Castle Bromwich Junior School

Spring term

During the Spring term, the children have continued to work very hard across all subject areas. Please see below to take a closer look at what the children have been learning. 

English

Writing – In Spring 1, our writing is all based on a book called, ‘War Horse, written by Michael Morpurgo. We have continued to develop our writing skills and have produced some brilliant work, including writing narrative, non-chronological reports and letters. We have applied our understanding of dialogue and formal/informal language throughout.

In Spring 2, we will focus on a beautiful picture book, ‘Rose Blanche’ by Roberto Innocenti. This has been a superb opportunity to apply our language skills to write our own narrative building upon all of the skills we have learnt throughout year 6 so far.

Reading – In reading, we have continued to develop our reading skills, again focusing on the Reading VIPERS. War Horse was a perfect opportunity for the children discuss vocabulary and why the other has selected specific words and phrases, as well as looking at how character relationships are portrayed in writing. Throughout Spring 2 we have been experiencing lots of different text genres in the lead up to SATS in May.

Maths

We continue our learning of maths in Spring Term with work on ratio, algebra, fractions, decimals, percentages and area and perimeter. We are also revising areas of maths from across year 3, 4 and 5 in our build up towards SATS in May.

History

Across the whole of the Spring term, the children have been learning about World War 2. This topic has proved to be a very popular one as the children have really enjoyed sharing their newly learned knowledge with their peers and teachers. 

During their History lessons, the children have developed their knowledge in the following areas: 

• Understanding where World War 2 fits into timeline chronology
• The reasons for World War 2 starting
• The impact of the outbreak of war in Britain
• Evacuation
• Rationing
• Countries involved in the war
• Key historical figures from World War 2
• The Blitz
• Battle of Britain

The children were also fortunate enough to visit RAF Cosford. During the trip, the children took part in an interactive workshop about The Blitz, as well as exploring the many aircraft that were involved during war. What a super day it was! 

See below for a selection of photographs from our World War 2 unit of work.

Art

Linked to our History topic of World War 2, the children have created their own mixed media calligrams. The children's calligrams depict a word related to conflict. A calligram is a piece of text in which the design and layout of the letters creates a visual image related to the meaning of the word itself. 

Here are a selection of the children's amazing calligrams. 

Music

Also linked to our History topic of World War 2, the children have learned about wartime songs by developing greater accuracy in pitch and control when singing.

The children explored the differences between music during World War 1 and World War 2. We found out that songs from World War 2 were more sentimental and encouraged emotions of sadness and affection. In contrast, songs from World War 1 were less about sentiment and more about keeping up morale with more energetic beats. 

During their Music lessons, the children learned how to sing The White Cliffs of Dover by Vera Lynn (pictured below).  

French

This term, the children have been working hard to learn about different sports. In addition to learning how to read and write the names of sports in French, the children have combined this with their knowledge of telling the time and the days of the week.

 See if you can practise the names of some sports using the word mat below.  

Design Technology

Our DT unit is all about learning how to make pretzels. The children learn about the processes involved in making pretzels, the food hygiene criteria and then designed and made their own pretzels.

Science

Our Science unit for the Spring Term is all about Electricity. The children recalled their knowledge from year 4 to show how to create simple circuits and then built on this to create experiment to test how to change the brightness of bulbs. 

Personal Social and Health Education

Our units for PSHE in the Spring Term are ‘Dreams and Goals’ and ‘Healthy Me’. In our Dreams and Goals unit, the children think about what they want to achieve and the steps they need to put in place to get there. In Healthy Me, the children start off learning about how to support others and developed this through learning about the impact of drugs on the human body. 

Religious Education

Our Spring RE unit focuses on learning about Buddhist beliefs, with a focus on the 4 Noble Truths, 8-fold-path, Wesak and Meditation. The children particularly enjoyed the chance to practise meditation skills. 

Computing

We continue learning about Online Safety, focusing on: Online Bullying and Managing Online Information. The children have also created adverts to support their Year 6 fundraising which will take place in the summer term. 

Physical Education

We continue to develop our Physical Education through both indoor and outdoor PE throughout the Spring term. Our indoor units focus on World War 2 dance, where the children are working together to create a dance inspired by the sounds and music of World War 2. In outdoor units, we learn the skills involved to be able to play tennis and cricket.