Welcome to class 11, year 6! 

Using different mediums to represent our knowledge of the plants orbit around the sun, including length and rotation. 

Today we explored the clues to Barnsley’s industrial past…right outside our school! Old maps revealed our path once once a railway, the bridge once an aqueduct carrying the Dearne to Dove canal and an old wall the remains of the lock keepers cottage! Comparing old pictures with the real sights showed how much our local area has changed. We even found the old metal rings, used to moor barges, still on the old canal basin wall which is now the car park of B and M! History really is all around us! 

We investigated the chronology of the mining industry, from its roots in the Industrial Revolution, boom through the Victorian era and it’s eventual demise. We studied the changes made to the design of mines, the equipment used and the risks for the workers. We will look at the changes in law in more detail further into our study as we learn of the impact from two significant local disasters. 

Can the children put the maps of Thurnscoe on chronological order by comparing the changes over time? By identifying the addition of industries and railways, the growth in population and development of leisure facilities, our maps proved a valuable to source to help us see the impact of mining on our local communities. 

Work in progress as we revise our knowledge of the solar system, including the order of the planets their size and relative distances. Sun, spheres and satellites- we’ve got it sorted in Science! 

It’s been fantastic to see so many pupils dive into our local history topic, investing their own family links to the mining industry and exploring our local monuments and sites. We’ve uncovered some amazing and shocking tales, truly bringing home the dangers down the mine for our ancestors. 

After a class vote based only on genre, setting and a very brief synopsis, our term one class novel is…Holes! We can’t wait to discover if there  is more to Stanley’s ‘character building’ punishment of digging a 5ft hole, every day in the blistering heat of Camp Green Lake (which isn’t green and doesn’t have a lake!). These lucky voters won but don’t worry, as the next book could be your choice! 

P.S.H.E gives us the chance to explore our feelings and relationships. This great activity was a challenge as the new class 11 came together to discover the effective ways in which we could communicate and work in our new groups.