Update Friday 15th May

SATs 2026 are now done and dusted. Our Year 6 pupils have worked incredibly hard and have shown the very best attitude throughout the assessments. We are now simply waiting for the results, which will be available to schools in early July.

In the meantime, we will continue to produce high‑quality pieces of writing for the end of Key Stage 2 writing assessment, which is submitted in June.

You will need no reminding, I am sure, that our residential is fast approaching. I’ve attached the kit list again below for ease. I will be available after school from Tuesday to Thursday if you would like to pop in with any questions.

PGL_Letter_and kit list information

PGL kit list

 

 

Friday 8th May

We can’t believe that SATs week is almost upon us. After a week of looking at more weird and wonderful graphs, tables and charts from past papers, there are hardly any questions that we would struggle to answer. However, one thing that remains unknown is: will Chen make an appearance in the maths papers this year? Will he be catching a bus, releasing balloons or even measuring how many mushrooms are 10 meters from the centre of the field? Who knows? WE WILL NEXT WEEK!

This weekend’s homework is to get plenty of rest and to come into school on Monday ready to smash the SATs. Whatever the papers contain, we are more than ready to tackle them!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. E.

(The homework section below has some links to some quick revision tasks, should anyone want to use them.)

Homework Friday May 1st

Homework was given out yesterday, along with marked homework from the previous week.

Maths Year 6:

There are only two reasoning questions for the pupils to answer this weekend. I have asked the children to show all of the steps in their working out. This should be handed in on Tuesday morning. Some pupils asked for some optional extra homework (well done!) – this can be handed in at any time.

English Year 5 & 6:

The pupils have been asked to think of two strong points that support the argument FOR school uniform and two that support an argument AGAINST it. Bullet points are fine, as we are going to use these points to write a ‘discussion’ text in class next week. This homework was set in the red writing target books and is due in on Tuesday.

Useful sites for revision (optional!)

Corbett Primary Maths

Grammar Revision BBC

Getting Ready for PGL

We have spent part of this week looking at some of the weird and wonderful graphs and charts that have appeared in the maths SATs over the years – the writers seem to think that Year 6 children have more than a passing interest in bus timetables and the average time people get up on a Sunday!

We have a new class library system, which we have been trialling before setting up a whole school version. Isla has done a sterling job of cataloguing all the books in Darwin and fully testing the system before it is rolled out. (We like the scanner – although the bleeping can be a little bit annoying!)

As we are rapidly approaching PGL time, I have attached the letter sent out earlier this term along with a simplified kit list. If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask them!

I hope everyone has a restful bank holiday weekend – let’s hope the sun keeps shining for us! (Homework details in the section below.)

PGL kit list

PGL_Letter_2026_

 

Mock SATs Week

This week, we have completed last year’s SAT papers as ‘mocks’. We completed the papers in the order they will be administered during SATs week; under test conditions, so that we know what to expect. I think everyone was surprised about how normal the week felt!

“I felt nervous about it but I fell better now I realise how well I have done.” Annabelle N.

Pupils have been given their marked papers to review – I have encouraged them to bring them home. I have also written a short summary of how your child has performed in the tests this week and some notes on what they could brush-up on to increase their chances of doing as well – or even better – in the real papers in a few weeks. This summary is glued into their writing target book, which will have been brought home today. I have also glued in some links to useful resources should you want to do any revision work at home.

SATs results are given as a ‘scaled score’. A score of 100+ indicates that the pupil is working at the expected level for the end of Year 6. Sometimes several scores will give the same scaled score and a difference of 2 scaled scores can equate to more than a difference of two marks! The scaled scores are provided yearly by the DFE who work them out using their own mysterious methods. I have added a short explanation of the pupils’ scaled scores alongside their results.

If you have any questions, or anything you would like to discuss, please get in touch either by phone, through the admin email or just pop into school. I am more than happy to help.

Anyway, everyone did brilliantly and surpassed expectations so it’s full steam ahead now to the week itself!

Mrs. E.

 

 

 

Homework Friday 24th April

Maths – Year 6

The children have been given all of their mock maths papers back. We have reviewed and discussed the reasoning papers in class. I have sent their arithmetic papers home for review. I have highlighted the questions that should be prioritised and I have attached a few practice questions to be completed Please could the re-worked tests and practice questions be returned by Monday.

English – Year 5 & 6

The children did a cracking job of their apostrophe sentence homework last week but a little confusion with apostrophes for possession remains. This week’s homework gives the children another chance to review apostrophes and become more secure with their use.

I have also included a short task about ‘determiners’, which was something that the children wanted to review from the grammar paper.

Please could this work be completed and handed in on Tuesday at the latest.

Optional additional work/support in these areas can be found here:

Apostrophe support 

Determiners support 

Quick grammar reference sheet

Friday 17th April

We had an interesting visitor this week, who came to talk to us about AI; its history and its current applications. We had time to think about how it is important to prioritise the ‘human in the loop’. Altogether it was an interesting session; the pupils had a lot of very sensible contributions to make.

Earlier in the week, some of our pupils had a go at writing articles for a newsletter that they are hoping to develop over the summer term. This is the very first edition. We are thinking about regular features we could add, such as articles about other pupils’ interesting hobbies or ‘a day in the life of…’. What do you think?

April edition newsletter Darwin

Details about this week’s homework can be found in the homework section below. Details about SATs week (as the newsletter points out, it’s not long now!), can be found below this post. If you have any questions in the lead-up to the SATs, feel free to pop-in, call or drop me an email.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. E.

Homework Friday 17th April

Maths homework (Year 6).

We have been working on ratio this week. Our homework is to solve a questions 1 – 4 in the booklet below (sent home on paper). Pupils can continue and answer other questions if they wish to.

ratio-questions

(Year 5 will have been given maths homework by Mrs. Brotherhood)

English homework (Year 5 & 6).

Our English homework is a focus on apostrophes for possession. The children have ten sentences to rewrite correctly. This has been sent home on paper but a copy can be found here:

Apostrophes_for_Possession_Homework

Maths and English homework should be handed in on Monday morning. 

 

Maths target books.

All Year 6 maths target books have been marked and returned. Most children have a few questions to review and correct. These are highlighted in orange. Target books can be handed in whenever the pupils have completed the tasks – before Thursday next week, if possible.

All the best,

Mrs. E.

 

Crime Scene Investigation (Darwin)

As part of British Science Week, children spent their science lesson investigating a crime scene to work out (from gathered evidence) who had stolen the after-school club biscuits!

       

Children visited the crime scene and were introduced to the crime and what they needed to do to solve it. There were 4 suspects and children analysed ink from a ransom note (using chromatography), examined a footprint and fibres found at the crime scene and analysed biscuit crumbs left at the scene to help them decide which of our suspects was guilty.

  

   

Children were very excited to be part of the investigation and came up with some incredible (and extremely imaginative) explanations of who had committed the crime. Well done for your participation!

Dr. Roberts