Transition from Primary to Secondary: Learning pathway in Year 6

Year 6 is a key year in school as it reviews and consolidates all of the learning that has taken place in Key Stage 2, while also extending pupils’ understanding of subjects, getting them ready for secondary school in Year 7. Pupils in hangzhou international school have access to a wide curriculum including studying English, Maths, Science and Theme, the majority of this is based on the English National Curriculum. Please watch the above introduction video from Ms. Catherine Paradine, Year 6 homeroom teacher, to gain a brief understanding about our Year 6 curriculum and how we support our pupils on the transition from primary to secondary school.

The English programme of study covers all areas of composition, including writing a range of fiction and non-fiction texts. We consider the importance of the audience when writing, carefully plan and edit our work and look at examples of excellent texts to understand how we will be successful in our own writing. In Reading, we practise reciprocal reading, retrieval, and inference skills in order to give pupils the skills to become reflective and independent readers as they move into Year 7.

Year 6 Maths brings together all the key acts and skills learned throughout Key Stage 2 and begins to apply these areas such as fractions, decimals, percentages, and algebra. We also take time to develop our reasoning skills when problem solving, which involves explaining what we are doing and thinking carefully about why we are doing it. Where possible, we try to link our Science and Humanities work together under the umbrella of Theme, but also make sure that we have covered the curricular areas necessary for pupils to be ready for Year 7.

In Science, we study the human body and its systems in depth. We also look at evolution, light, and electricity. In Theme we look at what was happening in the world in 900CE, how mechanisms work in Design and Technology, and study key Geography skills such as map reading and comparing locations.

The expectations at Wellington are high – we are working on the same curriculum as in the UK and benchmark Year 6 pupil progress against those same standards. But, just as importantly, we like to ensure that children are happy, confident individuals who embrace and embody the Wellington values, are ready to go out into the world and make a positive difference and can be the best they can possibly be.