Year 6 Week Beginning: 30.11.23

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