Year 6 next year!

[MeanzBeanz]

I have been asked to do Year 6 next year (it wasn't one of my choices!) and accepted. I'm not sure what would have happened if I hadn't! I always said I would never do it, but here we are!

I had a horrible time in Y6 as a trainee, and I thought it had put me off for life, but I'm in Y5 now so will know most of the children (we set for maths, so I have taught most of the year group) and am an established teacher at the school. Hopefully it will be a bit different from the "who the fuck are you" attitude I got before! My behaviour management is good, so I'm not too worried about that side of things.

Any advice for Year 6? My school is fairly sane about the SATs, but of course it's still the big thing hanging over the year.

Hi, it's a huge bonus already knowing the the children. I would read up on the ks2 exemplification materials so you begin to gain a good idea of what ARE and ARE GD looks like. Good luck x

Very firm boundaries as the hormones really hit half way through the year! I really preferred y6 to y5 as the children are ready for more in depth learning and independence. Some of my class were bloody hilarious! SATS (regardless of my opinion of them) kept most of the class focussed, be really clear on what you’re doing afterwards as some try to fly off the rails. Really hope you have a brilliant year!

One good thing is that if I like it I can probably stay as lo by as I like, they have such trouble getting people.

Assessment is my main worry, so thanks for the idea about the exemplars - some light summer reading!

Decide which papers you’re going to use for your assessments throughout the years, then I gave Sats questiobs for reading and maths each week and used the friday session to class mark and whiteboard work. Kids were so good at questions by the end of the year and we made it a competition so they really seemed to like it. Not terribly inspirational, but it did the trick and could work if you’re worried about assessment.

Despite the SATs madness I loved Year 6. There is a real focus and drive to get them ready for secondary school. They are top of the school so you can play on that and make them feel special/have more 'adult' conversations. Have firm boundaries though as PP said. Often Heads really respect their Year 6 teachers (so see it as a good thing you were put there) and trust them. Good for promotion if you are looking for that and great on the CV.

I did it for three years then insisted on moving as I found the SATs factory all consuming and it is a very specific way of teaching, narrowly focusing on test criteria (sadly).

Post-SATs time is great fun. Be positive, there are lots of pros :)

Start the arithmetic straight away. If they can get 30 plus on the arithmetic it's so much easier. Myminimaths is your friend.

For writing, I get my students to mark when they've made a punctuation /authorial choice in the margin in a different colour pen after Xmas. Really helps with moderating writing. I teach specific grammar objectives within writing but have short sharp recap grammar tasks from September. There's so much to fit in and I find that stuff from year 2 reall hasn't been revisited!

It's utterly knackering and I do feel like the whole thing falls on me. Boosters really impact- i've lost lunches for months and done breakfast and afterschool. Lots of schools are less stressy though.

I do like the age group though. Hormonal messes they may be, but they like a good debate. Friendship issues are a mare, but they can be surprisingly sensible too. As an ex Secondary teacher, they are better than Year 9!

It's love hate really.