St Francis'
Catholic Primary School
The Prayer team were invited to spend the afternoon with Bishop Declan to talk about the Year of Mission. They travelled to his home in Leigh Woods where they were shown around his house and garden, shared photos of activities they had been doing in school and asked him lots of questions about his role as Bishop. Each class had submitted a question that they would like answered and the interview was recorded so the Bishop's responses could be played back to the whole school in Assembly. The Prayer team felt very honoured to be invited to Bishop Declan's house and enjoyed spending time with him and eating some rather delicious cakes which he had provided!A very warm welcome to St Francis' Catholic Primary School
Year 6 please click on the pictures to view full size ...
Year 6
please click on the pictures to view full size ...
Welcome to the Year 6 Class Page!
Mr Groves has decided to take a back seat and allow us to write our own entries for the Year 6 page. Please check back here throughout the year to find out what we have been up to: trips, visitors, work in school, projects etc. As the year progresses, each term will be updated with various antics from the latest Year 6 class!
Love,
Year 6
TERM ONE
Who's helping who to read?
What speed at such a young age!
Sharing super stories!
I'm the King of the Castle...
Reception Buddies
Every year, the Year 6 children 'buddy up' with the children in Reception class as a way of welcoming them into school and helping them settle in. On the 5th of October, we met with Reception for the first time and everyone was nervous yet excited!
Firstly, we all made a trip to the library so we could select a book to share with our buddies. We made sure that we picked a book that was suitable for their age and not ours! Stories like 'The Gruffalo' proved very popular. We then headed to the Reception class to be united with our buddies. Everyone felt incredibly nervous about meeting their buddy for the first time but we were also curious to meet them and see how well we would settle together. Thankfully, everyone was really happy to meet each other and it didn't take long to start growing a great relationship with them!
After sharing our stories, we played outside on the equipment and played all sorts of games; some of the activities included 'Hide and Seek' and 'Duck, Duck, Goose!' Sadly, it was soon time to leave so we gave our buddies big hugs and left them behind. Meeting our buddies has definitely been a highlight of Year 6 so far and we can't wait to meet them again.
Brave Brownie meeting Year 6!
Not something you see on a school field every day...
Jasper was not a shy dog...
Wonderful and very well-behaved owls (mostly)...
The Feast of St. Francis
Wednesday 4th October was the feast day of our school's saint: St. Francis! We couldn't let this day go by without marking it in some way so we had all sorts of wonderful events going on in school linked to animals because St. Francis loved all of God's creatures.
The day started off in spectacular style with the visit of 'Chester'. Chester is a horse who belongs to Catherine and we were lucky enough to watch her riding Chester on the school field and even clear a few jumps! I'm not sure what he thought of all the spectators though!
In the afternoon after celebrating mass, we had other visitors come to the Year 6 class, including Brownie (Ciara's guinea pig) and Jasper (Jemima's dog). This caused a lot of excitment in class!
As the day drew to a close, all of the junior classes went into the hall to see some visitors from Avon Owls. There were six owls in total, including the largest breed in Europe, and one of them got a bit spooked and started flapping about which scared Miss Lamb. Did you know that rain is the biggest killer of Barn Owls? It's no wonder they stay in barns!
TERM TWO
Some managed to let go of the sides earlier than others!
A friend can be a useful tool in stopping another fall!
Ice Skating at the Tropicana
All of the junior classes were lucky enough to be offered a free trip to the ice skating rink at the Tropicana - the largest of its type in the UK! Years 6 and 4 went together and everyone was incredibly excited, whether it was their first time skating or an opportunity to go again.
Once we arrived, we all had to queue up to exchange our shoes for skates; the biggest problem then was trying to hobble to the ice! Eventually, we all made it to the rink and everyone slowly made their way on to the ice, holding onto the wall for support. Some people definitely took to skating faster than others but after about half an hour most people were away from the wall.
This trip was one of the most enjoyable we've ever had (despite falling on our bottoms) and it won't be forgotten quickly!
Anglo-Saxon/Viking Museum Display
On Thursday 14th December, Year 6 put together a museum display in their classroom which covered many different aspects of the ongoing dispute for control of England between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings. This was the culmination of many weeks of work and every class in the school was invited to attend; some parents even popped in too!
Visitors to the museum were treated to a range of artefacts, posters, films and presentations on a range of areas including Edward the Confessor, Viking Tactics, King Alfred the Great and Wessex. These topics proved popular with the children, particularly because we had an assortment of weapons on show as artefacts and even a five-foot ship constructed from metal!
Even though we had some technical difficulties with the films and Power Points, everyone appeared to enjoy the experience and learn a lot. However, we did have to keep a close eye on whoever had hold of the weapons! We even managed to learn a few things from each other's stalls. Thanks to all who came!
We tried to make our displays as interactive as possible by using films, Power Points, posters and artefacts.
No children were harmed in the making of this museum display...
TERM THREE
We learnt a lot about stopping distances and road safety...
Are you being given the correct change?
Post-relay exhaustion...
Chest Push - see that ball fly!
Lifeskills
On 15th January, Year 6 visited the Create Centre in Bristol to take part in the Lifeskills experience. Lifeskills is full of many realistic scenarios to help teach us about the kind of dangers we may face every day; these scenarios include everything from train stations to everyday dangers in the home.
We learned a lot while we were there but also found it to be incredibly fun. It was surprising how many hazards are around us every day! We even had the opportunity to make a 999 call about the incidents we had seen, including a fire, an unconscious boy and even a knife attack!
We are very grateful to the guides who volunteered to take us round; they were very nice and helpful!
Sportshall Athletics
On January 10th, the entire Year 6 class travelled to Hutton Moor Leisure Centre to take part in a county-wide athletics competition. We were all excited about having the opportunity to take part in up to four different track and field events.
Track events ranged from obstacle relays to six-lap paarlaufs. Field events included long jump. high jump and speed bounce. Chris Millard (who runs our athletics lessons in the summer) was there to run the day and many students from Clevedon School ran specific events. We are very grateful to them for doing a great job!
What pleased us the most was seeing everyone have such a good time. The atmosphere was very positive and everytbody was cheered on, meaning that it was a lot of fun, even if it was hard work! We may not have won the event but we can certainly be proud of ourselves.
Do you know the recovery position?
Always be careful around train tracks!
Nailing the Triple Jump...
How high can you jump?
TERM FOUR
Our choir for the St. Bede's Choir Concert 2018...
St. Bede's Choir Concert 2018
On Thursday 15th March, most of the Year 6 class went to St. Bede's Catholic College in Bristol to perform in the annual choir concert. St. Francis' have been taking part in this concert for many years and it is a great opportunity to meet with other catholic schools in the diocese and perform together. In preparation for the concert, David Ogden had been in to visit us and rehearse on several occasions; we really enjoyed his sessions because he made singing a lot of fun and he sounds much better than Mr Groves! However, it wasn't until the day of the performance that we actually rehearsed with other schools; even then we only sang together for about an hour. Exhausted from a long day at school followed immediately by rehearsing, we then went to eat our packed teas whilst the audience gathered in the hall. Luckily, when we went out to perform, all the schools combined well to make a beautiful medley! Around an hour later we were being taken home by our parents, tired but pleased that everything had gone well...
Stations of the Cross
On Wednesday 21st March, Year 6 went on a special trip to St. Francis' church. Not only was it special because we were about to do Stations of the Cross, it was also special because we were taking our Reception buddies to experience the story for the first time! When we got to church, we split up into groups of four or five so we could go round the stations quietly and be able to explain what was happening at the same time. It was our job to show all of the pictures/carvings to the Reception children and tell them what was going on. Our buddies were fascinated by the pictures and we tried to keep it apporpriate by not going into too much gory detail! We tried to reflect at each station but our buddies found that quite difficult because they are all a bit fidgety. When we were waiting for others to finish, we filled the time by drawing a station of our choice. Being able to tell the story to younger children was really worthwhile and kept a familiar story very interesting!
Year 6 had to explain the story to their Reception buddies...
Many of the children were fascinated by the pictures...
Many were incredibly observant...
But it wasn't always easy to keep their attention!
TERM FIVE
Year 6 Camp 2018
No fear of heights here!
Another unsuccessful crate stacking attempt!
We made it to the top of the hill!
We don't normally encourage playing with fire...
During the last week of term 5, Year 6 went to the Brecon Beacons to visit the Acorn Adventure camp site at Tan Troed. We had a fun-filled and busy week doing many activities, including kayaking, abseiling, high ropes, bushcraft, raft building and more. Not all of these activities were easy! Just in case you thought we weren't busy enough, we even had evening activities to complete as well. The instructors did a great job of organising games, races, sing-songs and even a camp fire so we could toast marshmallows. At one point, some children were toasting multiple marshmallows at the same time and then eating them at once - it was quite messy! We all had a fantastic time on camp and learnt something new about ourselves, whether it was pushing yourself to achieve or realising that you could do something new. A great week with wonderful memories.
Relaxing in the kayaks and the sunshine...
Being delivered through the spider web!
If only they were blindfolded and tied together permanently...
It floats! It's a miracle!
TERM SIX
TERM SIX
Mike would tell us stories accompanied by Zaid's music.
Both were talented musicians but only one is famous in his country!
We even helped to form a band!
Believe it or not, there was 'flossing' involved too..
Storytellers
On Friday 8th June, two men named Zaid and Mike came to visit Year 6. Mike is a local storyteller and wanted to share some stories with us. Zaid, however, was a very special guest who had come from Palestine. Zaid wanted to share with us how he felt about his people losing their land to the Israelites. He did this by singing us songs in his own language. They were very powerful songs and we couldn't understand the words but the way he sang told us exactly how he felt. Some of the songs had stories to accompany them and Mike would tell us the stories, sometimes accompanying Zaid with his trumpet. All of the songs and stories gave a clear expression of how difficult life in Palestine is for people like Zaid. In the end, we composed a song together which was very uplifting!
Year 6 listening intently to our expert guide...
Did you know that Backwell lake is man-made?
Be careful near the farmer's crops!
Did anyone bring a hedge trimmer?
Local Walk
On Wednesday 6th June, we were lucky enough to have Brian from the Nailsea and District Footpath Association visit us at school. He offered to take us on a walk around the local area so we could be familiar with parts we may not have seen and learn some local history. The walk lasted for a couple of hours and covered six kilometres! First we explored Nowhere Woods before taking some secret pathways which led us to Backwell Lake. All along the way, Brian kept stopping to point out interesting buildings and historical facts which was really useful. Our route then took us through farmers' fields and into Wraxall before heading back towards Scotch Horn and a return to school. Everyone had a lovely morning, not only because Brian was interesting but also because it was a great opporunity to walk and talk with our closest friends!