Friday, 14th January 2022

re: Year 6 Curriculum Letter for Term 2

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back and ‘Happy New Year’! The purpose of this letter is to provide you with some
information about what your children will be enjoying in Year 6 this term, as well as to update
you on forthcoming events.

We are very excited about this term’s themes: ‘AD 900’ followed by ‘Existing, Endangered,
Extinct’. We will be focusing on a variety of stories related to these themes and all subjects
will be linked, as much as possible, so that students can make connections and above all enjoy
their learning.

English

This term, Year 6 will be exploring texts that will engage children in empathising with the
characters. They will look at themes across the text as well as from a variety of other texts.
Students will be using drama, storytelling and artwork to help expand their understanding.
Using poetry, narrative and summary writing, students will begin to develop writing that
includes a growing vocabulary, greater description and developed dialogue.
Opportunities will be given to students to present their ideas and give presentations. Students
have set targets for reading, writing and speaking enabling them to focus on areas that are
important to their own personal development.

Spelling will be focusing on the statutory words for Years 5 and 6 (For example: horrible,
dependence, sensibly) or words that have letter strings (e.g., ough),and suffixes. They will
also be investigating Greek and Latin root words and homophones.
Mathematics

This term, we will be using both White Rose Maths and Abacus to help develop our students
mathematical skills. We will be focusing on decimals, percentages, algebra, measurement,
ratio and statistics. We will be looking at decimals, linking them with fractions and
percentages. We will then move onto measurement – focusing on the different ways numbers
can be presented by conversion. Then, we will be linking ratio to statistics - considering the
different ways numbers can be presented. We are planning to have a project-based learning
session on Fridays to give the pupils the opportunity to apply the mathematical skills they are
learning in more practical and challenging situations.

International Primary Curriculum Themes

The topics covered for this term, AD900 and ‘Existing, Endangered and Extinct’ will each
have a slightly different subject emphasis. AD900 thematic topic is more history and
geography based. Students will be discovering how faith, dependency to work together
and good leadership helped to make strong empires. They will also look at the difficulties that
faced empires as they grew larger. Geographically, students will begin to develop ideas of
how location affected the development of empires.

Being more science based, Existing, Endangered and Extinct looks at the variety of amazing
life forms. Students will sort, identify and classify species that are either existing, on the
endangered list and are extinct. Students will get to explore the process of life categories.

Science

Science in term 2 starts with a study of how animals and plants are adapted to suit their
environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution. The children will
explore the principal of inheritance, recognising that living things produce offspring of the same
kind, but that normally such offspring vary and are not identical to their parents. They will learn
about scientific evidence that has been used to support or refute ideas or arguments, plan
different types of scientific enquiries to answer questions, including recognising and controlling
variables where necessary.

Computer Science

Students are starting the term with a research unit: Do Aliens Exist or not?! They will research
both sides of the argument before deciding on which side to choose. Following the research,
students will create materials using MS Publisher and others to persuade others to believe in
their ideas. During this unit, students will be learning about research techniques, browsers,
search engines, the use of key words, developing skills in MS Suite and some video creation.
After half term, Year 6 will be looking at the importance of sound, how digital sound is made
and its role in movies and animation. They will then learn how to create, store and manipulate
layers of sound, using Audacity, for specific purposes, i.e., a podcast and sound effects for an
animation.
Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)

Mandarin lessons are differentiated by ability due to the wide range of competency amongst
our students. This term Chinese lessons will be covering the following topics:

• Beginner: Self-introduction, Occupation, Time, Daily Routine

• Lower Intermediate: Sickness, Hobbies: Music and Sports
• Upper Intermediate: Subjects of study, School Facilities, and Stationery
• Advanced: Household, Pets, and Schools.
As part of our Chinese New Year celebrations, students will have an opportunity to perform
and create their own CNY postcards.

In French lessons, all students will practise and develop listening, speaking, reading and
writing competencies. Students will be learning to identify new terms and vocabulary related
to our topics on School and Shopping. They will be learning to express their opinions when
talking about schools and school subjects. They will be learning how to apply descriptive
features into simple sentences when they are describing school and their timetables. All
students will also have the opportunity to create role play scenarios and dialogue based on
shopping conversations in French.

This term in Bahasa Melayu, the students will focus on topics for grammar such as ‘Kata
Ganda’ and also ‘Imbuhan Apitan’. Learning in context, the topics the students will be learning
this term include: Transportation, Festivals and Celebrations. The students also will start to
compose a short essay and answer comprehensions in simple phrases or short sentences.
As part of the school’s International Mindedness goal, we will also include a Chinese New
Year theme in our related topics, learning new phrases and linking sentences

Music

In Year 6 Music, we will be completing 2 units of work entitled ‘Growth’ and ‘Root’. Students
will have the opportunity to:

• Demonstrate 3 beat pulse and rhythmic ostinato in performance and three-part

harmony with ostinato and accompaniment on a tuned instrument
• Apply improvisation to a piece of descriptive music using classroom percussion and
sound makers
• Demonstrate call and response singing and devise rhythmic movement in composition
• Develop and rehearse for a performance
• Perform to an audience.

Art & Design

This term, the main focus in art for Year 6 students will be: Element of Design.
Students will:

• know the knowledge of element of design and express to the paper.

• learn how to do repeated pattern by using nature things.
• develop an understanding of colour value and play with the colour.
• learn how line and shape is defined in the visual arts.
• demonstrate shape recognition skills and practise shape building skills.
• explore all related motor skills from drawing, painting, craft, and design.
• experience basic exercises with instructions and deadlines covering discipline from
drawing, painting, craft, and design.

Design and Technology

In Year 6 our Design Technology focus is: Puppet Masters
Students will:

• Learn about the different types of puppets that exist.

• Devise a story, message or scenario and write a script for their puppet play.
• Choose and make the type of puppets they wish to use for each character in their play.
• Design and construct a stage with necessary backdrops for each scene in their
performance.
 • Rehearse and perform their puppet play hopefully to the chosen audience.
Physical Education (PE)
In PE, the students will build their skills in track and field. The students will learn about throwing
the Tennis ball, Discus and Shot put. The students will also get an opportunity to try out High
jump and running disciplines such as sprints and long distance.

Home Learning

Students in year 6 are expected to complete 40 - 45 minutes of home learning - 4 times a

week. English and Maths have routine learning in place that will support students in areas that
need further development and set days for completion of homework with be given.

We encourage students to be consistently reading for 20 minutes every day. Next week,
the children will be bringing home a new bespoke Reading Diary. This will enable us to
monitor reading on a regular basis more easily. It includes information for parents
on recommended books for students across key stage 2. It also contains reading
activities on plot, characters and the setting of a fiction text, as well as writing tasks, to further
develop their reading comprehension.

Key events to look forward to include:

Friday 11th February
Thursday 17th February
Friday 18th February
28th February - 4th March
Monday 14th March
28th – 31st March
4th – 8th April
Friday 15th April
Chinese New Year celebration and dress up day
Random Acts of Kindness Day
Mid-Year Reports on Engage Parent Portal
Book Week (dress up day during this week – date TBC)
Pi Day (Mathematics)
Parent Teacher Consultations
Poetry week
Term 2 ends

Holiday dates – school closed

Tuesday 18th January Thaipusam Public Holiday

31st January – 2nd February Chinese New Year
21st – 25th February Half Term Holiday

We value our partnership with parents. We hope the information provided gives you an insight
into what we are covering this term. Please feel free to contact us if you have any
questions through the Engage Parent Portal.

All the best,

Year 6 Team

Diane Dennis
Logadarshini Chandra
Dionne Quek
Debra Birchall
Shamini Rajendran
Jaclyn Gomez Head of Primary