Mayfield Primary SchoolYEAR SIX: SUMMER TERM
OUR YEAR SIX DURING SUMMER TERM
OUR CORE INTENTION IN ACTION
SUMMER TERM 'WHEN I GROW UP...' THEME: BRING ME SUNSHINE
A 'When I Grow Up' Summer Summary
Our When I Grow Up... chronological story reaches its end as we move onto the second of our two post-WW2 themes: Bring Me Sunshine. We decided to pursue a leisure and entertainment focus as this is so prominent within our local history and the growth of the local area and and builds progressively upon many of the aspects studied during the seven year historical journey. We titled our theme in honour of Morecambe & Wise. We began with a Stunning Start: Stars In Their Eyes event which involved us introducing great names and entertainers via our ABC Theatre with our special host Mr Baer cunningly disguised as an 'Ant & Dec' lookalike! Interestingly this history, music and art led theme revealed that, although this is the most modern period we study, lots and lots of the knowledge and content was completely unheard of to our children - whereas many had heard of the Romans and Vikings and knew details this most modern era was often the starting point with the latest background knowledge - which surprised us during our diagnostic assessment work at the outset. Some children had heard of the The Beatles but not much more! It therefore led to us studying old film and records in some detail as we introduced, analysed and offered our thoughts on names such as Tommy Cooper and Norman Wisdom. By the conclusion of our History studies we had to put ourselves in the shoes of 'Simon Cowell' and put together a Stars in Their Eyes legends line-up of our own. Our work led to our honorary showcase of our entertainment past in our specially created summer show: On With The Show - which the children performed to over 150 people over three days and celebrated the great variety era so often part of the Fylde Coast (in our case a tribute to North Pier Theatre and its great producer: Lawrence Wright). Our Computing studies involved production of posters for our show and exploring the potential of digital images and how these can be manipulated, yet the majority of our studies centred upon making a film to capture the production of our show and the work which has gone into it. The families of our children were the audience for this prior to the start of the live show itself. During our Geography studies, we looked at the coastal and city landscapes of Britain and studied why theatres would be positioned in such locations fro this geographical perspective. Is it a climate factor? Is it a population question? Does the environment play a role in this? We drew upon our knowledge of place and physical landscape to help with with this final unit.
Art was fabulous, we studied Andy Warhol's Pop Art and even dedicated a theme days to this work as we designed and printed our own Pop Art. Learning about album covers was great fun and we attempted to design and produce our own album sleeves as our Design & Technology. We have been busy planning and composing our own melodies for Bring Me Sunshine within our Music curriculum work. The guys enjoyed the musical creations but found them more demanding than they realised and more frustrating as rehearsals created that desire for perfection which is so difficult when playing melodies together.
We learnt a range of new French vocabulary during our study of leisure activities within 'Le Weekend'. P.E. focused upon applying our striking and fielding skills within the context of summer team sports: orienteering; rounders; athletics. During Science the children focused upon light and sound enquiries and questions as we used the importance of the processes to the live performance and entertainment world - this included work with circuits and circuit symbols and we designed and fair tested ideas. During our Religious Education studies we considered whether people's belief in life after death can result in people choosing to live in certain ways and making certain life choices.
We have been statistics and properties of shapes galore during the Mathematics work this term and, as we reach the end of the seven year journey for our children, we have been applying more and more and more - even those it is part of our green and gold provision each day!
Classic fiction and autobiographies have formed a significant part of our work this term in English, with longer units of study on each of these. Persuasion that has led into a balanced discussion and diaries have formed the later sections of study as we reach the final few weeks and months of the English curriculum for our children in year 6.
Our PSHE & Relationships time focused heavily upon our own mental health and the factors that can affect this both now and we grow into the modern world. We considered the issue of keeping personal information safe and then took on the issue of drug use, the law and its impact upon individuals (their lives, well being and physical condition). All in addition to our regular e-safety focus each half-term.
On With The Show was the perfect culmination to our final When I Grow Up... theme and ensured the children left Mayfield on a real high as the show was performed in their final week with us. Great stuff guys!
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