This week in Year 6, we took part in Anti-Bullying Week, an important time to learn about kindness, respect, and standing up for others. The theme this year was “Make a Noise About Bullying”, reminding us that everyone has a voice and can help make school a safer, happier place.

We began the week by joining the BBC Live Lesson on Anti-Bullying, where we listened to stories, watched videos, and took part in interactive activities. The lesson helped us understand the different types of bullying—physical, verbal, and online—and what we can do if we ever see it happening. We learned that even small actions, like checking in on a friend or speaking up to a trusted adult, can make a big difference.

After the live lesson, we worked together to create colourful posters to summarise our learning. Each group designed a poster showing positive messages such as “Be Kind, Be Brave” and “Together We Can Stop Bullying.” We included facts, slogans, and illustrations to spread awareness around our school.

Today, we had a virtual visit from The National Archives. The session focused on the effectiveness of different forms of propaganda during World War II. We found it fascinating how certain photographs were used by both the axis and allies during the war. For example, the photo below of St Paul’s cathedral – a symbol of national hope – was used to heighten morale in Britain, whereas, in Germany, it was used to promote anti-British sentiment.

We further discussed the concept of a “total war” – technology had significantly advanced since WW1, allowing war to affect civilians on the home front more directly. This provided ample opportunity to recall our learning about air raids, rationing and expansion of the ‘Home Front’ workforce to include women. Students got a chance to compare a original propaganda posters and create propaganda slogans of their own.

Today we all wore odd socks as part of a nationwide campaign to raise awareness around bullying. This marks the first day of a week dedicated to anti-bullying. As a class, we discussed what it means to be an ‘upstander’ when it is safe to do so in a challenging situation, and how we can positively influence others! What a blessing it is to be able to bring about a positive outcome from a difficult situation. Enjoy a video below which inspired us in our discussion!

Tiah recommended Esio Trot by Roald Dahl.

This is about a little tortoise called “Alvin” and someone living above them on the balcony has a crush on the owner and has never had the courage to tell them. So, the tortoise gets over a hundred tortoises to help him on his mission.

Enes recommended Escape the Rooms by Anita Mangam

In this book, there are a lot of characters who get trapped in this glass window. They have to trick a person into choosing an option which is neither a true nor false from a binary question. They have to escape from many different rooms including: the ‘Spider Room’ (which contain lions with spider faces) and the Fun Fair room (where ghosts haunt the main character).

Zara recommended Girl on a Plane by Miriam Moss

This is a true story about a fifteen year old girl called Anna, who is travelling back to her English boarding school. Her plane is hijacked and her plane crash lands in the dessert. As supplies dwindle, she has to find a way to get home.

Izzy recommended Geek Girl by Holly Smale

Geek Girl begins the book pretending to be sick… She is going on a school trip with her class and she has a friend called Nat who is trying to drag her out of bed so they won’t be late!

Emelia recommends Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordon

Full of description, in Emelia’s favourite book, Percy Jackson and his companions have to retrieve the golden fleece as his camp faces threats from a variety of new monsters!

Maya recommends City Spies by James Pointi

This book is about a group of five children who are secretly spies for the governments and there are other spies from Germany and Japan trying to target them to get diamonds and gold from their secret base! One of the spies went to jail for hacking into their parent’s computer…

Robin recommends Mountain Fell by Catherine Orton

This book is about a girl who lives in a village that’s right beside a mountain that’s full of strange and mysterious creatures that come to haunt the villagers. To keep the monsters away, the mayor of the village sends sacrifices up to the monsters… The main character (Erskin) has a pet called Scrat and a dragon comes down to the village from the mountai and takes someone from her family and so begins Erskin’s journey…

In Science, we have been learning about classifying organisms. On the final day of last half term, we enjoyed observing a variety of critters, and collected data about the different organisms. We found many worms, woodlice and ladybirds! Enjoy some photos which JJ took as our ‘class photographer’ below.

Last half term, we visited Eden Camp – a World War 1/2-focused museum. Students learned about the rise of the Nazis, women’s roles during the War, escaping prisoner of war camps, victory gardens, the mechanicals of grenades and wartime-transport. It was a fantastic day out for all. Please see below for some pictures.

It can be easy to feel overwhelmed when facing a big challenge – especially when you are unsure where to start. In 6D we discussed the Japanese concept of ‘Kaizen’. Although traditionally applied as a term in Japanese business, the idea itself is routed in taking difficult problems and breaking them down into smaller steps.

Children then had the opportunity to reflect on the idea, and create a drawing or symbol inspired by it. Please see some of our initial reflections below.

On Friday, we had the pleasure of two informative show and tell sessions. In one, we learned about a sibling in the armed forces, while in another we learned about a beloved cat who has sadly passed on and her charming kittens. A big thank you to those who showed this week, please enjoy the photos below.

Today, we loved spending time with our buddies, talking to them all about their boxes of treasure! Each buddy had compiled a range of different objects that were special to them. These included books, photographs, stickers, toys, shells and more! We were very grateful for how articulate our buddies were when they shared their special items and discussed why they had chosen them. Thank you to Year 6 for being so caring and encouraging with their buddies (and to Olivia for being our star photographer!).

What a fun and busy week we have had in 6D. The class have completed some fantastic poems to practise using personification. The students worked hard to draft and redraft their ideas to complete the work. Please see a fantastic example below of a finished piece. Notice how this student used broken repetition to build the pace of the poem. Well done!

We also enjoyed creating classification keys in science using the leaves which we collected on the Meanwood Valley Trail. We discussed how we could distinguish between the leaves – using the following terms to create our classification questions: compound leaves, serrated edges and ovular shaped. We were dissuaded from using colour and texture, given that some of our specimens had started to decompose!

Finally, we enjoyed some mathematical challenges for our early birds this week, including the one below:

We persevered and tried a variety of techniques… Well done to Phoebe and Olivia for being the first to solve the challenge!

We had one challenge, however, that remains unsolved… Could you solve it?

Using the following numbers only once (2, 3, 7, 8, 13, 25), can you make this target number: 449? You can multiply, divide, add or subtract!

We also had a go at some sudoku… Why don’t you give it a try too?