WOW! What a fortnight we’ve had! The last couple of weeks in Year 6 have been packed with exciting adventures, brilliant performances, new discoveries and plenty of opportunities to show off what we can do. From cracking secret codes at Bletchley Park to performing a very long poem and celebrating our brand-new library bus, we’ve certainly been keeping busy! So, grab a cuppa, get comfy and let us tell you all about it!
Last Friday was an absolutely AMAZING day as we celebrated our Poetry By Heart event and the grand opening of our very own library bus!
Yes, you read that correctly… WE HAVE A LIBRARY BUS!
We are absolutely thrilled to have this fantastic new space where we can explore books, discover new authors and get lost in all sorts of wonderful stories. Our fabulous School Captains led a brilliant opening ceremony, and we were delighted that Chris Hinchliff MP had the honour of cutting the red ribbon. What a way to open our new library!
We can’t wait to spend happy hours exploring our new library, discovering exciting adventures and finding stories that we simply cannot put down. Although, knowing us, choosing which book to read might be the hardest part!
And what better way to celebrate our love of reading than with our very own Poetry By Heart performance? The Highwayman Rides Again! We have been working incredibly hard to learn Alfred Noyes’ The Highwayman by heart. And when we say hard, we mean HARD! It is a very long poem with lots of tricky vocabulary, dramatic moments and enough repetition of “riding — riding — riding” to get stuck in your head for days!
But WOW, didn’t we do a brilliant job? We polished our pistol butts, made horses’ hooves go “tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot!” and brought those twinkling rapier hilts to life. We practised our expression, dramatic voices and carefully timed delivery to make sure our audience was completely drawn into the story.
There was plenty of drama, suspense and some seriously impressive performing. We were SO proud to share our hard work with everyone, and performing as part of such a special day made it even more memorable.
Haven’t watched us yet? Don’t forget to look on Tapestry, where you can watch our fantastic performance. We hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed performing it!
Last Tuesday, we swapped our Year 6 classroom for a world of secret codes, wartime mysteries and top-secret missions as we visited Bletchley Park!
We became codebreakers for the day, exploring the historic site and discovering how the incredible codebreakers helped Britain during the Second World War. We even had the chance to use a real Enigma machine — how exciting is that?!
We also visited Alan Turing’s office in Hut 8 and discovered a rather amusing fact about this famous mathematician and codebreaker. Apparently, he chained his mug to a radiator to stop other people borrowing it!
Clearly, even a brilliant codebreaker has to find ways to protect his favourite mug.
We also saw a replica of the famous Bombe machine, which was used to help decipher German Enigma messages. It was fascinating to learn about the clever thinking, teamwork and determination that went into breaking these codes and helping the Allied war effort.
There was so much to discover, and it really brought our Second World War learning to life. We were able to see the places where people worked on these incredibly important tasks and imagine what it might have been like to keep such enormous secrets.
After all our codebreaking efforts, we think Alan Turing would have been proud of us! Although, we’re not sure he would have trusted us with his mug…
On Wednesday this week we welcomed our parents into school for our Parent Consultation meetings, where we had the chance to share our learning from this half term.
We always love showing our grown-ups what we have been working on and celebrating how much progress we have made. It is lovely to look back at everything we have achieved and hear about the things we should feel proud of.
We also talked with Mrs Tweedale about what we have done well and what we can focus on next half term.
Of course, there is always something new to work towards! Year 6 is all about challenging ourselves, becoming more independent and making the most of every opportunity.
Thank you to all our parents for taking the time to come in and celebrate our learning with us!
Thursday morning brought our Golden Morning, and what a fantastic way to finish the half term!
We had the opportunity to take part in all sorts of enrichment activities, including sewing, stop-motion filmmaking, circus skills, baking, arts and crafts, dancing, sport and science experiments.
There really was something for everyone!
It was brilliant to work with children from across the school, try something new and discover skills we didn’t even know we had. Who knows, we might have uncovered a future filmmaker, circus performer, baker or scientist among us!
Golden Morning reminded us that learning doesn’t always have to involve sitting at a desk with a pencil in our hands. Sometimes, it means getting creative, having a go, making mistakes and discovering that we can do things we never thought possible.
There may even have been a few hidden talents revealed along the way!
What a super way to end the half term!
And That’s a Wrap! What a fortnight! We’ve become poets, performers, codebreakers, readers, explorers and creative thinkers — and we’ve done it all while opening a library bus, investigating wartime secrets and discovering that even Alan Turing had to protect his favourite mug!
We’ve also been reminded how powerful books, poetry and stories can be. They help us imagine, create, question and see the world in different ways — and now we have a wonderful new space in which to do just that.
Year 6, what a brilliant end to the half term you have had!