Sycamore Class [Year 6]
Welcome to Sycamore
class.
Topic
Webs:
Term 1 2017-2018 -
World War 2
Term 2 2017-2018 -
World War 2
Term 3 2017-2018 -
Victorians
Term 4 2017-2018 -
Victorians
Term 5 2017-2018 -
Dinosaurs
Term 6 2016-2017 -
Rocks, Fossils and Dinosaurs
Term 5 News: Dance
Umbrella 2018
 |
On Thursday March
15th, pupils from Y2, Y5 and Y6
participated again in Dance Umbrella
at The Forum in Bath This is now the
fifth consecutive year in which we
have taken part and it proved to be
as enjoyable as ever with the
children feeling a real sense of
achievement at having performed on a
huge stage in front of a large
audience. The Y2 performed without
any older pupils or teachers on the
stage to guide them, keeping to time
brilliantly. The Y5/6 children
performed a contemporary and very
moving piece entitled Trapped. A
huge thank you to all the children,
staff and parents who supported this
event. |
 |
 |
 |
Term 5 News: PTA
Easter Assembly
Term 5 News: Radstock
Museum visit
To further support
their topic of Victorians, Sycamore Class
visited Radstock Museum on Wednesday March
21st. It was good to add a little local
history to compare and contrast to that of
those living in and around Big Pit, which we
visited in Term 4.
The children visited
the Victorian school room where they were
shocked to learn that all children
were forced to write with their right hand
and that ‘fidgetters’ had their fingers
restricted in finger stocks! Additionally,
any ‘slouchers’ or children suffering from
rickets were made to sit with an
uncomfortable back brace. Poor recitation of
times tables resulted in the humiliation of
the Dunce’s hat! The children had difficulty
writing on their chalkboards in the
intricate, loopy Victorian script.
Next the children
split into two groups to apply their
investigative skills to deduce the function
of primary source artefacts before then
explaining their findings to the other
group.
They then compared a
Victorian shopping experience with that of
today and enjoyed spotting items that we
still buy nowadays whilst being horrified at
other aspects such as the multi-purpose bar
of soap.
Lastly, they learnt
about the various jobs performed by a
blacksmith including shodding horses and the
skill of a wheelwright. They again had to
apply their deduction and discussion skills
to work out the function of the various
tools.
Sycamore news for
website: Terms 3 and 4 2018
Although Term 3 was a
short term, Sycamore, in amongst regular
lessons and working hard towards their SATs,
managed to pack in a couple of school trips.
First, in January, the class visited Theatre
Royal, Bath for the pantomime Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs. This proved to be a very
lively performance with the pantomime Dame
clambering up from the Stalls and into the
Royal Circle, right among us, in pursuit of
her undergarment!

Then, in February, to
support their Topic work on Victorians, the
children travelled across the Severn Bridge
to Blaenavon in South Wales. In the morning,
they explored the Industrial History side of
the Blaenavon Ironworks in addition to the
Social History around the workers’ cottages
which were furnished in contemporary style
dating from the late 1700s right up to 1967.
The children were particularly interested in
a cottage from the 1940s which reminded them
of Mister Tom’s house from their WW2 Topic
in Terms 1 and 2. They were also horrified
to learn about working conditions and how
short related life expectancy was.

Next, Sycamore
travelled the short distance to Big Pit, a
former working coal mine which is now a
fascinating museum. After visiting the
simulator which recreated conditions inside
the mines, the children were kitted up with
protective helmets and miners’ lamps before
descending 90m into the ground in the cage.
Our guide was extremely informative and the
children were alarmed to learn how many
hours they might have worked at their age,
for little pay with horrendous conditions in
the pitch black without head torches.
The children had an
unexpected surprise during the afternoon
when it snowed heavily!

On their return to
school, the children not only wrote high
quality recounts but they have also now
started planning persuasive letters to
Victorian reformer Lord Shaftesbury about
working conditions for children in Victorian
times.
In Art, Sycamore
enjoyed learning about William Morris;
creating collagraph prints. In Term 4 they
will be producing Lowry-esque pictures of
Blaenavon Ironworks. Additionally, in
Science, the children used tights and mashed
bananas to create revolting but
scientifically informative digestive
systems! They then wrote up instructions for
the process.

Next up in March, in
addition to an activity-packed Book Week,
the class is looking forward to performing
in Dance Umbrella and experiencing a
Victorian schoolroom at Radstock Museum.
Sycamore class of
2016-17
Sycamore has had an
action-packed frenetic year thus far packed
with activities to extend learning beyond
the classroom. Up until Christmas Sycamore
carried out an array of cooking activities
in Forest school including using an apple
press to make apple juice and mulled apple
juice, apple fritters and pancakes.

Sycamore
used hand tools to create a wooden poppy
field to mark Remembrance Day as well as
creating their own keepsake wooden poppy
pendants. In English they then applied their
World War Two Topic knowledge and poetry
writing skills to produce war poetry which
was performed in assembly and is now
displayed outdoors amongst the poppies.

In
December, Sycamore was proud to be invited
to perform Christmas carols at Tesco,
helping raise money for local charities.

January
and February saw Sycamore travelling to
Theatre Royal, Bath to watch the pantomime
Aladdin and to the Assembly Rooms to
experience and even participate in a live
performance with Bath Philharmonia (together
with Willow class). The following day,
members of Bath Philharmonia worked all day
with Willow and Sycamore to create a
performance piece based on the children’s
dreams which was performed to great acclaim
to parents in a concert at the end of the
day.

Amid all
the SATs preparation, Sycamore class has
been busy in other curriculum areas. As part
of Book Week, Sycamore held a sleepover
fund-raising Readathon.

In
addition to performing songs from Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang in the MidSomerset Festival
and rehearsing for the Dance Umbrella, to be
performed in Bath on March 30th, they
participated with body percussion in a
performance with Bournemouth Symphony
Orchestra at Colston Hall, Bristol.
In
Science, the children consolidated their
learning about the skeleton and its
functions by creating skeletons in Forest
School, involving tool use.

They have
also welcomed Spring by pond dipping in the
orchard, discovering A LOT of frogs and some
newts.

They also
experimented with volume and pitch when
learning about sound, with Owen and Noah
aiding learning by playing their guitars and
Frankie on ukulele. They then experimented
with pitch in Science, competing to create
the correct notes with water in bottles to
perform given well-known songs.

On
Wednesday March 22nd Sycamore visited
Radstock Museum. They dressed up in
Victorian costume to 'go back in time' and
participated in a formal Victorian lesson,
involving only being allowed to write with
their right hand, writing on slates and
being under threat of the dunce's hat! They
then found out about life in a typical
miner's cottage in Radstock, being shocked
that several families would have shared one
outdoor toilet and that a whole family would
have used the same bath water !
The children felt sorry for the canaries
used to detect gas in the coal mines and
were slightly horrified by the difficulty of
pulling a guss and crook in cramped,
dangerous conditions.
Finally, the children handled artefacts from
Victorian times and had to deduce their
purpose.


Sycamore class have
settled well into their new classroom and
have made an excellent start to their
studies.
Term 1 saw the
introduction of a new Buddy system which
matched Year 6 pupils to new Holly class
pupils with the aim of helping them at break
times and meal times and occasionally in
class too.
In PE Sycamore have
been improving their netball skills and have
also linked Science to PE by measuring their
heart rate before and after circuit training
exercises. In Term 2 they will be doing
Football with Mr Mason as well as Rugby with
Old Edwardians. On November 18th Year 6 will
be taking part in Multi- Skills at
Somervale.
Sycamore are enjoying
weekly Art sessions with Mr Taylor from
Somervale based on street art. They are also
very excited about using the brand new
computers in the ICT suite in Term 2.
Year 6 have really
enjoyed their current topic of World War
Two. The topic has leant itself to some high
quality cross-curricular writing and the
children are enjoying the novel Goodnight
Mister Tom so much that they sometimes don't
want to go home or out to break as they want
to read on! We shall watch the movie after
we have finished the novel.
November sees the
children beginning to practise the hymns for
the annual Bath Abbey Carol Service which we
are attending on December 6th.
In Forest, cooking has
been a major feature with the children thus
far cooking sausages, baking bread, frying
apples fritters and learning how to use an
apple press. They have also weaving large
scale spider webs . Additionally, Sycamore
have weeded and planted all the planters
around the field and the hanging baskets and
pots at the front of the school, to enhance
our environment.
All in all, a busy
time has been had by all!
Bath
Lantern Festival

Longvernal attend the
Bath Lantern Procession having made lanterns
for the event. Enchanted Forest of birds,
beasts, trees and mythical creatures
travelled from the Holburne through the
streets of Bath to Parade Gardens. It was an
exciting event where pupils from Sycamore
Class enjoyed dancing to samba music as they
paraded through the streets of Bath
Holburne Museum Lantern Workshop and
Procession
On Friday October 23rd
Sycamore class will be bringing Forest
school indoors as they prepare once again
for The Holburne Museum Lantern procession.
The pupils will work with staff from The
Holburne Museum to produce willow-framed
lanterns on a common theme with other
schools within BANES. The culmination of the
project will be to participate in a
wonderful lantern procession through the
streets of Bath, starting in Great Pulteney
Street and finishing at Parade Gardens.
Sycamore Trip to Lifeskills, Bristol

On Friday October 9th
2015 Sycamore class visited Lifeskills,
Bristol. Pupils experienced various ‘real
life’ scenarios and learnt how best to cope
with these eventualities. Situations
included being short-changed in a shop, a
house on fire, discovering a child
unconscious in a playground in addition to
various everyday concerns such as spotting
hazards in the home and crossing a road
safely, considering stopping distances. They
learnt how to contact emergency services.
The quiz carried out before and after the
learning experiences demonstrated that the
children had taken on board lots of life
skills!

 |
Alice In Wonderland Production
Click on the
picture to the left to see more
images of our fantastic
production of 'Alice In
Wonderland'. |
Farm Visit
Click on
the image to the right to see more
pictures of us meeting the
lambs. |
 |
 |
Science Fair at Bath University
We had great fun, as well as
learning lots at the Bath University
Science Fair. Click on the
picture to the left to see more
images of what we did. |
Theatre Workshop
Click on
the image to the right to see more
pictures of us enjoying our
Theatre Workshop earlier n the year. |
 |
Sycamore Class residential trip to the Isle of
Wight June 2015
Building on the
success of the previous two summers’ Y5/6
residential Forest camps under canvas which
were held locally, Sycamore Class travelled
further afield in June to Isle of Wight.
After a beautiful
drive through The New Forest with much
spotting of wild ponies, we enjoyed a smooth
crossing during which we were able to travel
on deck enjoying the views of Solent. This
was followed by an adrenalin- fuelled open
top bus trip amid the treetops,
necessitating much ducking under
over-hanging branches before being deposited
at Alum Bay. Here those children (and
staff!) who suffer from vertigo had to
overcome their fears to take the cable car
down the cliff at The Needles to the
beautiful beach below. The children enjoyed
beach-combing, exploring the different
coloured sand deposits and they also
discovered an absolutely huge jellyfish!
We then set off along
the National Trust track towards Totland Bay
via Tennyson’s Monument. The children were
eager to reach this as they had studied
Tennyson’s poetry and had enjoyed finding
out about more about Tennyson through the
History primary source of a letter from Lady
Tennyson to Abigail’s aunt, who worked for
Lady Tennyson at Farringford, Isle of Wight.
Unfortunately an untimely storm meant that,
for safety reasons, we didn’t reach
Tennyson’s Monument.
The following day the
children again had to tackle any fears to
participate in coasteering, involving not
only scrambling across slippery rocks and
ploughing through rock pools but plunging
off rocks into crashing waves as they
followed the coast along near Freshwater
Bay. We also enjoyed kayaking lessons, which
they found to be a contrasting experience to
kayaking in the river on last year’s camp.
The weather was glorious; we enjoyed a fun
beach afternoon before walking back to the
YHA Totland. The evening was then spent at
the beach at Totland to enjoy the sunset and
a talent competition.
On the final morning
we all walked along the coastal path from
Totland to Fort Victoria, famous for its
sand glass, fossils and rare red squirrels.
The children proved to be expert
fossil-hunters, finding several pieces of
turtle shell and a shark’s tooth. In
addition to this foraging of several large
bags of cuttle-shells, which we know several
grandparents were grateful for on behalf of
their pet buggies. The trip ended rather
splendidly when we were invited by the ferry
Captain, who had been impressed with our
behaviour on the outward journey, to visit
the ferry control room where we learnt all
about the navigation involved.
All in all, it was a
highly successful trip and we look forward
to sailing even further afield in June 2016
to Granville, Normandy, France.
Sycamore News - April
2015
Sycamore has had a
busy and varied year thus far. In September
they travelled to Victoria Park in Bath to
watch the departure of the Bath stage of the
Tour of Britain road cycle race. Some
children managed to acquire some famous
cyclists’ autographs. They then had the
opportunity to participate in activities
including trialling a varied collection of
often bizarre bicycles and circus skills
including juggling and stilt- walking.
Also in September,
Sycamore benefited from a creative writing
workshop with local published author
Joffre White, producing some imaginative
and action-packed stories.
In November, linked to
the Forest curriculum, Sycamore took part in
a workshop run by The Holburne Museum
in which they made lanterns created from
willow on the theme of fish. On November
20th they then travelled to Bath and took
part in a lantern parade together with
several other BANES schools which set off
from Great Pulteney Street and reached its
climax at Parade Gardens.
In December, Chloe and
Hannah from the egg theatre
education team worked with Sycamore on a
pantomime workshop in which they studied
characterisation techniques and freeze -
framing in addition to enjoying many Drama
games. This was followed in early January by
a day spent at Theatre Royal, Bath,
which involved a theatre tour including an
opportunity to tread the stage boards, a
workshop in the Ustinov studio, meeting and
interviewing cast members plus a hilarious
performance of Cinderella in the main house.
|