A Teacher Blog from Mr Palser

Final Week of HT3

Another week of Year Six working their socks off! Pupils have been partaking in a Mock-SATs week throughout the week. Pupils have been sitting them like they would for the real tests; they have tried really hard, and it has been impressive to see them taking on the challenge in a mature manner.

Despite having formal tests during the week, we have also been enjoying continuing to write our own version of Pie Corbett’s warning story: ‘The Caravan’. Pupils have taken an existing story and given it their own twists to produce their own version. Their tales start in an all-so-familiar way: their character is told not to go somewhere by a relative or friend but being the daring characters they are, they go anyway and something bad happens due to not following an instruction; fortunately, at the end, the characters escape unscathed – with only a few minor injuries and a telling-off from the person they defied. Here are some of our openers:

• Slamming his head down onto the table, Dad bellowed, “Don’t you dare go near that abandoned hospital!” his tone lowered, and the words slid out of his gritted teeth, “I know you're planning on going there; I have read your messages.”
• Creating an earthquake on the floor, my Uncle snatched my phone and shouted, “Don’t even think about going near that disastrous, cursed manor!” Tears began falling like a waterfall and the floor became damp, “You know what happened to your brother!”
• On a normal Friday morning, it started with the usual talk with Dad – about how dangerous it was to go near that ‘weird’ restaurant; he usually says something like: “Do not go near that restaurant, blah, blah, if you do, I will disown you!”

This was just a taster of some of the brilliant stories the children have been writing!
In art, we have been looking at creating our own printing templates; last week, pupils chose materials with different depth and texture to glue onto a cardboard cut-out. This week the pupils have painted over them, printed their texture onto paper and next week they will be drawing patterns over the printed part.
 
On Thursday, pupils – who have completed all their homework for the half-term – were rewarded for their efforts with a homework celebration afternoon. There were different activities going on in different rooms and it was a good way to celebrate their hard work, as well rewarding them for completing the tasks set at home.