What makes Year 6 different?

Year 6 is the final stage of your child’s primary school experience and as such, there are many aspects that are different from the other year groups.

We spend time consolidating prior learning from Key Stage 2 in preparation for the SATs tests which take place in May. This is an important opportunity for your child to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding from the primary years.

In Year 6, the children go on an exciting residential trip in the Summer Term. The benefits from residential, outdoor, activity-based learning are huge and we would love all our children to participate. Not only do these activities provide experiences that schools cannot offer on-site but children are extended in a way that doesn’t happen in the classroom. They participate in team-building activities, develop stronger peer relationships, and grow in confidence before our eyes. It will also help to prepare them for their next step to secondary school, encouraging them to be risk-taking.

Writing in Year 6

Our English curriculum exposes the children to a range of high-quality texts through both reading and writing. In writing, new punctuation is introduced and there is an emphasis on becoming more independent and creative as a writer.

The English curriculum is carefully planned so that the children can explore a range of different text types and gradually build up to writing their own versions, with careful attention towards audience and purpose. The children will also explore subject specific vocabulary and will have the opportunity to edit and improve their writing.

The main areas of grammar that will be taught this year include:

• integrate dialogue in narratives to convey character and advance the action
• select vocabulary and grammatical structures that reflect what the writing requires,
• using passive verbs to affect how information is presented; using modal verbs to suggest degrees of possibility)
• use a range of devices to build cohesion (e.g. conjunctions, adverbials of time and
• place, pronouns, synonyms) within and across paragraphs
• use verb tenses consistently and correctly throughout their writing
• use the range of punctuation taught at key stage 2 mostly correctly (e.g. inverted commas and other punctuation to indicate direct speech)

Reading in Year 6

Reading is such an important life skill and we want all children to develop a love reading as well as develop their reading comprehension skills. Reading is all about sharing books together – this can be through hearing your child read as well as reading to them, talking about books and allowing children to develop their vocabulary stamina and knowledge around them.

At this stage, children will be reading fiction texts, both modern and old, and from other cultures and traditions. They will prepare poems and plays to read aloud and perform showing understanding through intonation and volume. They will learn to infer characters' feelings from their actions and justifying inferences with evidence.

In Year 6 we will read a range of texts within lessons. We have regular whole class reading sessions throughout the week where we focus in on children’s reading and comprehension skills. We also enjoy our class text daily so that children are able to experience a broad range of engaging texts.