Welcome to Falcon class! Our teacher is Mrs Draper, who has been at Bedwell ever since she started teaching. She is really good at art and English, and she says her favourite things are meeting with friends and walking her dog, Cody. She doesn’t like unkindness very much, and is scared of being late!

• Our curriculum map - find out about our current topics
• Our latest class newsletter
• Meet our school councilors, Ella and Alistair

Home learning ideas:

• All of the maths we’re doing this term is dependent on quick recall of tables facts, so it would be brilliant if you could work on this. Focus on one table at a time and try: 
  • Making-up rhymes to help remember number facts (“4 x 6 is 24, bears growl and lions roar!”) 
  • Looking for numbers in that table in the world around you - on doors, car number plates, in phone numbers or when you’re out shopping. 
  • Writing-out tables with finger paints, chalk or water-on-tarmac, or make them from playdoh. 
  • Chanting, singing, whispering... Say tables out loud together whenever you have the chance.
• Each week we are set spellings to learn. Click here for guidance on strategies you can use to support your child in learning these at home.  
• Look for examples of living things growing and changing all around us - in the garden, can you spot plants sprouting and growing their first leaves? In the trees and bushes around us, can you spot chicks being fed and starting to grow? Check in with the ducks in the park - over a few weeks, how do the ducklings change and grow, becoming more independent and getting ready to fly... 
• It would be great to see the whole of Year 6 trying out for main parts when we get to auditions for We Will Rock You in the summer, and practicing singing some of the songs would be a great way to support your child in building their confidence for this - you can find the whole soundtrack (and clips from the London production) on YouTube . 
  

Our latest news:

• What a fantastic final term we’ve had in Year 6! We’ve worked together to produce an amazing production of We Will Rock You, took part in Crucial Crew and lots of transition events with our new schools, thew ourselves into Sports and DT weeks - and many of us also spent an amazing weekend away at PGL. In between all of that, we completed our SATs – and absolutely smashed them, with super results of which we should all be really proud. 
 

 
• Finally, we rounded-off the year with our Leavers Trip. On Monday morning we headed down to the leisure park for a fun bowling session, followed by lunch at Frankie and Benny’s. There were lots of laughs and lots of memories shared, and it was a great way to spend our final full day of primary school. We ended the term with an emotional final assembly, reflecting on all that we have achieved during our time at Bedwell and looking forward to the amazing adventures that lie ahead!  
 
• Year 5/6 leapt at the chance to take part in the Young Voices project this year., singing at famous venues as part of a massive choir. Having learnt a collection of (pretty tricky) songs, they headed into London to take part in a huge performance at the O2 at the end of January. You can find out more about their adventure here. 
 

 
• In February, we visited the British Museum to support our work on the Ancient Greeks. We were able to see lots of ancient artefacts, which brought our learning to life. We attended a Greek God workshop, closely examining the images on 2500 year old vases, and can now identify different gods and goddesses by looking at what they are wearing and holding. 
 

 
• We organised a Girls Football Festival for International Women’s Day, with every girl in Years 5 and 6 taking part. It was fantastic to see so much enthusiasm and enjoyment on display as we charged around the field!
  
 

 
• In the lead up to Easter, we visited our local church, to find out more about why Christians celebrate this special time of the year. We were split into four groups and throughout the morning, we talked about how Jesus was betrayed by Judas, was hung from the cross and was then resurrected. All of the adults were really impressed by both our behaviour and the way we were able to talk knowledgeably about the Easter Journey. 
  
 

We have been learning about... 

Maths - Across all of our maths sets, a big focus this term was on measures. We completed lots of practical challenges to develop the ability to read scales precisely and measure mass, capacity and length. This also helped us to build an understanding of what 1kg or 1 litre ‘looks like’, so we can make sensible estimates and spot when answers just can’t be right. Those of us in Year 6 have also taken part in weekly Booster sessions, building our understanding and confidence, ready for our national SATs tests in May.

English - This term, we have been exploring different styles of writing that we use at different times - chatty and relaxed for talking to friends, formal and correct when we want to sound like experts and everything in between. We have used these styles to write discussions and balanced arguments, considering everything from mobile phones in schools to banning sugary sweets to the rights and wrongs of fairytales. Check out Jahrell’s fantastic example below, where he used a formal tone to make his discussion as powerful as possible:

Firstly, let us consider the arguments in favour of Blacky Pig. Blacky is a well-respected model citizen, with no previous criminal record; it is hard to believe that he would commit such a crime. Furthermore, Blacky Pig might argue that his actions were influenced by the wolf. Many people believe that the sly wolf trespassed, therefore the three pigs tried to scare him away. 

On the other hand, it could be said that Blacky premeditated the murder. Even if it was done accidentally, his actions cannot be ignored. He must be punished. Witnesses suggest Blacky Pig lured the devious creature to his property by enticing him with the promise of a delicious feast. This was a blatant lie. There is no doubt he has interfered by taking the law into his own hands, and must be disciplined. 

To sum up, Blacky is a young pig with no prior misdemeanours, except that he was caught eating the wolf after killing him. It is now up to the jury to decide based on all the evidence given whether Blacky Pig should be imprisoned for his actions. Will he live happily after all?  

This term's topics

English - We will be using the brilliant story Holes, by Louis Sachar, to inspire our writing across a variety of genres and forms. We will write diary entries and letters from the point of view of Stanley, the boy at the centre of the story who has been sent to a boot camp called Camp Green Lake. We will write reports and discussions on life at the camp and the fairness (or otherwise) of its punishments, as well as producing lots of descriptive writing linked to the characters and settings that we meet.

Maths - Year 6 will be working hard to revisit and revise the key maths knowledge we have worked on over the last year, so that we are as prepared as possible for our SATs in May. We will continue to practice our arithmetic skills every day (particularly those tricky fraction, percentage and division calculations), and will be working to apply what we know to new problem solving situations, often involving money and measures. We will be brushing-up on our understanding of time, angles and co-ordinates, and will have opportunities to suggest key areas that we would like to revise in our last few lessons before our tests. Then, once all that is out of the way, we have some fun work on nets and pie charts to look forward to.

Science - We will extend our understanding of living things by exploring the way that different plants and animals change as they age. We will identify the stages that they pass through, comparing the life cycles of a range of mammals, insects, birds and amphibians. We will also learn about the way that babies grow and develop, both before and after birth.

Humanities - We will begin by discovering who the Mayans were, where they lived and when their civilisation existed. We will then investigate their daily lives, comparing their homes, schools, clothes, food and warriors with other historical civilisations we have already learnt about (eg. Greeks, Romans, Vikings and Normans). We will also be exploring Mayan Gods and religion and examining the way that historians can learn about lives in Mayan times. Finally, we will be exploring Mayan Art and using this to inspire our own work.

Take a look at our curriculum map for more information on our topics.