Welcome back! I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter Holidays and the long-awaited sunshine! It is great having Primary 6 back in class for their last term, I am looking forward to lots of fun learning and activities and seeing them prepare for becoming Primary 7’s. Please see below an overview of the teaching and learning for the following term: 

Literacy 

Reading 

Primary 6 will continue to work on Bug Club books both in class as well as the independent texts assigned for children to read at home for enjoyment. Pupils will focus on a chapter each week and engage in good quality discussion with their reading group and teacher then work on their task mat independently. This will help to aid and build on our active comprehension strategies and apply all the skills we have learned so far in Primary 6.  

Writing 

Our writing day will be a Friday this term. The pupils will have the opportunity to discuss and plan their writing that week and will be encouraged to take time at home as a homework task to think about the content of their writing. This term Primary 6 will focus on explanatory writing, we will link this to our new topic – Science and the human body – and explain the body systems and functions. We will continue to focus on a different aspect of grammar each week which can be applied in their writing and all literacy activities.  

Spelling 

The spelling groups will continue to experience the Active Literacy spelling program, this will introduce common words and focus phonemes pertinent to their level and stage. The pupils will revise the Active Spelling strategies throughout the term. 

Numeracy 

This term P6 will move on to focus on exploring a variety of calculations and identifying the order of operations, looking at number patterns and sequences, as well as maths and its place in the world today. For Beyond Number we will continue with Measure and introduce Money. The pupils will experience activities at their stage and level. Constant revision of multiplication tables will be encouraged across all groups. Sumdog and Topmarks games can help with the rigor of times tables at home. Pupils will continue to engage in daily Number Talks to increase their mental maths agility. This term our focus will be to revise all strategies, working out which is the most efficient one to use for a given calculation.  

Health and Wellbeing 

This term in PATHS P6 will focus on lessons relating to being responsible and caring for others through looking at various case studies, eventually leading to a class project towards the end of the term. Moreover, the PATHS Barnardo Buddies programme has been up and running, all children involved have received training and continue to be working positively with the younger pupils, creating games in the playground for all to join in. This has given the Buddies a sense of responsibility and commitment, dedicating part of their lunchtime towards something that has a great benefit to both the school community and their own personal development. Our ‘Pupil of the Day’ continues, which encourages P6 to not only compliment their classmates, but to compliment and be kind to themselves, which can sometimes be trickier than we think. As always, children in P6 are encouraged to use their ‘feelings jotter’ to share any worries or concerns they may be experiencing. P6 will study God’s Loving Plan this term, if any parents have any queries regarding this please do not hesitate to contact the school. 

Our PE days this term will be Tuesday and Friday. Our Tuesday sessions will have a focus on Cricket and Athletics while our Friday sessions look at Volleyball and Orienteering. Pupils are asked to come dressed for PE on these days – school uniform on top but leggings, joggers, trainers can be worn on the bottom. 

IDL 

Last term P6 focused on Scotland as our topic. P6 engaged in various activities such as a mountains and rivers research task, studying island life and recreating some Jolomo style island paintings, and looking at various important people from Scotland such as Robert Burns and his poetry. This term our topic will be Science and the human body. Throughout this topic we will look at the human body and the different systems our body uses, we will explore these in a practical way and write up about the experiments we undertake. P6 will also take part in a workshop provided by Generation Science where they design and create their own boat model.  

RE 

This last term P6 have continued to work through their Pope Francis Faith Award and have looked at the gifts of Piety and Wisdom, completing various activities to support this. P6 will continue to work through their Pope Franis Faith Award book this term and are encouraged to share this learning at home, some homework tasks will focus on areas of this. Furthermore, this term we will study the three persons of the Holy Trinity and look at ways we can honour the Holy Trinity.  

2+1 Languages 

This term, Primary 6 will continue to work on French as their main language with Mrs McGregor. In our classroom we have started to immerse ourselves in the French language with labels and displays in French. Each day, we fill in a French calendar with the aim of embedding the language into our classroom routines. 

In Primary 6 we promote hard work and amazing attitudes. Our reward card system allows pupils to gain reward cards for Wonderful Work, Amazing Attitude, and being a ‘Superstar’. When the pupils gain five cards, they can choose an individual reward. They can also choose to go for a class reward once everyone reaches five reward cards; this promotes teamwork within the class. These last 3 terms have seen all children receive individual rewards. This term we are very close to having our class reward with many children having put their name forward for this so far! 

If you have any queries or questions, please contact the school directly. 

Thank you for your support and I look forward to a wonderful last term in Primary 6. 

Miss McKenna