Welcome to Maple Class 

Year 6 

 

Spring Term 2021

This term our project is a Geography-based one and is called:

 CHANGES

Our key concepts are: 

CHANGE, STEWARDSHIP & MORALITY

During this term's topic, we will be exploring and investigating climate change and its effects on our planet, as well as trying to find ways that we can all protect our planet for the future. We will be focusing on the impact of climate change locally, nationally and globally. 

 

As part of our project work, we have been investigating ways to reduce our carbon footprint. We carried out surveys at home to see how many times we boiled a kettle to make a hot drink and recorded the data. We looked at how many carbon emission units were generated by drinking hot drinks and found out that if you drink milky drinks the carbon footprint is even worse because of the cows who give us the milk! 

Eco Week 8th - 12th March 

During our first week back at school, we had a special Eco Week, taking part in a variety of activities to support our understanding of our project work. We made wildflower seed bombs, which are are going to scatter in our school grounds; wrote formal letters to our local MP, Will Quince; made leaflets about reducing our carbon footprint; and made beeswax wrappers. What a lot of fun we have had! 

English

In English this term, we will be reading 'The House of Light' by Julia Green. The book tells the story of Bonnie, who is growing up in a world where climate changes has already had a devastating impact. 

As part of our R.E. work on 'Salvation' and exploring the significance of Easter, we looked at the Christian definition of 'Sacrifice'. As part of our work, we found out about famous Christians who have made sacrifices for their faith and through their service and devotion to God. Here are some examples of the people we found out about...

 

Welcome to the start of the Autumn Term 2020. We are thrilled to be back in school again for what will be our final year at Primary School. 

We are really excited to have Year 6 jobs. Here we are receiving our job offer letters from Mrs Daniels...

 

Our new project for this term is...

Crime and Punishment

So far, we have begun to look at the history of crime and punishment from the Roman times to the present day. After half term, we will be looking at how technology has influenced the way that crimes are detected and solved nowadays. We will also be holding our own mock trial where we will be given the opportunity to act out the roles of the accused, the lawyers for the defense and prosecution, the judge, and of course, the jury. 

 

Through our project work, we are looking at the key concepts of segregation, justice and consequences.

These concepts tie in nicely with our class text 'Journey to Jo'burg' by Beverley Naidoo. This is a thought-provoking story set in South Africa against the backdrop of apartheid. In English, we have been finding out about apartheid and the consequences of it for black people living in South Africa from 1948 until1994, when apartheid was finally abolished. 

 

 

To enable the children to understand the full impact of apartheid, we have also read a children's version of Nelson Mandela's autobiography 'The Long Walk to Freedom'. We have researched his life story and used it to write biographies of this inspirational man. 

We love reading in Maple Class and have made a great start in our quest to complete our class Book Bingo challenge. 

As part of our project work on Crime and Punishment, we are now finding out about how improvements in technology and advancements in Science have influenced how crimes are investigated and solved today. We found out about DNA and listened to a forensic scientist explain how this is used to catch criminals. We discussed the work of SOCOs (Scene of Crime Officers) and how it is crucially important to collect as much evidence as possible in order to secure a conviction. We then used the findings from our research to write non-chronological reports. 

As part of our work on Remembrance, we focused on our Key Concept of Segregation. We found out about how, in occupied Europe, Jews were segregated during WWII  and  were forced to flee their homes to live in ghettos. We imaged what it what have been like to be segregated and the impact it would have had on us to suddenly have to leave everything you've ever known behind. Here are some of our very moving diary entries...