Elder Tree- Year 6 2025 - 2026

Welcome to Year 6 Elder Tree Class!  

We hope you have all had a lovely summer break and are ready for an exciting year ahead. To begin our school year, the whole school transition topic will be ‘Together we Learn and Grow’.

As we are sure you are already aware, this year all Year 6 children will complete their End of Key Stage 2 National Assessments – more often known as SATs. These will take place in the month of May and we ask that you ensure any absences are prevented as best they can be during this time. Your child will be prepared for these throughout the year as part of normal classroom practise and if you have any questions at all regarding these, please contact a member of the Y6 team in school.

We hope that you have found the information in this letter useful, but for any other updates or information – please remember to follow our class web page and twitter feed @elder_sankey ‎ If you wish to contact us at any time, we are available through the school office or at the end of the day most afternoons.  We are very much looking forward to the year ahead, and know that with your continued support, it will be a great one!

Kind regards,

Mr Waters

  Homework

Your children’s homework will be set on Fridays and they will be expected to work through this independently – returning it to school by the following Friday. Homework should be treated as any other work in school and work should be completed to the highest possible standard.

There is an expectation that children are reading regularly at home in addition to their daily whole class reading session in school and we ask that they aim to fill in their planners at least 3 x weekly with a signature and / or comment from parents each week to share how children are getting on at home. Teachers will also comment / sign the pupil planners.

SATs 

In May 2025, children in Y6 will complete their statutory end of key stage assessments known as SATs. The children will be tested in Reading, Maths and Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling with Writing being teacher assessed in school. The tests will take place the week beginning 12th May 2025 so we ask that any holidays or time off is not taken during this month. An information for parents giving further details was held last term and a timetable will be sent out to you in the first week of the Summer term to confirm arrangements. SATs Booster sessions will take place after Christmas and will run up until SATs. 

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Curriculum Information:

Maths

Our Maths topics for this autumn term will focus heavily on number, place value and the four written calculations and it is imperative that children are supplementing this work with basic skills practise at home. Please encourage the children to use their log in for Times Table Rockstars regularly at home to ensure they know all the multiplication and division facts accurately and rapidly as this knowledge and recall will be hugely beneficial this year.

English

 We will continue to develop our writing skills through the study of various texts this term, first with Chris Van Allsburg’s beautifully illustrated and thought-provoking book called ‘Queen of the Falls’. Then we will be looking at The Lost Happy Endings by Carol Ann Duffy.  We will analyse the author’s use of language and the impact it has upon the reader and then use them to stimulate a variety of different forms of writing. We will explore using a variety of sentence structures, thoughtful well-chosen vocabulary and a wide range of punctuation and grammar. We will be completing daily whole class reading sessions to develop the children’s reading stamina, pace, understanding of vocabulary and comprehension skills alongside individual reading sessions where each child will be heard to read by an adult weekly. Alongside everything we do in school, it is incredibly important that children are reading a variety of texts both fiction and non-fiction regularly at home and recording their comments in the planners. The planners need to be in school daily and to be signed at by an adult regularly. Finally, the children will need to focus on using spelling strategies and rules consistently to ensure they spell a variety of common and uncommon words accurately. They need to be practising their spellings regularly at home. Please see the spelling strategies document to support your child learning their weekly word lists at home. 

Science               

In our weekly Science sessions, we have a Physics focus to begin with and will be learning all about Electricity. Children will begin with revision of simple circuits with lots of hands on experience with symbols, diagrams and incomplete circuits. Children will then compare series and parallel circuits and face some difficult challenges! Next, we have some biology! The children will then explore the structure of the heart and lungs; looking at the double circulation system and all about blood! They will then investigate why exercise is good for us and what can harm the heart and lungs. The children will be encouraged to work and think like scientists and explore these natural phenomena using their research skills, asking relevant questions to investigate. 

Geography                              

Our Geography enquiry question ‘Is Warrington a good place to settle? In this topic, the children will study why the location, transport links, proximity to cities, trade and industry all make Warrington a good place to live. Through use of digital and paper maps, children will investigate land use in different sized settlements and the ways in which settlements are linked together.  They will also look at how Warrington has changed over time.

History                 

Our History enquiry question is ‘What can we learn from Ancient Civilisations? During this topic, the children will focus on the early ancient civilisations; Ancient Sumer, Ancient Mayans, Ancient, Indus Valley and Shang Dynasty.  They will learn about significant events from the time and order these events chronologically on a timeline of early world history. 

PE:

Sessions are scheduled for Thursdays and Fridays where we will complete our outdoor and indoor sessions respectively. Topics this term are rugby and Health & Fitness circuits. Please ensure the children are in the correct PE kits for these days: they need to wear a house coloured t-shirt and black leggings/joggers with trainers. Long hair needs to be tied back and earrings removed or covered.