Doves

Mr Learmonth and Mrs Tate would like to welcome you all back to Year 6 and say how much we have enjoyed our first two weeks getting to know you all and helping you settle back into school after such a long break.  We have both been extremely impressed with the attitude and behaviour demonstrated so far by each and every one of you – you really have made a fantastic start to the year; long may it continue. We have started to return to the “hard work” you are used to at Tranmere Park and feel confident that we are going to have a great year.

It is obviously a little harder to have the face to face contact with parents at the moment, but if any of you do need to speak to us please just either email or ring school or get in touch with us via Google Classroom and one of us will aim to get back to you as soon as we can.

Here’s to a fantastic and disruption-free Year 6

Planners

In years 5 and 6, the children will be encouraged to work with growing independence. To support this, your child will be taking responsibility for their own organisation. Each child has been given a planner (Y6 planners are provided by Guiseley school to support children to be secondary ready when they leave us). Planners will be checked on a Friday morning and should have been seen and signed by an adult for the previous week. If there are any other messages that need to be read by the teacher on a day other than Friday, please ensure that your child brings these to your attention.

Reading Books

Each week, your child will be expected to read twice a week with an adult at home, who will need to sign and date the reading record in their planner every time they hear them read. Your child can choose a book from home or an appropriate free choice book from school. Even though many children in years 5 and 6 are quite fluent readers, it is important that an adult hears them read and asks questions about what they have read in order to aid their comprehension and to improve their writing skills.

Books can be changed on any day in the classroom and returned books will be quarantined by staff before being put back on the shelf.

Homework

Your child will receive their homework every Monday on Google Classroom and should upload it by the following Monday. This will consist of weekly tasks in both Maths and English. We politely request that parents mark the work with their child so that any misconceptions can be addressed—answers for the regular sheets are provided. We only expect children to spend 20 minutes on each piece of homework, if they are struggling please just write a note to the teacher explaining this – don’t struggle on! A topic homework grid and will also be available on Google Classroom and the school website by the end of the first week of a new topic. It is expected that your child will complete at least two of the activities from the grid and upload them. There are a range of fun and exciting options to choose from so please feel free to be creative!

The homework will alternate between the maths skills test and the Grammar Hammer. We test the children on the previous week’s homework at the start of the new week. The aim of setting the blank sheet first and testing it second is to encourage the children to learn the method for each question—not just memorise the answers.

Spellings will be tested each week on Fridays and the new list will be posted on Google Classroom following the weekly test. A spelling book will not be sent home this year (based on current guidance).