Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the Summer term of 2024! Throughout this academic year, we have been working extremely hard to ensure all pupils enjoy their learning, feel confident and ready for their transition to secondary school. All the years that your child has invested in Southfields have built up to this final year, which demonstrates the amazing progress that they have made – academically, personally and socially - and has prepared them for the next big step on their educational journey.

The way in which children have changed, developed and matured in Year 6 is remarkable and we have enjoyed being a  part of that process. They began the year as young buds and now are almost ready to leave as blossomed flowers, grown up and ready to stand on their own two feet. All children are making a wonderful transformation and we are confident that they will leave our classrooms as stronger, more confident learners.

Our fantastic team in Year 6 will all continue working hard to ensure your children have an engaging and memorable summer term. Please take your time to read through this information to be informed about the topics we will be focusing on this term, as well as lots of important information about routines etc. on the other pages.

Meet the Team

Mrs Marsden - Year 6 Teacher, Year Leader and Mathematics Lead

Dr Tether - Year 6 Teacher / Arts Leader

Miss Ticehurst - Year 6 Teacher / Science Team

Mrs Thomas - Supporting Teacher in 6KT (Fridays) / Geography Team

Mrs Isnovoiu - Teaching Assistant in 6DM

Mrs Bush - Teaching Assistant in 6KT

Mrs Nespoli - Teaching Assistant in 6JT

Mrs Quinn – Teaching Assistant in 6JT

Important Information

Year 6 Summer Term Topics

English - We will learn how to write a discussion based on their learning of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. We will also write a narrative based on Alma. Alongside this, we will revise key grammar skills to ensure their fluency is secure and that we can confidently apply this knowledge of grammar within written techniques.

 

Maths - revision of key concepts to ensure we are fluent and confident to reason mathematically and apply our skills to solve problems. Revision areas include calculations using the four operations plus fractions, decimals and percentages. Ratio and proportion, measurement, shape, area, perimeter and volume, statistics and position and direction.

Science - Electricity.

 History – the history of significant people.

 

Geography – carrying out fieldwork in the local area.

 

RE - How can we achieve peace? What makes a good person or a bad person?

Art - Sculpture and 3D: Making Memories

DT - Digital World: Navigating the World

Music - Pop Art & composing music

PSHE - Citizenship, identity, safety and the changing body

PE - Netball, Gymnastics & Athletics

French - Planning a French Holiday and visiting a French town

Computing - Debugging Codes & promotional videos

 

Start of the school day:

Children will enter school through the Year 5/6 gate.

The gate will be open at 8.35am until 8:45am with registers closing at 9.00am.

End of school day:

School finishes at 3:15pm and the children will need to be collected from the Year 5/6 playground.

Children are allowed to walk home from school by themselves if you have completed the online permission form on our school website and they have received the walking home pass.

Bike Permits

If your child rides a bike to school and keeps their bike locked in school grounds, you will need to apply for a bike permit. If you would like to apply for a bike permit simply complete the online permission form on our school website. The school has limited spaces so will be allocating these to pupils who live the furthest away from school. The school will be handing out the permits in September. There will be no bikes allowed on the site until then due to a safe return on the first few days. Once the permits are allocated, a space will be given and guidance on using it safely.

Uniform:

Children should wear their school uniform for four days a week and PE kit on their class PE day. Children can still wear their own clothes on their birthday.

PE:             

6DM and 6KT will do PE on a Thursday. 6JT will do PE on a Friday. They will continue to come to school in their kits on that day like they did last year. Please ensure they are following the school's dress code for PE. This should be black or blue trousers and jumper and a plain white t-shirt. The lessons will take place outside wherever possible so please make sure the children are dressed appropriately for this. Children must have their hair tied up for PE sessions and no jewellery is allowed in PE for health and safety reasons.

Bags, Stationary and Water Bottles:

Your child may bring in a bag that can be stored on their personal peg in the cloakroom. Your child will receive a school water bottle. This should then be taken home, washed and returned to school each day filled up with water. 

Water bottles can be re-filled with drinking water in the classroom during the day.

Lunch:

If your child has a packed lunch, they can bring it in a lunch box or in a plastic bag. We do recommend keeping ice packs with the lunch to keep it cool and fresh. The children will be eating in the hall, or if the weather permits, outside.

If your child is having a hot dinner at school this must be booked in advance. Mrs Buck will not be able to book meals on behalf of parents anymore due to Data Protection, therefore you must book your child's meal. If you do not book a meal, then you will need to provide one and bring it into school.

Snacks:

We encourage the children to bring in a piece of fruit or vegetable for break time. No other snacks are allowed. This needs to be brought separately to their lunch.

Home Learning:

In Year 6, home learning expectations are as follows:

• This term, the children will be set revision tasks across the core subjects to complete each week.
• Reading (4 x a week minimum) - this is to be recorded in their reading diary
• Spellings will be sent home and tested on the day relevant to your class. They should practise these 4 x a week in their L.C.W.C book (please see more information below)
• Maths/English revision online using Spelling Shed and IXL. 
• Times tables should be practised weekly on Times Table Rockstars.
• A creative topic homework piece will be set to complete each half term for the children to complete at least one piece for that half term.
• Now that the children are in Year 6 they will be encouraged to take ownership of their own home learning. We will monitor this weekly and children who persistently are not completing it will be asked to complete it in their own time to ensure they do not fall behind or miss out academically.

Spelling:

This year, we will continue to use Spelling Shed to support spelling learning at Southfields. Each child will receive a log in for this online resource where they can practise the spellings online in game type formats. The children will still receive a purple book (L.CW.C book) with a hard copy of their spellings in for them to handwrite them, use them in sentences or any other strategy from the spelling menu that they may find useful.  

Online Resources:

Your child will have access to the following sites: Spelling Shed, Times Table Rockstars, Purple Mash, IXL and Espresso. We recommend that your child uses their membership given by the school to the best of their advantage by thoroughly exploring these websites at home. These are amazing and can really help to support and enhance home learning. The children will keep their logins and passwords for online resources throughout their time at Southfields so should have these already and they will be stuck into the front of their reading log.

Class Dojo:

We love to use Class Dojo to communicate with you. Please do make sure you are connected to Class Dojo and please keep an eye on Class Dojo for day-to-day class and whole-school information, photos and updates. A key priority of ours is the relationships between teachers and adults at home to ensure that the children are fully supported at home and at school. Please do not hesitate to communicate with your child’s class teacher or year leader through Class Dojo. It should be noted that this tool is to be used in an appropriate and friendly way. We also have set ‘work hours’ in order to allow teachers to switch off from work in the evenings. Some teachers may reply in the evenings but this is the choice of each teacher and should not be expected. We hope you can all support us with this so that we can continue to use this helpful online tool.

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We understand that there is a lot of information, so please feel free to read it more and contact your class teacher if you have any further questions. We will always try our best to help you.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Marsden, Dr Tether and Miss Ticehurst

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