Year 6 Curriculum Content

During the Autumn term, the children in Year 6 explore the overarching question of ‘Who shaped the world we live in today?’. Their class novel is The Orphans of the Tide written by Struan Murray, which allows the children to look at various themes including Gods, cities, guilt and innocence. This class novel lends itself perfectly to the teaching of the curriculum as a whole, with Year 6 pupils studying The Vikings, learning all about types of settlements, and comparing land use of UK in the past and present in Geography. Living Things and Evolution and Inheritance are the focuses of their Science work. In Art, Year 6 pupils look at the work of Caroline Dunn as a basis for developing their own drawings for textile work skills and in DT, they further their structure building skills. The children acquire knowledge surrounding the big question of ‘Do you have to believe in one God to be good?’ in RE and in PSHE explore the areas of ‘Being me in my world’ and ‘Celebrating Differences’ through the Jigsaw scheme of work. Computing lessons allow the children to develop their awareness of communication and 3D modelling. In Music, Year 6 pupils learn how to use their voices expressively and creatively and focus on developing their Basketball and Gymnastic skills in PE. In MFL, they will further their ability to use shapes and colours in French.

The overarching question during the Spring term is ‘Where could we go?’ and the children in Year 6 read the class novel of Welcome to Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird. Key themes for exploration throughout this term include family, disability, government politics and health. Year 6 pupils learn all about their geographical area of focus, which is Syria and The Middle East and Study British History beyond 1066. Through looking at the work of Pablo Picasso, they are able to create their own painted artwork to display the mood of a refugee through abstraction. They study the Science topic areas of Electricity, looking at the work of Frank Partridge as their key scientist. The DT project for Year 6 pupils requires them to develop their cooking skills when making bread. In RE, the children study life journey in the religions of Hinduism and Islam. Music lessons provide the Year 6 pupils with the opportunity to play tuned and untuned instruments as well as listen with understanding and concentration to a variety of music. The children are able to explore and develop skills based on web page creation and spreadsheets in Computing and Badminton and Hockey skills in PE lessons. Through Jigsaw, Year 6 pupils think about their dreams and goals for now and the future as well as relationships in PSHE. They further develop their French skills in MFL lessons by learning how to talk about themselves and others.

The Summer term’s overarching question asks the children to think about ‘Has our world always looked this way?’. Through the study of their class novel Who Let the Gods Out by Maz Evans, the Year 6 pupils explore the key themes of farming, pollutions, councils and rivers. They study Ancient Greece and look at the regions of Macedonia and Thessaly in Geography. The Art project for this term looks at Greek sculptures as a way of developing their own sculpture skills. The Science topics for Year 6 in this term are Light and Animals Including Humans. In PSHE, the children are asked to explore the areas of ‘Healthy Me’ and ‘Changing Me’, and in PE lessons the children are able to acquire skills required for playing Rounders and developing athletic skills. Computing lessons allow the Year 6 children to develop their skills surrounding variables in games and sensing and DT looks at furthering their mechanics skills to create cranes inspired by Greek inventions. RE lessons look at the religion of Christianity, specifically looking at Life Journey. MFL lessons allow Year 6 pupils to acquire the ability to talk further about animals in French.