Welcome to Yew 6!
2025 – 2026
Mr Hammersley - Class Teacher
Miss Richardson, Mrs Bradford, Mrs Crosby - Teaching Assistants
Spring 2
Tales of Terror
Year 6 Inspired by Matilda!
Our Year 6 pupils visited The Polesworth School, on Monday 23rd March, for an exciting behind-the-scenes look at their production of Matilda.
It was a proud moment for us to see several former Birchwood students performing on stage. All of the performers’ incredible singing and levels of confidence were truly impressive to witness.
The visit has left our Year 6s buzzing with ideas and inspiration before they begin rehearsals for our own end-of-year show. A huge thank you to the staff and students at Polesworth for inviting us and showing us what can be achieved with hard work and stage presence.
A Special Shout-Out from David Almond!
Our Year 6 authors have officially received the ultimate seal of approval from a literary legend! After exploring the mysterious world of Skellig last term, the children sent a collection of their own creative writing and some burning questions to the author himself, David Almond.
Mr Bailey had the pleasure of meeting David to hand-deliver the work and pose those student questions in person. David was blown away, describing the writing as "fantastic"- so fantastic in fact, he asked if he could keep it!
To top it off, David filmed a lovely video message just for our Year 6s. In it, he answers their questions, thanks them for sharing their talents, and even mentions what a "wonderful school" we have. We are incredibly proud of our young writers for impressing such a world-renowned author.
Well done, Year 6!
This half term in Art, Year 6 have been creating designs in the style of Kenoujak Ashevak - an Inuit artist working in Northern Canada. They incorporated stencils with abstract designs and bold colours to imitate her style and create their own arctic-inspired artwork!
On Monday 9th March, The Annual CAT Science Quiz brought together young scientists from across the partnership for an exciting afternoon of competition and discovery. A total of eleven schools took part, joining either virtually or in person at The Polesworth School. Our team was formed from four budding scientists from Year 6.
Teams tested their scientific knowledge across a range of fascinating rounds, including Earth and Space, Cells and Microorganisms, and Plants and Photosynthesis, to name just a few. Each round consisted of eight questions, followed by a two-point bonus question that gave teams the chance to boost their scores.
The competition was incredibly close, with teams demonstrating impressive knowledge and teamwork throughout. Congratulations go to Woodlands, who secured first place with 54 points. Windmill finished just behind in second place with 53 points, while Birchwood and Grange Park shared joint third place with 52 points each.
A fantastic time was had by all who took part, and it was wonderful to see so much enthusiasm for science across the schools. We’re already looking forward to next year’s quiz!
Year 6 had a fantastic World Book Day – their last one at Birchwood! We had some fantastic costumes, from enormous dinosaurs and Jedi Knights to the Cat in the Hat and Alvin and the chipmunks! The children worked really hard in the morning to create their class pages for our school book inspired by ‘Dear Earth’ by Isabel Otter. They also dropped everything to read their reading books for 10 minutes at a time. In the afternoon, the children took some time to read alongside Year 4, sharing some of their own stories and reading their favourite books together. Finally, they performed a poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrae to the children in Year 5.
Spring 1
Frozen Kingdom
Year 6 had a fantastic Number Day! They worked hard to decipher the Fibonacci sequence, using the book ‘The Rabbit Problem’ as a guide before using the numbers to create art inspired by the ‘golden spiral’. Some of these spirals ended up very large indeed! They also participated in the Times Table Rockstars Number Day Challenge – solving as many multiplication problems as they could in ten minutes!
Finally, the children completed a maths investigation – solving clues to track down the worst thief in Arithmetown!
This half term, the children in Year 6 have been working on creating routines which involved some very challenging partner balances! They worked in groups of 2, 3 or 4 to practise these balances, before coming up with their own ideas which incorporated techniques that they had practised. They were really pleased with what they managed to achieve!
Over the last half term, Yew class have been developing their invasion game skills by playing netball. They have improved their bounce, chest and overhead passes, worked on marking the opposing team and have learned to pivot when in possession of the ball. They have also improved their shooting skills.
