This is the final term for Year 6 children and is one of mixed emotions. On the one hand, there is the looking ahead to the exciting prospect of a new school in September; on the other, there is the bidding farewell to familiar routines and, above all, long-established friends as pupils go their different ways. The Year 6 team will continue to support and guide the children through this transitional phase.

We hope that this term will be positivie and memorable for everyone. 

SATs Week

The SATs tests start in the week beginning Monday 12th May. We feel sure that 
all of the hard work that pupils (and their parents) have put in will be rewarded. This is a chance for the children to show off what they know and demonstrate just how much progress they have made! 

The timetable is as follows:

During SATs week, the children will be encouraged to come in early for a SATs breakfast provided by the school. We have found this an excellent way to make the children feel more relaxed about, and prepared for, the tests each morning. Further information will be provided closer to the time.

Reading

Our goal is to create confident, fluent, independent readers. At Latchmere, we prioritise reading and have carefully chosen a variety of texts which your child will study this term. To develop fluency, we use a number of strategies such as choral reading (whole class read together) and echo reading (the teacher models the reading and the class echo back). We also have the Latchmere Reading skills. These are based on comprehension skills such as retrieval, inference, summarising, making links, prediction and vocabulary.

Maths

Our curriculum is based on the White Rose Maths programme. This research-based initiative ensures that the skills and concepts children taught are fully embedded before moving on. The children are taught strategies such as bar modelling and have plenty of opportunities to use 'manipulatives' such as counters and dienes all the way through the school. 

This term, we will be consolidating the learning from the year and completing investigations and challenges to apply our knowledge.

Children should also use the Times Tables Rockstars programme to increase their quick recall of multiplication and related division facts.

Curriculum Highlights

Learning about rainforests is a great topic to explore in the summer term. Did you know, for example, that more than half of the world’s species of animals and plants are found in rainforests. We’ll be looking at the ecosystem of the rainforest, wildlife and culture, as well as the human impact on rainforest areas. 

Homework

Reading books and reading records should be brought to school every day. In the meantime, we hope that your child will maintain a regular reading habit at home and complete at least two in-depth entries per week. This has been discussed already during lessons.

To support the transition to secondary school, the Year 6 Team feel it important that homework is set during the summer term. English homework will be given out on a Wednesday, due in the following Monday. Maths homework will be given out on a Friday, due in the following Tuesday.

We also encourage your children to use Century to consolidate and practise the learning they have been doing this year. They have all been given their user names and passwords.

Attendance

As you may be aware, we closely monitor the attendance of pupils at our school as there is clear evidence which shows the correlation between attainment and attendance and pupil well-being.

We believe working with families is very important, therefore when a child’s attendance falls below 94% we intervene quickly to work with parents to 
identify any barriers to regular school attendance and identify how we can support further.

Lastly, we wish all of you and your children well during this final year at Latchmere.

Thank you in advance for all of your support.

 Kind regards,

 The Year 6 Team

Trips and Activities

To link to our rainforest topic, we have arranged visits to Kew Gardens where children will take part in an educational workshop. Thanks to those parents who are able to help on the trips. They will take place as follows:

Curie/Franklin – Tuesday 20th May
Da Vinci/Edison – Wednesday 21st May

Many Year 6 children are looking forward to spending a week at Fairthorne Manor, just east of Southampton. There are some great outdoor activities to enjoy, with each night being spent under canvas in tents! Special activities are also being arranged for those children staying behind during this week beginning 9th June.

Parents, along with the Year 6 children attending Fairthorne Manor, are invited to a briefing in Innovation House on Friday 16th May at 2:40pm in the Drama Hall.

At this meeting, the staff attending Fairthorne Manor will present an overview of the residential trip. There will be an opportunity for parents and children to ask suitable questions on anything not covered.