Learning in Year 6

In Year 6, children take on greater responsibility for their learning as they prepare for the transition to secondary school. Through a carefully sequenced, knowledge-rich curriculum, pupils consolidate essential knowledge, explore sophisticated ideas and develop the independence, resilience and confidence needed for their next stage of education.

Reading and writing lessons are enriched by challenging texts such as Rooftoppers, Pig Heart Boy, Skellig, All Aboard the Empire Windrush, Dare to Be You and extracts from Oliver Twist. Children develop their writing through autobiographies, adventure stories, news reports, explanatory texts, discursive writing, speeches, moral stories, Shakespeare’s sonnets and poetry that creates powerful images and explores vocabulary.

In mathematics, pupils develop fluency, reasoning and problem-solving through increasingly sophisticated work involving number, calculation, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio, algebra, measurement, geometry and statistics.

Across the wider curriculum, pupils:

• investigate electricity, animals including humans, light, living things and their habitats, evolution and inheritance in science;

• explore physical processes, settlements, economic activity and trade links, compare the United Kingdom with Europe and North America, and develop Ordnance Survey map and orienteering skills in geography;

• undertake a local study of the impact of the Second World War, learn about the Windrush generation and study significant monarchs or the Battle of Britain in history;

• develop creativity through drawing, painting, printmaking, textiles, collage, sculpture and three-dimensional art;

• design and make products involving mechanisms, textiles, structures, electrical systems, and food and nutrition;

• explore musical stories, song structure, notation, composition, improvisation and music technology using voices, keyboards and other instruments;

• extend their Spanish through topics including homes, money, personal belongings, the environment, directions, transport and visiting France; and

• learn about friendships, families, respectful relationships, personal safety, healthy choices and being ready to learn through PSHE.

Regular opportunities for reading, handwriting, spelling, physical education, creative expression and language learning ensure that pupils experience a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum while preparing confidently for secondary school.

Further details can be found in our Year 6 curriculum overview.