Year 6 - Autobiographies and abstract visualisation

It has been a frenetic start to Year 6, with the children having to hit the ground running with their exams. Thankfully we have turned the page on exam preparations and already settled down into the curriculum - normality can resume!

It has been fantastic to see old faces back and a few new faces arrive. The children have brushed off the cobwebs of the summer holidays and are already picking up from where they left off in Year 5, enjoying their lessons and joining in with a huge range of extra-curricular activities, all with the added bonus (and responsibility) of being at the top of the school.

In English, we have begun working around the topic of autobiographies, with a focus on Roald Dahl’s ‘Boy’ - which, in his own words, is not an autobiography at all, but a collection of interesting stories from his early life! The children have been thinking about how to transport others to memorable events from their own lives, focussing on powerful imagery, bombarding the senses, and carefully selecting the most important features of their most amazing memories - who knew they have lived such eventful lives!?

Our Year 6 Maths curriculum is also in full swing, with an early focus on developing their abstract visualisation skills and their mathematical resilience. We have been constructing and deconstructing 3-dimensional shapes into, and from, 2-dimensional plans and elevations, both using physical objects and then within our own minds. The children particularly loved the opportunity to get hands on with this aspect of our shape unit. We are currently promoting some ‘outside-the-box’ thinking, with a week of work lessons based around ‘Inspirational Maths’, encouraging the pupils to problem solve, work strategically and never give up. Great fun!