Welcome to St. Martha Class!

We are a class of Year 6 pupils in the Upper Key Stage 2 part of the school.

Our teacher is: Mrs Brackenbury

Teacher Email

 huxtb003@mastacademy.co.uk

Please email me with any further questions about St. Martha or speak to me at the end of the day once all children have been collected. This is so I can give you my full attention.

I'd be glad to help you!

Now that your child is in Upper Key Stage 2, please encourage them to take responsibility for their behaviour and learning and help them understand these are fundamental to their future at secondary school and beyond.

Our Curriculum

We adopted a curriculum which is published by Cornerstones. English and all foundation subjects: History, Geography, Art, DT and Music are taught through our termly theme. Cornerstones will provide our children with a good level of challenge, giving them opportunities to solve problems, apply themselves creatively and express their knowledge and understanding across the full range of National Curriculum subjects.

Year 6 will experience 3 Imaginative Learning Projects in a year. Each individual project is split into sections, which see children progress through four stages of learning: Engage, Develop, Innovate and Express. We are confident that our curriculum will instill a curiosity and love of learning/school in our children. It will help them maintain their well-being and provide opportunities for each of them to achieve their full potential. In every lesson and homework piece, we make sure that there is an accessible challenge to extend learning and we even have a termly curriculum challenge for all the whole school to take part in! We have a daily maths lesson that is taught using our school scheme ‘Third Space Learning’. In St. Martha, we work in separate groups for maths & literacy for targeted support from adults.

Our Term 1 & 2 Topic

Over the year, the children will learn many things through our projects and our topic for terms 1 and 2 is:

'Frozen Kingdoms.'

Key text: The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell

In this geography-based project, the children will learn about the regions of the Arctic and Antarctic. They will learn about the similarities and differences between these two regions, including the climate, landscape and natural resources. They will learn how to use grid references, lines of latitude and longitude, contour lines and symbols to identify the geographical locations of the Arctic and Antarctic, and how these, along with the tilt of the Earth, affect day length and warmth. They will investigate polar oceans to learn how they differ from other oceans on Earth and how climate change increases Earth's temperature and leads to rising sea levels. They will learn about the indigenous people of the Arctic, including how their lives have changed over time, and about the positives and negatives of tourism in Antarctica. They will also learn about classifying animals, animal adaptations and evolution, and polar exploration and discovery. They will write a non-chronological report about an arctic animal, a persuasive advert encouraging tourists to visit the polar regions, a newspaper report about the RMS Titanic & a diary entry!

P.E

P.E days are on Tuesday & Thursday.

Thursday: Outdoor

Tuesday: Indoor

Please ensure your child brings their PE kit to change into on these days. 

Children may need jogging bottoms if we are outside as the weather changes. Children must be able to take out their ear rings before the lesson and are responsible for looking after these. If your child is unable to remove their ear rings, they must come to school with tape on their ears or you can show your child how to apply the tape themselves before the lesson.

P.E. kit: White t-shirt, dark shorts or jogging bottoms, plimsolls or trainers. T-shirts must be plain with no logos or patterns. Long hair must be tied back. NO jewellery. 

If your child is unable to remove their ear rings, they must come to school with tape on their ears or you can show your child how to apply the tape themselves before the lesson. 

If your child cannot partake in PE, we expect to receive written confirmation of this unless the class teacher has already been informed previously. PE is a compulsory element of the National Curriculum.

Homework 

Homework will be sent home on a Friday to be returned the following Thursday.

There will be a maths, spelling and literacy/reading comprehension task for the children to complete. Homework is adapted to suit the abilities of the children and each piece of homework includes an accessible challenge to ensure that all children are being extended in their learning.

Homework should be returned to school by the following Thursday. In addition to this, children will have a weekly spelling test every Friday based on the spellings sent home the previous week. Below are the common exception words that Year 6 children should be able to spell by the end of UKS2.

Furthermore, children are expected to read their book, sent home from school, read their KO and practice all their times tables up to 12s for 5 minutes each, every night. Children can practise the recall of their times tables on Times Table Rock Stars whereby homework will be set each week. To access TTRS, children only need to input their Accelerated Reader logins. Independence is a critical skill pupils should develop in preparation for secondary school and are encouraged to do so through autonomous engagement in homework.

Reading challenging texts is vital to pupils in year 6. Whilst it is paramount that children read for pleasure, children must ensure they read a variety of texts. Local libraries are free to join and are currently offering a 'click and collect' service. It might be an idea to use the AR Book Finder website to check if the book/s your child has chosen is on the AR system then they will not only be able to read it, but quiz on it too! Below is a book reading list for year 6.

Knowledge Organisers

Please remember to look at your Knowledge Organisers each night at home and quiz your child on the different interesting facts on both sides! The information on these sheets should be easily recalled by the children once the topic is completed. Children may also wish to extend their learning beyond the knowledge organiser if they have a specific interest in the topic. Please use the knowledge organiser as a starting point for any extra study. The knowledge organiser for our current topic, 'Frozen Kingdom', will be sent home with your children.

Behaviour Expectations

St. Martha class are expected to follow the school’s rules at all times so that they can A.R.I.S.E. and Shine together!

The School rules are:

Attendance & punctuality

The school is committed to ensuring a high rate of attendance for all. We want all of our children to have a 97% attendance rate over each school year. We ask all parents to inform the school before 9.30am on the first day of absence and to send a letter to the class teacher on the day their child returns from absence. The school will phone/contact parents on the first day of absence if the parent has not contacted the school. If contact cannot be made with the parent then the child's absence will be marked as unauthorised. Ten sessions ( 5 days ) of unauthorised absences can lead to the local authority issuing fines. The fine will be £120 per parent per child, but if paid before 21 days, it is reduced to £60 per child, per parent. This money goes to Medway council not the school. Repeated or unexplained absences will be followed up with more phone calls, letters home, requests for medical certificates and a home visit from the School Family Support Worker - so it is important to keep the school informed. All contact with families regarding pupil absence is logged systematically to show the lengths the school are going to, to get the children into school. Children are asked to be punctual.  The registers will be taken at 8.55am for juniors. Lateness and absence will be noted on the child’s Annual School Report. 100% attendance is rewarded regularly at the end of every term and year.

Uniform

Our uniform consists of:

• a white shirt or polo shirt that must be tucked in.
• grey skirt, trousers or pinafore dress- black is acceptable
• a navy blue sweatshirt or cardigan 
• blue and white checked dresses can also be worn in the summer.
• Long hair tied back.
• No jewellery apart from religious or small studs. 

Walking permits & Mobile phones

If you would like your child to walk home in UKS2, you need to write into the office to request a walking permit. UKS2 siblings can walk junior siblings home, but not infants. Mobile phones are only to be sent into school if your child is walking home without adult supervision and these must be given to the teacher on arrival.

Rewards and Prizes

The children are rewarded on ClassDojo with points for showing the values or skills that enable them to A.R.I.S.E and Shine. All parents will have received an invite to be a part of ClassDojo so that they can share in their children's achievements. Whichever child gains the most Dojo points by the end of the week will receive a reward from the St. Martha prize box.

Additionally, every Friday, two children from St. Martha, who have followed our school rules & shown our school values, will be chosen for the 'A.R.I.S.E. & Shine' award. Similarly, another child from St. Martha will receive the prestigious 'Values Award', which this term is for demonstrating our school value of 'support.'

If St. Martha have been arising & shining consistently for a term, the whole class will receive a reward and the class have chosen to do some quizzes with snacks!

Children with SEND

We understand that every child is unique and so, we adapt our learning to suit all needs. Similarly, if your child is registered with the school as having specific special learning needs, please look at the home learning links to meet their requirements attached to this link. Thank you.