Safety in Action (Project Salus)

On Monday 7th March Year 6 travelled to Dreamland to take part in the Project Salus workshop 'Safety in Action'. It is an interactive event that invites Year 6 children to learn about some of the dangers they may face as they become more independent and prepare for transition to secondary school.  It is supported by many organisations including Salus, Kent Police, Kent Fire and Rescue Service, RNLI, Kent County Council, British Transport Police and UK power networks.

A number of scenarios are set up by the different organisations, designed to simulate and provide information about a variety of topics that include:

Drugs/Alcohol

Fire safety

Water safety

Electrical safety

Rail safety

Road safety

Passenger safety

Personal safety

Friends (resilience)

Emergency Life support

School attendance

Exploitation

The children were divided into teams to rotate around the different safety scenarios, spending 10 minutes at each to learn about the specific safety messages.

Children’s Mental Health Week – Wellbeing Wednesday 9th February 2022.

As the whole school thinks about Children’s Mental Health this week, we considered our wellbeing in Year 6 and thought you may like to know about our Wellbeing Wednesday.

We started the day with a motivational card on each desk – the children will keep these in their trays to remind them of their own special message, these were accompanied with a lollipop as we all know that sweet treats bring a smile to everyone’s face!

We produced posters in ICT that showed the different things that make us happy – we appreciated others choices – the children though Mrs Sandwell’s suggestion that sandals made her happy was strange until she explained that they made her think of summer and she likes all of the different colours of her footwear! Our choices of what made us happy were diverse – from roast dinners, to football, to snakes and even posing with trees! However we all agreed that spending time with family and friends made us smile!

In Science we considered the impact of exercise, diet, drugs, tobacco and alcohol on our wellbeing – both physically and mentally. We found out many things we did not know and we all now know how to look after our body and mind.

As part of our English work we started to watch the film adaptation of our class text for the term – watching films make us all very happy.

A wonderfully varied Wellbeing Wednesday!

Year 6 Painted their Viking brooches

We have now painted our  dry clay Viking brooches. The paints bring the carved clay to life. The children selected the colours after researching what colours where available from natural dyes and paints available to the Viking people. We are very pleased with how effective they are.

Another one bites the dust

This term Year 6 have been studying dance.  We have examined and tried out a variety of dance styles over the last few weeks such as;  aerobic dance to 'The Greatest Showman', pop dance routines to chart hits and ceremonial dances such as the 'Hakka'.

In our latest lesson this week (26th January), children were shown videos and different dance styles to the Queen hit 'Another one bites the dust', The Gardiner Brothers Irish Dancing, a flash mob rehearsal and street dance style.  The children then had time to develop their own compositions before we showed them to the class.

The children really enjoyed the afternoon and here are some of their thoughts:

Harry - "I really enjoyed it, I'd really like to do it again!"

Shaniequa said "I really enjoyed watching others perform and enjoyed dancing to the strong beats of the music"

Bella - "I liked making up the dances, it was good to make our own choice of stye.  I liked working as a group"

James - "I love it.  I liked making movements with my body, it was funny watching some of the others' routines"

Year 6 makes Viking brooches

Year 6 got creative recently and turned their Viking brooch designs into 3D pieces of art with clay. Earlier in the week the children had learnt about Viking jewellery as part of the History topic about the Vikings. They learnt about common symbols, patterns and motifs, they then sketched their own designs. On Friday they made their brooches with clay and have come up with superb designs.

EQUALITEACH WORKSHOP

On 10th January Year 6 had a workshop regarding equality, where we get our information from and what we do with the information.

We were led through the session by Tori from Equaliteach who asked us to consider where we get our information from, how we form our opinions, what happens when we receive false information, what we can do to treat other fairly.

The children were provided with a 10 ‘characters’ to invite to an imaginary dinner party, they had to select 4-5 characters who they wanted to invite and justify their reasons for their choices. The characters outlines detailed achievements, jobs, immigration status, countries of birth, faiths, disabilities, gender. Once the children had made some excellent and reasoned arguments for their choices, it was revealed that there were only 5 people in total and their perceptions were challenged when the characters were revealed. For instance, the British singer-songwriter was revealed as Rita Ora, however no one in class knew that she had fled to the UK from Kosovo as a child.

They probed further into stereotype looking at whether the information we gather in particular through social media, may effect our thoughts and influence our feeling and opinions through bias. Consideration was given to whether different sources of information have a different purpose and whether we should believe everything we read.

Colour Wheels

During November Year 6 investigated prisms and made colour wheels as part of their investigations into their science topic of light.

They looked at the different effects of shining a light through prisms – did the angle and distance of the light source affect the splitting of light, they also experimented with the shape of the prisms to see which shape split the light most effectively.

They then produced their own colour wheels to carry out an experiment to put the seven colours of light back together to make white light. It was a very fun afternoon!

PLEASE SEE BELOW DETAILS OF OPEN DAYS FOR LOCAL SECONDARY SCHOOLS FOR ADMISSION SEPTEMBER 2022.

Year 6 enjoy their milestone Activity Weekend

The children returned exhausted and exhilarated from  their action-packed              adventure.  They stayed in lovely rooms with bunk beds and their own bathrooms.  Mrs.   Lomas woke the children up each morning at 6 am so we all had time to get ready for breakfast and the active day ahead.  The food was really tasty and there was plenty of it…...the children loved being able to make their own choices.  We      enjoyed a hot lunch and dinner each day, as well as the snacks that the children had brought with them!

The damp weather did not prevent us from joining in with a fantastic range of          activities, including zip wire, trapeze, archery, problem solving, rock climbing, rifle shooting and much more.  Each evening there was an activity after tea; the first night was a shock to the system when the children went off into the woods in the dark to play hide and seek ambush!  Mr. Hopgood and the Rangers took charge of that one, whilst Mrs. Millership and Mrs. Lomas stayed behind in the warm to do very important teachery things.

Presentation by Stagecoach Coach Company

 Maria from Stagecoach recently met Year 6 on Teams, and gave a very interesting presentation about getting a bus to secondary school.  The children had lots of questions about this important subject and it has been a great addition to our Transition Programme.

Please follow the link for more information

https://view.publitas.com/stagecoach/getting-to-school-safely/

Return to school

Year 6 have had a fantastic return to the classroom.  We enjoyed a wide variety of activities during Science Week, including Chromatography, Respiratory Systems, testing PH levels and investigating signs of Spring in various habitats. 

We have made sure we include plenty of wellbeing activities into our day, including singing, embroidery and pom pom making.

Our new Guided Reading system has begun, as well as our RSE modules, both of which the children are really enjoying.  Additionally, the children have been gently easing themselves into the English and Maths curriculum.

SCIENCE WEEK

As part of our Science week activities we explored our nature garden and turned our hand to some embroidery.  Here are Artur and Toby finding evidence that spring has finally sprung, and Alfie proudly showing off his embroidery of a bicycle. 

WORLD BOOK DAY

Year 6 have had a very busy and enjoyable World Book Day.  Everyone wore their pyjamas to school which was a lot of fun.

The day started by watching a video recorded by Mrs. Lomas, suitable for in-school and home learners.  It told the class about the books available to exchange their world Book Day vouchers with.

Next on the agenda was a well-being session where Year 6 continued to embroider their own bookmarks.  After Maths, there was a quiet reading session enjoying class reader books.

After break they enjoyed a video made for them by Fancy Nancy.  It was very funny and passed on an important message about internet safety.

Then there was a session of short stories ready to the class by Natalie.  A World Book Day quiz followed that which really challenged the knowledge of books that they have read.

Following the quiz they wrote their own short sotries, using Pobble as a prompt.  The stories were then performed to the class.

Finally the class looked at the Oxford Owl webiste and had free choice to investigate the books available.

Phew!! What a fantastic World Book Day.