Year 6

Y6 Lanner Matrix 1 overview (1)

 

Spring 1 2025

 

Let’s take a journey into Hogwarts, via King’s Cross Station! This half term, the children will explore the wonderful world of wizardry through the first book in the series: ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ by J. K. Rowling.

English

Reading will be taught daily through our core text and each day they will enjoy an English lesson examining and learning about the following genres: narrative, journalistic writing and poetry.

We begin be exploring the contrasting characters, Harry and Dudley, then later look at Snape in more detail. Our journalistic writing will include writing newspaper reports and presenting Quidditch match reports to the class. Poetry will be based on J. K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts book. I can’t wait to share their poetry with you!

Maths

As mathematicians, we will be learning and applying a wide range of maths skills, including revisiting the four written and mental calculation methods.

For the large majority of term, we’ll focus on decimals and percentages: ordering, comparing, ordering and finding percentages of amounts. We will conclude our half term with two weeks on algebra.

Geography

In geography, we will learn about weathering and erosion. To begin our learning, we will venture on a field trip, using maps to plot our route alongside a local geologist. The children will observe and identify where erosion and weathering has taken place locally. Later in the unit, we will hold class discussions about the future of erosion and debate whether we should put measures in place to protect our coastlines.

 

Science 

Our science topic will be ‘Electricity’. These are the objectives the children will cover:

• Associate the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer with the number and voltage of cells used in the circuit.
• Compare and give reasons for variations in how components function, including the brightness of bulbs, the loudness of buzzers and the on/off position of switches.
• Use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in a diagram.
• Identify and name the basic parts of a simple electric series circuit, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches, and buzzers, and compare and give reasons for variations in how components function, including brightness of bulbs, loudness of buzzers and on/off position of switches
• Explain that short circuits may cause wires to heat up and that fuses are electrical safety devices that are triggered by short circuits.
• • Explain the effect of changing the voltage of a battery.

 

 Art

In art, we will be exploring the works of Cornish artist, Laurie McCall https://lauriemccall.co.uk/.

Our end of unit outcome is to produce a mixed media composition using McCall’s influences. The children will be exploring a range techniques, various media and digital photography.

 

Religious Education

During our RE sessions, we’ll be thinking about Why do Hindus want to be good?

We will explore ideas of karma and belief in samsara to achieve moksha. The children will research and discuss the Hindu four aims of life (Atman, Karma, Dharma, Moksha).

We will investigate Hindu values question how they affect Hindu life and the world-wide community.

Computing/ DT

During our design technology sessions, the children will be using Lego Spike. They will write a specification and design a product (robotic vehicle) to follow a black line. The children will use Lego Spike a to code their vehicle to change direction. The children will work in groups to build their vehicle using Lego- thinking about size, weight, movement capacity.

PE

In PE, the focus of the learning is to develop pupils’ understanding of aerobic fitness and how exercise affects our bodies.

Pupils will perform an aerobic fitness circuits developing their own aerobic fitness.

In ‘Matching and Mirroring’, the focus of the learning is to apply “excellent gymnastics” to everything pupils do and explore the concept of matching. Pupils will explore how the apparatus can change and improve their movements.

Home-learning

In year 6, children still need to read lots! All children are expected to read at home most nights for 25 – 30 minutes either to themselves or with an adult. This could be their school Accelerated Reader book, listening to a story read by someone else or sharing a favourite book. All are equally valuable. Talking about what they have read is also vital to help develop comprehension skills. This is particularly beneficial to the children when completing their Accelerated Reader quizzes.  All children have a reading record book in which parents, carers or the children themselves can record what they have read or make any comments.

In addition, children all have access to Times Tables Rockstars, and Maths Whizz- online sites for practising their weekly times tables.   Please encourage your child to learn their times tables regularly – five or ten minutes a day is more beneficial than an hour once a week.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have.

Many thanks for all your continued support.