In summer 2023, we will be exploring our local history, particularly the life of a child in Victorian Lancashire. We will look at the life of a mill child and living conditions in this period of history. In geography we will explore physical geography and will take on some fieldwork.

Why not take a look at what we did last summer in years 5 & 6...

We kicked off this term with Holy Week, where we spent time in prayer, sat as a class family for our Seder meal (remembering Jesus' last supper on Maundy Thursday), and made Easter baskets for our local community. Our class delivered the baskets to spread some Easter goodwill and blessings.

We also finished our rainforests topic with a rainforest day. As we were unable to visit the Amazon rainforest for a school trip, we decided to bring the rainforest to our school. We dressed as explorers, set up a camp in our classroom and set off in search of treasures. We used the day as a creative writing workshop before writing our own Amazon adventures.

At the end of the day, we were lucky enough to meet some snakes - some of our classmates brought their pet snakes into our class, which helped us feel a little more like we were in the Amazon.

We have also been creative, making some rainforest inspired models. We made mod rock creatures, which we added to our classroom jungle.

At long last, we reached SATs week. Our Year 6 pupils worked so hard in preparation for these and long last they are done. To celebrate their hard work, we had a small fire where the children 'disposed' of their past practice papers before toasting marshmallows and making s/mores.

As 'well done' for all their hard work, they also had a party. The children enjoyed some cake and party games, received their leavers' hoodies, and spent some time together relaxing! Upon their return to class, they were greeted by Year 5, who hosted further celebrations, congratulating their peers with some songs, dances and poems.

In our summer term, our next topics will be 'Up, Up and Away' and 'Ancient Greeks'. In 'Up, Up and Away', our topic will encompass human geography, observing land-use management and map work, and our science unit, where will work scientifically to test various forces.

Our history topic of 'Ancient Greeks' will allow us to dive into the past, investigating how the Greeks influenced modern, western society.

To kick off the last half term of the academic year, Year 5 and 6 have been on residential! Take as look at our photos to see how much fun we've been having...

Follow the link to see more photographs from our trip...

Ancient Greeks Topic

In our Ancient Greeks topic we have tried our hands at being archaeologists to investigate everyday life. Pieces of 'ancient artefacts' were hidden around our school site. The class went in search of pieces of pottery, trying to piece them altogether in order to get an idea of the sorts of object the Ancient Greeks might have had. On the fragments of vases and terracotta, we observed images which give clues about Ancient Greek civilisation. We discussed how this is how historians and archaeologists really did learn about Greek mythology and culture. Take a look at our 'archaeological dig'.

Ancient Greeks in English...

We have also immersed ourselves in the world of the Ancient Greeks in our English. We started the term off by looking at the Greek islands and their climate - this inspire some persuasive adverts where we tried to convince a target audience to visit. We then delved into Greek mythology, listening to the the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. We continued with our persuasive theme, producing some speeches to persuade young, brave Athenians to sign up as a volunteer to go and slay the King Minos's Minotaur.

Our next endeavour is to create our own myths, with our own brave heroes and our own vicious beasts.

Ancient Greeks in Art & Design...

After learning about Greek culture, we have created our own Ancient Greek theatre masks. We will use these for drama and to decorate our classroom.

Take a look at the masks we have made from paper mache.

Persuasive Adverts

In English, our class worked in small groups to write persuasive speeches to be used as part of an advert. We imagined we lived in Ancient Athens, at the time of the myth of the minotaur. In the myth,  King Minos demanded that 7 young men and 7 young women be sent from Athens to Crete to face his minotaur. We imagined that the king of Athens (King Aegeus) had commissioned some adverts, calling for the bravest heroes to kill the beast once and for all. We used a green screen app to make it appear as though we were in Athens, performing our adverts in front of a live audience in an amphitheatre. Take a look at our ads...