Summer Term

English

In English, we have been developing our writing skills looking at the text Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. The children have been learning about the achievements and determination of four iconic women at key moments in American and world history. This has provided the inspiring context for children to write for a range of purposes and for different formal and informal contexts. Our writing activities within this unit include non-chronological reports, job adverts, formal persuasive letters, informal letters, diary entries, character descriptions, and opinion pieces.

Maths

This term with have been looking at decimals and percentages. The children have been becoming more familiar with numbers with up to 2 decimal places, with thousandths being introduced. We have been making decimal numbers using place value counters in a place value chart and reading/writing the numbers, as well as working out the value of each digit in the number. We have also been partitioning decimal numbers in a variety of ways.

Geography

In Geography, our topic has been North America, with a focus on Mexico. This unit has introduced the children to the key features of the continent of North America. The children have been gaining an understanding of the different environments present within North America: the key physical features, where populations are distributed, and some of the interactions between the human and physical environments focusing on food, farming and water. 

Science

Science week took place this half term, and we experimented with air resistance. This reinforced our learning from the spring term!

Our Science topic this half term has been Earth and Space. The children have been using enquiry based learning to describe the movement of the Earth and other planets relative to the sun in the solar system, describe the movement of the moon relative to the Earth, describe the sun, Earth and moon as approximately spherical bodies and to use the idea of the Earth’s rotation to explain day and night and the apparent movement of the sun across the sky. Throughout this unit, we have looked at key scientists such as Nicolaus Copernicus and Tim Peake. They also had a trip to the Science Museum where they completed activities based on their learning.

ENGLISH

Autumn Term

In English, we have been reading Julius Zebra, a story about a Zebra who gets captured in his home in Africa and taken to Rome to compete as a Gladiator for Emperor Hadrian himself!We have been practising writing direct speech. We have been building on our knowledge of subordinate clauses from year 4 and challenging ourselves to use them in our writing. We have written a narrative and a formal letter of complaint from Septimus to Emperor Hadrian, ensuring we include formal language and modal verbs!

Spring Term

In English, we will be developing our writing skills through looking at the text Pride, The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag by Rob Sanders in which children begin by exploring the symbolism and the history of the Rainbow/Pride Flag before discovering the story and significance of Harvey Milk as well as other figures central to the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement of San Francisco in the late 1970s and beyond. During this sequence they will have the opportunity to write leaflets about the Pride Flag, speeches in role as Harvey Milk and to eventually create a biography of the activist’s life.

MATHS

We started off our year with Place Value, where children continued to build on previous knowledge of numbers. 

Count:

• count forwards or backwards in steps of powers of 10 for any given number up to 1 000 000
• count forwards and backwards with positive and negative whole numbers, including through zero

Represent: 

• read, write, (order and compare) numbers to at least 1 000 000 and determine the value of each digit
• read Roman numerals to 1000 (M) and recognise years written in Roman numerals

Use and compare

• (read, write) order and compare numbers to at least 1 000 000 and determine the value of each digit 

Problems/Rounding

• interpret negative numbers in context
• round any number up to 1 000 000 to the nearest 10, 100, 1000, 10 000 and 100 000
• solve number problems and practical problems that involves all of the above

HISTORY

Our topic this half term is Roman Britain. We will be learning about the Romans and their impact on Britain and their historical legacy. So far we have used our mapping skills to map the expansion of the Roman Empire. We used the old maps paired with modern-day maps to identify which modern-day countries were part of the Roman Empire. We have investigated and become acquainted with many of the Roman Gods. We used our new knowledge to make a 'Top Trump' card game.

SCIENCE - CHEMISTRY

Our topic is 'Properties and Changes of Materials'. We have been identifying the properties of different materials and linking that to our previous knowledge - such as understanding whether something is a conductor of electricity based on its properties. We investigated thermal conductors by carrying out an experiment using various different cups containing boiling water. We measured how quickly the temperature of the water decreased over a period of time. We then chose the data of one of the cups to display on a line graph.




 
 

ART AND DESIGN

To start off the Autumn term, we participated in our school's annual art week. The theme this year was 'Flower Power'. We studied a variety of artists such as India Flint and Henri Rousseau. We developed our skills in drawing, 3D form, and printmaking, We used our exploration of artists to develop our ideas and plan for final individual and collaborative pieces. 

COMPUTING

In computing, we have been developing our understanding of computer systems and how information is transferred between systems and devices. We have been considering small-scale systems as well as large-scale systems. We can explain the input, output, and process aspects of a variety of different real-world systems. We have also been discovering how information is found on the World Wide Web, through learning how search engines work (including how they select and rank results) and what influences searching, and through comparing different search engines.

PE

In the Autumn term, our topics are 'Games (sending skills using hands)' and 'Gymnastics'

In the Spring term, our topics are 'Games (tag rugby)' and 'Games (attack & defence)'

Please see below for an outline of our Curriculum Journey!

RE

Our current unit is "What do religions believe about God? All faiths and world views". We are considering what faith means and the different ways in which Christians and followers of other religions describe God. We have also been thinking about meanings of stories from sacred texts about people who encountered God and why there are many ideas about God.

PSHE

MUSIC

SPANISH

Autumn Term

This term, the children will learn to:

•  Name and recognise up to 10 vegetables in Spanish.
  Attempt to spell some of these nouns (including the correct article)
• Learn simple vocabulary to facilitate a role play about buying
  vegetables from a market stall.
• Say if they would like one kilo or a half kilo of a particular vegetable
  or selection of vegetables. 

Spring Term

This term our topic is 'What is the weather?", the children will learn to:

• Repeat and recognise the vocabulary for weather in Spanish.
• Ask and say what the weather is like today.
• Create a Spanish weather map.
• Describe the weather in different regions of Spain using a weather
  map with symbols.