2023/2024

English

We started the new year using the text driver, 'Fantastic Beasts', in our writing journey and composed our own informative non-chronological reports on our own fantastic beasts! We are now crafting our own monologues to voice over our text driver film stimulus, 'Treasure'.

Art

Our art learning this half term focuses around John Muafangejo and African life. We will be life-painting as well as printmaking. We will be developing ideas and knowledge about John Muafangejo by using pencil and pen to examine drawing images of animals. We will create our own images of African life and animals by tracing outlines, laying these over press prints on polystyrene tiles and then print these using paint.  

PSHE

Our PSHE sessions this half term all centre around us being our best. We will explore the importance of food, water, oxygen, sleep and exercise for the human body and its health. We will also identify our own strengths and areas that need improvement as well as suggesting was of improving the school community. We will look at the concept of ‘star’ qualities, looking at the ones that ordinary people possess and learn basic first aid including Sepsis Awareness.

Guided Reading

This half term, we will be trialling the Ashley Booth curriculum in our guided reading sessions. This will involve us reading a class novel at length but intertwining other texts into our sessions to focus on different aspects of reading. There will be a particular focus on the vocabulary used within texts as well as plenty of opportunity for discussion - both independently and with our peers.

History

Across the half term, we will gain an insight into life as an Ancient Egyptian in our History lessons which will lead us to be able to draw a comparison to society at the time in Great Britain. We will also explore the Egyptian gods and establish the pros and cons of settling on the river Nile.

Maths

Our focus in maths this half term will be on place value (ordering, comparing and rounding, including negative numbers). Once we have mastered this, we will then move onto the four operations and completing calculations using formal written methods.

Computing

We began the half term exploring how sharing online can have both positive and negative impacts and discussing what a ‘digital reputation’ is and what it can consist of. Over the next few weeks, we will also describe strategies to identify scams and learn about ways to increase our privacy settings.

French

Our new language content in French this half term will be countries and using this language in conversations to talk about where we live.

PE

Our PE focuses this half term are football and dance. We will be having weekly dance sessions with Integr8 and are looking forward to continuing our football coaching with Lions in the Community every Wednesday afternoon. 

RE

Within our RE sessions, we will looking at the concept of ritual and how it is expressed in Christianity. We will also consider if everyone feels the same about ritual throughout  our learning.

Music

Our music this half term links closely to the theme of Ancient Egypt. Throughout the half term, we will learn to identify the pitch and rhythm of written notes and experiment with notating our compositions, developing our understanding of staff notation. 

Science

Our topic in science this half term is circulation and we will be looking at how nutrients get to where they are needed in the body. We began the year exploring the function of the heart, blood vessels and blood. Across the half term, we will also recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs and lifestyle on the function of the body and the way in which nutrients and water are transported.

2022/2023

English

We began the new school year creating our own biographies. We started our writing journey by reading about some of the inspirational women in 'Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls' and summarising the information that we acquired from reading these biographies. Once we had retrieved, recorded and presented the information, we planned to write our own biographies in the style of the book, using a wide range of devices to build cohesion within and across paragraphs. We also integrated dialogue in order to include famous quotes from the figures. We presented these finished pieces as a collective book for others to enjoy in the library.

In a few weeks, we will move onto a new writing journey linked to our current history topic, Ancient Greece. Whilst reading 'Who Let the Gods Out', we will work towards writing our own third person narratives. We will focus on varying our sentence structures to build tension and suspense and using dialogue to convey character and advance the action.

Maths

Our maths learning this half term focused initially around number and place value - ordering and comparing number as well as rounding numbers accurately. We will now focus on the four operations and using formal written methods to accurately solve addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems. This will include findings factors and multiples of numbers and multiplying and dividing numbers by 10, 100 and 1,000.

Science

Evolution and natural selection is our topic this term. So far this term, we have considered what would happy if woolly mammoths came back and also the inherited/environmental characteristics that we have. We considered where we got these from and then had a go at creating our own dog top trumps by cross breeding, thinking carefully about breeds and their characteristics. We have also looked at how animals and plants have adapted to suit their environment and will go onto look at the success of different creatures' adaptation process. We will also look into the life of Charles Darwin and research how Lamarck's ideas were different to his and why Darwin's model was more successful. 

Guided Reading

Our text driver this term is Emma Carroll's novel 'Letters from the Lighthouse'. We have already met three of the protagonists (Olive, Sukie and Cliff) and have followed their journey in becoming evacuees during World War 2. We have been practising our reading skills through exploring the text as a class.

PE

Our PE focuses this term are dance and football. In dance, we are going to be choreographing our own Ancient Greek inspired dances and in groups, planning a routine around gladiators.

History

Our history topic this term is Ancient Greece. We started the topic completing an archaeological dig and explored the diet of the Ancient Greeks by looking at coprolites! We have also been able to locate Greece on a map and determine questions about Greek artefacts when exploring Priam's treasure. As well as this, we have considered the religious beliefs of the Ancient Greeks and the different roles in society. As the term progresses, we will be comparing ancient and modern democracy and also looking into the Battle of Marathon, writing our own recounts of the event. Finally, we will complete the topic by exploring the Olympics and how they have changed over time.

Computing

We will be learning about keeping safe on the internet this term as part of our e-safety unit. Our first session saw us understanding how apps can access our personal information and the importance of keeping passwords safe. This term, we will look at positive and negative aspects of online communication and how to stay safe online.

RE

We will be looking at some of the Christian miracle stories this term. We have already considered the terms 'godlike' and 'divine' and then have applied these terms to the miracle stories we have explored so far: Jesus walking on water and Jesus calming the storm. We will be creating our own butterflies of hope, inspired by the rising of Lazarus and will look into why the story of transfiguration is important to Christians. 

Music

Our music topic is film music this term. We have considered what we know about film music and how mood can be conveyed e.g. Jaws, Star Wars, Jurassic World. As the term progresses, we will then be creating our own compositions which we will perform.

Art

Our art learning is linked to our history topic, Ancient Greece, this term and we will be working towards making our own Ancient Greek masks.