Brownlee Triathlon
This week, a group of our Key Stage 2 pupils took part in the Brownlee Foundation Mini Triathlon event at John Smeaton. This is always a popular and oversubscribed event and it introduces the children to the elements of triathlon – a swim, a bike ride and a run.
Well done to all the children for taking part, showing great determination and supporting each other.
If your child is interested in triathlons, please see more details in our physical activity guide or have a look at the bike and run opportunities at the Brownlee Centre.
Some children are also competing in the upcoming junior aquathlon taking place at Leeds University on 1st June. More details can be found here.
Writing: a letter to a loved one
This week, writing has linked to history because we’ve been writing a recount of an evacuee’s journey to the countryside.
Today, we planned them using story maps.
We want our letters to include information about the journey there, what our host family is like and what we’ve done so far. Our aim is to remember to use a variety of sentence structures whilst remembering our vital must dos: full stops, capital letters and accurate spelling.
Some children had never seen farm animals before (or so much grass!) so we want to capture the culture shock of moving to a completely new place.
Evacuating to the countryside must have been terrifying as well as partly enjoyable but ultimately it kept millions of children safe.
Help at home by asking your child what the purpose and audience of our recount is.
Living and learning: physical health and fitness
This week, our L&L statement is ‘I know that being physically active is mentally and physically healthy’.
We also watched a video which explained why movement was so vital to our lives – it prevents disease, helps memory and builds muscle.
We discussed lots of other ways that being active improves mental wellbeing and came up with our own. We listed some top tips for getting moving.
Finally, we talked about our advice for the following person:
“I think you should try swimming because it makes you feel refreshed and good,” – Henry
“I think they should try and go to bed a little earlier so they can get more sleep,” – Viv
“I would recommend to set a goal to eat a fruit or vegetable every day. They should eat five a day,” – Inayah
“They should have a little bit of protein, veg, fruit, carbohydrates, dairy and a bit of oils and sugar in their diet,” Jensen
“Drink more water!” – Ava
SATs – well done!
This week, I couldn’t have been prouder of the class for their attitude, resilience and focus when completing their SATs.
It’s a testament to how hard they’ve worked so far this year that we went into each paper feeling confident (and competent)!
Breakfast club was a pleasure – the children were polite, grateful and tidy.
No matter their results, released in July, they can all hold their heads very high because of how they’ve carried themselves and that they’ve all tried their very best.
Well done, everybody.
Miss Wilson & the Y6 team
Living and learning: healthy eating
This week, we’ve looked at what makes a healthy diet, an unhealthy diet and the associated risks of poor choices.
First, we had fun creating a meal plan full of unhealthy choices. We discussed how skipping meals, high fats and sugars and not eating a balance of the food groups across the day is bad for you. We also discussed the importance of drinking enough water.
Next, we discussed risks associated with poor diets.
Finally, we created a much better, healthy meal plan for the day. We wanted to include a balance of the food groups, based around fruit and vegetables, carbohydrates and some proteins.
Grammar Games 2025
This week, Y6 have been embroiled in the hotly anticipated Grammar Games 2025. Each day has seen the children take part in a variety of tasks all related to grammar.
We’ve looked at punctuation such as apostrophes, commas and hyphens and we’ve recapped grammatical terms such as conjunctions, tenses and Standard English.
Each round, they totalled their points and worked out their table’s mean average to add to the leaderboard.
As we know, punctuation saves lives…
By the end of the week, we could crown our winners!
Help at home by asking your child which areas of grammar they’re confident with and which they need help with.
VE Day
Yesterday was VE Day which means that WWII ended in Europe 80 years ago.
Y6 took part in a webinar that was all about VE Day, why we should celebrate peace and our British Values.
You can remember the British Values (Individual Liberty, Rule of Law, Democracy and Mutual Respect and Tolerance) with the following memory aid: I Really Do Matter.
The British Values link to VE Day because people had fewer choices for food due to rationing and shortages, people were fighting to have our voices heard, people were sadly treated extremely badly and weren’t following laws.
Help at home by matching the four reasons above to each of the four British Values.
Netball
The weather has been really helping us to enjoy our new PE topic this week. We’ve started a unit of netball which we’re really enjoying so far.
This week, we’ve focused on throwing but mainly catching, using a ready position and sticky feet.
Help at home by asking what sticky feet means!
Netball is a fantastic sport which teaches so many crucial skills like hand-eye coordination, using space and communication.
Living and learning: sleep
In Living and Learning this week, we’ve been talking about sleep.
We’ve analysed our own sleep to suggest any helpful changes. We know poor quality sleep really isn’t good for us so we want to make the best possible choices to look after our body and minds.
We also debated whether “a perfect night’s sleep is impossible” in Philosophy Friday and came up with some interesting contributions.
Jensen explained, “I don’t think it’s possible for anything to be perfect but there’s always small choices you can make to have good quality sleep. You can go to bed a little earlier, stay away from devices, read and make it as peaceful as possible.”