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
Some very proud fundraisers and some very hungry children!
Animal Asia
On Friday 5th October, a group of girls and a very kind Mum organised a fundraising event for the charity, 'Animal Asia'. This worthy cause works hard to put an end to poaching and loss of habitat.
The fundraising day had several elements including biscuit and cupcake decoration and the opportunity to dress in Mufti for the day - many came in fancy dress!
Each class was invited out to the art area where they could pay to decorate a cupcake or biscuit with icing and sprinkles. A lot of fun was had decorating the sweet treats!
At the end of a long day, the girls finished counting up the money and were delighted to find that they had raised...
£233.50!
Well done to everyone involved!
Victory is ours!
Dodgeball Tournament
On Friday 19th October, twenty children from St. Francis' (mostly Sports Leaders) hopped onto a minibus and travelled to Backwell Junior School for the second annual Dodgeball Tournament. Excitement was running high as they arrived and the children were keen to get themselves onto the pitch as soon as possible!
The children were split into a Team A and Team B; both teams got off to a flying start and defeated their opponents from Backwell. By the time the St. Francis' teams had faced each other, they had each played three matches, winning two and losing one. This meant that Team A went through to the final whilst Team B entered the 3rd-place playoff.
Team B cruised to victory, claiming 3rd place. Team A found themselves in a deciding round and staring down the jaws of defeat before a final surge pushed them back from the brink and towards a final victory. St. Francis' were the champions!
A lot of fun was had by all, particularly when they got back to school and pretended to be sad before revealing their victory with a big cheer!
Making a charge for the ball!
Accuracy was key...
Action shot!
Ready, set, go!
TERM TWO
Anglo-Saxon/Viking Museum Display
On Monday 10th 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 an animation where you got to attack an Anglo-Saxon for yourself!
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 crossbow! We even managed to learn a few things from each other's stalls. Thanks to all who came!
TERM THREE
We learnt about the dangers at home and in the garden.
We found out how to cross the road safely.
Warming up...
Ready to dance.....
Lifeskills
On 9th January, Year 6 visited the Create Centre in Bristol to take part in the Lifeskills experience. Lifeskills was full of many realistic scenarios to help teach us about the kind of dangers we may face every day; these scenarios included everything from train stations to everyday dangers at home.
We learned a lot about keeping safe and also had lots of fun. It is surprising how many hazards are around us! We had the opportunity to make a 999 call to report 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!
PE
We have been working with Sharon, a Dance teacher from Nailsea, on a Chinese dance to celebrate Chinese new year.
We have learnt some authentic Chinese moves and listened to some traditional Chinese music. Working in groups, we added our own movements to produce a dance, sometimes using props to add variety and interest.
We performed our dances to the rest of the class and evaluated each others work.
Kerry, another sports coach, has also been working with us, helping us to improve our gymnastics skills.
Do you know how to make an emergency call?
When you go shopping remember to check your change carefully!
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!