OAKLEIGH SOUTH PRIMARY SCHOOL
Year 6 – Leading, Learning, Legacy
Leadership
Our Year 6 captains are typically students who are given special responsibilities and play a key role in fostering a positive school environment by demonstrating strong leadership skills. They help promote the school’s values of Excellence, Respect, Working Together, Integrity and Resilience through their actions and interactions with others. We look to our leaders to set a positive example to others in terms of behaviour, attitude, and work ethic and they are often asked to assist with school events, such as assemblies, sports days, prep transition, cultural days and school tours.
Overall, Year 6 school leaders play a crucial role in maintaining school spirit, supporting their peers, and helping create an inclusive environment as they prepare to transition to secondary school.
Reading and Viewing
In Year 6, students engage in differentiated reading and viewing sessions tailored to meet their individual learning needs. These sessions foster a deeper understanding of texts through focused comprehension activities and thoughtful responses. Students are grouped based on their reading levels, ensuring that each child is challenged appropriately and supported in their literacy development. Our program encourages critical thinking, discussion, and a love for reading, as students explore a wide range of texts and visual media. Through these activities, they enhance their ability to interpret, analyse, and respond to both written and visual texts.
Writing
The Year 6 writing program at OSPS is aimed at consolidating our students’ primary years of writing skills development and finding their writer’s voice to prepare them for secondary school English curricula. Our program exposes students to a variety of genres, including recounts, explanations and expositions, poetry, persuasive writing, narratives, playscripts, speeches, debates and essays. Each week, students participate in two sessions of differentiated writing groups, where they plan, write, give and receive feedback, and participate in focussed learning amongst peers of a similar ability. The VCOP writing framework is used in these writing groups as well as in classroom writing sessions to enhance students’ writing through a focus on the fundamentals of Vocab, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation. Students are explicitly taught the skills of planning, composing, editing and publishing so that they understand the full writing process. The SMART Spelling program is taught weekly in conjunction with grammar sessions to further support writing.
Our writing program is closely connected with Year 6 Integrated Studies topics, to challenge students’ thinking and extend learning. This encourages student’s speaking and listening skills as they are supported to form opinions on a variety of subjects, share their ideas and their work, participate in discussions, respond to different ideas and texts, link evidence to support their contentions, and present both individual and group projects. Students in Year 6 also become very familiar with public speaking as they present speeches to support projects, participate in a full musical production, and speak at various assemblies throughout the year. Year 6 is a time when we support our students’ confidence, both as writers and as speakers!
Mathematics
In Year 6, students continue to participate in differentiated Maths Groups twice a week. These groups cater to individual needs, and are designed to teach, consolidate, and extend all students in mathematical concepts.
Maths is taught daily, and students develop a solid understanding of the six strands of Mathematics: Number, Algebra, Measurement, Space, Statistics, and Probability. Essential Assessment, Mathletics, Maths Online and Maths Invaders are some of the computer- based programs used to aid learning, both at school, and at home.
Banqer is an exciting program we introduce to all Year 6 students. This is a New Zealand based program focusing on Financial Maths. Students gain an understanding of budgets, expenses, taxes, superannuation and all ranges of “real life” financial decision-making opportunities, in a fun and engaging way.
Integrated Studies
In Year 6, students delve into the Humanities curriculum to understand their place in the world and explore various topics. The curriculum integrates Critical & Creative Thinking and ICT into both individual and group projects and are a highlight of our year. Key areas of focus include:
- Growth Mindset: Encouraging a resilient and proactive approach to learning.
- Geography (Where in the World?): Investigating global locations and their significance.
- History (WW1 and the ANZACs): Examining the impact of World War I and the role of ANZACs.
- Economics (We Mean Business): Understanding basic economic principles and business concepts.
- Civics & Citizenship (Your Vote is Your Voice): Exploring democratic processes and the importance of civic participation.
These topics are designed to foster a comprehensive understanding of the world and develop critical thinking, creativity, and technological skills.
Wellbeing
Our Year 6 students immerse themselves in the GEM principles of gratitude, empathy and mindfulness as well as touching on emotional literacy. OSPS are proud to be a part of The Resilience Project and participate in weekly lessons where we delve deeper into those GEM principles. In Year 6, we aim to support students so that they become resilient and respectful young people who are ready for the challenges of secondary school.
Interschool Sports
Interschool Sport is always one of the highlights of Year 6. The year begins with the OSPS Swim Squad’s early morning training sessions in preparation for the Bentleigh District carnival which takes place in the early stages of Term 1.
The summer interschool sports program kicks off straight away and students have the opportunity to play against other schools in a variety of different summer sports each week. This culminates in finals in the last week of term. Some sports offer the chance to go through to the next round should you be successful. This is repeated again in Term 2 with our winter sports. Oakleigh South PS students compete hard but most importantly, compete fairly and respect the opposition and the outcome of the match.
In Term 2 we also have our House Cross Country, and we always put up a strong showing at the next level. Term 3 sees a strong focus on athletics and with our House Athletics usually taking place midway through the term. Since 2023, in Term 4 we have the much-anticipated Dodgeball competition! Teams of 10 compete against each other and it is one of the highlights for students before they leave for high school. The grand final is always a very tense affair!
Year 6 Production
The Year 6 Production is a main highlight of Year 6. Students work towards their acting and singing auditions in Term 1 with each child having the opportunity to audition for any role. Production rehearsals take place throughout Term 2 and 3 with a huge focus on confidence building, acting, singing, dancing and teamwork. Months of hard work from students, teachers, and parents culminate into a musical production of extremely high quality! The benefits that can be seen post production are enormous with many students displaying an increase in self-belief and expression when speaking in public. Our shows are performed in the last week of Term 3 in our school hall (complete with our own sound and lighting system) and is a spectacle not to be missed.
Production Pages Click Here
Year 6 Camp
Located in the heart of Halls Gap and set against the spectacular landscape of the Grampians National Park, our weeklong Year 6 Camp provides a valuable opportunity for students to cultivate essential life skills, build relationships with peers and teachers, and enhance their independence and resilience.
Camp offers practical experiences that help students grow in areas such as problem-solving, teamwork, and self-reliance forging stronger bonds with both their peers and teachers in a supportive, shared environment. Through various activities, students learn to navigate challenges and develop confidence in their abilities.
Held in late November, Year 6 Camp is designed to inspire a love for the outdoors while providing a dynamic setting for personal growth and development. It is the last opportunity for our Year 6 students to spend quality time together away from the school environment before heading their separate ways to embark on their secondary school journey.
Year 6 Graduation
Held in the final week of the school year, Year 6 Graduation is a special event that marks the transition from primary school to secondary school. The ceremony is a celebration of the students’ achievements, growth, and hard work throughout their time in primary school and includes speeches, a performance and the presentation of awards recognising individual accomplishments. Graduation is a rite of passage for both the students and their families, symbolising the end of one educational chapter and the start of the next. The event is a mix of joy, nostalgia, and excitement for what’s to come.
