St Francis'
Catholic Primary School
A very warm welcome to St Francis' Catholic Primary School ~ inset days Friday 21 July and Monday 4 September, school closed to children. Children return Tuesday 5 September
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
Happy to meet our buddies!
It's hard to guess who's having more fun!
The buddies listened intently to their stories.
Reception and Year 6 modelling the new uniform.
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 7th 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 and were united with our buddies. The Reception children were almost as excited to meet us as we were to meet them! A few of the children were a bit shy and took some time to relax around us. However, once they were used to us, they were much more chatty and enjoyed playing with us.
After sharing our stories, we got out all of the play equipment and played all sorts of games; some of the activities included bike riding, drssing up and making mud pies! 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.
Nervously waiting to run the next leg...
Look at them go!
The World 5000m Challenge
Miss Ball and Mrs O'Gorman set the entire school the task of completing the World 5000m Challenge. Year 5 and 6 were happy to take on the challenge!
It was decided that the challenge would be completed in our house groups; each member of the house had to run a leg of 100m and this continued until we had reached a total of 5000m. Everyone had to run several legs! This made the challenge hard as we became increasingly tired.
That said, it was a lot of fun to complete and we enjoyed trying to win. It was also a little nerve-racking because it was our first house-competition as Year 6! Everyone did well and it was a close contest but the final victors were St. Mary's. Well done!
Downside Abbey provided a spectacular setting.
Breath-taking, interesting and fun - what a day!
Pilgrimage to Downside Abbey
Our pilgrimage to Downside Abbey was a bit of a trip into the unknown, particularly as it took an hour to drive there through winding, country roads! However, like all good trips, it started with a glass of squash and a biscuit on arrival!
After settling in, we split into our house groups and completed a variety of activities. The activities included: making Benedictine sandwiches to offer to others, studying the stained glass windows and designing our own, finding out about a day in the life of a Benedictine monk and learning about Saint Oliver Plunkett (whose remains were in the abbey!)
One of the most fascinating parts of the day was when we listed to 'Midday Office': this was a series of prayers sung by the monks before lunch. It was amazing to hear and made the abbey very atmospheric.
It was a great day - the only shame was that our Reception buddies couldn't join us!
TERM TWO
Our proud medal winners!
The coveted prize...
North Somerset Swimming Gala
On Thursday 8th December, a team of eleven Year 6 and Year 5 children went to Hutton Moor Leisure Centre to take part in a swimming gala. Each school was given its own lane to compete from and there were individual races for boys and girls in each stroke, as well as some fun team relays.
When we first arrived , it was actually quite scary! Seeing all the schools gathered outside the pool was intimidating but we tried to appear confident to help give us an advantage. There were so many schools there that each race had to be done in two heats; this meant that some people were waiting around for quite a while before their race. This made the nerves even worse!
For each race , every school was timed and then the results were collated before medals were awarded. We were very proud of our results, achieving two gold medals (Girls 50m Freestylke and Girls 25m Butterfly) and two bronze medals (Bo ys 25m Backstroke and Boys 25m Front Crawl). Given the size of our school, these were great results and we were really pleased!
Everyone in the team did a fantastic job and should be very proud of their achievements on a fantastic day!
Anglo-Saxon/Viking Museum Display
On Thursday 15th 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. Every class in the school was invited to attend the museum and 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! Trying to make sure that the weapons stayed in the right hands was quite a challenge!
Even though we had some technical difficulties with the films and Power Points, everyone appeared to enjoy the experience and learn a lot. We even managed to learn a few things from each other's stalls!
We tried to make our displays as interactive as possible by using films, Power Points, posters and artefacts.
Year 6 were always on hand to explain their learning to the younger children.
TERM THREE
A proper lecture theatre - how exciting!
I wouldn't want to drink that!
Reception were enthralled by the adventures of Digiduck!
Year 4 learnt what it meant to be an UPSTANDER!
Science Lecture - St. Bede's
Back in January, Year 6 and Year 4 witnessed many science experiments at the St. Bede's Science Lecture. The subject of the lecture was air, giving us a chance to discover more about the different elements that go together to make up the air all around us. This included: nitrogen, helium, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and oxygen.
The lecture involved lots of fun elements, including explosive balloons, dissolving polystyrene and a foam mountain made of hydrogen peroxide!
One fun experiment involved bursting balloons containing either helium or hydrogen. By using a flame to burst the balloon, we got to see whether or not the gas reacted to the flame. Helium had no reaction but the hydrogen made a fireball! It looked incredible in the dark.
We also looked at some elements that had been frozen to very cold temperatures. Did you know that solid carbon dioxide can inflate a glove because of the gas it produces whilst melting? As well as this, we observed liquid nitrogen being used to make gloves, bananas and flowers breakable!
Overall, it was an amazing experience that not only entertained us but taught us as well.
Safer Internet Day 2017
On February 7th it was national Safer Internet Day. The internet is a huge part of our lives but sadly there are a few small risks connected to being online. We wanted to use Safer Internet Day to teach everyone in school how to be safe online so they can still enjoy the internet.
Year 6 had a very busy day! To begin with, we had an assembly led by Mr. Groves; it was all about putting photos online. We learnt that sharing photos online can be a lot of fun but you have to be careful that the photo doesn't contain personal information. For example, if you're wearing a school uniform, strangers might work out which school you go to. Maybe the street sign for your address is in the background of the photo? These are all small details that you have to consider before sharing an image. We even found out that we should ask someone's permission before posting a photo of them. There's nothing wrong with sharing images but remember: think before you post!
After that, Year 6 visited every other class in small groups to teach them about E-Safety. The infants were told all about Digiduck and his sharing of cruel photos, whereas the juniors learnt about how easily photos can be edited and how you should respond to others being cruel online - be an UPSTANDER! Stand up for people who are being bullied.
We really enjoyed teaching the younger children and hope they learned a lot.
Just an average day of exploding hydrogen...
The famous foam mountain!
Year 2 learn to ask permission before watching online videos.
Year 1 loved learning about Digiduck and how to say nice things about others online.
TERM FOUR
Excitement about entering the dome had reached fever pitch in Year 6!
One brave girl attempts to answer a question...
Space Odyssey - A Planetarium Visits School!
Having already experienced the space dome in Year 5, we were all very excited to hear that it was returning to school and that we would get another session inside it!
Our second time in the dome was every bit as valuable as the first. As well as catching up on the latest developments in space news, we revised a lot of our learning from the previous year. It is so much clearer studying the phases of the moon from inside the dome! Other highlights included a virtual tour of the International Space Station (ISS) which was incredibly detailed. There was even a funky song about black holes which proved popular with everyone.
To our surprise, a large part of our time in the dome was linked to our topic on Ancient Greece. The stars in our galaxy were all projected onto the ceiling of the dome and various constellations were highlighted e.g. Orion and the 'Great Bear'. What we didn't realise before was that many of the Greek Gods and characters that we have been learning about have been immortalised with star constellations. This helped us to learn a lot about Greek heroes, hideous monsters and their gory stories!
The whole experience was great and we'd happily go in for a third time!
We were lucky enough to be in the front row!
There was a little daydreaming from time to time...
Luckily, nobody was ironically injured by the bed.
We all wondered how the bunny ended up in the wheelchair!
St Bede’s Choir Concert
On Thursday 23rd March, Year 6 were invited to take part in the annual choir concert at St Bede’s. We have taken part in this for several years and it’s always a great experience. One of the reasons it’s so enjoyable is that it is conducted by David Ogden – he is one of the region’s leading conductors and he makes each rehearsal session a lot of fun!
This year’s theme was inspirational people and we sang many songs linked to saints (such as St Francis), pop stars (such as Freddie Mercury) and even leaders (such as Nelson Mandela). The hall at St Bede’s was packed with children from different local Catholic schools and it created a super atmosphere. Some of our parents were the most raucous clappers and cheerers!
Each school got to perform a song individually as well. Linking to Nelson Mandela, we chose to sing, ‘I Wish I Knew (How it Would Feel to be Free)’. The audience seemed to enjoy our performance – probably because they recognised it from the Barry Norman film programme…
Sponsored Bed Push
This year’s sponsored event was for a great cause: Southmead hospital are in the process of raising money for a surgical robot which will cost one £1,000,000! Whilst we didn’t expect to raise that much, we wanted to do our bit and set a target of raising £1000 across the school. Any extra money would go towards providing wheelchairs for people in poorer countries.
To raise the money it was agreed that we would do a sponsored bed and wheelchair push whilst dressed as doctors/nurses/patients. We were lucky enough to have an actual hospital bed provided by Southmead and wheelchairs provided by many different helpers. The idea was that we would continuously push the bed and wheelchair across the playground for half an hour with people sponsoring us to do so.
The bed was enormous but luckily the wheels made it easy to push. Steering in a straight line was another matter! However, we persevered and managed to keep the beds and wheelchairs going for the full half hour. Some of the younger children even brought their teddies in for the ride! The school has raised over £2000 and we are very proud!
Chilling out backstage.
Singing with gusto!
Sometimes it was hard not to race each other!
It looks easy but steering in a straight line proved very tricky!
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.