Twiss Green
Community Primary
School
Tel: 01925 762346
Fax: 01925 767885
E-Mail: [email protected]
Website: www.twissgreen.net
Headteacher: Miss L A McGann, BEd (Hons)
Twiss Green Lane
Culcheth
Warrington
Cheshire
WA3 4DQ
Chair of Governors: Mrs A Platt
5th September 2014
Dear Parents,
Welcome to Year Six! I am very much looking forward to working with all the children in what will be a
challenging, but hopefully enjoyable and rewarding year. Our main focus for this half-term is ‘Macbeth’ and
we will also be holding our harvest service later in the half-term (more detail to follow). Please see the
reverse of this letter for a more detailed breakdown of the curriculum in Year Six and suggestions as to how
you may like to help at home.
Part of our work this year is to ensure the children are ready for Secondary School. One significant element
of this is homework. Having listened to parental feedback, the whole school will be following a similar
homework routine this year. This means that in Year Six the children will have two homework folders (green
and red). Your child should have brought home the green folder today, which is to be returned next Friday.
The children will then bring home the red folder, to be returned the following Friday, whereupon the rotation
will begin again. Essentially, homework is Friday to Friday, in two different folders! The folders will contain
the following homework:
Week
(Green)
Week
(Red)
1
2
Fortnightly spelling focus on handwriting sheets, in-class spelling test sheets, Mathematics
homework, English, Science or themed work homework
Spelling game or task, Mathematics homework, English, Science or themed work
homework
We do set ‘talk homework’ fairly regularly, particularly in Science – The idea behind this being that it allows
children the opportunity to begin a unit of work having explored their understanding beforehand and perhaps
clarified misconceptions, or generated questions to stimulate learning. In addition the children will be
expected to continually practise times-tables – it is vital that all the children know each times table fact up to
12 x 12 - and keep an up to date Reading Journal that they bring to school every day. Should your child find
any of the homework difficult I will of course work with them back in school. Again, your help and support
with homework is both greatly appreciated and will certainly help your child to progress.
On the reverse is an overview of the curriculum for the half-term, along with some suggestions for how you
might like to continue the learning at home. You will notice that, when I am released for Planning,
Preparation and Assessment time and Assistant Head duties, Miss Browne is teaching Music, Spanish and
PE (alongside Mr Griffiths) and Mrs Dodgson (our newest member of staff) will be taking the class for
PSHEE. Children will need their PE kit in school every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
I realise that I have included lots of information here and that many of you may have questions, or matters
you wish to discuss. I am always happy to speak to parents - feel free to make an appointment if you need
to, or catch me before or after school most days (Wednesdays after school are tricky because of staff
meetings). Alternatively, I am very good at responding to email: [email protected]. (Parents used email
regularly last year, for all sorts of communications – particularly homework queries)
Yours sincerely,
Mr D Wood
This Half-Term's Learning
Theme: Macbeth
Subject
Learning
English
As part of our Macbeth theme, we will
study both playscripts and narrative
techniques. The children will also write
in a range of genres – ‘narrative’,
‘journalistic’ and, linking to harvest,
‘figurative poetry (imagery)’
Mathematics
This half term we will be focusing very
much on number work. This will
include place value to millions and 3
decimal places, rounding, standard
methods of all four operations and a
cross curricular look at ratio and
proportion (witches’ potions)
Science
‘Electricity’ – The children will be
taught to:
associate the brightness of a lamp or
the volume of a buzzer with the
number and voltage of cells used in
the circuit; compare and give reasons
for variations in how components
function, including the brightness of
bulbs, the loudness of buzzers and the
on/off position of switches; and use
recognised symbols when
representing a simple circuit in a
diagram.
Making puppets for a Macbeth puppet
show.
Design and
Technology
What can be done at home, or brought to
school
Regular reading to improve fluency and
vocabulary. It would help massively if the
children could regularly read appropriate
newspaper articles (to get the feel for the
genre) Feel free to send interesting or relevant
articles into school! Learn fortnightly spelling
lists and the common usage of the words.
Practise handwriting in the school style.
Daily practice of multiplication tables and
addition or subtraction facts to 100. Ask
children ‘What is 4.749 rounded to 1 decimal
place?’; ‘How much must be added to 456.32
to make 500?’, etc.
Look at recipes and try to ‘scale up/down’ to
serve more/fewer people. Help children to
understand what specific masses (1kg, 100g,
etc) or capacities (1 litre, 5ml, etc) feel/look
like.
Discuss electrical safety and how appliances
work. Look at voltage/current ratings for
common appliances. Compare and contrast
different bulbs in the home.
Any electricians out there want to come in and
talk to the class? You would be very welcome!
Although not a major part of our
theme, we will look at the ‘truth behind
Macbeth’ – places mentioned in the
play and what we know about the real
Duncan and Macbeth
With Mrs Dodgson, the children will be
studying a unit entitled ‘New
Beginnings’, whereby they think
deeply about how they can move
forward in their education/life, both
individually and as a class
Find out about Scottish History (the real
Macbeth ruled 1040-1057). Find Inverness
and Fife on a map. Look at the physical
geography of the region.
Use Google SketchUp to design a
castle for Macbeth.
Spanish will be taught by Miss
Browne, beginning with the children
revisiting vocabulary and phrases
taught previously
Tuesdays – Games (Hockey)with Mr
Griffiths
Wednesdays/Thursdays – Gym and
Dance skills with Miss Browne
We will be implementing the new
Warrington Syllabus this year. Year
Six will be looking at the key question:
Practise with Google SketchUp at home (free
software).
Ask the children about their Spanish. Draw
attention to Spanish words and phrases.
PE
RE
In what ways is life like a
journey? More detail
battery, flat (battery), bulb,
motor, current, circuit,
potential difference,
symbol, circuit diagram,
component, push switch,
short circuit, resistance,
resistor
Sources, interpretation,
evidence, Macbeth,
Glamis, Fife, Inverness,
History and
Geography
Modern
Foreign
Languages
Digit, value, round to next,
round to nearest,
calculate, interval, integer,
remainder, factor,
multiple, prime number,
ratio, proportion, (all
common units of
measurement)
Vice, dowel, drill, drill bit,
mechanism, design sheet,
pattern, back stitch, felt,
fabric, construct, suitability
Art will be integrated into our themed
work; with the children producing
watercolour landscapes of Macbeth’s
Scotland. Also we will be producing
work for our Harvest Thanksgiving.
ICT
Helping the children to
understand any common‘
Shakespearean terms’
would be invaluable!
Look at costume suitable for characters in the
play. How have the characters been portrayed
in different productions?
We have plenty of basic materials, but children
may wish to bring in interesting fabric.
The more ambitious of you may want to teach
your children how to thread a needle and sew!
Find images of Scottish highlands, heathland,
glens and look at the treatment of skies and
weather in art.
Art
PSHEE
Key Vocabulary
Watercolour, wash,
landscape
Discuss feelings at the start of the year,
empathising with others and understanding
one’s own behavioural patterns.
Be active!
Modelling, design