St Francis'
Catholic Primary School
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
Year 6 Camp
Are you sure you trust the person in front of you?
We aren't wet... yet!
Finally, we are allowed to start fires!
Running over a line of paddle boards before jumping in the lake!
During the last week of term 5, Year 6 went to the Brecon Beacons to visit the Acorn Adventures camp site at Tan Troed. We had a fun-filled and busy week doing many activities, including kayaking, catapulting, paddle boarding, high ropes, bushcraft, raft building and many 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.
Reaching the top of the Gladiator course was challenging!
A sturdier vessel has yet to be built...
Catapulting paintballs! (Sadly, not at the teachers...)
We made it to the top of the hill walk!
TERM SIX
TERM SIX
The stained-glass windows were very impressive!
Each school offered a symbol of the work they had done for the Year of Mercy...
Can you spot our crib...?
Thumbs up, everyone!
Leavers' Mass
On Thursday 15th June, Year 6 went to Clifton Cathedral for the annual Leavers' Mass. We attended alongside hundreds of other Year 6 children across the diocese and the mass was led by Bishop Declan and many other priests. It felt quite strange being so close to the bishop but we didn't quite get close enough to meet him. When he wasn't talking to the congregation or stood by the altar, he appeared to be sat in a throne and wearing a special hat! It was a real honour to attend mass with the Bishop and to be inside the cathedral - it's a very impressive building! This year, each school had to make a symbol for the offertory to show which corporal work of mercy we have been following over the year. We had been thinking about helping the sick and lonely so we used a crib with a baby in it as our symbol and covered it in photos of our various fund-raising events. Perhaps the most entertaining part of the mass was the leader of the choir; he sounded like an opera singer and it really surprised us! Now that the mass is over, many of us feel quite sad about leaving St. Francis' but we are also excited about the future ahead.
On your marks...
Get set...
GO!
Our favourite game - running to the red or blue cones.
Athletics
Over the course of the summer terms, we have been lucky enough to have weekly athletics sessions with Chris Millard, who coaches the North Somerset Junior Athletics team. The best thing about Mr Millard is that he helps you to focus on your skills and improve them to their fullest. Most of the activities and training that we did were tough but fun games so that kept enjoyment levels high. That said, most of us listened in terror as we found out what the week's 'endurance' task was going to be! We got to try so many different events that we didn't have much experience of e.g. hurdles and long jump. Having lots of mini competitions with each event helped to build our determination too. Not only have we learnt a lot about athletics, we have also learnt about the importance of positive body language and supporting others. Mr Millard is an excellent coach who really wants you to reach your full potential.