For One World Week, the school has been learning about the upcoming COP26 summit and recognising that our world was entrusted to us by God, but we are now damaging our common home.

In Year 6, we learned about the 4 main goals that Sir David Attenborough deems as being imperative to meet if we are to succeed in turning around climate change. These are:

1. Phasing out fossil fuels for renewable energy sources
2. Managing our oceans
3. Reducing meat consumption
4. Rewilding the planet

These areas became our foci for the week’s learning.

 

Monday and Wednesday

The children learned about the pros and cons of different renewables. We followed this up on Wednesday by walking to the local solar farm, which generates enough electricity to power 1000 homes in our town!

Tuesday

We learned that there are 3 main factors that play a part in destroying our oceans, which produce over half of the world’s oxygen and absorb 50 times more carbon dioxide than our atmosphere. These are:

1. Overfishing
2. Plastic pollution
3. Global warming

We thought about ways that we can address the problem of plastic pollution on a personal level; that is, ensuring that we reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible. We were then shocked to learn that man-made textile fibres – namely polyester and nylon – are essentially micro plastics. When polyester and nylon clothes are washed, many of these microfibres break free of the clothes, ending up in our water systems and, ultimately, our oceans. We saw this for ourselves by washing polyester fleeces in a bucket full of warm water, and observing the water thereafter.

Thursday

We then moved on to learning about the impact that meat consumption has on the environment. Most memorably, it requires around 2500 litres of water required to raise and graze cattle to produce a single beef burger. Moreover, and quite horrifically, the area of rainforest equivalent to a football pitch is lost every second to deforestation. The reason for this deforestation is, first and foremost, cattle farming. This inevitably destroys ecosystems and leaves millions of animals without a habitat, not to mention the fact that rainforests are crucially the lungs of the world due to the oxygen they ‘breathe’ out.

The children took part in a debate in which they put forward arguments for and against the elimination of meat from our diets. They then thought about steps they could take in their own lives to help address this problem. Some ideas were:

• Choosing the green option for school dinners at least twice a week
• Having days or weeks at home that are meat free

Friday

Today, we pulled together all our learning from the week by writing a persuasive letter to Oliver Dowden, our local MP, calling on him to prioritise repairing our damaged world.

We also enjoyed some meat-free chilli that had been slow cooking overnight, following on from yesterday’s learning about the necessity to reduce meat consumption. It definitely got the thumbs up!

The Laudato Si Leaders have been in their element this week, passionately participating in class discussion, coming up with school initiatives to be better stewards of creation, and leading an act of worship in each class over the course of the week. I am so proud of the fantastic role models they have shown themselves to be. This morning, they also led our whole-school assembly, and then this afternoon, the Year 6s joined the Receptions to have a special act of worship to conclude One World Week.

The Liturgy Leaders have been absolute stars throughout this month of October, giving up part of their lunchtimes on most days to lead the Rosary for the rest of the school. Most notably, on Tuesday, they went down to the church to lead the Rosary for the rest of the parish and did an absolutely wonderful job. Well done to you all!

Home Learning

I wish you all a wonderful half term!

Miss Donatantonio

This week in English, Year 6 have started writing their final piece for our unit on persuasion. They are writing a speech to warn people of the horrors of the bombings in the Blitz and persuade parents to leave their children in the countryside. What they have all written so far is fantastic and I can’t wait for them to complete and edit them next week and then finally perform them.

In Maths, we have been developing fluency when multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000, and then putting this into the context of converting between units of measure.

In RE, we have focused on the story of Moses and the Burning Bush and how this leads to our belief of monotheism (that there is only one God).

In PE, we continued with swimming on Wednesday and practised underarm throwing for accuracy on Thursday, whilst in Music, we explored beat and syncopation through song and body percussion. In Art, we began our topic on drawing, in which the focus was on developing tone.

Once again, Year 6 ended the week reading to their Reception learning partners. Well done!

Here is this week’s home learning, due next Wednesday:

Maths	Mathletics assignments: ·        Dividing by 10, 100, 1000 ·        Grams and Kilograms ·        Millilitres and Litres
Reading	Completion of 5 passages on ReadTheory
Spelling	To be tested: 15/10/21 average controversy criticise definite leisure necessary nuisance occur prejudice profession programme relevant rhyme suggest system thorough

Have a great weekend 😊

Miss Donatantonio

Since Day 1 of Year 6, the children have been asking me, “When are we getting our reading partners?!” Well, today was the day. The children spent the afternoon getting to know their Reception partners and reading to them in the dappled sunlight of the Reception outdoor learning area. They were absolutely fantastic with them and I can’t wait to see how their relationships develop over the coming year. Well done, Year 6!

A huge well done also goes to those who read, served and sung so beautifully in this morning’s Mass; you are already proving to be fantastic leaders of Pope Paul School.

Here is this week’s home learning:

Maths	Mathletics assignments: ·        Nearest 100? ·        Nearest 1000? ·        Rounding Numbers
Reading	Completion of 5 passages on ReadTheory
Spelling	To be tested: 01/10/21 accommodate aggressive conscious desperate environment equipment especially exaggerate hindrance immediately muscle opportunity physical recommend stomach temperature

 

Have a wonderful weekend.

Miss D

It’s been an exciting and very busy first full week back! This morning, Year 6 attended Mass then had a leadership morning at the church, during which they found out about inspirational female leaders in the modern world, and discussed how they displayed different qualities of Mary. This then led them to think about the qualities that will make them good leaders and role models this year at Pope Paul. On Monday, they will be applying for their roles of responsibility, which include House Captains, Liturgy Leaders, Fairtrade Leaders, Laudato Si’ Leaders and Sports Captains. If they would like to apply to be a House Captain, they need to prepare a speech to make in Monday’s house meetings. Other roles require a letter to be written to Mrs Heymoz, detailing why they would like the role and why they are suitable for it.

On Wednesday, the school celebrated the birthday of Our Lady. In Year 6, we identified and discussed the qualities of Mary. We also made origami flowers with birthday messages on, which were then presented to Mary in the Peace Garden. They look beautiful and are now on display at the church.

In Maths this week, we have concentrated on place value, whilst in English, we began a unit based on a WW2 text, Children of the King. We have explored the theme of evacuation and have started learning about persuasive techniques. This links with our History topic for this term – Potters Bar at War – which we will be starting next week.

Home learning begins this week, and is due on Wednesday 15th September.

Maths	Mathletics assignments: ·        Numbers from Words to Digits 1 ·        Numbers from Words to Digits 2 ·        Place Value – Millions
Reading	Completion of 5 passages on ReadTheory
Spellings	To be tested: 17/09/21 achieve appreciate available committee community determined disastrous government immediate marvellous parliament persuade sacrifice shoulder signature sufficient

Here are the origami tutorial videos that we used this week:

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Donatantonio

Our penultimate full week in Year 6 has been fun-filled to say the least. Sports Day, bouncy castle, go-karts, HSM rehearsing and of course plenty of football fever have been highlights of the last 5 days. Congratulations to St Vincent House for winning Sports Day!

Please continue to practise over the weekend all lines/songs/dances for, and particularly the ‘Wildcats’ section of We’re All In This Together (starting at 9:33). Jocks, please use the same video below from 2:04 for the chorus choreo for Get’cha Head In The Game.

Have a fab weekend and enjoy the football! 🤞

Miss D