Mantis and Scorpion Classes

English

In English, the pupils will be basing their writing on last term’s novel, the Adventures of Odysseus by Hugh Lupton. It is a rich and exciting story that excites and stimulates the pupils. The pupils will explore the themes of the text in depth and use it as a stimulus for their independent writing. This term we are focussing on producing work that demonstrates the pupils can produce a range of text-types. We will be producing letters, a Greek Myth and a non-chronological report. The pupils will be ensuring that they use a wide variety of sentence structures, formal and informal voice, high-level vocabulary, figurative language and the full range of punctuation. Pupils will draft and re-draft work with a focus on independence and craft.

Maths

We will start this half-term by continuing to explore decimals before moving onto decimals, percentages and fractions.  The children will be revising how to recognise equivalency as well as how to accurately find fractions and percentages of different amounts.  We will also be revising area and perimeter before introducing the children to volume whilst ensuring the children have plenty of access to SATS style questions for these topics. As we move ever closer to the Year 6 SATs tests in May, we will continue to practice using calculation methods accurately and solving reasoning problems in different contexts effectively as part of our early morning work.

Science

In this unit, pupils will look more closely at light and how it behaves. They will learn that light is the visible part of a spectrum of energy. Pupils will be reminded that some surfaces reflect light, some allow it to pass through them and some block it. They will look again at shadows and how light travels. Pupils will test the hypothesis that shadows are always the same shape as the object that made them. They will work scientifically to plan how to test the hypothesis, before carrying it out. Pupils will also look at how the eye functions, how light travels through it and how our brain receives messages from the eye. Going beyond the national curriculum requirements, pupils will also look at prisms and how they split white light into its constituent colours. This will give pupils some prior knowledge when they come to study the different frequencies of light and prisms in KS3 Physics. Unit Rationale Light (Physics) Year 6 Finally, pupils will use their knowledge of how light behaves to make a periscope. This will help them to see that by understanding the behaviour of light, scientists and engineers have harnessed light to create a device that can help us see something that is out of our line of sight.

History

This half term we will be spending the next 6 weeks trying to answer our big question of what were the contributing factors to the outbreak of World War 2. During the lessons, we will be exploring how Germany was impacted by the Treaty of Versailles on 1919 and how this led to the growth of Nazi Party and Hitler’s dominance in Germany during this period. We will be trying to understand what life was like for the German people as well as others in Nazi Germany and how this led to the outbreak of World War 2.

Geography

In Geography this half term we will be studying the human and physical geography of South America. We will be using maps of South America to identify key countries and key physical features, including the Andes Mountains. We will also explore why geologists and scientists think South America and Africa were joined many millions of years ago. We will learn about the Inca Empire, building on our knowledge of empires from history and the significance of Machu Picchu and how the Inca overcame the challenge of the terrain to build an empire across the Andes Mountain range. Finally, we will explore the interconnection between humans and the environment when studying the Amazon Rainforest and the forest fires that have occurred there in recent years. We will consider the impact human activity has on the environment and the threat it can cause to biodiversity.

PE

This half term we will be inside doing fitness and doing hockey outdoors.  In fitness the children will take part in a range of activities that explore and develop different areas of their health and fitness. They will learn different components of fitness including speed, stamina, strength, co-ordination, balance and agility. During our hockey lessons the children will work on developing their understanding of the attacking and defending principles in the game. The children will also have to think about how they use skills, strategies and tactics to outwit the opposition by maintaining possession and moving the ball towards goal to score. 

R.E.

Music

This unit explores minimalist music and soundscapes. Minimalism is a way of composing that was developed in the 20th century that uses minimal musical materials, such as repetitive patterns and motifs. The contemporary American composer, Steve Reich is known for writing minimalist music using body percussion. The children also listen to music by an English musician and sound recordist, Chris Watson. Watson creates ‘soundscapes’ (a sound or combination of sounds that arise of an environment).. Through listening to minimalist music and soundscapes the children explore creating their own music using recorded sounds from their own environment in a layered texture.

PSHE

This term in PSHE the children will be looking at how to take responsibility for their own health and how to make choices that benefit their own physical and mental health and well-being. We will be learning the importance of healthy diets and exercise. We will also learn about healthy relationships and the dangers of gangs and exploitation.

Art

In Art this half term we will learn about the work of the Victorian designer William Morris. The children start by looking at Morris’ wallpaper designs, learning that these were stylized forms based on nature, bearing the influence of Islamic design. They learn how the wallpaper was produced by block printing and create their own Morris inspired designs printed using the reduction method on polystyrene tiles.

Computing

This half term the children will be introduced to spreadsheets. They will be supported in organising data into columns and rows to create their own data set. The children will also be taught the importance of formatting data to support calculations, while also being introduced to formulas and will begin to understand how they can be used to produce calculated data. The children be taught how to apply formulas that include a range of cells and apply formulas to multiple cells by duplicating them. Finally, they will create charts and evaluate their results in comparison to questions asked.

D.T.

This term, the pupils will be cooking a delicious Greek Mezze!