Welcome back! I hope you all had a lovely break. Even though we have only had four days this week, the holidays feel like a lifetime ago as we have already packed in so many lessons.

In English, we have started revising different aspects of grammar in preparation for our SATs in four weeks’ time. This week has focussed on phrases and clauses, in particular noun phrases, adverbial phrases, prepositional phrases, main clauses, subordinate clauses and relative clauses.

In Maths, we have continued looking at our unit on area and perimeter, recapping how to find out the area of different shapes, before moving onto working out the volume of 3D cubes and cuboids. The children whizzed through their work without any problems so we then completed the end of topic test, before starting our new unit: Statistics.

We have started a new topic in Relationships and Health Education, where we looked at ‘The Five Ways to Wellbeing’ and what we thought this could mean. The five ‘ways’ are: stay connected, keep learning, take notice, give and be active. We spoke about how we could implement these Ways into our everyday life and how they can help us feel calm and ready for anything that is to come. Once we had discussed how we show and develop these Ways, we created a news show introducing the 5 Ways of Wellbeing to a new audience.

For RE, Islam is our new topic and this week we looked at the Shahadah and how it plays an important part in daily life. We started the lesson by recalling prior learning about this religion, thinking about the Five Pillars of Islam; Ramadan, fasting & Eid; Mosques; the Qur’an, before looking at the Shahadah (one of the Five Pillars).

• The Shahadah: “God is great, there is no God but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Come to prayer.”

Finally, they calculated how many times the Shahadah would be repeated over a lifetime if a devout Muslim repeated it 5 times a day for 70 years – 127,750. Or 127 838 if you include the leap years!

Thank you to those of you who contributed to the FOSS Just Giving page to raise funds for our Ukulele Project, which the children began on Wednesday and seems to be a big hit so far. They learned that the ukulele evolved from the Portuguese Brinquinho brought to Hawaii by sailors in the late eighteenth century. The children did lots of sanding of the two main parts – the body and the neck – learning to use 100 grit sandpaper first, moving on to the finer 150 grit and then 240, sanding with the grain! They will be experts on sanding by the end.

Also, a quick note about ‘hygiene’. As the hormones kick in and the weather warms, the classroom can take on quite a distinct aroma with 30 hot and sweaty bodies crammed in. I have asked the children to make sure that they wash every day, particularly on the days we have PE. They also need to make sure they wear clean clothes: PE Kits on Mondays and Thursdays, with school uniforms – they do not need to wear their hoodies on a hot days – on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, unless otherwise advised.

Finally, a comment about smartphones and children using social media, including WhatsApp. Please read this story: Nine-year-olds added to malicious WhatsApp groups

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

We made it! The past six weeks have flown by and we have had a great last week packed full of an Easter Bonnet Parade, a Church service, climate change workshops and of course, a few of our usual lessons.

In our Maths unit, ‘Perimeter, Area & Volume’, the children have been focusing on the area of triangles and parallelograms using their times table knowledge to help them. They whizzed through their work without any problems so today, showing just how far they have come since September.

In English, we finished off our unit where the children were analysing and comparing two poems: The Fringe of the Sea and Island Man. Once we finished analysing the poems, we looked at PEE (point, evidence, explanation) which is a method for structuring essays. This is a very high-level English unit and the children worked really hard to produce some great essays, analysing the language, structure and punctuation the poets used. This is a very challenging unit which will prepare the children well for their English at secondary schools.

Also, a quick note about ‘hygiene’. As the hormones kick in and the weather warms, the classroom can take on quite a distinct aroma with 30 hot and sweaty bodies crammed in. I have asked the children to make sure that they wash every day, particularly on the days we have PE. They also need to make sure they wear clean PE Kits on Mondays and Thursdays and clean school uniforms – they do not need to wear their hoodies on a hot days – on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, unless otherwise advised.

In line with our Science topic this term, we had a fantastic talk from Ruth Lewis, a former doctor, heart patient and parent at the school, who came to talk to us about the heart, building on our knowledge of how it works. She talked to us about radiography, ECGs and the symptoms of a heart condition, before telling us about her own open heart surgery. It was a truly fascinating talk and we all learnt a lot.

Thank you everyone for your continued support over the past six weeks. I hope you have a lovely Easter break and see you all in two weeks!

Miss Marchant

We had our latest SATs mocks this week and children have responded so well. They have really worked hard and this is reflected in their excellent results across all papers, they should be so proud of themselves. Bring on the real thing in May!

Thank you to those that joined for Parents’ Evening this week, it was lovely to catch up with you all. If you have any more questions or were unable to make it, please drop me an email and we can arrange something.

Despite the SATs papers, we still managed to fit in our usual afternoon lessons. In History, we looked at propaganda and created our own posters, we learnt all about how drugs, alcohol, vaping and NOS affect our bodies and looked at Jesus’ resurrection in RE.

On Wednesday morning we took a trip to Fulham FC where this year’s Junior Citizens programme was held. Run by TfL, the Police, London Fire Brigade, Fulham FC Foundation as well as other organisations and charities, each delivered highly relevant session aimed at Y6 pupils transitioning to high school. The instructors were friendly yet firm and hit the right level to ensure the children were fully engaged, fully informed and learning essential citizenship skills.

Did You Know…

• Parents can apply to Tfl for a Zip Card, two months prior to your child’s 11th birthday – do it early.
• Secondary school age children cannot travel without a Zip Card – buses are free; tube cost is much reduced.
• To hire and ride an electric (Lime) bike, you must be aged 18+ Children are an obvious for target for Police to stop.
• The law states you must be over 14 years of age to ride a privately owned e-bike on public roads.
• Using privately owned e-scooters on public roads and pavements is against the law – maximum fine £3,000.
• Accessing to a friend or anyone’s device or online account without their permission is against the law – all devices in the household can be seized by police

Finally, to celebrate the end of term and the start of Easter, we have our Easter Bonnet Parade next Tuesday 26th March, I can’t wait to see the creations!

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

As always, a very busy week in 6 Zephaniah! We had a fantastic trip on Tuesday where we worked with Hammersmith and Fulham council and infrastructure company Conway, who are working on restoring Hammersmith Bridge, to see how bridges are built. In groups, the children then built some of their own using K’Nex and tested how strong they were. They had a great time.

As part of Cracking Careers, on Wednesday we welcomed in Magic Breakfast and one of their supporters, The Access Group. The Access Group brought in ten volunteers who spoke to Year 6 about their different job roles and the opportunities they get. They shared their valuable insights into working for a big company and the many roles that are on offer. The children were fascinated and loved hearing about and speaking to different people and their jobs.

In maths this week we have continued to look at area and perimeter, focussing on working out the area of compound shapes. This can be quite a tricky concept but the children have worked hard and are really getting to grips with what they need to do. Today we looked at perimeter and played a game in pairs where we worked out the perimeter of tricky shapes.

We also managed to pack in a couple more of our regular lessons, looking at the Stations of the Cross in RE, evacuation and rationing in History and designed a workout targeting specific muscles in Science.

Next week is Parents’ Evening. Thank you to those that have signed up already, there are still some slots left if you haven’t booked in yet. It will run the same way as it did last November so please log in to the booking system just before your appointment time and I can start the meeting. These run for 10 minutes and will cut off after that time. I look forward to catching up with all of you and if you have any questions, please do email me.

Finally, we have our half-termly mock SATs week next week. The children have been working really hard and we are hoping to see their best results yet. Please do email me if you have any questions.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

Another busy week has just flown by in 6 Zephaniah, topped off with our third climate change workshop today.

Before we start with what we have done this week, just another reminder, FOSS has created a Just Giving page to help fund our summer term DT project. Please take a look and share with family and friends. https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/year6ukuleles

On Tuesday this week we had a visit from The St Giles Trust who spoke to the children about gangs. The children began by identifying who their role models are and after sharing famous role models, they discussed the importance of local, relatable role models: families, teachers, local shop workers, emergency services and religious groups. The children then discussed the legal system and if it ever needs to be broken. After analysing different situations, they concluded that no law needs to be broken to protect yourself, to protect yourself, you can seek advice from positive role models instead. Next, the children were given four pictures and had to identify which one they believed was a gang. They discussed how the wearing of Nike, a ski-hood or balaclava, does not mean you are a gang member. They discussed that it does not matter what brands you wear, what age you are, what colour your skin is or how tall you are, a gang is legally defined as a group of three or more people who are involved in anti-social behaviour or criminal activity. Finally, they discussed the grooming line, which can happen in real life and online, and the different stages: targeting stage, friendship forming stage, loving relationship stage and abusive relationship stage. The session was concluded by the children reminding one another of the importance of talking to a trusted adult if they are concerned about something.

In English, we have started a new unit: Comprehension through Poetry. In this unit, we are going to examine two poems written by A.L Hendricks and Grace Nichols. Our poets were born in the Caribbean and later moved to England. Both poets explore ideas of identity and culture in their poetry. They ask questions about how important our surroundings are and what impact they have on our sense of belonging and cultural identity. These two poets share a common experience of immigrating to Britain from the Caribbean. They are both interested in telling stories about living a migrant’s life in Britain today, and of the challenges of living with a dual identity. The two poems, that we have been considering, specifically speak of the importance of the sea in Caribbean culture. We have analysed our first poem, The Fringe of the Sea, by looking at the language A.L Hendricks used and how this selected language highlighted how important Jamaica is to him. Next week we will continue to look at Island Man by Grace Nichols and compare the two poems.

In Maths, we continued working on our topic of converting units. First, we looked at converting km – m, m – cm and cm – mm using our knowledge of multiplying and dividing by ten, one hundred and one thousand, before looking at how to convert between miles and kilometres which was slightly trickier. We had our end of unit test before moving on to our new topic of area and perimeter today.

RE this week saw us starting to learn about hope at Easter. We started this new unit by thinking about forgiveness and how it is shown in the Easter story. For our activity, we read other extracts from the Bible, including The Prodigal Son and Jesus treating the paralysed man, and linked these stories to forgiveness as well.

We had a wonderful World Book Day yesterday organised by Mrs Pereira. The children all looked fantastic. The theme this year was friendship and the children made every effort to impress the audience of our school parade. As a class we took part in a national ‘read-athon’ and shared some of our favourite books.

A busy week next week with various sporting events and trips, please look at ParentMail for more information.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Marchant

This week we have continued our English unit on journalistic writing by writing up our newspaper reports which retell a film clip from Madagascar. The children have worked so hard on this unit and their work is packed full of formal language, journalistic phrases, a wide range of punctuation as well as several quotes from their witnesses. Once written and edited, we typed these up into a newspaper format.

In Maths, we finished off our unit on algebra and the children did extremely well in their end of topic tests. We then moved on to our new topic of converting units. So far, we have worked on converting km – m, m – cm and cm – mm using our knowledge of multiplying and dividing by ten, one hundred and one thousand.

In RE we completed our unit based on the Contemporary Anglican Church. First we looked at the differences between traditional and contemporary churches, before moving on to seeing how the Anglican Church differs across the world.

WWII in History is still proving popular! This week we learnt all about the Blitz and written diary entries as if we were children experiencing a night during the blackout.

Finally, in Science we have been working on our new unit based on healthy bodies. First we looked at the different food groups and what each one brings to our body and then we looked at how the heart works.

And just another reminder, FOSS has created a Just Giving page to help fund our summer term DT project. Please take a look and share with family and friends. https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/year6ukuleles

World Book Day: Reading Challenge:

RSR_Primary_Letter-to-Parents St Stephens (1)

RSR Reading Log (2)

RSR sponsorship form St Stephens (3)

Finally, a message from Mrs Allen:

Royal Academy Young Artists Competition

There is still just under a month left to enter your artwork into the Royal Academy Young Artists Competition. The artwork can be in any medium you’d like: painting, drawing, sculpture or even performance art!

The deadline for entries is 5pm March 27th. Please visit: https://youngartists.royalacademy.org.uk/ to find out more and enter your child’s artwork.

If you have any questions about the competition please email Mrs Allen: e.allen@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

Welcome back! I hope you all had a lovely half term break. We have hit the ground running this term and in English we have started a new unit: Journalistic writing based on a clip from the film Madagascar. So far in this topic we have looked at the structure of newspaper reports, learnt about using specific journalistic phrases and refreshed our memories on direct and reported speech. Next week we will be writing out newspaper reports and I am looking forward to reading their work!

In Maths, we started our algebra unit and looked at function machines, before moving on to working out the value of letters in an algebraic formula – for example, if c=4 what does 4c + 17 equal? The children have grasped this idea and even managed a few word problems to end the unit, an aspect that frequently comes up in SATs papers.

Healthy Bodies is the current topic in Science and our first lesson saw us looking at science experiments and how they were conducted in the past. We looked at James Lind’s clinical trial where he tested two groups of people to see how vitamin c affected their bodies. We then created ideas for our own clinical trials.

In History we have started the much anticipated World War II unit (the project details have been sent out) and looked at how the war started and the leaders and countries that were involved. The children loved sharing their knowledge with one another and are looking forward to the upcoming lessons.

We finished off a busy week with three excellent workshops today: Road Safety, Ribbon Dance in aid of Lunar New Year and a Climate Control session which will be running weekly for the rest of the half term. The children enjoyed all of these interactive sessions, it was a great way to end the week and do something a little different to usual. The road safety workshop was particularly pertinent as the company shared stories of what can happen when we do not pay attention on the roads. Please reiterate to your children just how important it is to look  before they cross the road and keep any phones away.

FOSS has created a Just Giving campaign to help fund the proposed Y6 Ukulele Project in the summer term. Please take a look and share with family and friends, there’s still a long way to go: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/year6ukuleles

Finally, a note about booster sessions. These run until the beginning of May, they do not stop before Easter. Any questions, please do let me know.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

Happy half term! Another 5 weeks down and rather alarmingly we are half way through the academic year – how time flies.

In English, the children completed their non-chronological report on their selected sport having done lots of online research way back before last week’s SATs practice. Having already written their introduction, they then continued using sub-headings, bullet points, colons, semi-colons and high level conjunctions to tell the reader all about their sport. I am so pleased with how hard they have worked, they should be pleased with themselves.

Both Maths groups continued their work on percentages, learning how to estimate then calculate percentages of amounts – we’re saving the final lesson until we’re back after half term.

We have had two excellent assemblies this week. On Wednesday we had our Ash Wednesday Service and today Miss Bill gave an assembly in aid of Children’s Mental Health Week which we have celebrated this week. As well as the assembly, we did a great activity where we discussed mental health and what we can do to help ourselves and others.

To finish off our Geography topic based on Japan, we had a Zoom call from Mr Gane Jr who has lived in Tokyo for many years. He told the children about life in Japan and answered their many questions. It was a great experience.

We have finished off our other topics this week with end of unit quizzes to see all that the children have learnt this half term.

For homework, the children have a range of SATs papers – please see Google Classroom for more information on these.

Once we return from half term, a reminder that the Maths SATs booster sessions start on Tuesday 20^th.

Finally, always ahead of the curve, St Stephen’s no longer allows smartphones in school. An initiative which is supported by many parents. There is now a growing movement to persuade the government to take the issue of smartphones in school and how it can affect children’s mental health more seriously. If you are interested to learn more, do have a listen to this informative radio discussion from earlier in the week https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0h9h4nt. Any questions, please do let me know.

Have a great week off.

Miss Marchant

The weeks are flying by and I cannot believe we are close to half term – it feels like we are only just back after Christmas.

Our third mock SATs week is now over and I am so impressed with the results. The children have worked really hard and are making progress every time we do another mock week. With this in mind, you will have all received your booster class letters now, these are aimed to help the children chosen to reach the next level. If you have not yet returned your slip for Maths, these need to be in by the end of next week.

Despite our exam heavy week, we have managed to continue learning about Japan in Geography, researching different elements of the Liturgy in RE and in Science, learnt about how a range of surfaces can reflect light differently. For example, the shinier the surface, the more the light will reflect.

For Geography this week, we had a visitor in to tell us all about Japan. Caroline (a parent from Y5) came in and answered the children’s many questions, talked them through the many delicious Japanese foods and allowed them to try writing their names in Japanese calligraphy. It was a great immersive experience! Next week we have another visitor who will be ‘Zooming’ in from Tokyo to answer more questions.

Back to normal next week, have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

A busy week focussing on our usual timetable. In English we started a new topic, non-chronological reports. We started the week by looking at what a non-chronological report is and the features that make up this type of writing. Once we had analysed some examples, I put 28 sports in a hat and each child had to pick one out at random, the aim being the children research and write about a sport that they don’t know that well. So far we have started our research and are looking forward to writing up the start of our information reports next week.

In Maths, we have finished off our unit on decimals. We looked at converting decimals to fractions and back again and will do the end of topic test early next week. Everyone has worked very hard over the past few lessons and it is really paying off – next up is percentages which leads on nicely from what we have learnt so far.

For Geography we looked at earthquakes in Japan and how the country is set up to cope with them. We then looked at how our classroom would be set up if we were to be in a Japanese school.

RE on Tuesday afternoon saw the whole of Y6 gather in our church as we continue our learning about the Liturgy of the Church of England. Rev Dennis from St Stephen’s, Father Richard from St Luke’s and Jamie Sewell who is training to be a curate came to talk to us about how the liturgy is interpreted in their services. Using questions prepared in our last RE lesson, the children then bombarded them some very well considered questions, before recording their answers. It was a great opportunity to get answers about an aspect of Christianity that we know less about.

Next week the children will be sitting practice SATs papers to build on their experiences so far and further familiarise themselves with what they’ll see in May. This time around the classes will be divided into smaller groups, so that their particular needs can be catered for in order to give them the best possible working conditions. The assessments will be condensed into three days, from Wednesday to Friday, so I would ask that all children arrive on time and rested.

Finally, a message from Mr Gane:
Who has spotted the new Instagram account?

Do take a look using the links below and follow us to keep an eye on what’s been happening here at St Stephen’s. There will be details of up-coming events and snapshots of our day to day antics. Children whose parents have given consent will appear anonymously, unless specific permission has been obtained, when pupils’ names will be included.

This Instagram account supersedes the previous X / Twitter social media account, which is now dormant, so take a look right now and give us a ‘follow’.
ststephensce_w12
https://www.instagram.com/ststephensce_w12/

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

Back to a full week, which has meant we have gone full steam ahead with all our lessons.

In English, we have continued working on our creative writing, based on David Guetta’s hit ‘Titanium’ which the class have really enjoyed. This week we have looked at figurative writing through ‘show, not tell’; metaphors and similes; character analysis as well as higher level vocabulary and punctuation. They ended the week excitedly planning and writing a prequel to the video, explaining how the main protagonist got his super powers. The prequels they produced were fantastic and they should be very pleased with how they have done.

In Maths, we have finished off our unit on decimals. We looked at converting decimals to fractions and back again and will do the end of topic test early next week. Everyone has worked very hard over the past few lessons and it is really paying off – next up is percentages which leads on nicely from what we have learnt so far.

For our Science lessons this term, we have moved on to looking at light and how we see. Lesson one saw us understanding how shadows are formed and how the shadow can be affected depending on whether the object is transparent, translucent or opaque. Lesson two saw us learning about how we see light, looking at the parts of the eye and the role each part plays in helping us see.

We are very fortunate this half term to be having some Drama sessions run by Mark from Raw Drama. The children are thoroughly enjoying these and Mark always speaks very highly of them.

In Geography, we continued studying Japan, again looking at the four main islands. We then moved on to some atlas work where we looked at the lines of longitude and latitude on the map and located some countries using coordinates.

Thanks to all who made it along to our Zoom meeting about SATs, I hope you found it informative. If you were unable to make it, an email has been sent out on ParentMail which explains what we discussed. Any questions, please do email me.

Finally, a note from Mrs Allen:

Royal Academy Young Artists Competition 2024

The Royal Academy Young Artists Competition has opened again this year! Children can enter with any art they have made, be it at home or at a club. The winning entries are displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts in central London! The deadline for entry is the 7th of March. To find out more about the competition, or to enter your child’s artwork, please visit: https://youngartists.royalacademy.org.uk/

If you have any questions about the competition, please email Mrs Allen (e.allen@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk)

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

Welcome back and Happy New Year! Before a quick run-down on our first week of 2024, Miss Charrington and I would like to say a huge thank you for the wonderfully generous Christmas gifts – we really appreciate them. We hope you had a great Christmas and managed to avoid any of the sickness bugs going around!

A rather short week this week, but that didn’t stop us getting straight into our new topics. In English, we are starting a new unit based on Sia and David Guetta’s song ‘Titanium’ and its accompanying video. The video is about a boy with supernatural powers who loses all control of them and manages to destroy the inside of his school – this lead onto a great discussion about what super powers we would like to have and why. For our first two lessons, we watched the first part of the video and inferred what might happen next, before watching the rest to see if we were correct. We paused the video after each event unfolded to discuss it further using our comprehension skills – thinking about the 5Ws. We then moved on to looking at why the video was chosen to accompany the song concluding that the song is a metaphor for being strong and rising up against people being mean to you. The song uses symbolism that extends throughout, using guns and bullets as a metaphor to the hateful words that people will say to us.  For the final part of the lesson, we used our inference skills to work out how the boy might be feeling and what he could be thinking throughout the rest of the song. Using iPads, we recorded what we thought the boy would be saying at different parts of the film.

Both Maths groups are working on decimals to three places, looking at all four maths operations. We have had a big focus this week on multiplying and dividing decimals by 10, 100 and 1000 by using our place value knowledge.

We have started our new Geography topic this week as well, where we will be looking at the geography of Japan. The first lesson saw us looking at where Japan is on the map and using atlases to work out which countries and bodies of water surround it.

For our Science lessons this term, we have moved on to looking at light and how we see. Lesson one saw us understanding how shadows are formed and how the shadow can be affected depending on whether the object is transparent, translucent or opaque.

Finally, this half term our Relationships and Health Education topic is ‘Keeping Safe’. You will find a breakdown of the upcoming lessons and key vocabulary on our ‘Knowledge Page’ which is saved alongside our Curriculum Map on the blog. This will give you a greater understanding of what conversations we are having with your children and when. If you would like to discuss the content of these lessons further, please get in touch.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

We made it! We have had a busy week filled with festivities including: Christmas games, watching Christmas films, singing Christmas carols and finished off with a fantastic Christmas quiz. Whilst it has been a great term, it is definitely time for the children to have a well-earned break.

Thank you for such a great autumn term, I have loved teaching the whole class and am looking forward to everything that is to come in the New Year.

Despite the festivities, we have managed to squeeze in a couple of lessons. We finished off learning about Advent in RE and finished off our English unit on The Polar Express – we wrote narratives retelling the opening scenes.

Please note, we have set some more SATs style papers to do over the break as we need to keep practising!

I must also say thank you so much for your gifts, they were all so lovely. I am incredibly grateful and touched by your generosity.

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and New Year. See you in 2024!

Miss Marchant

Four days to go! This term has flown by. Despite being so close to Christmas, our timetable is running as normal, with a few festive treats thrown into the mix.

In Maths, we finished off our unit on position and direction, where we looked at translating and reflecting shapes across the x and y axis. For this lesson, the children used their coordinate knowledge to help them.

In English, we have started a new unit based around the film The Polar Express. For our end piece we will be writing a narrative based on the film and to prepare for this we have recapped our knowledge of descriptive techniques, looked at how to vary the way our sentences start, written a descriptive paragraph based on a snowy scene and had a debate, thinking about whether the boy should get on the Polar Express or not. We planned our retelling of the Polar Express today and will be writing it up on Monday.

To finish off our RE unit we are looking at creating our own adverts to advertise the Christmas story. So far the children have got into groups and have decided how they want to create their advert – song, film, poster, leaflet. Next lesson they will be creating their masterpieces.

Finally, we have kept up the festive spirit by continuing to practise for the Carol Concert next Wednesday and by having our St Stephen’s Christmas lunch and Christmas jumper day this Wednesday.

Also just a reminder, school starts at 8.55am not 9am. Anyone coming into class after 8.55 gets marked as late.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

A change from our usual routine this week – we had our second SATs practice. Despite the number of tests they have done over the past few days, the children have remained in good spirits and worked very hard. The Maths papers kicked off the week, followed by spellings, grammar and the reading comprehension. We peer marked a few of these in class and went through the mark schemes so the children know what is expected in their answers for future assessments. Thank goodness that’s out of the way.

I have stressed that this run through is just part of our half-termly familiarisation process, so that by the time May 2024 is here, every child will be completely comfortable with what to expect and experienced in working carefully through each paper. As teachers, they also help us to identify individual needs so that we can work out which topics need more practice. Overall, Mr Gane and I were pleased with the results and progress shown from our last mock week. However, these results will mean that some of our Maths groups will be changing, so please look out for that in the New Year.

We still managed to fit in some other lessons and in RE we looked at two different Gospel recounts (Luke and Matthew) and how they tell the story of the birth of Jesus slightly differently. We discussed how hearing two different perspectives is useful as it gives us a more rounded version of the event.

In DT we have continued making our waistcoats using recycled fabrics from home. We have finished sewing the fabric together and are looking at sewing on buttons and pockets. Some children even had a go at reinforcing their hand stitching with the sewing machine. They are looking fantastic!

This afternoon, Misha’s dad, delivered a presentation on STEM to Y6 as part of the ‘Cracking Careers Programme’. As the founder to a highly successful tech company, Cyril shared his own experiences while demonstrating the huge changes that advances in technology bring with the example of Henry Ford’s development of the motorcar bringing the demise of the horse drawn buggy. He spoke about the current talent shortage and inspired the children making them think about choosing a career in STEM career.

And finally, letters will be going out next week to parents whose children will be involved in the SATs Booster Programme that will start after the February half term. The plan is for an hour of Maths 4-5pm on Tuesdays and then 4-5pm on Wednesdays for English. These booster classes aim to help the children reach the ‘expected’ year 6 standard, or help those who are close to ‘greater depth’.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

Happy 1^st December! The countdown is well and truly on in St Stephen’s. To celebrate the start of Advent, we went to see the Panto, Cinderella, today. It was a fantastic show and the children had a lovely time. As always, they were very well behaved and were great representatives of our school. In RE, we have also continued looking at Advent, thinking about Christmas adverts. This has created a sense of Christmas spirit here in the classroom! Finally, on the subject of Christmas, it is our Christmas Fair tomorrow, please come along and see what your children have made.

In Science, the children completed our current topic – Changing Circuits – and rounded off this unit with an assessment in which everyone did very well.

In Maths we continued looking at fractions, this week focussing on turning fractions over 10 and 100 into decimals. The children have worked really hard in what is a particularly long and tricky unit and their scores in the end of topic tests today reflected this.

On Wednesday, Daniel Dockery, author of newly published ‘Wendington Jones and The Missing Tree’ delivered an interactive writing workshop assembly to Y4, Y5 & Y6. Using ideas pulled from a bag by pupils in the hall, he showed how the skeleton of an ‘Adventure’ story and a ‘Mystery’ story can be put together using different plots. Afterwards, he came to Y6 to share his top tips, explaining in more detail the idea that a ‘story’ involves the development of the main character in some way, whereas the ‘plot’ is a series of things that happen to the character. The ‘plot’ is what drives the ‘story’.

Daniel set the children a challenge to write a story, which he has very kindly said he will read and give them feedback in the New Year! The children can write it on their own, or with friend. It can be a whole book, or something shorter, but must be at least one page. Completed stories need to be brought in to school during the last week of term (or earlier), as we will be posting them to Daniel for him to read over the Christmas period.

TOP TIPS: Use these questions to plan your story:

• Who is your main character? Protagonist
• What do they want?
• Why do they want it? Why are we interested / care?
• What is stopping them getting it? Antagonist
• What will the protagonist do to get what they want?
• Is there a change in the character?

Finally, next week is our half-termly mock SATs week. The children have been working really hard and we are hoping to see their best results yet, please do email me if you have any questions.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

We are half way through the half term! Time really does fly.

In English we have started a new book by Michael Morpurgo – The Giant’s Necklace. For this topic, we are using our comprehension skills to make inferences about what we think will happen next as well as understand more about the characters. This book focuses on the protagonist Cherry, who is on holiday in Cornwall with her family. We know she is a very head-strong character as she is determined to finish a necklace she is making out of cowrie shells.

In Maths we have looked at multiplying a fraction by an integer and then another fraction, before moving on to dividing fractions by integers and then fractions using the KFC method (keep, flip, change – so 1/5 divided by ½ is the same as 1/5 x 2). Fractions has been a very long topic, but we only have a few lessons to go and then we can move onto our new unit!

In Science we looked at creating our own scientific experiment; investigating how we can improve the brightness of a bulb. The children loved doing this as they were able to test out different theories and discovered that the thicker the wire, the brighter the bulb, but that the longer the wire, the dimmer the bulb. This is because wires have a certain amount of resistance and as the energy travels around, some of it gets lost along the way, resulting in a dimmer bulb.

In RE, we have continued with unit on Advent with this lesson looking at how Christmas is portrayed in adverts we see on TV today. Excitingly, we were able to watch some in class, which then enabled the children to ‘analyse’ the ads to find their messages. Of course there was a lot of generic ‘goodness’, ‘kindness’ and anticipation of gifts, however very few mentioned anything about Jesus being born. We used this to talk about the difference between a secular or consumer Christmas and a religious one, which we will continue working on over the next two weeks.

As you are all aware, our trip was postponed this week, please see ParentMail for the new date.

Next week we also have our Year 6 football competition, so please send your child in wearing their PE kit on that day. Again, see ParentMail for more information.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

Thank you to all those I saw at Parents’ Evening this week, it was lovely to see you. The two evenings went ahead with very few technical problems so that was a huge relief! Do let me know if you have any other questions and I will be happy to help.

In English we finished off our unit on persuasive writing by drafting a letter to Mr Schumm, hoping to persuade him to install something in the school so the current cohort can be remembered for years to come. Their letters have been great – packed full of expressions of conviction, powerful adjectives and adverbs to ‘sell’ their idea and many reasons to support their argument. They worked hard on this unit and should be proud of the work they produced. Some children were out when doing this so they will get the chance next week.

In Maths, we have continued with fractions, this week putting all we have learnt about adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators into practice by attempting some word problems. These can be tricky but the class got into the swing of underlining the key vocabulary that helped them identify what the question was asking. For example ‘total’ tells them they need to add and ‘more…than’ means subtract. They did really well and I feel they have grasped this concept. We then moved on to multiplying fractions by whole numbers.

We have continued with circuits in Science and our lesson this week saw us learning the symbols for each component so we could draw scientific circuits. Electricity is always a fun topic as the children love using the resources to create their own circuits to see how bulbs and buzzers work.

In DT we have continued making our waistcoats using recycled fabrics from home. We have cut out the fabric using a pattern and started sewing the front and back parts together. They are looking fantastic!

For RE, we started our next unit which focuses on Advent. For the first lesson we looked at the four weeks of Advent and how Christians count down during this time, focussing on Advent wreaths. The Advent wreath is lit every week to mark the time of waiting to celebrate Christ’s coming.

Next week we have a trip – please see ParentMail for more information.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

Well that was a busy week! We had Ofsted in seeing how everything works here at St Stephen’s. As expected, the children were amazing and really showed off how great our school is.

Despite our visitors, we still had a fairly ‘normal’ timetable. In English the children have been introduced to different examples of persuasive writing and came up with a list of features they think should be included in every piece. These included: using verbs in the present tense, forceful language, modal verbs, reasons for viewpoint and powerful adjectives just to name a few. The class exemplar was then introduced, which is a letter to Mr Schumm persuading him to let Year 6 paint the blue wall in the playground. Next week, the class will be analysing more persuasive texts and planning their own letters to Mr Schumm.

In Maths, we have continued with fractions, this week putting all we have learnt about adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators into practice by attempting some word problems. These can be tricky but the class got into the swing of changing the denominators and have worked incredibly hard.

For RE we finished our two week topic on Remembrance by talking about peace and how it can help the cause of Remembrance. The children made ‘origami peace cranes’. These were created by a 10 year old Japanese girl who had developed leukemia some years after the Hiroshima bomb in 1945. She had planned to make 1000 but sadly died before completing them. Inspired by her courage and in memory of all who died due to the atom bomb, children across Japan raised money for a monument in her memory at the Hiroshima Peace Park with the inscription ‘paper crane, I will write peace on your wings and you will fly all over the world’. People all over the world now make these paper cranes and send them in to the monument. We have boxed ours up and will be sending them to the peace park.

We finished off a busy week by celebrating Parliament Week today. To mark this occasion, we were joined by MP for Hammersmith and Fulham, Andy Slaughter, who spoke to the children about our British Values and the importance of democracy. The children asked a variety of probing questions which sparked a healthy debate.

Next week is Parents’ Evening, so do sign up if you haven’t already. We have tested the new video system and all seems to be working well, so fingers crossed for no technology problems.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

Welcome back! I hope you all had a lovely half term. It has been great to have the children back and feeling ready to learn.

In English this week we continued our unit on poetry, this time looking at Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem ‘The Kraken’. To start off our sessions, we first identified all the tricky Old English words and then looking at the description used by Tennyson. We used this description to inspire our own sea creatures. Once designed, the class wrote their poems, making sure to include a range of excellent words and phrases to create imagery – I really felt like I could see every one of their ‘beasts’.

My Maths class finished off our four operations unit by looking at prime numbers and square and cube numbers, before they moved on to the end of topic test. Everyone has worked really hard on this unit and I believe the children have really got to grips with some of these tricky methods – I am sure the results from today will reflect this. We then started to work on fractions – always a tricky topic, but so far the children have remembered all they learnt last year, successfully simplifying fractions using factors.

We have started our DT for the half term which has seen the class designing their own waistcoats. For the rest of the unit they will be using their textile knowledge to make waistcoats using a template, sew the fabric into a waistcoat shape as well as stich on extra decoration. It should be a fun unit!

For RHE our new topic looked at the differences between us and how they should be celebrated because they make us unique. Sadly, some people use these differences to be mean to other people and the children learnt what to do if they see this happen. For example, they could stand up to the person being mean, support the victim and go and get help from a trusted adult. We finished off our discussion by talking about our individual qualities and why we love them.

This week we also had a great cross country event. Years 4, 5 and 6 headed off to Wormwood Scrubs and ran 800m through the mud and scrubland. Luckily, we picked the only sunny day of the week and it was a great morning.

The Parents’ Evening slots have now gone live, so do sign up if you haven’t already. We have tested the video system and all seems to be working well, so fingers crossed for no technology problems.

As always, well done to those that are signing their homework diary regularly. This will really prepare the class for secondary school. A gentle reminder to parents that you are meant to be signing the homework diary every week. I will then sign it too on the Friday.

Have a lovely weekend,
Miss Marchant

And just like that our first half term together has come to an end. The past seven weeks have flown by and I have loved teaching the children. This week has been very busy, what with Black Voices Week, Red Card to Racism today and of course our class assembly this morning. I am sure you will all agree that the children were fantastic on stage, they have worked so hard over the past few weeks and should be proud of themselves. Thank you for all your kind words afterwards, I really appreciated them!

For Black Voices Week we learnt about and celebrated many wonderful Black British women. As a year group we were given Nicola Adams to research and learnt all about her rise to becoming the first ever woman to win a gold medal in boxing in 2012. We even had a go at some boxing moves which the children loved. As well as this, we had a great Creole session yesterday where we were taught the origins of Creole and learnt how to count to twenty in St Lucian Creole – it was great fun!

We still managed some of our regular lessons and in English, we started our new unit on poetry – starting the week by working on No Problem by our class poet Benjamin Zephaniah. We started off by analysing the colloquial language he uses and discussed how he has picked a topic important to him to talk about through his poem. As this is a poem that discusses the racism Zephaniah received and how he does not let it affect him in his day to day life, the children planned and wrote their own poems based on issues that are important to them. Once they were written, the class performed them to the rest of the class. They had some really great ideas, such as climate change, animal cruelty, coronavirus and racism and spoke passionately about each subject.

In RE we have researched the different religions in our local area and in groups, created PowerPoints talking about how these faith buildings in our area have changed over the past 50 years. The children then presented these to the class and did an excellent job.

For homework over half term, the children have been sent home with four practice SATs papers. The papers are all due back on Monday 30^th October – there is more detail about this on Google Classroom.

I hope you all have a lovely peaceful half term and I will see you all next term!

Miss Marchant

A change from our usual routine this week – we had our first SATs practice. Despite the number of tests they have done this week, the children have remained in good spirits and worked very hard. The comprehension paper kicked off the week followed by the grammar and arithmetic. We then moved on to our remaining Maths papers – the two reasoning tests. We peer marked a few of these in class and went through the mark schemes so the children know what is expected in their answers for future assessments. Thank goodness that’s out of the way.

I have stressed that this run through is just part of our, half-termly familiarisation process, so that by the time May 2024 is here, every child will be completely comfortable with what to expect and experienced in working carefully through each paper. As teachers, they also help us to identify individual needs so that we can work out which topics need more practice. Overall, Mr Gane and I were pleased with the results.

As a break from SATs practise, the children have enjoyed Gymnastics, PE, Music and RHE, while also celebrating Hispanic Day, which was on Wednesday. We had some fantastic activities put on by Mrs Pereira, including dancing, making headdresses and creating our own version of the Bolivian Tinku festival. The children had great fun.

As a school we also celebrated World Mental Health Day on Tuesday. We discussed what mental health means and the range of emotions we can experience. As the theme of World Mental Health Day highlights, ‘mental health is a universal human right’, we discussed the importance of recognising our feelings and having a toolkit of strategies to help support us with looking after our mental health.

Of course we have also started to prepare for our class assembly next week! The children know what they are doing and are coming up with all sorts of costume ideas. I look forward to seeing you all next week. Please be aware that the assembly day has changed, see ParentMail for more information. The final versions of the scripts are up on Google Classroom so please get practicing. Due to PGL, we have had very little time to rehearse, but so far they have impressed me with their line learning so keep it up this weekend!

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

As always, we have been working very hard here in 6 Zephaniah.

In English, we have started a new unit based on Neil Gaiman’s book ‘The Wolves in the Walls’ which is all about a girl who believes the noises she hears are wolves in the walls of her house. From this the children have created their own narratives which focus on building tension. To create tension the children used a mixture of complex sentences and short sentences, onomatopoeia, exciting synonyms which create a sense of fear in the reader as well as the idea of showing the reader how the characters feel rather than telling the reader. They produced some great narratives and I am so pleased with how their writing is coming along.

In my Maths class, we have persevered with long division. The class has worked so hard on this aspect of division and the children are really understanding what to do, because of their strong understanding we have moved on to word problems which puts what they have learnt into practice.

We have spent the rest of the week classifying plants in Science, learning about the different religious buildings in our local area in RE and have continued to study Chuck Close in Art.

As you will now have seen, the class assembly script has gone live, so please spend this weekend practising so we are ready to rehearse on Monday.

Next week, the children will experience their first run of practice SATs. There are six papers which they sit over the week: Grammar, Reading Comprehension, Spelling, Maths Paper 1 – Arithmetic, Maths Paper 2 – Reasoning 1 and finally Maths Paper 3 – Reasoning 2. We will be very gentle with them, sitting the tests in the classroom as a class and as I have told the children the whole idea of these assessments are for them to begin to get an idea of what they will be confronted with in May 2024. These tests will also help me identify which parts of the curriculum I need to focus on. My assessment of their work in lessons, coupled with how they do with the practice SATs, will mean that there will be some movement between the two Maths groups. I will speak with you about any changes that affect your child beforehand.

Finally, there is a huge focus on Times Tables now, especially with the new statutory Y4 test. Our lessons on long division have highlighted that a good few children need to put in a bit more work. There are lots of sing-a-long songs for younger children but perhaps as Y6s, they might be motivated by something more interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QU_E0u-tP4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7rYbk9PNuM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XT3vxohtBg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_BJjR9rdwA

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

What a week we had last week! PGL was excellent and the children all had a fantastic time – I am sure you have heard all about the wonderful activities we did.

In English, the children continued their work on autobiographies, re-reading the first part of Floella Benjamin’s life in Trinidad in preparation for their own writing. They examined how she spoke about the key events in her life, before planning what they would write in their own autobiographies. They then the children finished off our autobiographies unit by writing about their life so far. I have marked most of them and they have been a pleasure to read – full of fantastic descriptive techniques, a range of punctuation, as well as all those conjunctions we have been learning about this term. Well done Year 6!

My Maths group has kept working on the four mathematical operations, revising addition and subtraction before moving on to multiplying 4-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers and word problems. These are tricky concepts but the children are working really hard to try and consolidate what they learnt in Year 5. I have set some Mathletics activities around these topics so the children can practice over the weekend. We have touched upon short division and next Maths lesson, we will be looking at long division.

For Relationships and Health Education (RHE), the children were discussing how friendships can have ups and downs which are a completely normal thing that can happen. They spoke about the problems that can arise and how they could solve them to make sure our friendships are positive, happy and balanced. They worked through six scenarios that are very common of typical friendship problems and decided how we would deal with them to improve the situation.

However it hasn’t been lessons all week! Today we held the ever popular House Captain elections. Mr Gane and I were so impressed by the confidence every candidate showed, it is not an easy task standing up in front of one’s peers and teachers, but everyone did so well. The standard of presentations was very high and I must congratulate all of you who put yourselves forward – win or lose, you all did yourselves proud!

Have a great weekend!

Miss Marchant

A very busy week here in Year 6 Zephaniah, but it has been lovely to really get into teaching our first topics of Year 6. I am so pleased with the children’s enthusiasm and hardworking attitudes, which I am sure will continue over the year!

In English, the children continued their work on autobiographies, re-reading the first part of Floella Benjamin’s life in Trinidad in preparation for their own writing. They examined how she spoke about the key events in her life, before creating our own comprehension questions based on the text.

In Maths, we have continued working on our place value knowledge, looking at rounding numbers, negative numbers before doing the end of topic test to practise everything they have learnt. We then moved on to our new unit based on addition and subtraction.

In RE, we were introduced to our new topic which saw us looking at all the different faith communities in our local area. On our walks to school we may come across a Greek Orthodox Church, the Mosque, a Catholic Church, the Uxbridge Road Tabernacle as well as several Church of England Churches. We discussed how Shepherd’s Bush is a very diverse area and there is not one set religion. We are lucky, as the diversity means we can learn from all the different groups of people.

Sadly, we were unable to hold our House Captain presentations today. but we have rescheduled them for Friday 29th September. Deadline for presentations to be in is Wednesday 27th. Any questions, please let me know.

Finally, as I am sure you are already aware, next week we are off to PGL! This is very exciting and will be a really fun trip. A packing list has been sent out, please remember to bring a spare outfit that you don’t mind getting wet/muddy for when we are raft building. Also, please don’t forget your sleeping bags! We will be heading off at around 11am on Monday 18^th and will be returning just after the end of the school day on Friday 22^nd. We will keep you posted with journey updates, in case we get stuck in some traffic.

Regular updates will be sent on a WhatsApp group so that you can see what we all get up to. It is set to be a great week.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Marchant

Welcome back and welcome to Year 6 Zephaniah! I’ve heard many lovely stories of your summers full of exciting adventures, so I hope you are well rested and ready for the chaos and fun of the new school year and final year at St Stephen’s. The first week back is always very busy for the pupils, parents and teachers and before you know it, it’s Friday and the first week is done.

So far this week, we have talked about our hopes and aspirations for the year, created self-portraits and discussed how having a growth mind-set will be critical to succeeding. Despite it being the first week back, we have still managed to include a little bit of Maths where we started looking at the place value of numbers to one million.

We have hit the ground running with our other subjects too, looking at learning how to work together in RHE and our heritage in Computing – a busy start to the term!

I am excited to be back teaching and am looking forward to the challenging yet fun work ahead – the pupils tell me they are too. As you may know already, the children are expected to sign their homework diaries every week on Fridays as this will prepare them for next year. The children also need to read every evening (even if only a couple of pages) and if you could sign saying they have done this, that would be great.

Finally, we will be having our house captain elections Next Friday 15th. Each house will have four Year 6 Captains who will help lead their houses in certain events and activities. Candidates will make a presentation to their Y6 Housemates on why they should be elected, which will presented to all of the lower years. Votes from each house will then be collated. This will take place next Friday afternoon, so they might like to start planning now – email any supporting PowerPoints to me on z.marchant@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk or upload to Google Classroom. Below is a job description and a few ideas that might help.

House Captain’s Job Description

• Each House will fundraise for a specific charity. In the presentation you should put forward your recommendations for your chosen charity and ideas for fundraising.
• Lead regular House meetings
• Help to organise your House for certain school events i.e. Sports Day
• Representing the school at particular school events i.e. Grandparent’s Day
• Acting as a role model for your House/ School
• To meet regularly with the Headteacher
• To present House Captain Awards at the end of the year.
• Any speech or talk they give should be no more than five minutes.

Admin

• Gymnastics is on Mondays and PE is on Thursdays. Please come in wearing PE kit for the whole day.
• Homework will be set on a Monday and a Friday – please see the homework section on the class page for more information on this.
• Library sessions are on Fridays (please encourage children to bring and change books).
• Water bottles must be brought in every day.

Please feel free to email me with any queries or issues and I’m looking forward to teaching this class again, I know we will have a great year.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Marchant