2 ¼, 2 ¾, 3 ¼, 3 ¾,  etc

and in three fifths:

5 1/5, 5 4/5, 6 2/5, 7, 7 3/5etc

• Number facts:
  • To help your maths even more, please continue to learn your numbers facts, 7 + 8 = 15, 4 + 7 = 11.
  • The best way to do this is to simply have someone in your home quiz you with questions like (8 + 6, 6 + 5, 3 + 8, 5 + 9, etc)
  • Then get them to change the place value of these digits (0.8 + 0.6, 0.06 + 0.05, 0.3 + 0.8, etc)

• Sumdog (Times Tables A2 wk 5)

• Sumdog (Square numbers)
  • Remember that multiplication can be shown thrown arrays. When an array makes a perfect square (2 by 2, 3 by 3, 4 by 4, etc) then we have a square number (4, 9, 16, etc). Try to work through these questions quickly, which will help for next week’s learning.

Year 6 Blog Friday 24th November 2023

Date: 24th Nov 2023 @ 4:07pm

Welcome to Year 6 weekly blog.

We have had a fabulous week getting back to our curriculum, following Robinwood last week. On Thursday, we were invited by Reception to meet Mr Brown, a paramedic, who came with his ambulance to show the children what his job entails, how he helps people in the community and what equipment he uses.

On Friday morning, Father invited Year 6 to Mass. Father Michael was wearing red to celebrate the Mass for the Feast of the Martyrs. Thank you for the invite, Father!

Also, two teams competed this week: Volleyball team and another Football team. It was our first ever volleyball competition and the 8 that took part did a super job representing the school with two wins and two losses – an excellent achievement for our first time. As for the football team, they were unfortunate to win a game at Priory High but had a great time working together.

Our learning this week:

• In Maths, we learnt how to compare and simplify fractions using multiples and factors. We then learnt to use common multiples and factors to quickly find equivalent fractions.

• In English, we have read more of our novel, Private Peaceful, and inferred main characters words and actions to help us write in role.

• In PE, we began our indoor athletics topic focusing on finding a baseline of the standing long jump, triple jump, vertical jump and speed bounce. We will be working on our techniques to improve our personal best.

• In History, we continued our topic of ‘Crime and Punishment’. This week, we learnt about the Anglo-Saxon period and as there was no police force back then, every group of 10 people in the village were named a ‘tithing’ and if anyone within that tithing committed a crime, it was up to the other 9 to bring them to the ‘trial of ordeals’ – even chasing them down the street. Also, if one person in the tithing group did not chase, then they were sentenced to the ‘trial by ordeal’ too.

• In Science, we created a fair test to see which exercise would increase our heart rate the most. We discussed the variables, what we would keep the same, our predictions, method and results.

Home Practice

Please try to complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Please read up to 30 minutes a night and complete your reading task.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings 

• Sumdog (A2 wk 6 -ough words)
  • though, although, rough, tough, through, cough, nought, brought, ought, thought, fought, plough, dough, enough, thorough

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in decimal steps.
  • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class.
  • Start with these numbers: 7.5, 3.9, 25.4 and count up 10 times then back again in 0.7:

7.5, 8.2, 8.9, 9.6, 10.1 etc

and in 2.5:

7.5, 10, 12.5, 15, 17.5, etc

• Number facts:
  • To help your maths even more, please continue to learn your numbers facts, 7 + 8 = 15, 4 + 7 = 11.
  • The best way to do this is to simply have someone in your home quiz you with questions like (8 + 6, 6 + 5, 3 + 8, 5 + 9, etc)
  • Then get them to change the place value of these digits (0.8 + 0.6, 0.06 + 0.05, 0.3 + 0.8, etc)

• Sumdog (Times Tables A2 wk 4)

• Sumdog (Common multiples)
  • This challenge will help to practise the learning we have done this week. Try your best to use your times tables knowledge to answer them quickly.
  •  

Year 6 Blog Friday 17th November 2023

Date: 17th Nov 2023 @ 8:13am

Welcome to Year 6 weekly blog.

This week has been our fabulous residential to Robinwood in Todmorden. We all had a super time. Click the link here  to see some of the pictures. Also, watch our Robinwood 2023 video on our YouTube channel, St Oswald’s TV, by clicking on the link.

Our highlights included:

• Accurately firing an arrow in archery
• Crawling through tight spaces in caving
• Using our strength and coordination to combat indoor climbing
• Finding the courage to release the wire on the giant swing
• Working together creatively to solve the dungeon challenge
• Using our senses to navigate through the night line blind folded
• Developing great communication skills to solve the quest challenge
• Building confidence to head down the large zip wire

The children have been a credit to the school this week and we hope to build on the 12 qualities learnt at Robinwood:

Responsibility, cooperation, confidence, resilience,

Patience, respect, support, listening,

Developing skills, problem solving, encouragement, communication

Help the homeless

Foxton Centre Big PNE Sleepout Friday 17^th November 

Miss Smith and Mrs Dexter are sleeping by the football pitch at PNE’s Deepdale Stadium this Friday 17^th November. This is to raise money for a day centre called The Foxton Centre who provide food and warmth to the homeless people of Preston.

Miss Smith and Mrs Dexter will sleep on cardboard and will only have with them what they can carry. This will give them an insight into how difficult it is for people sleeping on the streets, particularly as the nights are getting colder. We are all fortunate that we have food and somewhere warm to go to sleep every night, which is not the case for some people in Preston.

Miss Smith and Mrs Dexter are asking for sponsorship; any donation would go a long way to help Preston’s vulnerable homeless community.  

You can read more and donate here: 

https://www.justgiving.com/team/deepdaledreamers?utm_medium=proxy_team&utm_content=team%2Fdeepdaledreamers&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=pfp-email

Year 6’s learning continued on Thursday and Friday with:

• In Maths, we have continued our learning of chunking with three-digit numbers divided by 2 digit (414 divided by 23).
• In English, we learnt how to write a detailed letter so we could thank Robinwood for our fantastic time there.
• In History, we learnt about crime and punishment during the Roman times. They used the Twelve Tables as laws and gave severe punishments.
• In PSHE, as part of our ‘Antibullying Week’ we investigated different scenarios and discussed ways we can identify and support those who are affected by unkindness.

Home Practice

Please try to complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Please read up to 30 minutes a night and complete your reading task.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings 

• Sumdog - Spellings A2 wk 3 (-ent, -ence)
  • persistent, persistence, violent, violence, intelligent, intelligence,

inconvenient, inconvenience, obedient, obedience, conference, difference,

conscience, reference, excitement.

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in decimal steps of:

20 000, 200 000 and x 2. Try to do the same out loud or with paper.

• Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
• g. Start with 5 digit numbers and count up 10 times then back again in 20 000s:

43 654, 63 654, 83 654, 103 654, etc

and in 200 000s:

43 654, 243 654, 443 654, 643 654                

Start at a different number and count up 10 numbers and down again but this time in x2:

9, 18, 36, 72, 144, 288, 576, 1 152, etc    

• Sumdog (Times Tables A2 wk 3)
  • This week's focus is on a mixture of x4, x7 and x8. Keep working on becoming quicker and more confident with your times tables. 

• Sumdog (Factor pairs linked to division)
  • Remember that a factor is a number that divides into a number, leaving no remainders. 42 ÷ 7 = 6 and 42 ÷ 6 = 7, so both 7 and 6 are factors of 42. In fact, 7 and 6 are factor pairs – which is what we have looked at today and will help with our learning next week.

Thank you to all those who gave money for Children in Need. Everyone looked amazing in their pyjamas!

Year 6 Blog Friday 10th November 2023

Date: 10th Nov 2023 @ 3:54pm

Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.

On Tuesday, Year 5 and 6 took a trip to Blackpool Theatre to see Frank Cotrell-Boyce, the author of the new book ‘The Wonder Brothers’. He told us all some great stories about how he became an author, showed off some magic tricks and even read from his new book. Everyone received a copy, which most of us started reading on the way back to school.

On Wednesday, 12 of our pupils were chosen to be part of the ‘Maths Team’ who went up against Our Lady and St Gerard’s, Mary Magdalen and St Teresa’s. It was a tough challenge but everyone worked really well as a team, helping us to achieve fourth out of 8. Great work team!

Throughout the week, the School Councillors have done a fantastic job of selling various items for the Poppy Appeal to every class. They would like to say thank you to anyone that bought or donated any money. They will count up and reveal the final amount soon.

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• In Maths, we have learnt and practised how to solve large division questions using mental methods (such as partitioning) and the chunking method. It is very important for everyone to keep practising their times and divisions so hopefully the overnight work has helped them become quicker.

• In English, we completed our novel Clockwork, which ended quite mysteriously. Then we introduced Private Peaceful, a story of two brothers who head off to France and Belgium in World War I. We will be learning about these complex characters over the next few weeks.

• In PE, we focused on using various tactics in volleyball: aiming at space, working as a team and serving. Outside, we began tag rugby, where we learnt the rules of passing back, turnovers and knock-ons.

• In PSHE, we discussed the word, ‘worry’, how we can see signs of it in our friends and created a range of strategies to overcome the feeling.

• In Geography, we completed our Mountains topic by creating an advanced PowerPoint on three tectonic disasters (volcano, tsunami and earthquake) using transitions and hyperlinks.

• In History, we began our new topic of ‘Crime and Punishment’. We learnt to chronologically order different periods over time, through BCE (Before the Common Era) and CE (Common Era).

• In Science, ‘Circulatory System’ is our new topic. We began by learning how our circulatory system is responsible for transporting nutrients, water and oxygen to billions of blood cells.

• This week in French, we started our Cultural Understanding presentation project. We will be working on this every week in our groups with the aim to present about ‘Christmas in France’. This week, we created our groups, decided our roles within those groups, started sharing some ideas for what will be included in the presentation and what research we will need to do.

• In Music, we continued to learnBacharach Anorak on the  Now we can play the whole piece and improvise. We sang the song Jazz is cool, discussing the texture and singing in groups.

Home Practice

Please try to complete the following tasks by next MONDAY:

• Pack your bag. Check the list of items you will need for Robinwood (NO EXTRA BAG IS NEEDED. JUST USE ONE SUITCASE)
• Bring a water bottle (you can refill this any time during your stay)
• NO LUNCH – Robinwood is providing ALL your food for the entire stay.
• Do not forget your coat!

Do not forget to check our twitter account, St Oswald's twitter account where you can see Year 6 having a super time.

Reading

• Try to do your best to read over the weekend. Enjoy a really good book – you could even read ‘The Wonder Brothers’!

Year 6 Blog Friday 3rd November 2023

Date: 3rd Nov 2023 @ 3:47pm

Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.

We have had a busy first week back:

On Wednesday the juniors were invited to Mass to celebrate All Saints Day. The Year 6’s chosen to read out did a super job.

On Thursday, we had a visit from some of the local police to help us understand what commitment is like for those working in the police force. We were very lucky to meet a responder, traffic officers and a police dog trainers. The Year 6s had a super time metting the all and asking lots of great questions. You can see the gallery here.

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• In Maths, we have learnt and practised how to solve large multiplication questions using the grid method. Most of this week’s home practice has been focused on this to enable the children to become as efficient as possible so they can answer a four-digit x two-digit question in less than two minutes.

• In English, we read a suspense scene from Clockwork which inspired us to write the next suspense chapter. We worked on setting the scene with personification, expressing the character’s thoughts and using short sentences wisely.

• In PE, we introduced a sport we have not played in a while – volleyball. We learnt the main rules, practised serving and how to pass to each other. We need to work on tactics next week and the importance of positioning.

• In PSHE, we discussed ways of helping ourselves and others when faced with difficult challenges. We then related this learning to what we can do in two weeks at Robinwood.

• In Geography, we learnt about Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, who were the first two men to reach the top of Mount Everest in 1953. We planned and created a biography of Edmund Hillary, which focused on the main achievements in his life.

• In French, it was Halloween! We completed a French wordsearch with Halloween vocabulary and translated each word into our books. We discussed whether some facts about Halloween in Fracne were vrai o faux. We also matched some statements to the correct Halloween character.

• In Music, we began a half term of jazz on the glocks by learning a new piece called Bacharach Anorak. We learnt to play the head or tune. We started to learn the song Jazz is cool and explored music with 3 beats in a bar.

Home Practice

Please complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings (-ant, -ance words)

• Sumdog (Spellings A2 wk 1)
  • assistant, assistance, arrogant, relevant, important, importance, appearance, extravagant, hesitant, reluctant, nuisance, hindrance, ignorance, resistant, restaurant.

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in whole number steps of 50, 90 and 900. Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
  • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
  • g. Start with different numbers and count up 10 times then back again in 50s:

233, 283, 333, 383, 433, 483, 533, etc

and in 90s:

233, 323, 413, 503, 593, 683, 773, 863, etc               

Start at a different number and count up 10 numbers and down again but this time in 900s:

740, 1640, 2540, 3440, 4340, 5240, 6140, 7040, etc   

• Sumdog (Times Tables A2 wk 1)
  • This week’s focus is on x3, x5, x7 times tables.

• Sumdog (Times/divide whole numbers and decimals)
  • These questions are practice of the work we have done recently. Work through as many as you can as they will help hugely for next week’s learning.

Year 6 Blog Thursday 19th October 2023

Date: 19th Oct 2023 @ 8:09am

Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.

On Thursday, Mr Pickles came to share his story of the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. He talked about his adventure to base camp 1, the flight and what it was like to be there. The pupils had lots of great questions to ask him. Thank you so much Mr Pickles!

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• In Maths, we learnt how to partition numbers to help us solve multiplication questions quicker. This helped to double any number, including numbers with thousandths, quickly.

• In English, we had a visit from Dawn Robertson, an English specialist, who taught the poetry to the class. The poem was ‘The Fight of the Year’ by Roger McGough, which inspired us to create our own ‘versus’ poem, with some being read out at Golden Assembly.

• In Art, we completed out topic, ‘2D drawing to 3D making’ by using recycled cardboard to attach to our dogs so they could stand. We then invited a few classes to see our gallery and wrote up an evaluation of what they thought. You can see the final pictures here.

• In PE, we concluded our invasion games topic of Netball with a mini intra competition within the class. We focused on the main strategies of: keeping in space, feinting and communication.

• In Geography, we learnt about what it was like to live in the Himalayas before writing down questions to ask Mr Pickles, a mountaineer expert.  

• In Music, we sang the song Happy and discussed the structure (the way the different sections of music are organised). We learnt about music with 2 beats in a bar, then practised listening to music and clapping beat 1 and clicking beat 2. We videoed our final performance of Sunny Sounds on our recorders, reading notation with no note names written on.  

• In French, we completed the sessions about The Time in French. We created our own help sheet with key vocabulary and phrases to use when telling the time in French. This included heures = hours, midi = noon, minuit = midnight, quart = quarter, moins = less (quarter to), demie = half, soir = evening, apres-midi = afternoon, matin = morning. The children were then able to complete a range of listening, reading and writing activities to show they have understood the vocabulary from this topic. Next half term, we will be ready to have some new sessions about our daily routine (after we’ve learned about French Halloween!) as well as starting our Cultural Understanding project where the children will be creating a presentation about French Culture. We will be deciding our groups and chosen topics in the first session.

Home Practice

As it is half term this week, I have just three activities for you to practice.

Reading – Use your Home Reading to read as much as you can over the holidays.

Maths challenges:

• Sumdog (Times Tables A1 wk 7)
  • Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but this week we have focused on x3, x6, x9 which will be great practice for the future.

This week there are 150 questions to answer.

Overnight Homework

• The reading task, which is stuck in your book.

HAVE A SUPER HALF TERM EVERYONE!

Year 6 Blog Friday 13th October 2023

Date: 13th Oct 2023 @ 3:57pm

Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.

This Friday, Year 6 had a taster day at All Hallows’. We were treated to a scavenger hunt around the school, science lesson with bunsen burners and a PE lesson in the huge PE hall. Everyone enjoyed the high school with one of the main highlights being the canteen food. You can see our pictures of the day here.

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• In Maths, we practised different addition and subtraction strategies, and learnt how to efficiently use the written method to add and subtract large numbers.

• In English, we have been recapping our learning of how to use speech marks in stories. We used them to create a dialogue between Karl and Dr. Kalmenius, that moved the story forward and was blended with action.

• In Art, we collaged our 2D drawings and stuck them to corrugated card. We are now ready to attach them to cardboard to transform them into 3D models. The pictures of our artwork so far are here.

• In PE, due to the weather, we worked on using a range of tactics to beat an opponent in various games in the hall.

• In PSHE, we learnt about mental health for World Mental Health Day (Tuesday). We explored the difference between physical and mental wellbeing and the three ways we can help someone to improve their mental health: to move, to sleep and to eat well.

• In Geography, we learnt what life is like on a mountain. We researched three key areas: climate, mountain life and avalanches. One amazing fact we found was that one tenth of the world’s population live on mountains.  

Home Practice

Please complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings (-ant -ent words)

• Sumdog (Spellings A1 wk 6)
• hesitant, instrument, distant, relevant, inhabitant, permanent, arrogant, comment, tolerant, important, obedient, innocent, independent, frequent, vacant.

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in steps of 8, 80 and 800 Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
  • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
  • g. Start with different numbers and count up 10 times then back again in 8s:

5, 13, 21, 29, 37, 45, 53, 61, etc

and in 80s:

13, 93, 173, 253, 333, 413, etc               

Start at a different number and count up 10 numbers and down again but this time in 800s:

456, 1256, 2056, 2856, 3656, 4456 etc    

• Sumdog (Times Tables A1 wk 6)
  • Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but this week we have focused on x3, x4 and x6, which will be great practice for the future.
  • (Every Tuesday there is a tables test).

• Sumdog (Sumdog Contest)
  • From the 13^th October to the 19^th, Sumdog are hosting a contest. We have entered and so have Year 7 from All Hallows. Therefore, we are competing against Year 7 to see who will become top dog.
  • Attempt to complete 100 questions at least.

Year 6 Blog Friday 6th October 2023

Date: 6th Oct 2023 @ 3:13pm

Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.

This Friday, Year 6 led the Harvest Festival Mass – thank you to everyone for bringing in items for the Penwortham foodbank. The Year 6’s did a fantastic job with their speaking parts and their amazing dancing. You can see the pictures here.

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• In Maths, we have learnt how to use the partitioning, bridging and copensation strategies for both addition and subtraction. Next week, we will learn a few more before deciding which strategies are most appropriate for different questions.

• In English, our novel, ‘Clockwork’ inspired us to write an internal monologue of grumpy Karl. We worked on improving our punctuation to help create small, medium and long sentences.

• In Art, we continued our topic of ‘2D drawing to 3D making’, by enlarging our silhouette dogs onto A2 paper using a grid method. Next week, we will be collaging them to add texture.

• In PE, we continued our dance topic of ‘heroes’ by using different levels, directions, positions and contact to create a paired routine. You can see the gallery here. 

• In RE, we read the story of the 'Prodigal Son’, and studied artwork from Rembrandt, Murillo and Guercino on how they interpreted the story.

• In French, we reviewed how to say where we live, what our favourite subjects in school are, what our favourite sports are and which hobbies we love. The children used their help sheets to say their responses to each other.

Home Practice

Please complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings (Homophones)

• Sumdog (Spellings A1 wk 5)

• whether, weather, groan, grown, advice, advise, practise, practice, rain, reign, wail, whale, prey, pray, aloud, allowed.

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in decimal steps of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.25 Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
  • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
  • g. Start with different numbers and count up 10 numbers then back again in 0.1:

5, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, etc

and in 0.2:

6.5, 6.7, 6.9, 7.1, 7.3, 7.5, 7.7, etc           

Start at a number with two decimal places like 8.12 and count up 10 numbers and down again:

8.12, 8.32, 8.52, 8.72, 8.92, 9.12, etc        

Now try to count in 0.25 from 7 and 23 and 54:

7, 7.25, 7.50, 7.75, 8, 8.25, etc

• Sumdog (Times Tables A1 wk 5)
  • Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but this week we have focused on 4s and 8s, which will be great practice for the future.
  • (Every Tuesday there is a tables test).

• Sumdog (Add / Subtract A1 wk 5)
  • This challenge should be quite simple but the main aim is to answer these questions mentally quickly, which will aid us in our learning next week.

Year 6 Blog Friday 29th September 2023

Date: 28th Sep 2023 @ 7:32pm

Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.

Having completed their first month, the Year 6s have been praised for their lunch duty roles: helping the infants with drinks, supporting them during their play times and even creating some games to play with them. Excellent work Year 6!

The Reading Ambassadors have started their leadership role of reading with the infants. They made a great impression on the infant staff and are looking forward to more reading time in the coming weeks. The Science Ambassadors and School Councillors have also received their team from the votes in Year 3, 4 and 5.

On Thursday, the football team had their second week of games with the following results:

• A team lost against Little Hoole and drew against Ashbridge
• B team won against Little Hoole B and lost against Hoole St Michaels
• We only have one match left which will conclude on Thursday 12^th October. A letter will be sent out soon as a reminder.

Harvest Festival – please continue to bring in food items for the Harvest Festival which will be celebrated in Mass next Friday at 2:30pm.

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• In Maths, we have been learning how to recognise calculations that require mental partitioning e.g. 6, 584 – 2, 360 or 873 + 350 and how to use this strategy where appropriate.

• In English we began our new novel, ‘Clockwork’ by Phillip Pullman. We learnt about one of the characters, Karl, and used the text as evidence to describe his personality.

• In Geography, we learnt how to describe the 10 features of a mountain: summit, slope, face, tree line, snow line, outcrop, valley, ridge, foot and plateau.

• In PE, we began our new dance topic of ‘heroes’ by using our facial expressions and body tension to display our super powers. 

• In RE, we read a passage from Titus 3: 4-8, which was a letter from St Paul telling the people how powerful God’s love is. We replied with a thank you letter as Titus to St Paul.

• In Science, we learnt how to classify trees based on their specific characteristics: veins (netlike or parallel), shapes (hand-shapes, spear shaped, heart shaped or round), arrangement (simple of compound) and edges (smooth, toothed or lobed).

• In French, we celebrated ‘European Day of Languages’. The class shared any languages which they know, any which they have been learning or any which they would like to learn. Some children shared their favourite word in their language and discussed how they have learned that it. We then listened to a few languages being spoken, suggested which language it was and worked out what each word meant. We also watched some videos of children speaking in another language. We then spent some time answering quiz questions about European countries, including their outlines from a map, their iconic symbols and their traditional foods.

Home Practice

Please complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings (silent letters)

• Sumdog (Silent letters A1 wk 4)
• doubt, climb, guitar, whistle, knight, autumn, thistle, debt, solemn, science, hymn, wriggle, answer, island, dumb.

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in fraction steps of ¼ and 2/4 Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
  • Draw a line and some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
  • g. Start with different numbers and count up 10 numbers then back again in halves:

2 ¼ , 2 2/4, 2 ¾, 3, 3 ¼ , etc

and as improper fractions:

¾, 4/4, 5/4, 6/4, 7/4, 8/4, etc

Start at 13 and count up 10 numbers and down again:

13, 12 ¾, 12 2/4, 12 ¼, etc

Now try in 2/4 with these numbers:

8 8 2/4, 9, 9 2/4, 10, 10 2/4, etc

• Sumdog (Times Tables A1 wk 4)
  • Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but this week we have focused on 3s, 6s, which will be great practice for the future. (Every Tuesday there is a tables test).

• Sumdog (Decimals A1 wk 4)
  • This week’s learning is to make decimals into equivalent fractions e.g. 2/10 = 0.2, 4/10 = 0.4, 35 /100 = 0.35.
  • Also, the challenge will include rounding decimals to the nearest whole number.
  • For further maths work, please visit the ‘Maths Training’ section which you can find in the tasks box on the left of the main screen. This will enable your child to push their learning further with the skills that Sumdog has given them, following a recent diagnostic test.

Year 6 Blog Friday 22nd September 2023

Date: 22nd Sep 2023 @ 3:50pm

Welcome to the Year 6 weekly blog.

This week we have focused on our speaking and listening skills when having class discussions or working in groups. We also focused on presenting our work to be made as neatly as possible, with regular handwriting sessions to help.

On Thursday, Year 3 and Year 6 were fortunate to be invited to attend Mass for a Reception blessing.  

The 'Meet the Teacher' slides are attached to this blog, for anyone who missed the evening. 

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• We have learnt how to round numbers to the nearest tenth, whole number and a million, where we used number lines to represent our understanding. We then used counters to add or subtract any power of ten from any number.

• In English we learnt how to describe settings, using well chosen noun phrases with a mixture of prepositions and personification.

• In Geography, our topic of Mountains continued with research on one of the 6 following mountains: Mount Everest, Ben Nevis, Mount Fuji, Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Ararat and K2. Each group then delivered a short presentation on their chosen mountain.

• In PE, we split into small teams to work on the 3 main strategies we have been focusing on: find a space, communication and simple pass.

• In Art, we continued our topic, ‘2D Drawing to 3D Making’, by sketching a silhouette of a dog, focusing on proportion. We will scale up on large sheets next week.

• In French, we used our review sheets to practise responding to key questions: ‘comment ?a va?’, ‘comment tu t’appelles’, ‘quel âge as-tu?’, ‘quelle est ta couleur préférée?’, ‘as-tu des frères et soeurs?’ and ‘tu as des animaux?’. We also recapped how to say the date and our birthdays, using a help sheet with the days of the week, numbers 1-31, the months and how to say the years.

• In Science, we developed our knowledge of classification by grouping animals using a classification key.

Home Practice

Please complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday.

Spellings (ei / ie words)

• Sumdog (ie / ei wk 3)
• chief, shield, receipt, receive, friend, patient, weigh, weird, protein, deceive, belief, ancient, medieval, glacier, mischievous,

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in decimal steps of 100, 100 and 250 Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
  • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
  • Start with different numbers and count up 10 numbers then back again in 100:

645, 745, 845, 945, 1 045, 1 145, etc

and in 200:

645, 845, 1 045, 1 245, etc          

Start with different numbers and count up and back in 250s:

1 850, 2 100, 2 350, 2 600, etc    

• Sumdog (Times Tables - week 3)
  • Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but this week we have focused on 3s, 4s and 5s, which will be great practice for the future. (Every Tuesday there is a tables test).

• Sumdog (Place Value - week 3)
  • This week’s learning is to round numbers to different powers of 10.
  • For further maths work, please visit the ‘Maths Training’ section which you can find in the tasks box on the left of the main screen. This will enable your child to push their learning further with the skills that Sumdog has given them, following a recent diagnostic test.

Year 6 Blog Friday 15th September 2023

Date: 15th Sep 2023 @ 3:41pm

Welcome to a Year 6 weekly blog.

We have had individual and sibling pictures taken this week with everyone looking super smart in their autumn uniforms. They should take a couple of weeks to come back to us, if you are thinking of ordering any.

Our leadership roles have been announced this week. Congratulations to everyone for receiving a leadership role, whether that be as the house point team, sports captains, eco team, reading ambassadors, school council, science ambassador, golden team or digital leaders.

On Thursday, St Oswald’s football A and B teams began their leagues. The A team came away with a win and a loss, with the B team winning both games. The pupils did themselves proud and gave a super effort as a team.

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• We have continued our place value knowledge in Maths through comparing, ordering and rounding whole numbers and numbers with three decimal places.

• In English we worked hard to describe the character, The Moor, from our Aladdin story. We discussed how evil he is, gathering great vocabulary from each other. We then analysed a character description from another story to understand how we can portray the evilness in our own character description. The results can be seen in our Year 6 gallery.

• In RE, we read passages from Isaiah who spoke about the power of God’s love. We used these quotes to make links to our lives and how it makes us feel.

• In Geography, we introduced our topic, Mountains, and used atlases to search for the largest mountains ranges in the world and where they are located.

• In PE, we focused on using tactics in small teams against single opponents, including ‘finding a space’, ‘communication’ and ‘pick the easy pass’.

• In Art, we began our topic, ‘2D Drawing to 3D Making’ by exploring the artist Lubaina Himid, who is a professor of contemporary art at the University of Central Lancashire and has artwork displayed at the Tate Museum in Liverpool. Our project will explore the idea that our 2-dimensional illustrations can be transformed onto surfaces which can be manipulated into a 3-dimensional object.

• In PSHE, we explored how to be respectful to others when online. We discussed the word ‘boundaries’ and watched a video on how we can respect other people’s boundaries with different scenarios. We then created a ‘respect charter’ for young people to follow.

• In Science, we developed our knowledge of classification by grouping various animals into a range of categories.

This is the first week of our Home Practice. Please complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings (-ible / -able words)

• Sumdog (-ible / able wk 2)
• edible, horrible, possible, impossible, invisible, sensible, terrible, incredible, comfortable, considerable, enjoyable, miserable, reasonable, respectable, unacceptable.

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in decimal steps of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.25 Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
  • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
  • g. Start with different numbers and count up 10 numbers then back again in 0.1:

5, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, etc

and in 0.2:

6.5, 6.7, 6.9, 7.1, 7.3, 7.5, 7.7, etc          

Start at a number with two decimal places like 8.12 and count up 10 numbers and down again:

8.12, 8.32, 8.52, 8.72, 8.92, 9.12, etc        

Now try to count in 0.25 from 7 and 23 and 54:

7, 7.25, 7.50, 7.75, 8, 8.25, etc

• Sumdog (Times Tables - week 2)
  • Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but this week we have focused on 3s and 4s, which will be great practice for the future. (Every Tuesday there is a tables test).

• Sumdog (Place Value - week 2)
  • This week’s learning is to practice questions on the value of each place and be able to compare numbers up to 1 000 000.
  • For further maths work, please visit the ‘Maths Training’ section which you can find in the tasks box on the left of the main screen. This will enable your child to push their learning further with the skills that Sumdog has given them, following a recent diagnostic test.

Year 6 Blog Friday 8th September 2023

Date: 8th Sep 2023 @ 6:46pm

Welcome to the first of Year 6s weekly blogs.

Well done to all the pupils for completing the first week of Year 6. They have all been exceptional in transitioning into the routines and getting used to the expectations of this new year.

Thank you to everyone who has worked hard to complete their summer holiday autobiographies. They read really well, which has created a super display. Next week, we hope to hear about everyone's life story next week.

This week in Year 6:

• We have improved our place value knowledge in Maths through identifying, comparing and partitioning whole numbers and numbers up to 10 million.

• In English we are reading ‘Aladdin’ by Phillip Pullman. The children have used clues to predict what this edition may be about and have written well as the new version of Aladdin.

• In Geography, our first lesson focused on using atlases to search for various cities around the world, and using coordinates to help others identify them.

• For RE, we have also begun our first topic of ‘Loving’ and what the class believe unconditional love means to them.

• In PE, ‘Invasion Games’ is our theme for the next few weeks, focusing on improving our throwing and catching skills and starting to develop advanced tactics to give an advantage for the attacking team. We have used the sport of netball and handball to explore this through.

• In PSHE, we have started our topic, ‘Online Safety’ by discussing scenarios of the impact on sharing online content.

• In Science, our new topic is called Classification. We recapped our learning to help us group animals into various categories (fish, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds / carnivore, herbivore and omnivore / vertebrates and invertebrates).

Home Practice

This week we will keep Home Practice simple until we meet at ‘Meet The Teacher’ on Tuesday 12^th September at 6:30pm, where I will explain what is expected from the children in more detail.

Reading

Please read the book you have received from school and swap it for a new one on Monday.

Spellings

You have come home with a spelling sheet. Please complete it throughout the week to help with next week’s spelling test – Friday 15^th September.

Suffixes:

hopped, hopping, playing, played, jumping, jumped, reading, readable, discussing, discussed, helpful, helpless, happiness, happier, usually.

Have a great weekend Year 6!

Back to School Online Safety Tips for Children

Date: 30th Aug 2023 @ 11:55am

With your children returning to school, it is a great time to review online safety in your homes and make sure we are all up to date with developments in the online world. At St Oswald's, all classes will be beginning their Online Saftety learning where they will learn all about safe practices online in the following areas. 

Self image and identitiy

Online relationships

Online bulllying

Health, Well-being and lifestyle

Online reputation

Managing online information

Copyright and ownership

We will blog regularly to keep you updated with developments in the online space, sharing platform guides and links to expert training for you to keep your children safe when exploring the internet. Below you will find a guide on some back to school online safety tips for children.

To access a huge range of information on the National Online Safety website click the link below and join our school online safety hub.You will get access to videos, training and guides to keep you informed of the best practices in keeping your children safe online.

http://nationalonlinesafety.com/enrol/st-oswald-s-catholic-primary-school-pr45eb

Click to View

Year 6 End of Year Blog

Date: 20th Jul 2023 @ 12:52pm

We have had such a fantastic year. Everyone has pushed themselves, persevered with challenging tasks and made memories for life. We hope you have enjoyed your time at St Oswald's. From everyone at this primary school: thank you and have a super time at high school. 

Year 6 Blog Friday 14th July 2023

Date: 15th Jul 2023 @ 4:03pm

Welcome to this week’s Year 6 blog. This has been a very busy week for Year 6 with every day full of ‘final’ events.

On Monday, we rehearsed and performed our Oliver production to the whole school.

On Tuesday, we performed three shows of Oliver at 10am, 2pm and 6.30pm. We hope you enjoyed them all as the children have been working extremely hard these past few weeks. You can see a repeat of it here by clicking on the link.

On Wednesday, Year 6 headed out for their retreat day to Liverpool. We stopped at Liverpool Cathedral to admire the amazing artwork and to reflect on the past 7 years of primary life. We then went to Crosby beach to walk together on the sand and have time to enjoy ourselves as a class.

On Thursday, Year 6 delivered their Leavers assembly, with great memories and songs shared with those that came to watch. In the afternoon, Year 6 had their final sports day. Then that evening, we celebrated the Year 6s again at the Leavers Mass, followed by fish and chips and a good dance to end the night.

On Friday, Year 6 led the infamous Super Learning Day where they got to experience new things from shelter building to karaoke to golf and many more. The Year 6 did a brilliant job all week and deserve a weekend of rest.

DO NOT FORGET – Monday and Tuesday are bikeability days so please bring your PE kit, bike and helmet for both days. As it may rain at times, you may wear leggings or tracksuit bottoms. A raincoat would be useful too.

Have a great weekend!

Year 6 Blog Friday 7th July 2023

Date: 6th Jul 2023 @ 3:33pm

Welcome to this week’s Year 6 blog.

Our final week of rehearsals for Oliver consisted of perfecting the stage directions, dance routines, lights and use of props. Next Monday will be a dress rehearsal for the school, with Tuesday being the big day of performances. Year 6 are looking forward to showing you all their fanstastic production. 

This week is Art week with our topic focusing on Activism. We used the artist Shepard Fairey and discussed how his art can help influence people’s thoughts and feelings towards different topics. We discussed the question, ‘What is your message to the world?’ We then used our learning from Romero Britto’s artwork and merged the two ideas together to create our final bright activism piece of art, which will be displayed at the summer fair.

In French, we used bilingual dictionaries to find words associated with the future - hope, peace, friendship, dreams etc and we turned them into graffiti. You'll see why next week. Then we enjoyed a celebration French breakfast.

In Science, we learnt the standard symbols used to draw electric circuits and we investigated how to change the brightness of a bulb or the loudness of a buzzer. 

Home Practice

Please continue with your ‘Numeracy Skills booklet’ from All Hallows.

• Work through all 20 questions as best as you can.
• Any you do not understand, we will go through them next WEDNESDAY
• This week have a go at completing the sheet 56.6

Year 6 Blog Friday 30th June 2023

Date: 30th Jun 2023 @ 11:44am

Welcome to this week’s Year 6 blog.

This has been a huge week of rehearsals, creating new lines, choreography and plenty of movement around the stage.

On Monday, St Oswald’s had a Poetry Day with Ian Bland, who inspired us all to be poets. Year 6 created and performed a super poem in groups, with some performing to the school.

On Tuesday, Year 6 Sports Captains led the Year 3 sports day brilliantly once again. Only one to go – Year 6’s on Monday 3^rdJuly at 2:15pm.

On Thursday, Year 6 did a great job of leading St Peter and St Paul's Feast Day in church.

On Friday, the majority of Year 6 headed for a transition day at All Hallows high school. There, they met their form tutor and lots of new people from different primary schools.  

Also, Year 6’s learning this week:

• In History, we continued the use of the library loan by investigating real posters from World War II and how propaganda had an effect on the people of Britain.

• In French, the children practised their cafe dialogues written last week and made some props for their cafe. They then filmed their little sketches - well done everyone!  

• In science, we leant about Inheritance (scientifically speaking!) and variation. There was a lot of discussion and interesting questions. The children then drew what the offspring of Mr Men and Little Miss characters might look like.  That concludes this topic on Evolution and Inheritance. We moved on to a quick recap of Electricity by making lots of different circuits. 

Home Practice

Please continue with your ‘Numeracy Skills booklet’ from All Hallows.

• Work through all 20 questions as best as you can.
• Any you do not understand, we will go through them next WEDNESDAY
• This week have a go at completing the sheet 54.5

Year 6 Blog Friday 23rd June 2023

Date: 23rd Jun 2023 @ 4:36pm

Welcome to our Year 6 blog.

This week we have continued with rehearsals, memorising lines and adapting the drama scenes, even during some very hot days.

On Wednesday, the Year 6 Sports Captains led the Year 4 sports day brilliantly, their fifth one so far – only 2 to go.

On Thursday, as part of our history topic, World War II, year 6 had a zoom workshop with Mark Mckenzie (from WW2homefront.org) to learn about the blackout, blitz, wardens, gas masks and even bomb handling.

On Friday, the Year 6s organised and led the infamous ‘Tough Kidder’ event which went down a treat with everyone having a super time.

Also, Year 6’s learning this week:

• In Maths, we reminded ourselves about the various addition strategies that we have learnt throughout the year to answer tricky problem-solving questions.
• In English, we continued with our novel, ‘1000-year-old boy’, learning about Alfie’s 1000-year-old past.

• In PE, the class were divided into four sections to test their teamwork skills of communicating and evaluating with the following sports: netball, handball, hockey and cricket.
• In History, we used a library loan of historical artefacts from the World War II era to learn about what life was like then. We had a great discussion about air raid wardens, gas masks and what life was like for children during this time.

• In Music, we have been rehearsing the songs for ‘Oliver’ and preparing for the Leaver’s Assembly.

• In French, we continued to learn the words for our leavers' song. Then we practised some phonic sounds from the cafe menu and translated a cafe dialogue. We're ready to write our own dialogue next week. The children have earned the exciting bit - some food tasting! 
• In Science, we continued to learn about Charles Darwin and his theories of Natural Selection and Evolution. We learnt about Darwin's Finches and how they evolved different beak shapes according to the food available on their specific Galapagos Island. We modelled 'eating' different foods with different 'beaks' to see which beak was best adapted to each food. We looked at the results and predicted what would happen with different food, then tested that to check our predictions. 

Home Practice

For the rest of this half term, All Hallows’ have kindly given you a ‘Numeracy Skills booklet’, which is very similar to the ones they use. This is a great transition homework for you to get used to. I have explained how to complete this in class but to remind you:

• Work through all 20 questions as best as you can.
• Any you do not understand, we will go through them on WEDNESDAY
• This week have a go at completing the sheet 53.4

Year 6 Blog Friday 16th June 2023

Date: 16th Jun 2023 @ 8:39am

Welcome to our Year 6 blog.

This week we have concluded our school production auditions with everyone receiving their parts. If you have been given a script, please learn your lines by Wednesday 21^st June.

On Thursday, we had our ‘Dance from the Heart Roadshow’ with visits from Minnie Mouse and Elsa from Frozen. A huge thank you to the Dance Leaders who gave up so much of their lunch times to learn the dance, which was executed brilliantly!

Also on Thursday, the Rugby team concluded their tournament with 4 wins out of 4, winning a huge trophy and even the extra kicking competition. Well done team!

On Friday, Mrs Walsh, one of the Maths teachers at All Hallows, visited Year 6 to lead a workshop on algebra. The children learnt how to sort numbers and letters in to terms and how to write them as algebraic expressions. They learnt how to substitute values into each expression and solve them. 

Also, Year 6’s learning this week:

• In Maths, we have learnt how to read and write Roman numerals.

• In English, we introduced our new short film story called ‘Road’s End’ about a mysterious traveller who is given a lift by a passing car. We wrote as both the driver and the passenger to see if we could work on conscious control for each one. 

• In PE, we split into three sections: bowling with increased accuracy, batting a straight drive as far as possible and a small cricket game to apply these skills.

• In History, we introduced our World War II topic by first researching what modern Germany is like today and looking at the historical significance of this country.

• In Art, we continued our Romero Britto topic using pastels to create vibrant colours before completing our own final piece.

• In Music, along with more auditions, we continued practising the songs for the Oliver production.

• In French, we continued to learn the words for our leavers' song. Then we practised some phonic sounds from the cafe menu and translated a cafe dialogue. We're ready to write our own dialogue next week. Then the children have earned the exciting bit - some food tasting! 
• In Science, we continued to learn about Charles Darwin and his theories of Natural Selection and Evolution. We learnt about Darwin's Finches and how they evolved different beak shapes according to the food available on their specific Galapagos island. We modelled 'eating' different foods with different 'beaks' to see which beak was best adapted to each food. We looked at the results and predicted what would happen with different food, then tested that to check our predictions. 

Home Practice

For the rest of this half term, All Hallows’ have kindly given you a ‘Numeracy Skills booklet’, which is very similar to the ones they use. This is a great transition homework for you to get used to. I have explained how to complete this in class but to remind you:

• Work through all 20 questions as best as you can.
• Any you do not understand, we will go through them on WEDNESDAY
• This week have a go at completing the sheet 56.3

Year 6 Blog Friday 9th June 2023

Date: 9th Jun 2023 @ 8:36am

Welcome to our first blog of Year 6’s final half term. 

On Thursday, our Tag Rugby team took on their first 3 matches against Ashbridge, Little Hoole and New Longton and managed to win all three. They did an amazing job working as a team, supporting and encouraging each other. We are looking forward to our last game next week, Thursday 15th June. 

We have been busy practising the dance for the ‘Dance from the Heart Roadshow’ – you will be able to see this live on Thursday 15^th June where it will be performed with the South Ribble sports team at 10.30am, with our gates opening at 10.25am.

Also, Year 6’s learning this week:

• In Maths, we have been learning how to reflect shapes in various mirror lines and across all four quadrants of a coordinate grid.

• In English, we introduced our new novel, ‘The 1000-Year-Old Boy’, and analysed a chapter to learn more about the character, Aidan, then wrote a diary entry as him.

• In PE, we learnt how to overarm bowl in cricket, focusing on arm technique and accuracy. We then rotated to hitting a straight drive by stepping forward and swinging your arms, with your bat, in a straight line.

• In Geography, we learnt about the importance of the Amazon rainforest. We explored the four main layers of the rainforest (forest floor, under storey, canopy layer and emergent layer) and how this habitat is home to an estimated 50% of the entire world’s species of animals and plants.

• In Art, we used our Geography topic of Brazil to inspire our new project, the artist Romero Britto. He uses amazing colours, pop art and cubism to create stunning artwork.

• In Music, along with our auditions, we have practised all the songs for Oliver, with quite a few trying out for solos. We have some amazing singers in our class.

• In French, we continued to learn the song we are preparing for the leavers' celebrations and we began to learn how to ask for items in a cafe and how to ask for the bill. 
• In Science, we learnt about plant and animal adaptations and how adaptation can be a step towards evolution. We looked at the life and work of Charles Darwin and his idea of Survival of the Fittest, meaning the best adapted rather than the one that can run fastest. We read, and drew in response to, the evolution story of the Peppered Moth, an example of Natural Selection. There are a lot of difficult concepts to grasp in this topic - well done Y6. 

Home Practice

For the rest of this half term, All Hallows’ have kindly given a ‘Numeracy Skills booklet’, which is very similar to the ones they use. This is a great transition homework to get used to. I have explained how to complete this in class but to remind everyone:

• Work through all 20 questions as best as you can.
• Any you do not understand, we will go through them on WEDNESDAY, which is the deadline. 
• This week have a go at completing the sheet 56.1

Year 6 Blog Friday 26th May 2023

Date: 24th May 2023 @ 1:59pm

Welcome to the final blog of this half term. It has been a busy 5 weeks but the children have been brilliant, showing their resilience and persevering through a challenging time.

Thank you to everyone who created a speech this week. Every single pupil did a brilliant job of standing in front of the class and speaking for around two minutes. I learnt a great deal about a whole range of topics: Rome, Pendle Witches, Democracy on Ancient Greece, holidays, favourite food, range of sports, dragons and unicorns and even about Eurovision. 

Also, Year 6’s learning this week:

In Maths, we have been learning about circles: what radius, diameter and circumference mean. We then used our knowledge of circles to interpret pie charts with percentages.

In English, we have finished our novel, Skellig, and discussed how Michael was affected by the characters around him. We also read one of my favourite stories, Mr Bunny’s Chocolate Town, and created speeches for the very sensible Debbie and the rude Mr Bunny.

In PE, we used our skills of bowling, batting and fielding to play a small game of ‘Dynamos Cricket’.

In Geography, we learnt the 5 regions of Brazil: North, North-east, West-central, South-east and South. We discussed what each region may be like and how that effects population. We then introduced new physical geography terms: The Amazon Basin, The Pantanal and the Brazilian Highlands. We looked at how these areas have different landscapes and what effect that has on the country.

In Music, we have been learning the songs for our Oliver production.

In French, we recapped the Cafe menu and how to say they liked or didn't like items from the menu, using the first person (Je) and 3^rdperson (Il/Elle). Then we began to learn the French song which will form part of their leavers' celebrations. Homework - keep listening and singing along. There are a lot of words and it's fast so practice is the only way to master it! The song is on YouTube. It's called On ecrit sur les murs by Kids United.

In Science, we learnt how fossils are formed. There was a lot of discussion and questions. Then we looked at some real fossils and used them as evidence to work out what the animal or plant might have looked like, where it might have lived and what it might have eaten. We thought about whether there was weak, moderate or strong evidence to back up our ideas. Fossils can tell us a lot about life on Earth millions of years ago, but there is also a lot that they cannot tell us which scientists have to work out from other sources. The children did some lovely observation drawings of their fossils too. Well done y6.

Home Practice

Read a good book over the holiday (aim to keep changing it every week).

Learn the Oliver production songs by the 5^th July. You have been given a second copy to take and keep at home (it is best to use YouTube or Spotify to sing along with the songs).

Have a super half term Year 6 – you deserve it!

Online Safety Update - Roblox

Date: 23rd May 2023 @ 12:10pm

We have noticed a growing number of children from all classes accessing this platform and so here is a guide on how to use the platform, including what potential risks come with allowing your children on Roblox.

Below you will find a link to join the National Online Safety platform and gain free access to a huge range of videos, resources and support, incuding filtering and the best ways to monitor your child's online activity.

http://nationalonlinesafety.com/enrol/st-oswald-s-catholic-primar-school-pr45eb