Welcome to Year 6

Class of 2018-2019

Leavers' Prom - July 2019

What a night we had!  We danced, ate, laughed, sang and danced some more.  Our Leavers' Prom was certainly a night we will never forget. 

Enterprise Week - July 2019

I have to say how proud I am of every single member of our class. They have had such a wonderful week where they have created their own business.  They had to imagine that they were pitching a business idea to the organisers of the Durham Brass Festival in order to persuade them to allow their company to have an ice-cream van at the festival.  I was overwhelmed by their creativity and business-like plans.  Each group had to design a van, create a menu, decide on the ice-creams they were going to make (from market research carried out with pupils in school) and then decide on their signature ice-cream (from the taste test carried out with members of staff).  After this, they then had to calculate how much it would cost to make a tub of their chosen ice-cream and how much a single scoop would cost using the exact costings of the ingredients.  This then allowed each group to work out how much profit they would make, and how much of this they would give to the organisers of the Durham Brass Festival. Everyone had the opportunity to make their chosen ice-creams for their group.  They were so well organised, co-operative and focussed.  Our judges were so impressed by the high quality of their presentations, the ice-creams they made and the professionalism of their presentation. Our winning team was Polar Paw Parlour and our runners up were Finchale Freeze.  It was a very close contest with only one point between 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

A special thanks has to go Mrs Smith from Durham Johnston and Mrs Foster, one of parent governors, who judged the pupils' presentations.  Mr Addinall and Mrs Rice were also fantastic!

Letters to Inspirational Figures

As part of our World Book Day work we wrote letters to people who inspire us.  We explained why they were so inspirational to us and asked what their favourite book was and why.  We also told them about our favourite book.  Hopefully we will receive a reply!

Wear a Hat Day March 2019

One of our Year 6 pupils organised a full afternoon of fundraising to raise money for Brain Tumour Research.  She began with such an informative presentation to explain why we were raising the money.  Pupils then designed their own hat and two winners were chosen from each class.

We are all extremely proud of Isabel and what she has achieved.  Well done!  

Red Nose Day March 2019

Our SWAG team (School Worldwide Awareness Group) prepared an excellent set of resources and delivered a fantastic assembly for Red Nose Day.  In each class, they had the task of creating their own red nose and the designs were fantastic.  Pupils also learned about why we were fundraising and the people that could benefit from the money raised that day.

Our SWAG team did a marvellous job and we are very proud of them. 

Safer Futures Event - March 2019

We visited 'The Work Place' at Newton Aycliffe for the ‘Safer Futures’ event. Our visit gave us the opportunity to learn how we could be safe in different areas of our life.  We spent time with the fire service, who encouraged us to have a fire escape plan and reminded us of the importance of checking our smoke alarms once a week.  After this, we discussed why we need to wear a helmet and that we need to stay focussed at all times when riding our bikes.  We then moved on to learning about water safety and how cold water shock can kill.  The key message was ‘float to live’ and to not fight against the cold water.  After lunch, we learned more about how to stay safe on the internet and not to accept friend requests from strangers.  During the electrical safety workshop, we discovered that electricity can jump and that we must never enter a substation. Our final session was about safety in the home where we discussed hazards and sources of danger.  We certainly enjoyed the day and felt that we learned the most during the internet safety session and we enjoyed the electrical safety session the most.

World Book Day - March 2019

For World Book Day, we had a huge range of fabulous costumes - everyone looked wonderful.  Throughout the day, we took part in various tasks including taking part in the BBC's Live Lessons with the authors Malorie Blackman, Cressida Cowell and Rob Biddulph.  We also wrote a letter to someone who inspires us to ask what their favourite book is and why.  We can't wait to see if we receive any replies! 

February 2019 -Safer Internet Day

As part of our work for Safer Internet Day in Year 6, we looked at how to be kind and respectful on-line. We thought about how a message could be misunderstood when you are not face-to-face with a person. Through our work, we discussed how using an emoji could change the meaning of a message and why it is important to think about what we are typing and to check before pressing send. We made notes about what was important and the key messages we wanted to promote. From this work, we created our own poetry about being safe on-line and how to show kindness and respect.  We used different styles and forms of poetry including free verse, rhyming couplets, limericks and haikus.  During anti-bullying week, Year 6 studied the book ‘Cloudbusting’ by Malorie Blackman and two of our girls, Isabel and Lily, used this as inspiration for their poetry work. In fact, Malorie Blackman was so impressed with their work that she mentioned the poem on her Twitter account stating ‘Love this. Well done!’ This was a fantastic acknowledgment from a previous Children’s Laureate!  Well done girls! 

Below we are performing our poetry for the rest of the class and Dr Whitton. 

January 2019 - Laser Pistol Shooting

Year 6 were given the opportunity to experience part of an Olympic Modern Pentathlon when they were challenged to hit a perfect 5 in 50 seconds – a requirement of the event. Through Pentathlon GB North they received training from Lead Shooting Trainer and athlete Andrew who taught them how to accurately stand, aim and shoot at an electronic target.   After taking time to practise and improve their skills they then had the chance to see how many hits they could achieve, if any, in the 50 seconds.  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and showed an improvement in their aiming skills.

January 2019 - Britain Since 1948 - Homework Tasks

Year 6 were set the task of researching a topic of their choice about our topic for this term 'Britain Since 1948'.  Mrs Sleeman and Mr Addinall were amazed (yet again!) at the quality of the work that was produced.  We had biscuits, pineapple upside down cake, a rendition of 'Yellow Submarine' on the trombone and a vast array of projects showing how fashion and technology had changed through the decades.  Please have a look at the wonderful work we have produced.

Wartime Rationing - Making Biscuits Following a Wartime Recipe December 2018

As part of our work on rationing, we studied how much a family would have as rations for the week.  We then made some honey biscuits, following a wartime recipe.  We worked together and helped one another when weighing out the ingredients and rolling out the dough.  The biscuits were delicious and we were very pleased with how they tasted as we didn't expect them to be so tasty!

Aladdin Trouble December 2018

Pupils in Key Stage 2 performed 'Aladdin in Trouble' for the Christmas Performance.  Many, many laughs were had and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the show.  Aladdin was looking for his true love and although he faced a few misadventures along the way (mainly due to Abanazaar) he eventually found his way to Jasmine and they lived happily ever after.   A huge well done is certainly needed to everyone involved.  We are all very proud of every single one of you!  

Please click on the links below to see photos and clips of our performances.

Children in Need SWAG assembly November 2018

Our SWAG group presented the Children in Need assembly and they did a fabulous job!  Not only did they create their own PowerPoint presentation but they organised a fashion show for each class (with stickers for the best dressed) and gave each teacher different examples of work that they could do with their class.  Well done SWAG!

Making Decorations to Sell at the Christmas Fair November 2018

We had the opportunity to work with Brian again, who designed and made wooden Christmas decorations for us to paint and decorate.  We had a choice of decorating a bell, an angel, a Christmas tree or a star.  We have to say, we are very impressed with what we have produced! 

Finchale's Remembrance Service - November 2018

As part of our service of remembrance, Year 6 pupils shared work they have been focussing on over the last two weeks.  They looked at the poem, 'In Flanders Fields' and looked at how the poem made them feel.  They also discussed the imagery in the poem and produced some excellent and thoughtful pieces of work.  From this, pupils then produced their own message and poem by considering the words in the poem that meant the most to them.  They are very proud of the work they have produced and now feel that they have a greater understanding of the how the events of war have an impact on everyone.  After the service, our visitors from the local area stayed with us for lunch and our Year 6 pupils had the opportunity to talk to them to find out what it was like to live during times of war.

Please also see the link below for photographs of our Remembrance Day service.

Painting Poppies for our Remembrance Garden

We were so fortunate to be able to paint metal poppies for our Remembrance garden.  This work helped us to understand the importance of poppies and what they represent.  Brian created around 30 individual poppies and we all painted our own individual poppy.  We had to persevere and work very carefully.  Please visit our memorial garden to see how wonderful the poppies are.  

Please click on the link below and scroll down the page to see photos of our work.

Singing Day at Framwellgate School Durham (FSD) October 2018

Year 6 had a great time visiting one of our local secondary schools where we learned how to sing in harmony and sang along to music from 'The Greatest Showman'.  We also had the opportunity to meet some of the staff from FSD and to talk to pupils from some of the other local primary schools.

World War II Art October 2018

We have been studying the different planes from World War II and, using the grid technique, we have been copying them to scale.  Some of our work is on display in our corridor. Come and take a look!

Homework - World War II Cookies October 2018.

One of our homework tasks was to study and produce some work on a topic of our choice on World War II.  Some of us created posters, replica weaponry, Anderson shelters, planes and even food, following recipes from the time of rationing.  

European Day of Languages September 2018

As part of our work on European Day of Languages, we created leaflets for potential visitors to France.  We included details about places of interest, food, the history of France and useful French phrases.  This helped us to have a greater understanding of the country as a whole.  We also worked with Mrs Hamill, one of our Governors, and performed a song in assembly at the end of the day.