2022-2023 School Year

Term 3

Linking to our English book, Journey to the River Sea, we are learning all about rivers this term. We will be focusing on comparing the River Severn with the Amazon River and thinking about how flooding impacts people and places. To start the topic, we recapped our knowledge of different biomes and matched together biomes, locations, vegetation and animals. To finish our unit, we went down to the harbour to do some fieldwork. We drew a field sketch of Bristol harbour, then compared it to photos of the harbour from the past when we got back to school.

Term 2

As part of our learning about the Polar regions, we have practised using 6-figure grid references to locate features on a map and have drawn graphs showing the temperature and daylight hours in the Antarctic. We also had a debate from different viewpoints about whether we thought that Antarctica should be developed or not.

To finish our learning about the Polar regions in geography and to link to our work in English about Shackleton, Year 6 had a Polar Explorer Day! We begun the day by planning a kit list for a 3 day expedition, sticking to a tight budget. We then learnt about the amazing discovery of the shipwreck of The Endurance from earlier this year and read blog posts by Tim Jacob, a member of the Endurance 22 team. Using this information, we created news reports about the discovery and location of the shipwreck and why it will be left in the Weddel Sea. As well as this, we did an experiment using dataloggers to find out how fat (blubber) can keep Polar animals warm in cold conditions. 

Year 6 begun the term with a trip to Arnos Vale Cemetery. As well as visiting the WW1 graves, we explored all the countries that the soldiers had been from before they were buried in Bristol, using a world map. In the afternoon, we completed a circular walk and mapped important human and physical features that we could see, using symbols and a key.

2021-2022 School Year

Term 6

This term, Year 6 have been exploring their sense of place by creating a homework project about Bristol. In lessons, they have been drawing maps of the local area and using directional language to create a treasure hunt in the playground.

Term 3

In Term 3, Year 6 learn all about rivers, focusing on the Amazon and Severn. This links with our book in English, which is about the Amazon River (Journey to the River Sea), and allows us to explore the Amazon in more detail. We start our topic by recapping our knowledge about biomes and learning about vegetation belts. As part of our fieldwork, we walked to a section of the River Avon to complete a field sketch.

Term 2

In Year 6, we learn about the Polar regions, linking our learning with our English topic about Shackleton's 1914-1917 Antarctic expedition. We create graphs to investigate climate patterns and debate how the natural resources of these areas should be used. You can see some of our fact-files that we created for the researchers of Antarctic Quest 21 below and a video of our debate. We also took part in a Polar Explorer Day, where we dressed up, had a Zoom call from a researcher, who works in the Polar regions and used the VR headsets to imagine what it would be like to travel to Antarctica or the Arctic. 

In Term 2, Year 6 visited Arnos Vale cemetery. We looked at maps to help us navigate to specific areas and created our own maps, using symbols and a key.