Year 6 are enjoying a much-deserved break away from our recent run of SATS papers. All staff are very proud of the mature manner that our pupils approached SATS Week 2012. It is far too early to make any judgment over the results, but we witnessed on each of the four STAS days all pupils taking great care and dedication to their work.

Four papers were sat in total: reading comprehension, mental maths, maths A and maths B. Science papers will be undertaken later on in the summer term. This will now form the main focus for the remainder of our teaching in the Year 6 curriculum. You can find out how SATS Week went for a couple of our Year 6 pupils in the podcast below.

Away from SATS and much of our attention in Year 6 is now turned towards the prestigious end of year play. We have a few ideas for a possible production that we will be developing over the coming days. The standard each year amazingly still seems to improve. You can catch a reminder over here of how our previous pupils impressed with the end of year production.

Our Year 6 pupils have been having a pleasant break from their SATS preparations with our weekly traditional music and dancing sessions. The aim of these workshops is to learn about different styles of dancing, and the music associated with it. Being the month of May, and it seemed fitting that traditional May Day dancing has been the focus of one of our recent sessions.

The pupils have been learning about the importance of remembering the sequence of the routine, as well as to listen to the music to keep in time with the rhythm. Great fun – as you can see from the video above.

We have started a new science topic in Year 6 all about light and light sources. We have asked the pupils to consider where light comes from. Our class discussion soon discovered that as well as natural light, we also have man made light sources. We asked the pupils to think of as many light sources as possible, and then to sort these into the two categories.

Our maths work in Year 6 has involved looking at both 2D and 3D shapes. We are interested in lines of symmetry and how these can help us with different calculations.

With less than four weeks to go now until Year 6 sit their science, maths and literacy SATS papers, any remaining time has been taken up with revision. We were incredibly pleased with the positive response that we received with our request for pupils to spend some time during the Easter break working on their SATS preparations. Likewise we have high numbers for our after school booster clubs.

Year 6 had a fantastic D & T workshop recently with Paul, our friend from Southwark Education Services. The idea behind the session was to create a buggy that would move. We first thought about the science behind the vehicle – how were we going to be able to build a buggy that could race? Paul suggested using a large fan attached to the rear of the body. When working, this would generate sufficient air as to propel the buggy forward.

The next step was to design the buggy, and to build in an electrical circuit. From our Year 6 science work, we know that a complete circuit is needed in order for the current to flow. We designed a simple switch, using a paper clip and a couple of connector pins. We also gave thought to the materials used for the body of the buggy, choosing plastic, as it was light.

Before we race our buggies, Year 6 have one more task to complete. Our race regulations state that the buggies must be safe for a passenger. We will be strapping a toy figure into each buggy. The passenger must remain in the winning buggy that crosses the finishing line first. We have been designing ways to make our buggies safe, such as using foam or cotton wool as protection. A couple of our keen racers explain more in the video above.

Year 6 had a fantastic D & T workshop recently with Paul, our friend from Southwark Education Services. The idea behind the session was to create a buggy that would move. We first thought about the science behind the vehicle – how were we going to be able to build a buggy that could race? Paul suggested using a large fan attached to the rear of the body. When working, this would generate sufficient air as to propel the buggy forward.

The next step was to design the buggy, and to build in an electrical circuit. From our Year 6 science work, we know that a complete circuit is needed in order for the current to flow. We designed a simple switch, using a paper clip and a couple of connector pins. We also gave thought to the materials used for the body of the buggy, choosing plastic, as it was light.

Before we race our buggies, Year 6 have one more task to complete. Our race regulations state that the buggies must be safe for a passenger. We will be strapping a toy figure into each buggy. The passenger must remain in the winning buggy that crosses the finishing line first. We have been designing ways to make our buggies safe, such as using foam or cotton wool as protection. A couple of our keen racers explain more in the video above.

We are entering an incredibly busy period in Year 6 where the pupils are hard at work preparing for their SATS test. Much of our work has been covering a reminder and revision of the many skills that we all know. We have been developing both our writing and presentation skills in literacy, by working on a series of balanced arguments. We set the question: should mobile phones be allowed in schools? The pupils staged a class debate, putting forward both sides to the argument. This balanced argument was then presented in a written report.

Our SATS science work has seen the successful completion of our Forces topic. The pupils have been learning about different forms of resistance, and how these can be useful in a practical sense. A number of experiments have been devised and then carried out by year 6.

Away from all the SATS preparation and all of our pupils enjoyed a wonderful day out recently at the Southwark Junior Citizenship Scheme. This is a project that aims to help with secondary school transition, as well as to offer further social and practical skills ahead of starting our new schools in September.

Year 6 were able to find out more about road safety, fire safety, stranger danger and how to travel safely on public transport. We were in fine company – this was a VIP Day and we shared our skills with the Mayor of Southwark! All adults were incredibly impressed in the manner that the pupils represented Michael Faraday. Year 6 integrated superbly with pupils from other schools, some of them very different to our own. This is incredibly encouraging ahead of secondary school transition.

We have been learning all about forces and friction for our science work in Year 6. The pupils have been researching more about air resistance, and how this acts as a force. We wanted to observe this in action, and so we devised our own Year 6 scientific experiment. The pupils came up with the idea of releasing two similar sized plastic toys simultaneously, but attaching a parachute to one of the item. We dropped these from the same height, and then timed how long it took for each item to land on the floor. We predicted before the experiment that the air resistance would slow down the toy attached to the parachute. You can see what happened when we released both objects in the video above.

We have been learning all about forces and friction for our science work in Year 6. The pupils have been researching more about air resistance, and how this acts as a force. We wanted to observe this in action, and so we devised our own Year 6 scientific experiment. The pupils came up with the idea of releasing two similar sized plastic toys simultaneously, but attaching a parachute to one of the item. We dropped these from the same height, and then timed how long it took for each item to land on the floor. We predicted before the experiment that the air resistance would slow down the toy attached to the parachute. You can see what happened when we released both objects in the video above.