Welcome to Kestrels 24-25!

What a fantastic first term in Kestrels!

We have been learning:

English:

We have been reading the Nowhere Emporium by Ross MacKenzie as our class text this term. This has led to some fantastic shorter pieces of writing, including diary entries from the point of view of the main character, and recounts of the text. Our final piece of writing were fantastic narratives in the style of MacKenzie and the Kestrels created their own 'wonder' - a magical scenario where all the characters dreams can come true. Our wonder's ranged from ice hockey matches, to magical animal lands, with pegasus', unicorns and even Stitch making an appearance. They were a joy to read. Each and every Kestrel worked really hard to create a magical story.

Maths:

We have covered many aspects of Maths so far this term. Beginning with place value, we quickly consolidated our understanding of numbers within 1,000,000 before challenging ourselves to learn about numbers to 10,000,000. The children have become expert rounders, rounding numbers within 10,000,000 and have revisited their knowledge of Roman Numerals. We have also recapped addition and subtraction, exploring these in tricky word problems, and learning different strategies to help us check our answers. Finally, we've also moved onto looking at factors and multiples - ready for our multiplication, division, and fractions learning next term.

Geography:

This term, we have learnt all about trading, import and export. We discovered the UK's main trade partners and explored the country of El Salvador, learning about the difference in the lives of children there to us. We also enjoyed learning all about Fairtrade (what it is, what products it involves and why it's so important) and the Kestrels created their own colourful. informative double page spreads many of which are on display in our classroom.

Science:

We have completed many experiments as part of learning about Light in science. We proved that light only travels in straight lines and explored how we can see around corners, using mirrors, to demonstrate reflection and refraction. We also completed our first 'big' science experiment where we measured the length of shadows and discovered the impact of opaque, translucent and transparent objects on shadows. It was also fantastic to put all of this learning together to create our own shadow puppet theatres.

Other highlights include planning and coding games in Scratch, hosting a record-breaking MacMillan coffee morning, learning to sing 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams alongside our Harvest song 'Harvest Tango' plus much, much more!

Looking forward to term two, we will be:

• Reading the amazing wordless book 'The Arrival' by Shaun Tan 
• Practising our retrieval and inference skills in Guided Reading and developing our vocabulary further.
• Revisiting our multiplication and division skills in Maths before learning the infamous year 6 Long Division! We will also begin our fractions learning with equivalent fractions, and adding and subtracting fractions.
• Learning about King John and the Magna Carta in History.
• Exploring the learning of Alberto Giacommeti in Art
• Creating moving toys in DT
• Plus all the fun that the Christmas term always brings....!

Kestrels 2024-2025

Welcome to Kestrels!

The class team includes:

Class teacher: Mrs Wood

Class TAs: Ms Hardingham and Mrs Davis

Spanish teacher: Mrs Flores (Friday AM)

Our timetable

• Maths and Writing will be taught daily.
• Guided Reading will be taught four times a week and Spelling three times a week.
• We will be learning our foundation subjects in blocks, beginning with Art. Computing and Music will be taught on a Monday afternoon.
• Mrs Hardingham and Mrs Davis will teach PSHE on a Thursday afternoon.
• Mr Cooke will teach PE on a Thursday afternoon and I will teach PE on a Friday afternoon. Please make sure that your child has a full PE Kit on those days including a change of shoes. If this is an issue, please don’t hesitate to contact me. All PE kit should be named.
• Please note, no pencil cases or stationery are needed.
•  

Home learning

• Beginning the 11th September, we will send home a menu of home learning in a similar style to last term. This will include a Maths, English and Topic task that should take no longer than 15 minutes each.
• This will be set on a Wednesday, to be in by the following Monday.
• Completing home learning is an excellent habit to get into in Year 6 as it will help to prepare your child for secondary school.
• Reading at home remains a priority. Children who read to an adult, or independently, at home at least three times a week will be entered into a weekly raffle to win a small prize.
• Individual spellings will be sent home during September. This will be 6 words to learn and will be tested once per week.
• Home Learning club is available for children who would like to complete their home learning at school.

Secondary school

• The deadline for applying for secondary schools is the 31^st October 2024.
• This is completed via the portal on the Wiltshire Council website.
• Please let us know if we can help in anyway.

SATS

• National testing for Year 6s will take place during the week of 12^th May 2025 for four days.
• Children will complete 3 Maths papers (arithmetic and reasoning), a reading comprehension paper and 2 SPAG papers (punctuation, grammar and spelling).
• We will hold a further meeting in the spring term to discuss these in more detail but if you would like any further information, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

 Pinkery

• There will be a 5-day, 4-night residential trip to Pinkery Centre for Outdoor Learning in Exmoor.
• This will be from Monday 14^th July to Friday 18^th July
• The cost will be confirmed shortly.

Extra-curricular activities

• Clubs will start on the 23rd September 2024.
• The Manor Fields bank will be open for saving on the 24th September– save as much or as little as you would like!

We are looking forward to the upcoming year! If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.