Samuel's Group

Group One was a lovely group who had all the right qualities to be great Wallingford school students. Any teacher that has them next year is really lucky. I think they will move on to be great, intelligent students when they are older!

In their first period, whenever Ms Lee asked a question, every single hand went up. Their enthusiasm and confidence was unbelievable! They learnt where five countries were. Whenever Ms Lee started talking, they would all listen to her straight away. If they had a question, they would always have enough courage, no matter how embarrassing it was! That was probably their best period, although every period was nearly as good.

Group one were always ready to learn, whenever they answered a question (which they frequently did), it was always imaginative and correct! They always got on with the task that was set and there were no complaints at all. Any positive comment that you can think of will apply to this wonderful group! It was a pleasure to be able to lead them!

 

Yiannis's Group

Period 1: German

I think the German lesson went very well for the Year 6 group. We learnt how to say "My name is...." and "What is your name?" We also learnt numbers 1-10 in German too. They really enjoyed Madame Paterson's humour and teaching.

Period 2: Maths

In the Maths lesson, the class learnt how to use the Chinese Abacus. We were being taught by Ms Kershaw who explained how to use it and then gave the class a worksheet. I was especially excited about the lesson as I had never used a Chinese Abacus before. The class and I really enjoyed the lesson.

Period 3: Design and Technology (DT)

In DT, the class were split into two groups, so I was only able to follow half the class. We made bread with Ms Isaac and came back at lunch to collect and eat it. Before they baked our bread, we got to mould them into different shapes. At the end of the lesson, the class asked Ms Isaac questions about DT.

Period 4: Science

In Science with Mr Keeling, the class did an experiment about bubbles. We were trying to make the best bubble, so we talked about fair tests and strength of the bubble mixture; would more or less water make a bigger bubble? At the end of the lesson we had to write what we would like to do in Science at Wallingford School.

Period 5: English

Ms Mummery gave a really good lesson. We read a poem about a commentator talking about a "football match" in a boy's back-garden. We were then told to highlight the lines that someone would say as a commentator in a football match. At the end of the lesson, we performed 12 lines from the poem to the rest of the class.

 

Isabel's Group

Today was the Year 6 Transition Day. I was privileged enough to go round with the Year 7s to see what they got up to.

Lessons

They do all kinds of fun and exciting things in the day to introduce them to what a day in Year 7 will be like. The lessons they have include Science, Maths, Drama, English and History. Then, after the 5th lesson, they have a talk with the Head of Year, Miss Dudding, where they can ask any questions or express any worries.

The Day

When they arrive they are escorted to the main hall where they are put into 7 groups. These groups are a rough idea of what the forms will be although people are sometimes moved if they are not happy with their form group or if they would be better suited in another group. A Teaching Assistant and a Year 7 student (like me) go round with them all day so they don't get lost. At lunch they meet up with friends. They can sit where they want but teachers are always there to look out for them. The students buying lunch are allowed to go to the canteen early to avoid queues.

My Opinion on the Day

From what I saw today (and my experience last year) I think the Transition Day is an excellent idea as it gives students in Year 6 a chance to meet future classmates, make new friends and be introduced to learning at Wallingford in a relaxed way and a safe environment.

The Benefits

It is also a good chance for them to see what secondary school is really like. There are a lot of rumours going around out there about bullies, getting lost and nasty teachers which could lead to a very pressure filled first day. However, by experiencing a day at the school some of these worries may evaporate as they have experienced a proper day and can see that really, it's not that bad.

 

Sophie's Group

Period 1-Maths

We did BIDMAS a lot of the year 6s understood this, but some didn't. Everyone was quite shy because it was the
first lesson of the day.

Period 2-Science

Everybody got a little more confident because we did a practical where we had to work in groups and most had mix with students from different schools.

Period 3-PSHE

We were in the hall for this lesson. Where we completed a task and learnt what PSHE stands for. They were very good and had got even more confident in what they were doing.

Period 4-IT

In period 4 they lost all inhibition. They had to write a set of instructions for a robot on how to dance the hokey pokey and then danced as a robot learning the hokey pokey.

Period 5- English

By this time everybody had learnt names and even sat next to people they did not know earlier in the day.

 

Georgie's Group

It was a real privilege to get picked to go around with the Year 6s. It was interesting to see what they got up to. It gave me a chance to remember what it was like when I was a Year 6 moving into Year 7.

The first lesson was Science where they were testing what makes the best bubble. This encouraged them to work well in a group, and learn the dangers in a science lab. The next lesson was Maths where they were investigating pentominoes and drawing 3D shapes. This encouraged them to record their work.

Lesson three was Music where they learned some chords on the ukulele to play along to a familiar song. They also played a concentration game using clapping beats. In the fourth lesson they had Graphics where they did some scaling up. This involves drawing a cartoon character in a grid and then transferring the smaller drawing to a larger grid. This encouraged patience.

Then we made our way back to the hall and went off to enjoy a long lunchtime. The last lesson was German. They learned numbers to ten, pets, and they even learned to understand a German song. The school would normally have one more lesson but instead they went to the hall to talk about their day.

 

Tegan's Group

I took group 6. They were extremely friendly, sociable and ready to learn.

Period 1: Geography

At the start of the day, as you might expect they were all grouped together with people they knew and it was fairly obvious that they were in school groups. But when Miss asked to move them about they took it on board and started to open up. Class discussions and pair discussions were always filled with thoughtful and interesting points communicated confidently to each other.

Period 2: History

Although it was clear that History was not everyone's favourite subject, they walked into the classroom with an open mind and positive attitude. When seated it was surprising to see everyone had spread out without being asked. People had already made friends and were chatting openly. When given the task of using a source to guess the identity of someone the group asked helpful questions and took to it enthusiastically.

Period 3: DT

The group was split in half and I went with the group doing cooking. They listened to instructions and started to make their bread. Talk of plaits and knots filled the room along with an excited buzz. The group ended up with some excellent end products that tasted delicious.

Period 4: Maths

Nerves had gone out of the window and I felt as if the group had been together for years. They seemed comfortable around each other and already quite used to meeting a new teacher each period. As they learnt new, long and complicated words they weren't afraid to ask meanings or to have a go at pronouncing them themselves. They used blocks to help draw floor plans of 5 sided shapes accurately.

Period 5: Science

In strolled group six nonchalantly and confidently. They sat down next to new found friends and listened intently to how safety was handled in science. They completed their practical experiment of making bubbles and testing for the best mixture.

This group were friendly, happy and I feel honoured to have spent my day with such excited students.

 

Martha's Group

Today the Y6s came up to Wallingford School to see what a day at secondary school was like. I was lucky enough to be able to go around with Group 7 and see what they got up to. They did all kinds of activities, which helped them to get to know each other a bit more. From my point of view, changeover day helps pupils coming up to secondary school to meet their future classmates.

Their first lesson was Art with Mr Pickford. They were aiming to print a fish with a pattern. As a starter, the group had to look at some paintings produced by an artist called Vincent Scarpace and come up with some adjectives to describe his work – a few of the words that were mentioned were: detailed, colourful, strange and exotic. The Y6s then had to produce a piece of artwork inspired by the ones they had seen already; they had to engrave a fish design onto a piece of polystyrene, pulling the pencil along, rather than pushing it. Then a roller was covered in ink and rolled onto the design, which was then placed on a piece of paper and pressed down. When the polystyrene was removed from the paper it revealed a print of a fish. This activity involved the students sharing ideas with others and occasionally asking them for help, as well as learning how to print effectively.

Group 7's next lesson was Science with Mrs Horn. At the beginning they were asked what was different about the Science room compared to other rooms. There were many answers discussed in pairs. In that lesson their job was to decide what makes the best bubble. After that they had to get into groups of 4 to conduct the experiment. They found out that each solution made either a bubble last longer, be bigger or go the highest. For the plenary, students had to write down what they were looking forward to in Science next year. There was quite a range of comments.

After break was Geography with Ms Walker. They walked to her classroom via the library in order to see more of the school. When the Y6s entered Geography they had to talk with their partner about where different parts of jeans might have come from. It turns out they came from all over the world. The next task was to find a few items around us, and try to figure out, using their labels, where they came from and record their answers on a table. Once they had done that, they had to use an atlas to record where the items came from. Ms Walker said that things don't all happen in one place and when a simple question is asked there is often a complicated geographical answer behind it.

Then was IT, students had to assign someone in their group to act as a robot and the rest had to write instructions to get the robot from one place to another without crashing into anything. When this was tried out, there ended up with some very funny endings! Next we had to log onto the computer to watch an animated powerpoint of the Hokey Cokey. They then had to write commands for this and then other groups had to try them out, it was hilarious.

After lunch, the Y6s had English with Ms Lancaster. The first activity was to read a poem called The Commentator, which was about some boys playing football in the street, but they were pretending it was a huge and important football match. Then they had to sort through the poem deciding what had happened in real life and what was just made up. The final task was to write their own piece of commentary on an activity they had done today and try to make it as imaginative as possible. When we read them read out at the end, we were all in peals of laughter.

I feel that transition day was a great help to Y6, it enabled them to experience what it is like at secondary school and be more confident to start in September.