Year 6 have recently returned from the Dominican Republic; having spent five fantastic days there on their residential trip.  The mountainous area of Jarabacoa provided the backdrop to a fun-filled week of exhilaration and adventure.  Rather than me tell you all about it, I thought that you would rather hear from the Year 6 students directly.  So, please read the quotations below to get a better sense of the exciting times that were had by all.

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As part of their English Literature classes, Year 6 has just recently finished reading John Boyne’s: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.  The novel falls into the historical fiction genre, thus the context of the story is centered on some of the atrocities committed during World War 2.  This has been an excellent complement to our history lessons too, which has also focused on different aspects of this war.

Having a sound grasp of the contextual features of the novel has enabled Year 6 to develop more critical approaches to studying plot developments, themes and characters present in the text.  Boyne’s novel contains many heroes and villains, and the Year 6 students have enjoyed getting to grips with how Boyne has presented them on paper; through physicality and personality.

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Science lessons in Year 6 this term have been centered on the study of the human body.  Year 6 students have been busy identifying the main internal organs of the human body; and describing their functions.  In addition to this, they have also been examining some of the main body systems to further their understanding of how organs work together purposefully within the body.

With this in mind, Year 6 students were asked to make an individual presentation to their peers regarding an element of the human body which interests them.  Students were asked to present their material using a style of their choice; but they just had to ensure that their audience would gain something useful from the presentation made.

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As part of their work in PSHE and Literacy, Year 6 have been discussing important issues surrounding the topic of bullying.  They have discovered that bullying comes in many forms; verbal, physical, emotional, indirect and cyber to name a few.  They have also explored case studies depicting situations at school in which bullying occurred.  This provided ample opportunities to discuss why bullying was happening; the impact it was having on the victim; and most importantly what was being done to stop or prevent from it surfacing again.

To complement this scheme of work, Year 6 students devised and redrafted independent bullying stories.  The stories had to portray a fictional scenario in school; or at home when bullying could take place.

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Niagara Falls, Victoria Falls, Iguazu Falls, Angel Falls…

Yes, Year 6 have been studying waterfalls!

As part of their topic/geography lessons, Year 6 have been learning all about these natural and wondrous creations.  Year 6 enjoyed researching lots of fascinating information about famous waterfalls located throughout the globe; examining beautiful photographs captured by photographers; and indeed sharing their own experiences of them through travel.

This got us thinking about how they come to be.  And if you want to know how, expect the following to be relayed to you by any member of Year 6: [Read more…]

Can you guess who is who in Year 6?

Please take a look at their fantastic portraits and see if you can decipher all the students in the current Year 6 class!

As part of our work in P.S.H.E, Year 6 have been following a scheme of work entitled: What Makes Me, Me?  One aspect of this unit of work demanded the production of a personal portrait which had to be annotated with words describing the personality of the individual depicted.

Students had to observe their facial features closely in order to attain a similar copy within their portrait.  This also enabled the children to appreciate their unique features; and to consider how similar or different they are to their parents, siblings and other family members.

Once the sketching element of the process was finished the children used oil pastels to bring the portrait to life.  Experimenting with a range of colours, tones and shades was messy, but fun work!

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In computing classes this term Year 6 have been studying animation; and in particular Stop Motion Animation.  We have discovered that Stop Motion Animation is a film making technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they appear to exhibit independent motion when the series of frames are played back together.

With this in mind, Year 6 were charged with the task of creating an animation linked to our topic work: Natural Disasters.  In pairs, individuals had to storyboard a sequence linked to a natural disaster.  When this was completed they had to design a set and then build it.  This would serve as the backdrop to their short films.  Once this task was realised, the students used the app: Animate It on the school iPads to capture individual images which would then be played back to reveal a final animated short film.

The results were fantastic and the final movies showcased earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions and so on.

Please check out the photographs below to see Year 6 in action!  Collaborating and animating to make a super cool short film.

Want to see the films?  Then come and ask a Year 6 to show you them.

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      Today is one of those occasions when we get to celebrate our young people – their achievements, their perseverance and their successes as they grow up.  It is one of the times you can take a break and reflect, feeling good as a parent or mentor, knowing that the children you care about are doing just fine and they’re on the right path.

Graduates, you should know that your Mums and Dads are very proud of you today.  They have high hopes for you, and they believe in you, and you are making them proud by showing them what you can do.  Today is an important day for you and them.  Today they are very, very proud of you. [Read more…]

Be Prepared

What can I do to you

This Is What

Terrible and Treacherous Typhoons

Throughout this term year 6 have been learning about natural disasters.  Our studies started with an examination of the differing layers of the Earth; and the tectonic plate theory.  This provided us with the foundations to enable an understanding of how and why such disasters occur.  Independent research and dedicated focus on case studies have allowed year 6 to realize the short and long term effects that arise once a natural disaster strikes a country.  With this in mind Year 6 have produced some beautiful emotive poetry based upon hurricanes.  They felt that this was an appropriate angle to take considering the threat of hurricanes on our islands.  Please read through a selected sample of their poetry.  You will notice how they have used poetic devices to good effect.  Look out for the power of 3, hyperbole, similes, metaphors, puns and so on as they manipulate language to ensure the creation of a powerful poem which hits the heart of the reader!

Year 6 have just completed an egg-tastic character and set design project.  As part of our design technology curriculum; and to celebrate Easter, Year 6 were posed with the challenge of creating egg characters and set designs that would complement their selections.

Getting busy to work, the students had to ‘blow out’ real eggs so that they could devise their fictitious characters.  Once this ‘gross’ task had been finished, they were able to enhance the eggs using paints, sharpies and so on.  The backdrop had to complement the egg characters and the students used an array of medium to fulfill the requirements of this task.

The final results are fantastic.  Please view our included photographs so that you can get a sense of the selections made.  The Year 6 students had a lot of ‘messy fun’ while engaged in this creative Easter task.

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Year 6 have realised that their everyday school life requires them to remember many things!  Time tables, spellings, punctuation rules, homework, vocabulary, scientific facts…the list goes on and on.  It comes as no surprise that our brain oversees these things; and that working memory differs from one person to the next.  Indeed, the ways in which individuals can process, retain and recall information is dependent on many factors.

With this in mind, Year 6 set out to investigate how strong their own working memory is.  Each student created a memory board based upon a theme of their choice. The range included: foods, drinks, sports, football teams, football payers, landmarks, art styles and more!  The memory boards included an array of images and words.  With the ground work complete, Year 6 students were ready to experiment.

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Year 6 recently played a significant role in Provo Primary School’s annual Halloween Party.   They were set the challenge of designing, creating and implementing the games that could be used.  The design brief enabled the students to focus on games that would be fun to play, could be differentiated easily across different age groups and maintained a spooky theme to fulfill the atmosphere of a Halloween party.

The students in Year 6 were grouped into 5 teams and posed with the above challenge.  Getting straight down to work they blasted ideas before settling on a firm notion that could be developed fully to meet the needs of the design brief.  The planning stage also considered how prizes would be allocated to winners, how many people would be needed to operate the games, resources and materials needed to build and so on.

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Year 6 have been learning all about the animal kingdom this term in science.  This strand of biology has focused on the importance of classification and variation.  Year 6, wearing their scientist hats, have discovered that classification is all about sorting; and variation is concerned with differences between species.

With this in mind, Year 6 quickly realised that the animal kingdom is divided into two main groups: vertebrates and invertebrates.  Vertebrates are animals who possess a backbone and invertebrates do not.  Moreover, it was quickly ascertained that further classification would be needed in order to group organisms together more readily based upon similarities and differences.  More research revealed that scientists also classify vertebrates and invertebrates into subgroups depending on certain characteristics.

Please look at the photographs below and judge for yourselves how well we have coped with getting to grips with lots of new scientific vocabulary and the classification of our animal kingdom.

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Year 6 have just returned from their week long field trip to the Dominican Republic.   An experience never to be forgotten with ever lasting memories.  Staying at Rancho Baiguate in Jarabacoa provided the perfect mountainous backdrop for an array of team building activities, cultural learning, language emersion, environmental studies; and the opportunities to develop further independence and responsible attitudes.  Our students were true ambassadors for our school and it was a pleasure to spend a well-deserved week away from home with them.  Please read a few comments below from our Year 6 students to get an idea about the experiences encountered and the powerful impact a residential trip can have on a young mind.    [Read more…]

Year 6 have been studying the historical era of World War 2. In particular their learning has focused on the Holocaust, Blitz, Spies, WW2 Leaders, Impact Then and Now along with many other important areas that attributed to this frightening time in history.

Year 6 have found this time period fascinating and at times they have been heavily touched and moved by the powerful elements that have featured within lessons. With this in mind they set about writing emotive poetry based upon the events that occurred at this time to express their thoughts and feelings regarding the issues explored in class.

Emotive poetry is designed to evoke a strong emotional response after reading. Please read a selection from our class and see if our knowledge of the time period and figurative language techniques used meets this end!

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As part of our TCI studies this term, Year 6 has been investigating coral reefs.  Our classroom based learning was bought to life with a field trip to snorkel on TCI’s very own amazing reef system.

We were very fortunate to have Lynne (Big Blue representative) visit our school earlier in the term, to provide us with an array of information linked to our very own coral reef here in the TCI. Lynne presented an excellent lecture explaining the formation of our reef; their importance to the overall ecology of our planet and the fascinating living creatures that can be found residing within them.

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