Curriculum
Maths
At St Stephens we follow the White Rose scheme of learning.
This encourages children to make connections through their learning, use concrete, pictorial and abstract methods and to problem solve.
Children are taught Mathematics daily and homework is set weekly.
Homework will often involve practical games or ICT led activities.
We use the following programs to support learning:
Some skills will be really important in this last year of primary school. Times tables knowledge is one of those, please take the time to rehearse these and ensure your child has a good knowledge of them.
Literacy
Literacy takes place daily with Year 6 we exploring a wide and ecompassing range of texts to inform and guide us whilst completing our own writing. For a more detailed explaination of these texts please see our Curriculum outline page.
Every week we take part in guided reading using VIPERS to answer questions about a text. This teaches skills such as vocabulary, inference, prediction, explaination, retrieval and how to summarise.
Year 6 students use Non-Negotiables in their writing, please see the list below for an outline of the expected standards:
- Use a variety of sentence starters
- Proof-read to check for spelling, grammer, punctuation, correct tense, and consistent subject/verb agreement.
- Correct use of spelling from the Year 5/6 spelling list
- Handwriting and Presentation
- Write for purpose
We use a range of websites in school to enhace literacy skills to which the children have their own personal logins including:
https://readtheory.org
https://www.purplemash.com/login
https://www.getepic.com/
https://idlsgroup.com/
Spring 2 Topic: The Pied Piper
We are currently working on the Pied Piper and writing our own police report about the missing children! In the coming weeks we will be writing a different ending to the story.
In the Summer term we will be studying Romeo and Juliet and Goodnight Mr Tom.
Summer 1: Historical Novels
Science
Spring Topic: Animals including Humans - the circulatory system.
In science the children conducted an experiment using skittles to demonstrate how nutrients travel in our blood around the body, keeping us strong and healthy.
Summer Topics: Reversible and irreversible changes, Life cycles and habitats.
History
Spring Topic: The Tudors
The children learn a range of different History and Geography topics throught out the year. Please see the Upper Key Stage curriculum guide for a more in depth explaination of our topics.
Through out the spring term we will be learning about the Tudors. In this topic the children are taught about all things Tudor including medicine, crime and punishment, monarchs, food and housing. Recently the children have even been writing their own play scripts condeming the class TA for her crimes- poor Miss Clayton!
Useful resources can be found on our class page on google classroom.
Summer Term: World War II.
Outdoor Education
We do a wide range of curriculum linked activities in our outdoor area. We are fortunate enough to have an amazing outdoor space that we take full advantage of. Currently we are running forest schools provision once a week. Take a look at our Outdoor Learning page to see all of our pictures!
RE
Spring 2 Topic: Easter
In RE we are exploring why Christians believe Easter to be a victory. In the coming weeks we will be learning about the story of Easter and Lent.
The children were asked to demonstrate the disciple's reaction to Jesus' death using a modern day resource. They have been really creative and have been using programmes such as purple mash and Imovie. Please refer to the pictures and videos at the bottom of the page to see their amazing work.
Summer Topic 1: Jesus the teacher.
Geography
Autumn Topic: Renewable and Non-renewable energy
This half term we are learning all about renewable and non-renewable energy. We will learn about how we can make positive changes to make our environment better.
We are very lucky to have a STEM ambassador and Global Warning campaigner joining us for video Q&A sessions.
We will update with photos from the events!
Useful links:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zm9jmyc
http://www.ecofriendlykids.co.uk/renewablenonrenewablesources.html
Spring Topic: The USA
The Highlands and Lowlands of the USA topic runs right through spring developing the children's knowledge about regions in North America. The children will aquire map reading skills and understand different maps, be able to use coordinates and communicate geographical information in a variety of ways.
Summer Topic: Global Zones
PE
Outdoor PE takes place on a Wednesday afternoon, please ensure your child has the correct uniform in school. As the days get colder we will still participate in outdoor PE so children may be best in longer jogging bottoms, jumpers and trainers. Indoor PE will take place on Friday afternoon.
We are currently improving our ball control and passing skills. We will soon be starting our outdoor, orienteering topic. We also be starting our gymnastics topic indoors.
Summer:
We will be spending most of our time outside covering a wide range of athletics along with fielding and stricking games.
Music
Recently Mr Scott showed us his guitar collection. He showed us all the different parts and played us some music. He taught us that there is lots of different music genres including rock, pop, jazz and blues.
Spring 2 topic: Country Music
This half term we are exploring country music linking in with our USA geography topic.
Summer 1 topic: Music from the war.
Music linked to World War II.
Art
Spring 2 topic: Tudor Portraits
Year 6 will be focusing on Tudor artwork specifically portraits and creating their own image.
Summer 1 topic: Propaganda Posters
Design and Technology
Spring 2 topic: Tudor structures
This term we will be looking at Tudor housing and constructing building from wooden sticks.