Year 6 Week Beginning 6.11.23

This week, the children in Year 6 have been thinking about Remembrance and began the week by making special prayer poppies which were displayed in our prayer area in the classroom; it ended today with a whole school pilgrimage around the school. This was a wonderful opportunity to visit each class and see their remembrance displays with their reading partners.

In English this week, the children began planning their Windrush diary entries, ready for the write-up sessions next week. The children are REALLY enjoying this text and complain every time I stop reading, so I am expecting some fantastic writing next week!

In Science, Year 6 began their new topic on ‘Light’. This week, the children had to find out how light travels and enjoyed setting up their own investigations; as a result, they learnt that light travels in a straight line!

In PE, the class continued their new dance unit based on the themes from WW2. They had lots of fun putting together simple dance steps to create routines in pairs. This was set to music from WW2.

Home learning has been set on:

Mathletics

Spag.com

Spelling Shed

Please continue to read daily and please bring your reading logs in on a daily basis. Thank you Year 6.

 

Have a good weekend,

 

Ms Pemberton

Year 6 Week Beginning: 30.11.23

windrush-child-benjamin-zephaniah-16x9 - Mill Hill Schools

This week, Year 6 began their new writing unit based on the story Windrush Child by Benjamin Zephaniah.

The book tells the story of a 10-year-old boy called Leonard. In 1958, Leonard travels with his mother from Jamaica to England to join his father. The novel follows Leonard as he struggles to adapt to life in Britain.

Although Windrush Child is a fictional story, Benjamin Zephaniah was inspired by historical events when he wrote Windrush Child. He also drew on his own experience of growing up in Britain in the 1960s.

In class, the children have been doing lots of  learning about the Windrush generation, in order to have a better understanding of the themes within the book. They learnt:

The Windrush generation

In the book, Leonard’s father is a passenger on the Empire Windrush. This was a real ship which travelled to Britain from Jamaica in 1948. Many of the people on board had left their homes in the Caribbean having been encouraged to find work and a better life in Britain. They were all British by law so they were all free to stay. This group of people were the first of the Windrush generation. Many stayed and built lives and families in Britain.

The Immigration Act 1971 granted permanent leave to remain in Britain to those who migrated before 1971. This meant that those who were part of the Windrush generation remained legal migrants and could stay in Britain to live and work. However, no paperwork stating that they had the right to permanently remain in Britain was given to these individuals.

In 2017, the Windrush scandal revealed that many people who were part of the Windrush generation, like Leonard, had been wrongly arrested or forced to leave the country because they had no proof of their legal status.

By 2019, the British Prime Minister apologised and promised to pay compensation to the 15,000 people affected. 

In Maths, Year 6 have been solving real life maths problems by working backwards. They also had lots of fun learning and playing a strategic Chinese maths game called ‘Nim’.

In Science this week, the children finished their Animals Including Humans topic by creating ‘Healthy Living’ information booklets for younger children.

In PE, the children had lots of fun participating in a war themed dance lesson!

Home learning this week is:

Mathletics– Four operations

Spag.com– Parenthesis and commas activity and a general grammar quiz based on the learning you did in Year 5

Spelling Shed

Daily reading

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy any fireworks displays you may be going to!

See you Monday,

Ms Pemberton

What a wonderful One World Week Year 6 have had!

This week, the children have been very busy finding out about Zambia.

On Monday, the class baked vitumbuwa, a type of Zambian fritter. Year 6 opted to use an air fryer rather than the deep fat fried variety- everyone agreed that they were delicious!

On Tuesday, the children found out about why Zambia celebrates Independence Day. They also researched some unknown facts and presented the information in the form of posters.

On Wednesday, Year 6 presented their inspirational Zambian people home learning to the rest of the class.

Thursday was a jam-packed day! The class painted Zambian scenery inspired paintings in acrylic, on canvas. The results were simply stunning!

The class then had a fascinating visit from Mrs Heymoz, who shared a PowerPoint about the time she lived and taught in neighbouring Zimbabwe.

Straight after that, the children participated in an African dancing online lesson, which proved to be both lots of fun but very tiring!

Today, Year 6 were treated to a wonderful visit from Naomi and Julia’s mum. She talked to the class about lots of different aspects of Zambian life and brought lots of different food for the children to sample. Finally, she explained that because Zambia gets long electricity power cuts, families have to find other ways to cook- she demonstrated this by cooking sausages over an open fire in the peace garden. Thank you so much for visiting us and helping us to bring learning to life!

Finally, this afternoon, the class took part in a whole school One World Week sharing session, where the class were split up into groups and went off to different year groups around the school. It was fantastic to find out about all the lovely learning that has taken place around our school this week.

Thank you to all the parents who joined Year 6 for a class mass on Wednesday. The children’s behaviour was exemplary and the reading and singing were superb!

It was lovely to catch up with parents this week during parent consultations- thank you for coming to see me!

No home learning over this half term break. Instead, spend time having fun with your loved ones.

Have a well deserved break Year 6. You have all worked incredibly hard this first half term and you have been a pleasure to teach.

Ms Pemberton

 

Year 6 Week Beginning 9/10/23

It has been a very quiet week in Year 6!

The children have been working really hard completing some assessments in Maths and Reading. These assessment will be very helpful in identifying any misconceptions or gaps in their understanding, and will also help to inform next steps in their learning.

In English, the class have been very busy composing narratives set during WW2, written from an evacuee’s perspective. This has been part of our unit of work based around the book, Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian. The children have really enjoyed doing these and I am looking forward to reading them!

In History, the children have continued to learn about how Potters Bar was affected by both world wars. After doing some research, they found the exact locations of bombsites around our local area and also learnt how the Catholic church was bombed in Southgate Road. Year 6 also found out the names of the 13 soldiers buried in St Mary’s Cemetery, Mutton Lane.

In Science, the class have been learning about the importance of drinking water and how it keeps us alive.

Gentle reminder-On Wednesday, we have our class mass at 9.15am- we really hope you can join us!

We are looking forward to next week, where we will be learning about Zambia as part of One World Week!

For home learning, please find out about inspirational people who come from Zambia. Choose one person to make an information poster or booklet about and be prepared to talk about your inspirational person to the rest of the class!

Have a lovely weekend,

Ms Pemberton

 

 

Year 6 Week Beginning 2.10.23

Year 6 have been very busy this week preparing for today’s class assembly.

They began on Monday by meeting in their new leadership groups and deciding on the key messages they wanted to deliver to the Pope Paul community, during their time on stage.

On Tuesday, they used the chrome books to write their speeches. They then presented them to the rest of the class and the children then gave suggestions in order to improve each speech further.

On Wednesday, the children edited their speeches and made improvements; they were then put together as an assembly!

The children made their teachers very proud this morning with their professional attitudes and outstanding delivery! Well done Year 6!

On Tuesday, the children met their new Italian teacher Corrado. He will be teaching the class Italian every Tuesday afternoon! Welcome Corrado!

 

Home Learning

SPaG.com

Mathletics

Spelling Shed

TT Rockstars

All learning has been allocated on these websites for you, as discussed in class.

In preparation for One World Week, please find out as much as you can about our focus country, Zambia!

I also attach information about the BBC 500 Words competition. There is no pressure to enter this, but it looks fantastic!

BBC 500 Words 2023: register your interest to become a judge – BBC Teach

 

Have a lovely weekend,

Ms Pemberton

 

 

Year 6 Week Beginning 25/9/23

It has been another very busy week in Year 6.

The week started with great excitement and anticipation, as on Monday, the children finally found out which leadership role they had been awarded!

Some of the  children have already been put to work in their new roles- The Laudato Si’ group have met and prepared something for the St Vincent mass on Sunday, the sports leaders have had a meeting with Ms Pringle and the new St Vincent captains, Grey and Lucy, have prepared and led a whole school assembly about the life of St Vincent. The class were all presented with their leadership badges during assembly on Thursday which they are wearing with pride!

In Science, the children continued to explore the question:

Is there a relationship between the type of exercise that you do and the number of heart beats per minute (bpm)?

They organised the equipment that they need and had lots of fun carrying out the test that they had planned the week before.

Today, Year 6 finally got to meet their Reception reading partners. The sun was shining and so the children spent time getting to know one another outside. Year 6 spent some time beforehand reminiscing about the time spent with their own learning partners when they were in Reception themselves and understand that this is is a very special relationship that will continue to build as the weeks progress.

For home learning this week, please write a letter to your reading partner, welcoming them to Pope Paul and telling them all about yourself. These letters will be given to the reception children next Friday.

Please also log on to Mathletics and Spelling Shed for additional home learning. The problems with Spelling Shed have been rectified.

For those of you who are going, I will see you at the St Vincent mass on Sunday. If not, have a lovely weekend!

Ms Pemberton

Year 6 Week Beginning 18.9.23

The children have had a very busy week filled with lots of lovely learning opportunities.

On Tuesday, they had a very special online lesson with Collette from the Safer Streets team. She held a workshop based on:

  • Active and sustainable travel
  • Seatbelt safety
  • Highway street design
  • Engine idling

She finished her session with a quiz and the children were able to demonstrate a clear understanding of how to keep safe on the roads and pavements.

In English, the class began their new unit of learning, based on the book Goodnight Mister Tom, by Michelle Magorian. This book has been our end of the day whole class read since the start of term. It is about a little boy who is evacuated to the country as Britain stands on the brink of the Second World War. The book itself fits wonderfully with our current learning in History too.

In Maths, Year 6 have been solving problems with negative numbers and have been rounding numbers to the nearest: 10,   100,   1000,  10,000,   100,000,   1,000,000,   10,000,000.

In RE, the children have been learning about the three Sacraments of Initiation, and the symbols, words and actions associated with each of them.

In Science, the class have continued their learning about the circulatory system and have planned their own comparative test which will be carried out next week.

In History, the class learnt about the Zeppelin crash in Potters Bar on October 1st 1916 and how the crash impacts residents even today. They discovered that our play area at Oakmere Park is themed on this historic event and that two streets are named after the man who shot it down (Tempest Ave and Wulstan Park).

Today, many of the Year 6 children sang at Ms Steff’s mother’s funeral. Both their behavior and singing were exemplary with many of the funeral party and parishioners commenting on how impressed they were. Well done children, you made us very proud!

This afternoon, KS1 and KS2 were treated to a theatre production of Alice in Wonderland; it was very exciting and a lovely way to finish the week!

Home learning this week is:

Mathletics– Recapping learning- rounding numbers. I have also set a ‘Quest’ for those of you that want a challenge.

Spelling Shed

SPaG.com– Grammar test and expanded noun phrases.

Daily reading for 20mins

In History on Monday, we will be learning about the national evacuation event. Please do a little background reading and/or online research over the weekend, to prepare yourself with some knowledge before the lesson.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms Pemberton

Year 6 Week Beginning 11.6.23

It’s been another week of wonderful learning in Year 6 this week!

It was lovely to see so many of you at the Meet the Teacher session on Monday.

Don’t worry if you couldn’t make it as the information will be added to the class page on the school website.

In Maths, the children have been comparing and ordering very large whole and decimal numbers numbers, as part of their learning about place value.

They have applied their new learning on persuasive techniques, through composing and editing letters of application for the school leadership positions. Once finalised, these letters will be given to Mrs Heymoz to consider, along with the results of today’s house captain elections. On that note, the children who put themselves forward and gave speeches in front of their houses this morning were absolutely fantastic- they spoke clearly, were well prepared and were so encouraging of one another! Well done Year 6! All leaderships roles will be announced in due course, so watch this space!

In Science, the children  have been learning about the circulatory system. They spent lots of time finding out about the heart and had lots of fun working in pairs to make a model of one of the chambers!

In History, the class began their new topic based around the theme of ‘Potters Bar at War’. They looked at the chronology of both world wars and looked at how they fitted in with history over time. They created their own timelines and plotted important dates and events that happened between 1900 and now. Please help your child to write down any key events in your own family history, such as birthdates of grand-parents, so they can add to them in class, thank you!

The children have been given a copy of their personal logins for: SPaG.com, Mathletics and Ed Shed. They haven’t been given the T T Rock Stars, although I believe they are the same as last year. I will locate these and give them out early next week.

Home learning has been set as follows:

SPaG– Relative clauses

Colons and semi-colons

Mathletics– Place value activities

Spelling Shed– this week’s Year 6 challenge words- dictation will follow on Friday

Independent reading– Please ensure that you are reading for a minimum of 20 minutes a day- parents are asked to kindly sign your reading record once a week.

Please let me know if there are any problems logging on or completing the tasks set. Thank you!

It has been a truly pleasurable week in Year 6 this week!

Have a lovely weekend,

Ms Pemberton

Year 6 Week Beginning 4.9.23

Welcome back!

Year 6 have had a fantastic first week in their new class and have settled really quickly. The weather has been hot, hot, hot; despite this, the class have worked incredibly hard and given their best, all week long.

This year, Pope Paul School is celebrating the Year of Diversity. The children have spent lots of time in class thinking about what diversity means to them and have learnt that it simply means difference.

In English, the children have been learning about persuasion. They used cohesive language when discussing what makes a good/bad leader and prepared short speeches to express their opinion about, ‘What makes a leader effective?’ Year 6 also listened to different persuasive speeches, such as Greta Thunberg’s motivational speech at UK Climate Strike, for inspiration.

Greta Thunberg’s speech at UK climate strike – YouTube

They learnt that rhetorical devices, when used well, are powerful techniques for getting what you want. Examples of these are: Flattery, hyperbole, using imperatives and personal pronouns, repetition (the rule of three), using anecdotes and emotive language. Next week, the children will be applying these techniques to their own writing, when they compose their leadership letter of application to Mrs Heymoz.

In Maths, Year 6 have been reading, writing and exploring large numbers: some children have been working with numbers well into the billions- very impressive!

In RE, the class have been focussing on the school’s Mission Prayer. They used the bible to locate where each part of the prayer comes from, and wrote about how they intend to live out the values of the Mission Prayer, this year.

In Art, the children began their new topic: Activism: Printing, drawing and collaging! This topic explores how artists use their skills to speak on behalf of communities. During this unit, the class will make art based on the things they care about.

In Computing, Year 6 learnt about what is necessary to have effective communication and the importance of agreed protocols. They applied this understanding to IP address and the rules (protocols) that computers have for communicating with one another. The children also learnt about the use of a Domain Name Server (DNS) to translate web addresses into IP addresses.

In Music, the class began their new unit about swing music and were given a taste of Glen Miller music!

The week was finished off by a special mass of thanksgiving for Ms Lawlor, who has dedicated 25 years of her life to the children and families of Pope Paul School- thank you Ms Lawlor!

Online home learning will commence again from next Friday.

This weekend, the children have been asked to compose a speech, to persuade the other children in the school to vote for them to be a House Captain, on Friday. All children have been encouraged to apply for these roles, however, if your child doesn’t want to, this is absolutely fine, but please note that they are still required to write a speech using all of the persuasive features learnt this week in class.

Things to consider when writing your persuasive speech:

What effect do you want to have on the audience?

  • To feel inspired
  • To gain trust and confidence between the persuader and the audience
  • For the audience to like you
  • For the audience to agree and act accordingly after
  • To change minds and convince people to accept a view or an idea
  • To sell the benefits that they will gain from choosing you

Some people, particularly politicians, use something called a rhetorical device.

Rhetorical devices are powerful techniques for getting what you want.

Examples are:

  • Flattery- complimenting your audience e.g. a person of your intelligence deserves better than this…
  • Hyperbole- exaggerated language g. It is simply out of this world –strong.
  • Personal pronouns- I, we, you e.g. You are the key to this entire idea succeeding- we will be with you all the way, I can’t thank you enough.
  • Using imperatives- instructional language. E.g. Get on board and join us!
  • Triples– grouping language in threes e.g. Safer streets means comfort, reassurance and peace of mind for you, your family and your friends.
  • Emotive language- language that appeals to emotions. E.g. There are thousands of animals at the mercy of our selfishness.

Other factors that contribute towards a successful persuasive piece are:

  • Use of modal verbs- could, should, would, possibly, obviously likely.
  • Anacdotes- a short, amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.
  • Speaking clearly and confidently
  • Confident body language
  • Formal tone
  • Repetition
  • Making promises
  • Rhetorical questions- have you ever wondered…
  • Adverbs of possibility- I think, possibly, undoubtedly

 

Good luck!

I am looking forward to see you all at the Meet the Teacher, next Monday at 2.45pm.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Ms Pemberton

 

 

 

Friday 21st July 2023

Our final week has been filled with making memories. On Tuesday we spent time with our Reception partners having a movie and popcorn afternoon.

On Wednesday, it was wonderful to join together for a mass to celebrate the end of the children’s Pope Paul journey. We followed that with a fantastic pizza and ice cream factory lunch.

Click here for the photos.

Thursday was Fun Day and we certainly did just that! Take a look at what we got up to…

 

Today was filled with signing shirts and yearbooks.

We wish all the children and their families a wonderful summer and a brilliant start at their new schools.

 

Thank you parents for your wonderful gifts and beautiful cards.

We wish the class a fun filled disco evening and a wonderful summer!

 

Mrs Lines and Mrs McNamara