Newsletter - September 2025

Year 6 have made a great start to their final year at primary school and have been very busy indeed. 

We started off the year by exploring the life of Alan Turing and his work to decipher German Enigma codes in WW2 as well as his pioneering work in the world of computing.

In English, we have been looking at the idea of “Twisted Tales” in the form of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. We explored their version of Cinderella in comparison to Disney’s version and then used this as inspiration to write our own “twisted” version of Snow White – the more gruesome the better! This idea of alternate versions of stories also links in with our reading text, Another Twist in the Tale by Catherine Bruton. It tells the tale of Oliver Twist’s long-lost sister, Twill. Although the language is tricky, we’re enjoying the variety of characters in the novel.

During our science lessons, we have been exploring Living Things and Their Habitats. We have looked at the conditions for life to develop our understanding about what exactly classifies as a living thing as well as breaking this down further in preparation to create classification keys. We have used such vocabulary as vertebrate, invertebrate and flowering and non-flowering plants.  

In history, we have started looking at WW2 and have so far explored – and created - the timeline of events leading up to this important moment in history. We have seen how the Treaty of Versailles and the Great Depression allowed Hitler to promote himself to the German people in order to rise to power as well as exploring the impact of the Battle of Britain on RAF pilots.

Great start and keep up the good work Year 6!

Newsletter - October 2025

What a whirlwind of a month it has been! The rest of this half term has flown by and all the children are in need of a well-earned break.

First and foremost, we had a wonderful day exploring the house and grounds of Cragside. Linking into our English texts on the Victorians, we enjoyed looking at the artefacts around the house and speaking to the guides who were incredibly impressed with the children’s enthusiasm and questions. We had many compliments about the children from the Manager of the house at Cragside as well as members of the public, which was a delight to hear. We also applied our knowledge of science and classifying when exploring the grounds and looking at the different plants and trees. A lovely day was had by all!

In order to enrich our history curriculum, we had a morning with Mr Bailey where we used Green Screen technology to superimpose images of ourselves dressed in WW2 costumes onto backgrounds linked to evacuation and The Blitz. We also took part in a Now Press Play session that took us on a journey through WW2 – from being evacuated to Dig for Victory; from underground shelters to VE Day celebrations. As usual, the children joined in with vigour and enthusiasm.

We continue to enjoy our novel Another Twist in the Tale and have been excited to see the twists and turns of the plot unfold. We have also written quite a challenging text about Victorian workhouses where our formal language has been put to the test as well as introducing more complex sentence structures.

Last but by no means least, we stretched our philosophical thinking during RE day by looking at how science and Christianity can compliment one another. We considered evolution, cosmology and the different ways Christians may interpret Genesis 1.