Year 6 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

A very big welcome to those families new to Kennedy School and to the Kennedy Community. We are sure that your children are settling in and making new friends. We have spent these last 2 weeks establishing routines and getting to know your children as learners and as individuals and we are very happy with the way that the year has started. Each class has agreed on their Essential Agreements, as well as discussed ways to manage their emotions and behaviour through the Zones of Regulation. These aim to provide the students with a means by which to remain focused and ready to learn.

Just a reminder that this newsletter will be published every 2 weeks on a Friday. It will be sent to you on the ESF app and can be revisited by clicking the "News" button on the App.

Thank you for joining us at the "Meet the Year Group" Zoom session yesterday evening. The materials from the meeting are now available at the links below:

The Year 6 Team

Please update your family and child's data on the Gateway.

If you haven't already done so this term, please log in to the Gateway as soon as possible

and follow the instructions to update and verify your family and child's information.

Please note that this data update/verification step is mandatory. You will not be able to use other Gateway functions - such as activity booking - until it has been completed.

We therefore recommend you complete this process as soon as possible. You can access the Gateway at https://ks.tg.esf.edu.hk

If you need any help, please contact the school's IT team at itsupport@kennedy.edu.hk

Also, as after school activities have begun for many children, please remember to keep the Gateway updated and class teacher and PTA informed about the latest after school arrangements for your child/children. This will enable the school buses to depart promptly.

Our first unit this year is under the theme 'How we organise ourselves'.

Central Idea: Leadership influences the members of a community.

Lines of Inquiry:

• Responsibilities of leaders and the communities (authority/responsibility)

• Representation of opinions within a community (representation/fairness/perspective)

• How decision-making has an impact on communities (decision-making/causation)

In this unit of inquiry, children engage in a variety of learning experiences to build their understanding of the Central Idea. Children define what makes a good leader and gain a greater understanding of the qualities and attitudes of good leaders. They will use an online design programme to manipulate images to create a poster. Children will learn about leadership and the different leadership styles. They will research a variety of male and female leaders to help understand various perspectives of people living under different leaderships. Children will work with resident artist Ms Sofan to create artwork of a variety of famous world leaders.

In the summative task, children will demonstrate their skills by creating, designing and leading a micro-community to meet the needs of Year 3 students.

Numbers

As this is the start of the year, we will be focusing on and revisiting our core number skills, with a specific focus on Place Value. The learning objectives for this unit are:

• Recognise, model and order decimal fractions to thousandths or beyond.

• Round decimal fractions to the nearest tenth or whole number.

• Apply place value to partition and rename numbers to thousandths.

Our first unit in English is Autobiographies.

The students are planning, editing and writing an autobiography of their lives so far.

We will be introducing our new class reader 'The Explorers' by Katherine Rundell over the coming weeks which will support our unit of inquiry.

Parents of 6N and 6RI - are you interested in becoming a Class Parent?

A Class Parent is the liaison between the class teacher, the PTA and the parents of the students in class. They play an integral role in enriching the school experience for everyone and the time and effort involved in this role is greatly appreciated by the children, teachers and other parents.

If you are thinking you'd like to volunteer to be class parent for the coming school year but have questions, please do contact us with your name and your child's name/class.

We really look forward to hearing from you!

If you are interested please contact the PTA office: pta@kennedy.edu.hk

Homework will be set on a Friday each week and is expected to be returned on a Wednesday. The homework is set on Google Classroom. Your child will show you how to access this.

Please discuss the homework tasks with your child and ensure that they fully understand what is expected of them each week. Please support your child with their learning at home as needed and check that the task has been completed suitably.

In Year 6, we have the following weekly expectations (in addition to the homework set):

• Daily reading (20 minutes with a discussion around the text with an adult).

• Spelling practice x 3 each week (with 3 buddy tests at school).

• Regular use of Mathletics

The Chinese Department shares the learning conducted on a weekly basis. Please click on the link below for this week's learning for Year 6.

Year 6 Chinese Learning

• Uniform - please ensure that your child is wearing the appropriate school uniform. A reminder that no jewellery is to be worn to school, except for watches. Smart watches that can receive phone calls are not permitted.

• Note re uniform sales - there is no refund on sale items.

• Swimming - Swimming caps are strongly recommended and compulsory for ALL children with hair below the tops of their ears. Please refer to the Term 1 swimming schedule HERE.

• Snacks - as per EDB guidelines stated in the school newsletter, please ensure your child's snacks can be eaten with their hands. Please do not send utensils to school.

Here is a reminder of school procedures in the event of hoisting of weather warnings by the HK Observatory posted on the school website.

Inclement Weather Procedures

• 12 Sept - Public Holiday
  
• 4 Oct - Public Holiday
• 17- 21 Oct - HALF TERM