Well, Christmas is upon us and the holidays have finally arrived.
Everyone in year 6 has worked really hard throughout the entire term and deserves a well earned break from  lessons.

We are sure you will agree that their concert was fantastic; in such a short space of time the children worked incredibly well together to create a truly memorable performance.  Despite illness and children taking on lines they had never rehearsed the end result went seamlessly. Well done all round!

Decorations and parties dominated the final week and much fun (and noise!) was had on our party afternoon. Hopefully your children have brought home their decorative creations to share around the house.

Looking ahead to next term, we are all very excited about our long awaited trip to the Harry Potter Studios and our consequent topic work- very science and literacy based.

It just remains for us to say a huge thank you for the very generous gifts that we all received at the end of term and to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and new year. We look forward to seeing all the children again on the 8th January.

Enjoy your holidays and let's hope this drab wet weather turns into something white and infinitely more fun!

Happy Christmas from the Year 6 Team.

Christmas approaches

A big thank you to all parents and children for the fantastic effort that has gone into providing the costumes for our year 6 play. The first time we saw the children all dressed up on the stage the sight really was breath taking.

Everyone has worked so hard to learn their lines, and some children did have a lot of lines to learn. We hope that you enjoy watching your child's performance as much as we have enjoyed putting the show together.

Please ensure that on the evening performance children are at school by 6:45p.m. They may bring something quiet to do to keep them amused whilst other year groups perform. However, please make it clear to the children that they are responsible for whatever they bring in, any games should be age appropriate and it cannot be plugged into the wall sockets!

At the end of performances children can be collected from their own classrooms.

The year 6 team

Christmas preparations arrived in full flow this week as children got to grips with their Christmas play. they have been working really hard to learn lines and songs.

Any quiet moments over the long weekend could be usefully spent logging in to DB Primary, the learning platform, where words and music can be found for the songs.

Costumes need  to come into school on Monday please so we can be sure children have what they need before they do their first performance to the rest of the school, year 2 and siblings on Friday afternoon.

Enjoy your extra day off and we look forward to seeing everyone back on Monday morning.

The year 6 team

Wow, what a week!

It was great to see so many of you at the assembly yesterday and we hope that you thoroughly enjoyed their journey through time. Many of you were able to take the time to visit your child in their classroom at the end to have a look at the work they have been doing along with tasting their culinary efforts. We think they now believe us when we say rationing was not the tastiest time for eating! The atmosphere in the parties was great.

Next week we move onto Christmas and the work begins properly on the Christmas concert. With only two and a bit weeks to go until you will have the opportunity to be amazed by year 6 and their talented performance once again!
Homework next week will once again be learning lines etc so please support your child with this.

A list of costumes will be with you in the early part of next week. The play is set in an imaginary African world and, although the costumes will be simple, children will need some support in getting their outfits together.

Our final major part of the work we will be doing for our topic is a make do and mend activity. For this we will be making rag rugs in the style used to decorate many a hearth in the 1940s. If you have any old, torn, worn out items of clothing fit only for the rag bag that we could cut up and recycle, creating a true work of art for our classrooms, please send them in with your child next week.

Many thanks for your continued support in all that we plan and do with your children.

The Year 6 Team

E Safety at Crabtree

E Safety Support for Parents



Children are so confident with the use of all things ICT that I thought you might want some support and advice on how to ensure that your children are safe at school.

Our esafety motto at school is: "zip it, block it, flag it"





Which I'm sure that you'll all be following at home too.



Here are a list of wesbites, recommended by Herts that you might find useful.

• www.childnet-int.org - A non-profit making organisation working directly with children, parents and teachers to ensure that the issues of online child protection and children’s safe and positive use of the internet are addressed. Childnet International produce an online CD guide specifically for parents KnowITAll - www.childnet-int.org/kia/

• www.thinkuknow.co.uk - The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre has set up its own edcational website which has been designed and written specifically for children, young people, teachers, parents and carers.
  
• www.getsafeonline.org/ A beginners guide to using the Internet safety, including a quiz and some video tutorials about how to ‘stay safe’ on-line.

• www.kidsmart.org.uk/ - Kidsmart is an award winning internet safety website for parents and those working with children. It has been developed by the children's internet charity Childnet International and has excellent information on many of the technologies used by children, with guidance on how to ‘stay safe’ online.
  
• http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2011/10/advice-for-parents/ - Managing your Media - Good Ofcom online safety video and guide for parents/carers
  
• www.bullying.co.uk - One in five young people have experienced bullying by text message or via email. This web site gives advice for children and parents on bullying.

• www.chatdanger.com/ - This website is about the potential dangers with interactive services online like chat, IM, online games, email and on mobiles. It provides information, advice, true stories and games. The resource page also contains a number of links to other useful websites.

• http://parents.vodafone.com/ - Vodafone have developed this website in conjunction with mumsnet. It is very accessible and provides information and guidance to parents with understanding their child’s digital world and get more involved. There is even an on-line test to see how much you know!

If you do have any questions please do pop in to see me. I will be doing a parent session after school in the Spring term linked to Social Networking and Safety.

Miss Wilson

The first week of the second half of the term has flown by.

Children went through the script of what will over the next few weeks become their assembly. Auditions will take place and parts will be allocated next week and then children's homework will be to learn their lines.

We hope as many of you as possible will be able to join us for our assembly on Thursday 22nd November at 9:10 a.m. The children will need the costumes that they wore to go  to Hendon, and if any parents feel inclined to dress in 1940's style please do come along suitably attired. Several parents joined in last year and it really did make for a special atmosphere.

 After the end of the assembly please leave a little extra time to come back to the classrooms with your child for some World War II music, a look at their topic work and to try the war time cooking that will be taking place just prior to the assembly.

We look forward to seeing many of you next week at consultation evenings. Please remember that we only have ten minutes allocated per appointment if we are to keep to our  time tables, but if you do not feel that is sufficient time we are always able to make an alternative time after school.

Hope to see many children and adults at the fireworks this weekend- don't forget to visit the staff stall to buy your novelty glow in the dark items!
See you there!

The year 6 team

The end of a very busy half term adjusting to the rigours of year 6 and our expectations.

We waved Miss Renier off yesterday amongst flowers and balloons wishing her a dry, bright and fantastically enjoyable day on Saturday as she becomes Mrs Renier- she has decided not to change her name as hers is so special to her!

As promised last week here are some of the amazing Anderson shelters and gardens that the children designed and made last week. I have to say the growth of cress in Elm was most impressive.

Wishing you all a very happy and restful half term.

The year 6 team

Give your children a pat on the back!

Our year 6 children have, this week, worked their socks off. Assessment week is always a tough week and the children maintained their focus right to the end. Staff are now getting to grips with all the marking and we will be feeding back on the progress of your children during the parent consultations after half term. Needless to say, from what we have seen so far we are suitably impressed and your children can be congratulated.

For relaxation, in the afternoons, the children have been hard at work on the most amazing Anderson shelters and victory gardens. Some of the gardens even have grass and seeds growing in them- such imagination!

Hopefully we will post some pictures of their finished master pieces next week when they are dry enough to be moved and photographed- watch this space.

Next week the time table returns to normal with a poetry literacy unit to take us up to half term.

Here's wishing all the children a relaxing weekend, lets hope the rain stops at some point, and again congratulations on all the hard work this week.

The year 6 team.

Update

We recently gave the children new passwords for the school's learning platform, DBPrimary. They have been asked to check that they can access the learning platform from home as we plan to do some of our ICT work based around the learning platform and we will also be trying to get the children used to the secondary style of homework where they are not given paper copies but have to access the activity on line. Another part of their preparation for the years ahead. We realise that not all children have access to this at home and will obviously continue to provide paper copies where needed.

With half term already looming we would ask that if your child is still unsure of their times tables that you encourage them to spend some time every day improving their knowledge of the tables of which they are unsure. A sound knowledge of times tables really does support their learning of other mathematical concepts e.g. division and fractions. If a computer is an incentive to learning then there are plenty of useful websites for practice, have a look on the Woodlands Junior School website and follow some of their links.

The week of the 15th October is assessment week in school and as the children will be working really hard in the mornings we plan to give them a slightly easier time of it in the afternoons. They will be designing and building Anderson Shelters as part of their World War II topic. For this to happen we would ask that you begin to collect old cereal packets, corrugated card, aluminium foil and small boxes that might be useful in the construction of these. Please bring them in to school on Friday 12th October.

The year 6 team

Wow, what a fantastic end to this week. So many Roald Dahl characters- it certainly made doing the register interesting this morning.

Congratulations to all the children for dressing up and joining in with our Roald Dahl day, a big thank you too to the parents who helped create the final effect.

Staff could be found on the playground this morning, amongst normally recognisable figures there was a group of Oompa Loompas, a few witches, Mike TV, the Twits and James’ giant peach with an accompanying spider. There was also the BFG- no prizes for guessing who that might be on a normal day!

Below please find some pictures of the many fabulous characters and costumes that graced our classrooms today.

The pace of work and success in year 6 continues unabated.

In our topic work we have been looking at the start of World War II and how it began to impact on the daily lives of the people of Britain.
Our art work has been linked in with our topic and the corridor outside the office area has become a gallery for the work of some very talented artists- scenes after the Blitz at sunset being the theme.

In our literacy work we are coming to the end of our unit on biographies and the children should be using their homework time this week to research questions brought home from school about someone either in their family, or who they know, or using the internet some famous name who was alive during World War II.

This information will then be planned into the form of a biography and written up in school during big writing time. Children should ensure that all the necessary information is in school for Thursday morning.

Wednesday of this week sees our annual day of Modern Foreign Languages. This year each class is looking at a particular region of France. In year 6 we are studying Normandy as a whole region and linking it again to our World war II topic and the D Day Landings.

This weekend sees Mrs Doran's preliminary visit to Marchants Hill, the PGL site that we are looking into in Surrey. Once we know more, a letter regarding the year 6 trip will be sent out.

Next week we begin a new literacy unit on fiction, the childre will need to write a book review during the first week. In order for this to be successful we will be asking the children to decide upon a recently read book and discuss it with an adult at home.

Thank you for your continued support.

The Year 6 Team

French Homework for the weekend. Due in on Monday ready for French on Tuesday:

Your homework this weekend is to create a cover for your French book using the computer.

You can either print this out at home or save it to the learning platform and then print it out in school.

There are some words that you must include in your cover and they appear below.

You will need to search, using Google or such, Second World War posters in French, type in

2ème Guerre Mondiale Posters en francais- some examples are on the sheet you were given in school.

In order to get the letters with the accents you need to insert symbol and select appropriately.

Make sure that you save your cover, either at home or to the learning platform so that if you need a new book you will be able to print out a new cover.

Wording for your front cover should include

CM1 et CM2

2012- 2013

Cours Moyen Deuxième Année

Madame Baikie

Then add your name and any relevant picture from the above web site.

Hello to everyone

What a fantastic start to the new school year culminating last week in a really great day out at Hendon. Many thanks to you all for dressing up and taking the time to make our evacuation day such a success. We look forward this week to beginning our World War II topic in the classroom.

This week sees the start of the real routine in year 6. Children have already brought home their first written literacy homework of the year, due in on Wednesday. Whilst homework will be set on Monday, due on Wednesday, set on Wednesday, due on Friday and set on Friday, due on Monday the specific nights for each of the subjects will vary to begin with.

Spellings will be set on a Friday to be learnt and tested the following Friday.

As the majority of homework will be done on paper it is important that the children make sure that the folders they have been given for transporting their homework back and forth to school are used in order to keep things neat and tidy. The folders are expensive and if lost it will be down to the children to replace with a similar one. Please ensure that your children fully understand this.

We look forward to meeting many of you on Friday afternoon at the year 6 Meet The Teacher.
At this meeting we will be giving out the termly topic webs and explaining our expectations for the term and year ahead.
Please sign your class list upon arrival as this will allow us to e mail topic webs to those people unable to attend.

The Year 6 Team

Welcome to Year 6

Dear Parents and Year 6 children,

First and foremost, we would like to welcome you in Year 6. Your first few days back are going to be jam packed! We will be starting our curriculum straight away and celebrate our first topic’s Big Bang with our visit to Hendon. Don’t forget that we will be leaving around 9am on Friday and coming back around 4 – 4.30 pm. Any traffic delays should be communicated to you by text on the day. And please don’t forget a packed lunch. You will have the opportunity to visit the shop at Hendon and may bring a maximum of £5.00 in a named purse or wallet. Hopefully, you’ve started gathering your evacuee's costume! J

We would also like to kindly remind all children that their first piece of homework set last term is due on Wednesday. We’ve already been told that some of you have been doing lots of research and interviewing over the summer! We can’t wait to see the end result.

Below is Year 6’s first piece of homework. Although we will have a “Meet the Teacher” meeting on Friday 15^th, when aspects of academic life in Year 6 will be explained in details, please note that homework in the 1^st couple of weeks may not strictly follow the usual Year 6 time table.

Year 6’s first homework due on Tuesday 11^th September:

As part of our Literacy work, in the next two week you will be writing your ‘autobiography’. We want you to gather together items that are significant in describing your life so far e.g. first blanket, photographs of you walking for the first time, medals (achievements), something you have collected that is important to you, things from when you were a baby etc.

Use a shoe box to put these items in.

You will need your box in school next week on Tuesday 11^th September.

In preparation for writing your autobiography, you will be asked to describe your collection to others. Your items (a maximum of 8) MUST be carefully chosen and help you make a helpful time line of your life. Again, the reason why you are given an extended period of time to complete this is because you are required to take a lot of time over selecting these objects. You will need to use them in order to plan your auto-biography.

Thank you and look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday,

The Year 6 team

THANK YOU

A very big thank you from Mrs Doran and Miss Renier for our very generous gifts received during the course of this final week of term.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish the children all the very best for their summer holidays and for their new schools.

As teachers, we have had a great year and looking back there are many precious memories which we hope the children will take away with them.

It is a time to say thank you and we want to thank you, the parents, for all the support you have given us and your children during the year as well as the school as a whole throughout the time your children have been at Crabtree. For many of you it is the end of an era as the last of your children move on to pastures new.

Children, please come back and visit us occasionally; we do like to hear what you are up to and see how much you have grown!

Have a great summer, let's hope the rain gives us a miss for a few weeks.

Thank you again from the Year 6 Team.

The end approaches...

Again another very busy week has come to an end with many of the children taking and passing both levels of their cycling proficiency during the week. This was especially difficult this year as the course had to be reduced into 4 days due to the secondary transfer day on Thursday. Well done to all who took part despite the weather that did its best on some days to rain you off!

Speaking to the children today we are convinced, as if we weren't before, of how much they enjoyed their transfer day and are eagerly awaiting that move on to pastures new. However they have one last week as primary school children and as usual in year 6 the week ahead is another busy one. So a few reminders to both parents and children:

Please make sure your costumes for the concert are all in school ready for our dress rehearsal on Monday.
Also, please can the children bring a spare carrier bag into school so we can continue with the clearing up of trays and work from around the classrooms.

For parents, your attendance at our Leavers Concert on the evening of Tuesday 17th July would be much appreciated. We kick off with an auction of your children's art work- those fantastic canvasses they created in groups as part of their Harry Potter work are up for grabs- bring your bidding hand and cheque book!
The concert will follow the auction.

On Wednesday we depart for London, children should have brought home a letter with final details today.
After an early lunch we leave school at 12:00p.m. in order to arrive in plenty of time for the matinee at 2:30p.m. Children will need a bottle of water to take with them. Traffic being what it is in London we aim to be back at school by 7:00p.m. but if there are any major changes to this you will receive a text.

On Thursday, we would hate to let up on our aim to keep our children busy up until the end so we have planned a Smarties Investigation Day. Something we hope all the children will look forward to.

Friday will be an easy day when non electrical games may be brought into school. If children would like to get a shirt signed as a memento of their time at Crabtree please make sure they are wearing one shirt and bring an alternative one for signing.

We look forward to an exciting and busy final week of term.

The Year 6 Team.

Dear Year 6 children,

Below you will find all the lyrics to the songs you will be singing in your leavers' concert. Could you please make sure you learn the words (although you know most of them well already) by Friday. Could you also make sure you bring your costume by Friday as we will have a dress rehearsal in groups then.

The Year 6 Leavers’ Musical…

We believe you can fly:

Rebecca: I used to think that I could not belong

Jovian: Year 3 was nothing but a scary song
Rebecca: But I should learn to accept that maybe
Jovian: There is a great life for me at Crabtree

Rebecca: If I can see it then I can do it

Jovian: If I believe it, there's nothing to it

Whole year

We believe You can fly

We believe You can touch the sky
Think about it every night and day
Spread your wings and fly away
We believe you can soar
We  see you running through that open door
WE believe you can fly, we believe you can fly
we believe you can fly

Rebbeca: You guys are right life could be so much worse!

Imagine, in my sister’s class, I’d burst!
Jovian: Plus now I get to have brilliant PE lessons
I really can’t wait to start Year 3 at Crabtree!

Rebecca: If I can see it then I can do it

Jovian: If I believe it, there's nothing to it

 Whole year

We believe you can fly

We believe you can touch the sky
we think about it every night and day
Spread you wings and fly away
We believe you can soar
We  see you running through that open door
WE believe you can fly, we believe you can fly
we believe we can fly

Another Year bites the dust:

Macy: We both walked down the corridor
Hugh: The last day of Year 4

Macy:  Ain't no way of describing this
Hugh: All we do is grow

Lauren: Were you ready,
Lauren: Were you ready for this?
Elliot: Were you hanging on the edge of your seat?
Did you realise that  this year would go
As fast as the sound of this beat?

Whole Year group:

Another year bites the dust
Another year bites the dust
And another year gone, and another year gone
Another year bites the dust
Hey, I'm gonna get you too
Another year bites the dust

Macy:

First it was the very big clothes  the veryvery big playground
Very big scary year 6s,  gigantic Mr Pattrick

Hugh:

Do you remember how tiddly I was

And how mighty I’ve become
That’s right Year 4 is over
And Year 5 has begun!

Whole Year Group:

Another year bites the dust
Another year bites the dust
And another year gone, and another year gone
Another year bites the dust
Hey, I'm gonna get you too
Another year bites the dust

Don’t stop me now:

This year I’ve really enjoyed myself as a Year 5

I feel alive…
And the year has nearly burnt itself out
I’ve still got all that youthful energy
So don’t stop me now don’t stop me
cause I’m having a good time, having a good time

I’m a shooting star leaping through the sky

And absorbing every fact and every happening
I’m a racing car passing by like thunder and lightning
Watch it, watch it Year Six
There’s no stopping me

I’m burning through the sky, see!

With hundreds of days
Of more learning opportunities
I’m travelling at the speed of light
School really makes a supersonic kid out of you

Don’t stop me now I’m having such a good time

I’m having a ball don’t stop me now
If you wanna have a good time, like me, just stay on
Don’t stop me now
Don’t stop me now
I don’t want to stop at all

I’m a rocket ship with left-over fuel

I’m raring to go, so let’s get Ready Steady Go
Are we ready for those dreaded SATs, oh yeah!
I’m going, going, going, going to explode!

I’m burning through the sky, see!

With hundreds of days
Of more learning opportunities
I’m traveling at the speed of light
School really makes a supersonic kid out of you!

Don’t stop me don’t stop me

Don’t stop me hey hey !
Don’t stop me don’t stop me ooh ooh ooh (I like it)
Don’t stop me don’t stop me
Have a good time good time
Don’t stop me don’t stop me ah

Fade in….

Moves like Miss T

Just aim for the stars

That’s what you say
And you won our hearts
So we’ll obey

Year after year

Day after day
We’ve caught your fair play

You gave us control

And inspired us
You put on a show

And surprised us

Of what we could do
Always something new
We are your crew
And it goes like this

[Chorus:]

Miss Thomas
We want to thank you
Miss Thomas
We want to thank you

We can move like Miss T

We can run like Miss T
We can jump like Miss T and We love sports like Miss T

Miss Thomas

We want to thank you
Miss Thomas
We want to thank you

We can move like Miss T

We can run like Miss T
We can jump like Miss T and We love sports like Miss T

[Verse 2:]

We’re caught off guard

When we feel like we’re working too  hard
Nothing feels right
When we’ve got PE
I'll make us agree
That we've got the key

You gave us control
And inspired us
You put on a show
And surprised us

Of what we could do

Always something new
We are your crew
And it goes like this (Uh)

[Chorus:]

Miss Thomas
We want to thank you
Miss Thomas
We want to thank you

We can move like Miss T

We can run like Miss T
We can jump like Miss T and We love sports like Miss T

Miss Thomas

We want to thank you
Miss Thomas
We want to thank you

We can move like Miss T

We can run like Miss T
We can jump like Miss T and We love sports like Miss T

[Bridge:]

You always know how to make us smile
You always teach us with a great style
And you include us all
So we always give our all
Everybody can see this

So we watch and learn

You dont show us twice
Head to toe, we do it right
And if you share your secret
You're gonna have to keep it
Nobody else can see this (Ay! Ay! Ay! Aaay!)

 And it goes like this

[Chorus:]

Miss Thomas

We want to thank you
Miss Thomas
We want to thank you

We can move like Miss T

We can run like Miss T
We can jump like Miss T and We love sports like Miss T

Miss Thomas

We want to thank you
Miss Thomas
We want to thank you

We can move like Miss T

We can run like Miss T
We can jump like Miss T and We love sports like Miss T

Tiny Tiddlers:

We used to be tiny tiddlers in the Nursery

Little tiny, tender tiddlers, only three
“I was very hard to spot”
“I was such a tiny tot!
Tiddlers in the Nursery, that’s what we used to be!

We used to be tiny tiddlers in the Nursery

Little tiny, tender tiddlers, only three
“Little tables, little chair”
“Little puddles every where….
Tiddlers in the Nursery, that’s what we used to be!
 
We used to be tiny tiddlers in the Nursery
Little tiny, tender tiddlers, only three
“Couldn’t read and couldn’t write”
“Couldn’t do our laces tight”
Tiddlers in the Nursery, that’s what we used to be!

We used to be tiny tiddlers in the Nursery

Little tiny, tender tiddlers, only three
“Couldn’t swim, and couldn’t sing”
“Couldn’t do most anything”
Tiddlers in the Nursery, that’s what we used to be!

We used to be tiny tiddlers in the Nursery

Little tiny, tender tiddlers, only three
“Didn’t know my two times two”
“Had to use a little loo”
Tiddlers in the Nursery, that’s what we used to be!

No longer are we tiddlers in the Nursery!

Seven years later, oh how cool it is to be, at the
Top of the school and nearly eleven
Soon we’re gonna be in Year Seven
And little tiddlers once again is what we’re going to be!!!
 

Dear Y6 children,

A very quick message just to let you know that the literacy homework deadline has been extended to Wednesday to give you a bit more time as some of you will probably need the weekend to recover! If you have already completed it, then brilliant! You are one step ahead! :)

Take care and see you in the right coloured t-shirt on Monday!

The Year 6 Team.

Days 2 and 3 at Kingswood

You will be happy to know that it was an effort to wake the children this morning as they had been actively challenged to their limits yesterday by a variety of activities.
These included: orienteering, solving crime mysteries, indoor climbing, crate stacking and zip wires etc.
We have been incredibly lucky so far with the weather, sun cream and hats rather than umbrellas and waterproofs being the order of the day.

We have seen a different side to some children when we enter the dining room- boy, can some children eat a lot!

Below are, again, some pictures to show what they have been involved in.

Day 1 at Kingswood

Hello to all the year 6 parents,

The children are having a ball here at Kingswood- the weather is sunny, the activities are providing full on entertainment and the adults are keeping up, just.

Have a look at the pictures below to see how much your children are enjoying their new experiences and we’ll upload some more in a few days.