6CP

Welcome to our class webpage where you can find out about our amazing learning journey. You will find information about our activities, examples of our work and comments from us! Please visit often to see our learning journey develop.

Term 6

Despite the sweltering heat, Year 6 performed with spirit at Sport's Day which ended with More winning the overall day.

Well done Year 6!

STEM

This term, we were lucky to learn about our heart and circulation from our local STEM ambassadors. We measured our pulses before and after exercise to see if there were any changes. We also talked about jobs we'd liked to do and thought about how STEM skills might be involved. For example, we discussed how the job of a footballer could include Science, Technology and Maths. Think angles, air friction, good nutrition and fitness.

Term 5

Pollination

Year 6 feel lucky to be a part of the Pollination project this year. In order to increase the number of pollinating insects, we have been busy building flower beds to attract a wider variety of creatures.

Term 4

RE: What do religions say to us when life gets hard?

This term, we have been thinking about how religions can comfort us in times of difficulty. At first, we discussed what we all thought the soul was. We found it interesting to learn about the similarities and differences between Christian, Islam and Hinduism in terms of what happens after death. We agreed that our lives should be led by doing good deeds and making amends for our mistakes. We designed tickets into Heaven and considered what 'Terms and Conditions' would need to be included. Finally, we wrote non-chronological reports about how religions can help people through tough times and created mind-maps to explain the differences between each religion.

Decorate an egg competition 

6CP had the most entries in this year's competition and they didn't disappoint! Mr. Stace and Miss Perrett were astonished by their unique ideas and creativity! Well done to everyone's involved!

WOW

In order to hook us into the short film Alma, Mrs Coote tricked us into signing a class contract and then asked us to create ourselves as small dolls. Little did we know, this would link to the mysterious and exciting tale of a little girl, Alma, who becomes trapped in a doll shop!

Netball

We are so lucky to have an awesome netball coach helping us out this term. Hopefully Mr. B will impressed with our skills!

World book day

To celebrate World Book Day and our love of books we had fun dressing up as our favourite characters. See some of our costumes below. We used Roald Dahl's book, The giraffe, the pelly and me, to create artwork to express the image that the writer created.

Term 3

In Term 3, we will be using the adventure story, ‘Wolf brother,’ by Michelle Paver, as a stimulus for our writing. This is a story about a young boy, Torak, who lives in an ancient world steeped in magic. His adventure to avenge his father, alongside an unexpected companion, will take us on an emotional journey through shadowy and mystical lands.

Well-being week

Yiga helps us connect to our bodies and minds through movement and focusing in our breath. We have to focus to balance and move our bodies which helps us shut out any unhelpful thoughts. We also had to work together which reminded new us how we are all connected. 

RE: Is it better to show your beliefs through art and architecture or through charity and generosity?

In Term 3, we looked at whether art or charity is the best way to share our faith and show our religious beliefs. We saw how both faiths have very different styles of art but both believe in the same fundamental values; that we should all work together to support one another as we are all equal. Here are some pictures from our floor book to tell you more.

Well-being week

An important part of good mental health isn't having good self-confidence and self-esteem. At St. Stephen's we know that, despite our differences, everyone is equally special. To celebrate our differences, we created our own 'It's ok to be...' pictures, inspired by the book 'It's ok to be different'.

E-safety day

The 6th of February was Safer Internet Day across the globe. We spent a lot of time discussing how to be safe on the internet: keep social media profiles private; don't talk to strangers online and never give out any personal information. We also talked about how we get along with each other when using online games, apps or websites. We thought about how we could show kindness and respect online and then worked together to create persuasive campaign posters which would encrouage online respect. 

Pollination

6CP are working on a project to encourage more pollinating insects into our school grounds. We worked together to plant 100 bulbs around the school grounds! Most of these will flower in early to mid Spring so come back then for an update!

Sketching

In week three, we have been using pencils and charcoal to sketch wolves. We have looked closely at the shapes which make up their bodies and thought about how they might be positioned. We found that different mediums were useful for different things. For example, we found it easier to create fine detail with sketch pencils but found charcoal easier to shade with. 

Art Collage

Our art skill this term has been collage. We spent a couple of days learning how to blend colour, practise how to create an image using different materials and then as our prove it, in pairs, we created collages of a forest or nature scene.

Dodgeball

During week three, Mr. Walters held try-outs for a Dodgeball competition. Everyone was keen to show off their skills. Some people showed even more determination than usual. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact that they were allowed to throw balls at the head teacher!

Fan art

Our teachers have been really impressed with our art work recently. These character portraits have been completed at home. They have been inspired by characters from our text 'Wolf Brother'.

WOW day

During week two, we were told our new enquiry question, 'Where will your quest take you?' We imagined that we had become stranded on a desert island and had to complete various quests in order to survive and be rescued. We worked collaboratively to create a light which would signal a passing plane as well as potions to heal wounds and treat illnesses. 

In the afternoon, we were introduced to our new book, 'Wolf Brother'. We can't wait to find out more about the characters and their quest.

Term 2

Enquiry title: How do offspring inherit characteristics?

During Term 2, we will be using the inspiring text ‘Wonder’ by R. J. Palacio as a stimulus for our writing. This is a story about a young boy, August, who has Treacher Collins Syndrome. The plot takes us through his very first days at school and we learn how he is treated by others just because of the way he looks. We will go on a journey with August and discover the emotional roller-coaster that he takes as he steps into school life.

In addition to this, throughout the term as well as using the text, we will be learning some more incredible science based on evolution and inheritance where we will learn all about how genetics are inherited through living things.

Term 2 reflections 

"I liked Wonder because we got to read the entire book before we watched it at the cinema. Wonder is important because it spreads the word about difference" - Bailey

"It makes you think about how you should treat people. Even though they might be different, it shows you how you should treat people how you'd like to be treated" - Annie

"Wonder is a great book because it teaches you about different things that you might bully people about but you shouldn't because you should treat people how you would like to be treated" - Ruby

RE Enquiry: What is important to both Humanists and Christians?

This term, we have been learning all about Humanism. We were interested to learn that, although Humanists do not believe in a God, they share many of the same values as Christians. For example, they ask that every one is treated the same, regardless of any differences. We thought about ways we could be peacemakers in our own lives and talked about how important it is to set good examples for kindness and empathy. Finally, we created posters to demonstrate the similarities between these two different ways of thinking.

Science

This term, we have been learning all about evolution and inheritance. We have found it really interesting to learn how animals have evolved over time in order to adapt to their environments. Our enlarging new has helped us to understand why we are all different. It has also helped us understand why some people suffer from genetic conditions such as Treacher Collins Syndrome. 

For our enquiry challenge, we used our knowledge of inheritance and genetics to design our own new species of animal. We know that, in real life, it is not actually possible to cross-breed animals from different species. However, we thought it would be fun to breed completely different animals. Check out our weird and wonderful  creations below.

Class assembly

During our class assembly today, we shared some of the work we have produced around our class book, Wonder. It was a very powerful text which we learnt a lot from. We had very positive comments from parents, teachers and children. Our teachers were very proud of us as you could hear every word we said and our work had a positive impact on the whole school.

Scratch Workshop and e-safety

In ICT this term, we are learning how to program information. Using Scratch, we learned how to create our own algorithms in order to produce different outputs. For example, we now know how to change the script in order to animate the sprites and make them communicate with one another. 

This term we are thinking about how to talk safely while using apps or the Internet. We considered what kind of information is private and how to respond if someone online asks you to share information.

Sketching August

We listened to Via's, August's sisters, description of August's face and sketched what we thought he looked like. We shared our sketches with each other and reflected upon the similarities and differences in our pictures. Following this, we looked at some photographs of adults and children with Treacher Collins Syndrome to explore the severeness of the syndrome and help us imagine an image of August in our minds. Here our some of our sketches.

Art - Painting

For our art this term, we have been exploring the work of Vincent Van Gogh. When creating our own pieces we have discussed using textures, tones, colours and light to paint our man-made and natural objects. To prove our new-developed learning and techniques we re-created 'Starry Night' by Vincent Van Gogh. See how his painting techniques have inspired us below!

Anti-bullying week

This week is anti-bullying week. As we have been thinking about Wonder, a book which looks at hurtful comments towards people who are 'different', we decided to combine the two ideas and create anti bullying posters. We discussed what bullying meant and thought about how it is different from being unkind. We learned all about the #ChooseKind campaign and created slogans to encourage people to treat every body's equally.

WOW

To start out enquiry this term, we explored the front cover of Wonder. We discussed who the character might be on the front and thought about how and why they have been illustrated in this way. Using the same style of art, we then created our own faces by just showing our hair and one eye to identify ourselves. When we were all finished, we collected all of our faces together to form a class collage for our door displays.

What makes me human?

Creating our own animals to classify: Prove it

We designed our own animals to classify. We thought about selecting animals of the same species to create our new animal so it would be able to be classified.

Sweet and bird classification: Use it

We used our own yes and no questions to classify sweets and birds.

Cat classification: Try it

The cat family is so large, so how is a lion different to a domestic house cat? Scientists ask questions to separate animals in order to group them, e.g. 'Does it have stripes?' 'Does it have rounded ears?' 

We used these questions to classify big cats. Next, we will use our knowledge of classification to create our own questions and classify other living things.

Observing over time

For a second mini enquiry, 'What makes me human?' we are learning all about living things and how they are classified. We were astonished to learn that there are millions of micro-organisms living all around us! Although some are harmful, others are really useful to us and the environment. We wanted to find out what conditions micro-organisms prefer so we have set up two investigations where we will observe the effects over time. Come back and see our results soon!

Prior knowledge

Did you know that there are over 10 million types of living organism on our planet? Miss Perrett wanted to know how we would group some of those living things. We each wore a label and had to work together to decide how we would group ourselves.

In a set of Christmas lights, what happens if one bulb fails?

Prove it

Near the end of our electricity enquiry, we got the chance to 'prove' our understanding. We created a general knowledge quiz which lit up when the correct answer was selected. We had to use our knowledge of circuits to ensure a complete circuit was made when the correct answer was chosen. 

Investigation

Does the number of lamps affect the amount of light produced? We thought about all the variables we could change - number of cells, the voltage of the battery, number of wires - but in the end decided to alter the number of lamps. We kept all the other independent variables the same in order to make it a fair test. We found our precondition to be correct: the lamps got dimmer each time we added one. This is because the electrical current remained the same yet had to be shared between more and more lamps.

Series and parallel circuits: Why does the bulb go out when the switch is closed?

Learning about different circuits has helped us to answer our question. In a parallel circuit, the electrons have more than one route, so if something doesn't work, they will choose another path. In a series circuit, the electrons have only one path, so if a component isn't working, the current cannot travel through it and complete the circuit. This explains why some people spend all Christmas trying to find the broken bulb in their fairy lights!

In a set of Christmas lights, what happens if one bulb fails?

During our first week back, we are exploring two mini Science enquiries. Our first enquiry is all about Electricity. so far, we have enjoyed reminding ourselves all about simple circuits and electrical components. We have learned that mains electricity is far more powerful than a battery operated circuit because a much higher voltage is produced! We worked as scientists to find and fix mistakes in simple circuits and conducted an investigation to find out whether the number of lamps affected the amount of light produced. Check back for more of our amazing science discoveries.

Term 1

Term 1 reflections:

This term I loved listening to Private Peaceful. It really helps you to understand what times were like in WW1. - Abi

My favourite part of the enquiry has been listening to Private Peaceful. It really makes you zoom in and imagine that you were there. - Mya

I really enjoyed making the propaganda posters because we could make them persuasive without doing any writing. - Bailey

My favourite thing was Beam House. The activities were fun and the instructors were kind. Rifle shooting felt real and we could imagine we were in Private Peaceful. - Jacob

This term, we are excited to be learning all about WW1. We will be exploring how it all began and who was involved as well as ways that the war affected every day life. We already have so many questions which we can't wait to get answered! Alongside our enquiry, we will be reading Michael Morpurgo's wartime novel 'Private Peaceful.'

What does it mean to be a Muslim in Great Britain?

In Term 1, we are learning about Islam. We have enjoyed learning about the 5 pillars of Islam which reminded of the 5Ks in Sikhism. The 5 pillars are belief in one God, prayer, charity, fasting and pilgrimage to Mecca. We have also learned about Muslim festivals such as Ramadan, which is a whole month of fasting, and Eid. It has been interesting to learn that Muslims believe that the Qur'an is the 'final word of God' and that Muhammed is his last prophet.

WWI sketching

We learnt some new sketching skills today and put them to use to sketch a WWI solider. We were very pleased with the progress we made and the sketches we produced.

WOW!

For our WOW, Mr Evans (otherwise known as Bombardier Evans) took on the role of a WW1 Officer and we all had to get into role as soldiers and follow his very strict orders. We learned how to march properly and understood how important it was to follow him exactly. In addition, we learned all about typical classrooms in the early 20th century and some of the countries which were involved in the First World War. We enjoyed digging trenches in the rain and even had a go at some very tricky needlework! We can't wait to find out more!