Spring Term 1 2026

Week commencing 2^nd February 2026

What a brilliant and busy week we’ve had in Year 6! Everywhere you looked, someone was creating, performing, experimenting or reflecting. We’ve shown real resilience, empathy, and an aspirational attitude in everything we’ve done. Here’s a look at our week…

Art – Portraits

This week we began our layered portraits project, and wow—Year 6 have seriously impressed us! We started by sketching the first layers of our portraits and studying the shapes and proportions of the face.

Everyone approached the task with an aspirational mindset, aiming high and challenging themselves to improve. We even took some photos… can you guess who is who? We’re excited to keep building up the layers next week as our portraits begin to come to life.

Science – Making Periscopes

In Science, we explored how we see things by investigating the way light travels. To understand this better, we built our very own periscopes using mirrors, cardboard and teamwork.

Some groups had to rethink their designs, showing fantastic resilience as they tested, fixed and improved their models. It was great to see such determined problem‑solving!

PE – Physical Theatre

In PE, we explored physical theatre, creating short movement pieces that told a story without using words.

This required real empathy—thinking about how to communicate feelings and ideas clearly using only our bodies. We also practised balances, strong shapes and teamwork. Some performances were powerful, some funny, and all of them showed remarkable imagination.

RE – God as Our Father

In RE, we reflected on what it means to call God Our Father. We discussed how this teaches us that:

• we are all part of God’s family
• we are all God’s children
• we should treat each other with love and respect

We connected this to the Golden Rule: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
Year 6 shared thoughtful examples of empathy, kindness, and how we can support one another in our daily lives.

Music – Celebrations Around the World

Music was full of energy as we began creating group compositions inspired by cultural celebrations such as:
Chinese New Year
Carnival in Rio
Punjabi wedding music

Each group worked with an aspirational attitude, experimenting with rhythms and trying new ideas. We’re excited to see how these performances develop.

From art to science, from RE to music, we’ve shown resilience, empathy, and an aspirational spirit that makes us proud every day. We can’t wait to see what next week brings – the final week of term 3!

Week commencing 19^th January 2026

What a fantastic week we’ve had in Year 6! Instead of sharing everything we’ve been doing, we wanted to shine a spotlight on two especially exciting events that made this week memorable: our visit from the magistrates and the annual K’Nex Challenge.

Magistrates Visit – Learning About the Law

At the start of the week, we welcomed a magistrate into Year 6 (Gary Horscroft)  to talk to us about the upcoming Mock Trials Competition, the justice system, and the role magistrates play in keeping our communities safe.

The children were brilliantly engaged throughout the session. They listened respectfully, asked thoughtful questions, and showed a real interest in how the law works. We learned about:

• the types of cases magistrates deal with,
• the different punishments they can give,
• and how important teamwork, fairness and evidence are in the courtroom.

This visit has definitely sparked excitement for our own mock trial later this term — Year 6 are already looking forward to stepping into their roles!

K’Nex Challenge – Creativity, Teamwork and Engineering

On Wednesday, the Year 5 and Year 6 children took part in the K’Nex Challenge. Working in pairs and small groups, they were tasked with designing and building a structure that met a set of tricky engineering criteria.

Every single child showed determination, creativity and excellent teamwork. Mrs Hamlin and Mrs Carr were incredibly impressed with how well the classes collaborated, supported each other, and shared ideas.

A huge congratulations goes to Marianne and Hebe, whose brilliant creation won the challenge! They will now be invited to compete in the K’Nex final in April — an amazing achievement and one we’re all so proud of.

Although we’ve highlighted just two events, the whole week has been full of hard work, cooperation and curiosity. Well done, everyone — what a week!

Week commencing 12th January 2026

We have had a really positive and purposeful week in Year 6, full of thoughtful discussions, brilliant learning and lots of care for one another.

This week we started our Peacemakers work, where the children explored how to communicate their feelings and needs in tricky situations. Using the framework “When… I feel… because… what I need/want is…”, the children showed empathy and respect for one another. They engaged very well with the session and clearly enjoyed the opportunity to reflect, share and listen. It was lovely to see such kindness and understanding within the class.

In English, we have been focusing on writing balanced arguments, debating the question “Should children wear school uniforms?” The children have worked hard to consider both sides fairly and thoughtfully, and we will be completing our final written piece next week.

In Maths, we finished our work on BODMAS – such an important area to understand – and have now moved on to our fractions unit, which the children have approached with confidence and determination.

In RE, the children showed a strong understanding of the Golden Rule taught by Jesus: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” They applied this meaningfully to their own lives and made thoughtful links to the Beatitudes, demonstrating compassion and empathy.

We have been especially impressed with the Geography work on mountains. The children showed excellent focus as they explored the features of mountains and how they are formed, making great use of their sticky knowledge.

Overall, it has been a week filled with hard work, reflection, empathy and love. We are incredibly proud of the way Year 6 continue to grow both academically and personally. 

Week commencing 5th January 2026

What a fantastic start to the new term! Even though we’ve only had four days back after the Christmas break, Year 6 have been incredibly busy and full of enthusiasm.

In Science, we’ve launched our new topic on Light and the children are excited about the investigations ahead (including making periscopes soon!). In Geography, we’ve started exploring Mountains—how they are formed and where they are found around the world.

Maths has been all about BODMAS, which was a great way to ease back into problem-solving after the holidays. In English, we’ve begun writing discursive texts and debated the question: Should zoos be kept open or banned? There were some very strong and thoughtful opinions shared!

In RE, our new focus is on the Beatitudes. The children wrote their own creative Beatitales based on one of the Beatitudes and enjoyed sharing these with each other—reminding us how faith, hope, and love are interwoven in our daily lives. Faith gives us the courage to learn and grow, hope inspires us to look forward to new challenges, and love binds us together as a class community.

PE has been full of energy with street dance—lots of attitude and character needed! We also had our first lesson with Salo from The Music Works, using GarageBand to create music, which was great fun. It's been a busy Friday as we’ve played hockey with mini matches - working on the 'long corner' - as well as dribbling drills, and taken part in preparing for 'House of Commons style' debating during our Reach activity.

It’s been a busy, exciting start to the term, and we can’t wait to see what next week brings!

Week commencing 9^th February

What an amazing final week of term it has been in Year 6! The children have worked incredibly hard across every subject, showing maturity, teamwork, creativity, and a real sense of faith, hope and love. We couldn’t be prouder of everything they’ve achieved.

Literacy: Stunning Narrative Settings

We completed our narrative setting unit this week, and the children produced some truly brilliant final pieces. They have worked hard to:

• vary their sentence lengths for effect
• experiment with different sentence openers
• build atmosphere through descriptive language

The improvement in their writing has been fantastic, and their final settings were imaginative, detailed, and a pleasure to read.

Maths: Multiplying and Dividing Fractions

In Maths, Year 6 moved on to multiplying and dividing fractions. They learnt several methods and showed great confidence choosing the one that suited them best.

They were particularly pleased to discover how simple fraction multiplication can be — you just multiply across! Division brought a bit more challenge, but they showed resilience and quickly got to grips with the steps involved.

Art: Layered Masterpieces

Our layered artwork is now complete, and the final pieces look absolutely fantastic. The class have worked carefully at every stage to create depth, colour, and impact. We are so proud of the creativity and focus shown by everyone.

Geography: Trekking to Everest Base Camp

To finish our Geography unit in excitement, Year 6 embarked on a virtual field trip to Everest Base Camp!
They explored the terrain, climate, culture and challenges of high-altitude trekking. This immersive experience really brought the topic to life and allowed the children to reflect on what it takes to face such an extreme environment.

REACH Treat: Candy-Themed Escape Room

As a reward for their excellent choices and effort this term, we enjoyed a candy-themed escape room! The children worked together in small groups to crack codes, solve puzzles and unlock clues. It was a fun way to celebrate their achievements this term.

RE: St Carlo Acutis, the Beatitudes & the Golden Rule

In RE, we focused on how faith, hope and love guide our actions. We learned about St Carlo Acutis, a modern young saint who lived these virtues through kindness, respect, and service.

The children were amazed to discover that Carlo achieved so much in his short life—he sadly died at just 15 years old.
We explored how his choices linked to:

• The Beatitudes
• The Golden Rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated

The class had thoughtful discussions about how they can follow his example in their own lives.

Lent Retreat: Time for Reflection

This week we also took part in our Lent retreat, which provided space for quiet reflection, personal growth, and thinking about how we can support others during this special season.

A huge well done to our chaplaincy members, Ellie and Hebe, who supported the retreat beautifully. Their leadership was calm, thoughtful, and a real credit to the class.

Special Events: Mental Health Week & Safer Internet Day

This week was also Mental Health Week, and Year 6 spent time thinking carefully about the power of our words and how we can be kinder with our comments to one another. We reflected on what it means to belong and completed a thoughtful activity about the different communities we are part of. On Safer Internet Day (Tuesday 10th), we explored the growing role of AI in our lives and discussed when it is appropriate—and not appropriate—to use it. The class had conversations about staying safe online and making responsible choices in a digital world – please keep reinforcing how to do this at home.