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Year 6 - Sycamore Class 2020-2021
Farewell Sycamore Class
Dear Sycamore Class,
This must be the 5th time of writing this as I am finding it hard to put into words just how incredible you have been. You have absolutely smashed it this year and I am so proud of each and every one of you. I remembering speaking to you in September about how quickly this year will go and I think it felt like that because we just didn't stop. From assessments to Activity Week, you have been credit to me, Preston Primary School and most importantly yourselves with your behaviour and work ethic. I know it has been an emotional few days but you know where we are if you ever want to come and say hello (or just fancy a biscuit for the way home). I cannot wait to hear about all the fantastic accomplishments you will all go on to achieve.
Look after each other and yourselves,
Mr Branch
Shirt Signing And End Of Year Awards
Tea Party With Mrs Hodgson
Practically Perfect
We are incredibly proud of the performances by every child and think we can all agree it was a resounding success. The intensity of the singing and acting was coupled with great audience participation, making for a very entertaining evening (albeit a little warm). Thank you to everyone who came to support the production and for your generous donations.
PPS Wimbledon Boys’ Final
This year, both finalist came from Sycamore Class. Louix and Kowen put on a tremendous display of serving and volleying for the whole of KS2 to enjoy. It was a close fought battle, with Louix being victorious at the end. Well done to both boys and all who took part in the preliminary rounds.
Year 6 Digital Leaders receive award for Online Safety
An assessor from South West Grid for Learning visited Preston Primary on Monday, to review the school’s online provision. The assessor met with Digital Leaders, Staff and Parents to discuss the provision and the level of protection for users of digital technologies.
We were delighted to be told that we were successful with our submission, and that as a school we have established a culture which effectively addresses issues and risks, alongside encouraging a positive use of technology to facilitate quality learning experiences.
Geography Day 2021 (Ecuador)
Sycamore enjoyed dressing up in red, yellow and blue and discovering the geography and culture of Ecuador! We researched the country's fascinating history and discussed the human geography and famous landmarks of today. In addition, we created booklets and vintage travel posters as well as listening to traditional music and recreating our own llama races!
Mill on the Brue
Early Friday morning, 50 excited children waved goodbye to their parents and headed for a day of fun at Mill on the Brue. They split into groups, and completed two wet and two dry activities (with just enough time for a quick lunch and change of clothes in between). Activities ranged from raft building to riding zip wires, with every student showing exemplary manners and behaviour throughout the day. It was fantastic to see so many children overcome fears and achieve personal goals in a controlled, safe environment. We would like to thank Mill on the Brue for their hospitality, and for allowing us to create some long-lasting memories.
Climbing Tower
Zip Wire
Zip Wire 2
Sports Day 2021
The Road to Tokyo is Open!
Key Stage 2's Sports Day opened today with Year 6 parading the Olympic, British and Japanese - the hosts - flags. All were of course disappointed that we could not welcome parents to the event, but we hope that you enjoy this short introductory video along with the photos and media that will follow on class pages that will help all to feel involved.
The results will be confirmed by the end of this week as we didn't want any class to miss out on this big announcement! We hope that Key Stage 1's Sports Day will be just as successful tomorrow and that next year all can come to Preston Primary to share in this annual favourite!
ありがとうございました
Photography Competition Winners Announced
Today, the Year 6 wait was over; the results of the photography completion were finally announced. The judges were thrilled with the standard of all the photographs this year and were amazed by the talent shown of all the children.
Receiving their awards from Sycamore Class were 1st Place Sophie Brine
2nd Place Grace Burrell
3rd Place Libby Wood
Ewan Carrington was announced at the overall winner of the whole competition! A great result for Ewan!
Well done to all the children who took part!
Mars Rover lands successfully at Preston Primary!
During Science this week, we had the opportunity to research The Mars Rover landing and watched footage of Perseverance decent and landing on Mars, when it happened in February this year.
Following this, the children designed and created their own landing craft, which they took pride in launching, to transport a ‘marshmallow’ safely!
Fundraising Frasier!
Frasier received his certificate and charity band from Cancer Research this week, following his monumental effort with his sponsorship for our recent Race for Life. He raised a staggering £170 towards our grand total of £3500.
Global Games
Working alongside Mr Bourne, all the Year 6 children became sports leaders this week by being paired with a Year 2 child. Different sporting activities were offered, with an international theme, such as football, golf, archery, pétanque, table tennis, basketball etc. The children had the opportunity to emerse themselves in a new language ( depending on the game chosen) but also for the Year 6 to ensure that the younger children understood each activity and played fairly. This collaboration between the two year groups was a huge success, and thoroughly enjoyed by all that took part.
Sycamore Artists Show off their Winning Designs
Louix and Owen celebrated having their winning designs made into their house team shields, this week. The School Council held a whole school competition, where children were asked to design a shield representing their own house explorer. Sycamore were lucky to have two designs chosen.
Fun on Crazy Hair Day
Our children never cease to amaze us with their kindness, compassion and generosity..This week Sycamore showed off their crazy hairstyles, to raise money for The Yeovil Opportunity Group.
Photography Competition portraying a Christian Value of Reflection
This week the entire Year 6 took part in Preston C of E Primary’s annual photography competition. The inspiration for the photographs from Sycamore this year was ‘ Reflection.’
Once again we were able receive professional advice on how to take the perfect photograph by Mr Graham Pritchard and Mr Kevin Samways, when they delivered a photography workshop to the children.
Graham and Kevin were joined by Len Copland and Mr D. Glentworth for the overall judging. The children will find out the results of the competition, on their return to school following the half term break.
All the judges and staff members were thrilled and impressed by the quality of the entries this year which made it a very difficult decision!
Watch this page for photographs of the winners, in the up and coming weeks.
Race for Life Sponsorship
Wow! What a fantastic total...so far! A huge thank you to all that sponsored the children, in this very worthwhile cause. The generosity of everyone was staggering and we totally smashed our school target!
So far, the fantastic amount of sponsorship money collected from Sycamore Class is £1,400!
Activity week
During Summer Term, the year sixes have worked extremely hard before their well-deserved Activity Week. The children began their week with a Taskmaster day, where they took part in multiple challenges: crazy golf, egg tower balance, tea bag launch, find the kiwi and much more. Fortunately, the weather held out for the children’s Race for Life, which every pupil raised money for. Among the cheering and clapping, each child crossed the finish line after running 5km, even those that couldn’t attend on the day. Meanwhile, groups of children were able to participate in Laser Tag. A particular highlight of the week was being one of the first year groups allowed into the cinema. The children enjoyed the walk to the cinema, but were glad to get the coach home! We finished the week with an Arts and Crafts Day to create a new stained glass window for the front of the school. Alongside this, the children had the opportunity to create 3D animals to represent our Christian Values.
This week, Year 6 class have worked extremely hard to show off all of the progress they have made throughout the year. On Thursday, we celebrated with doughnuts and gave ourselves a well-deserved pat on the back.
As part of the Mental Health Awareness Week theme we created our own illustrations for the book, ‘The Boy, the Fox, the Mole and the Horse.’ Within this book, are meaningful quotes related to emotional well-being. As part of raising awareness for the importance of mental health, we discussed the deeper meaning behind some of these quotes before drawing them.
Mental Health Awareness Week - PSHCE Lesson
Activity Week Letters
Easter Celebrations
The children were fully engaged with the Easter festivities this week. Easter cards were made ( using oil pastels, depicting the hills at Golgotha), Easter baskets filled and our Easter Service this year was held in the hall, due to the restrictions still in place.
Revd.Ruth attended the service, with Year 6 children taking the lead with the readings, about The Crucifixion, The Resurrection and a selection of Easter Poems. The children recited the new school prayer to close the service.
Mad About Science
Year 6 were recently set a homework task, that involved researching a scientist that they found interesting and inspiring. This week, they used the research to create some truly outstanding pieces of work, to show their appreciation of the scientist and their new found knowledge from their independent research.
Sycamore Visit 7 Wonders of The World
On Monday, we were given the opportunity to immerse ourselves into a virtual reality world. The topic of visiting 7 Wonders of the World linked with our recent topic of comparing and contrasting countries around the world.
Superhero Red Nose Day Celebrations
Recycling and Fairtrade Display
Global Recycling Day
Today (Thursday, March 18) was Global Recycling Day, and we’re being asked to think about what we throw away – seeing not waste, but opportunity.
We learnt about recycling, through a whole school Teams assembly, led by Carymoor Environmental Agency.
Questions that were raised included:What are you doing at home to recycle? How can we help our community?
As part of our English lesson, the children wrote poems to identify the plight of our planet and the importance of recycling.
Sycamore’s Super Science Week Sessions
Everyday this week, Sycamore Class participated in lots of science experiments. These experiments covered a variety of strands from the curriculum including: learning about the planets (in French) whilst incorporating the music from Holst; researching how the rough surface of a mint bonds with the carbon dioxide gas and water in coke; and making a film canister rocket. The children enjoyed a musical element supporting a scientific theme each day and are now busy learning the periodic table, after listening to Tom Lehrer!
The week concluded with the children using recycled materials, to make a parachute to carry an egg! This was followed by a Dragons’ Den activity, to incorporate a design linked to the theme ‘Innovating for the Future.’ As can be seen in the photographs, the children thoroughly enjoyed all the activities this week and many have said they will be trying more experiments when at home!
Science Week
Montage of Science clips
Mothers Day Cards + Doughnuts!
Sycamore Class enjoyed making their cards for their own special person in their lives. Using a stencil cutter, cotton buds and mixture of paints, they were able to create a card that they were proud to deliver.
To celebrate the end of a great week back to school, the teachers provided the Year 6 children with a very special treat to enjoy!
World Book Day
Fairtrade in school project
Week 8 Examples of our Home Learning
Week 7 Examples of our Home Learning
Mardi Gras and Chinese New Year
Week 6 Examples of our Home Learning
Week 5 ~ Examples of our Home Learning
Life Skills Week 4
Week 4 Home Learning
Week 3 Home Learning
More photographs can be found on the Home Learning gallery
Week 1 & 2 Home Learning
Home learning weeks 1 and 2
The year 6 team have enjoyed all of the work and creative activities that have been sent in during these past two weeks - the dedication from everybody, whether in class or at home, has been wonderful! Well done!
Bookflix and chill coming to Sycamore!
Use the QR code above to find out more about these great books, handpicked for our Year 6 learners.
Christmas Lunch Preparations
As part of their Design Technology curriculum, all three classes in Year 6 prepared their own Christmas lunch. From peeling the vegetables, roasting the potatoes, making the stuffing and of course mixing the gravy, the children also helped decorate the dining hall and laying the tables correctly.
Christmas Crafting
During the last week of the Autumn term,Sycamore Class enjoyed designing two Christmas cards, one to send to their parents and one to their Spanish pen pal. Alongside these cards, the children used a design app to create a calendar, using words that they felt described their individual family traits.
Panto Performance
This Christmas, Year Six took on the task of learning, rehearsing and performing a unique pantomime in just three days! From lighting and sound, to prop making and acting, our collaborative effort made for an unforgettable performance.
From all of the staff in Year Six, we wish you all a wonderful Christmas after working so hard!
Christmas Service at St James’
Year 6 were fortunate enough to be able to attend their annual Christmas service at St. James’ church. Beautifully read biblical verses along with some amusing Christmas poetry were matched by a fantastic service by Reverend Ruth reminding us all that, although it may be a different Christmas than many of us are used to, the importance of family, religion and enjoying ourselves remains. There was also something about permission to eat extra chocolate this year;we don’t need telling twice!
The countdown is on!
As we have now started advent, our Year 6 students were keen to help begin the festivities and assist the elves with the Winter Wonderland in the Welcome Garden.
Cracking the Code
Following the success of our Cool Aeronautic engineering activities, we were really excited to participate in the Sherborne and Sherborne Girls Schools’ Gifted and Talented event. Teams had to solve a series of mathematical and linguistic challenges to earn clues towards solving the overall coding puzzle. We forwarded two teams, made up of children across the Year 6 classes, who both tried really hard to solve the puzzles successfully. Well done teams!
Cool Aeronautics
Each year, our oldest students have the opportunity to attend the Fleet Air Museum, joining other schools from around Somerset to participate in scientific engineering challenges. Due to CV19, the trip to the museum was not possible, however Leonardo Helicopters hosted the event live online, meaning that this year’s students wouldn’t miss out on this amazing experience.
We were presented with scenarios requiring teams to solve puzzles, using their knowledge and skills in maths and science. The centrepiece of the day was building working model cars to then cross a bridge that teams had made from recycled materials. All teams completed the challenge (to varying degrees of success!) and had a thoroughly enjoyable day.
SYCAMORE VIDEO
Remembrance Day 2020
Year 6 children, took the responsibility of leading our schools Remembrance Day celebrations today. The service included poems, readings, prayers, laying of class wreaths and the playing of The Last Post by Mr R Lush fromThe Salvation Army.
After the service, at a safe distance, children delivered hand written poppy postcards, poems and art work to West Abbey Care Home.
Write,Learn, Post
To complement our ongoing friendship tree project with our International Partner Schools, Sycamore Class have created their own individual Friendship Tree to be shared with their pen-pals.
They have written their first postcard to their Spanish pen-pals and are eagerly waiting for their response.
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Remembrance Display 2020
Sycamore has been hard at work making and decorating wreaths to lay at our Remembrance Day service next week.
African Drumming Workshop
To celebrate Black History Month, we were able to invite in Kaspa from Zamble African Dance Company to give our class an opportunity to learn about the history and culture surrounding ceremonial drumming and also to play our own collective rhythms!
Leave this to us sonny!
Sycamore Class enjoyed an amazing Experience Day, with South West Heritage providing many hands-on resources and workshops for our evacuees to get to experience first-hand what those months in 1940-41 would have been like during the Second World War. We learnt about rationing, clothing and what to do in an air raid!
Black History Month 2020
We celebrated BHM this October by researching many influential black musicians, politicians and historical figures. Along with writing biographical accounts of these amazing people, we created artwork to adorn our walls too!
#Hello Yellow!
A fantastic effort from the pupils and staff in Year 6, as we joined in with the World Mental Health Day to show our support, understanding and recognition to those suffering from any form of mental health problem today. As usual, Mrs Sherry came up with the goods, fashioning the teachers in banana outfits for the day, whilst students did their best not to burst into fits of laughter every time a new staff member entered the room! The staff were very proud of the understanding shown of the topical discussions and as a school, we raised an incredible £405!
Pig Heart Dissection
As part of Year 6 studying the circulatory system, all children had an exciting science lesson dissecting pig hearts.
They cut the heart from the apex, right to the vena cava, where the blood enters the heart. Carefully, the children studied the chambers, to investigate the way the blood enters and exits the heart, by poking their fingers through the passages!
The lesson really helped to consolidate all of the learning that took place prior to the dissection and understand how blood circulates our bodies.
Life Saving CPR Skills in Sycamore
From this academic year, all state-funded schools in England will need to teach first aid as part of their health education. This will include basic first aid for our children, for example dealing with common injuries, burns and stings, head injuries and also life saving skills.
This week, Sycamore took part in a refresher session in CPR, led by Mrs Sherry. At the end of the session, all children were able to show their competence in performing a primary survey, carrying out CPR, awareness of how to place a casualty in the recovery position and the important numbers to call in an emergency.
National Poetry Day 2020
Sycamore and Mulberry children share some poetry
European Day of Languages
Sycamore Class enjoyed celebrating The European Day of Languages this week. By using songs, looking at flags from around the world and through discussion, the children then wrote ‘Why it is Important to Learn a Language.’
Every child in the school was given a sticker to wear throughout the day, so enabling them to greet one another in a different language.
Every child in the school was given a sticker to wear throughout the day, so enabling them to greet one another in a different language.
Cześć, ciao, bonjour, sveiki, hello!
Congratulations to our new language ambassadors for this year - Ewan and Sophie!
These children have been chosen to represent our school, as great role models for promoting languages across the school. Our Ambassadors play an important role in the organisation of Language Days in our school and closely work with teachers to promote the importance of learning a foreign language in primary schools. They enjoy their role as Language Ambassadors because they are proud of their cultural heritage and the languages they speak. This also gives them a chance to encourage other children to have the opportunity to speak a language that they do not learn in school.
Please give a round of applause to our newly elected School Prefects!
At Preston C of E Primary School, we are very keen to recognise the hard work and positive behaviour of our children and becoming a prefect is a perfect opportunity to recognise and celebrate these qualities.
We are very pleased to announce Sycamore’s prefects for this year are: Lily S, Sophie B, Sophie J, Owen W and Masie M - congratulations!
All Year 6 children are invited to apply in writing to become a prefect at the beginning of Year 6. The application letter includes:
❖ Why they want to become a prefect
❖ The personal qualities they possess which enable them to fulfil the role
❖ How they demonstrate these skills and qualities
❖ What they think they can offer to the school as a prefect
Prefects at Preston C of E Primary, will help to raise the expectations and behaviour throughout the school day, including break times and lunchtimes. Prefects will demonstrate, in their everyday lives, all of the values that the school upholds:
❖ Demonstrate independence, responsibility and reliability
❖ Promoting high expectations and to be a role model for others
❖ Show initiative and honesty in all situations
And your School Council representative is...
Congratulations to Harriet B, who the class voted strongly in favour for to represent Sycamore at the regular council meetings as well as carrying out duties that the student body of the school wish our council representatives to undertake.
Welcome Back!
It has been a long time coming…
28 children in a classroom, all at the same time! It was wonderful to welcome our children back this week and to see how positive and enthusiastic they are. The resilience of our learners never ceases to amaze us and each have been a credit to their families, settling so well back into the flow of the new year.
It doesn’t seem two minutes since the children were starting in reception and yet here they are, embarking on their final year at Primary School!
In Year 6, we work really hard to ensure that all children have the best opportunity possible to achieve their full potential. However, we also try to ensure that we have fun along the way and provide the children with some lovely, long-lasting memories.
If you have any questions about this year then please speak to Mr Branch - your child's class teacher - or speak to Mr Gordon, the phase leader for Year 5 and 6.
