In both Whole Class Reading and English we will be continuing to explore the story of “The Odyssey” by Gillian Cross. Last term, we journeyed with Odysseus and his men as he tried to make his way back to Ithaca.  We accompanied him as escaped from the man-eating Cyclops and the evil sorceress Circe. This term we will go on our final journeys as he meets the Sirens and the wrath of the sea-god Poseidon, and discover if Odysseus and his men make it home. During our Whole Class Reading sessions we will be focusing on our fluency, building on our ability to read with expression, and developing our comprehension skills, through our use of the text to retrieve our answers. 

In our writing we will focus on speech punctuation and dialogue. The children will take part in some action packed drama lessons as we recreate scenes from Odysseus’ travel to help them identify where a character is speaking, where the reporting clause is and where the narrative continues. We will then move onto focusing on how the author has included speech, sentence length and use of expressive language. The children will learn the importance of using paragraphs to help them plan and organise their ideas.  Throughout our writing lessons, we will refine and develop our writing using a range of grammatical devices, including: suffixes, synonyms, simple, compound and complex sentences, paragraphs, fronted adverbials, comma splices, relative pronouns, conjunctions, homophones and similes.

We will use all of the knowledge gained from our Whole Class Reading and English sessions to produce a narrative between Odysseus and his men.  The children will then explore the concepts of loyalty and perseverance through the authorship of a letter from Odysseus to his wife, Penelope. 

In Maths we will be continuing to develop our understanding of place value and our knowledge of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division through daily mental and written challenges.  Our five in five arithmetic challenges will be expanded to include automatic recall of our times tables and solving worded problems. We will start the term with an introduction to fractions where the children will learn about denominators and numerators and comparing and ordering unit fractions and on a number line. We will then move on to a focus on measurement, learning how to measure and compare the mass of objects using grams and kilograms, before moving on to measuring capacity and volume in millilitres and litres. We will end the term with a return to fractions, where we will use all our previously gained knowledge and apply this as we learn how to add and subtract fractions.

In Art, we will build on last term’s History theme of the Anglo Saxons, by focusing on artefacts found at the burial ground at Sutton Hoo, illuminated letters painted in the Lindisfarne Gospels and The Bayeux Tapestry. The children will learn that metal treasures found in a burial mound at Sutton Hoo used interlocking and interlaced patterns and then move on to discover that similar interlocking and interlaced designs are used in the Lindisfarne Gospels. The children will use the metal objects and manuscript designs as inspiration for making their own interlocking and interlaced designs using watercolours. The children will focus on accurate and detailed brushwork, using watercolours to make an eye catching design. We will finish the term looking at the Bayeux Tapestry, produced at the end of the Anglo Saxon era and will show the children how art can tell a story, rather like an old-fashioned comic strip. The Bayeux Tapestry tells the story of 1066 and the Battle of Hastings. The children will end their study of Anglo Saxon art by creating a collaged boat, using textiles, in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry.

In Design Technology the children will design and make a pop up book using levers, sliders and linkages. The children will start by researching and investigating how a lever and a slider works and then investigate how linkages work, what function they perform (looking at everyday examples) and the different component parts within the mechanism. They will create two linkage systems as prototypes for their book. In the design session, the children will design their pop up books incorporating linkage mechanisms. They will learn about the process of design, developing their own design criteria, considering the user, purpose/function and aesthetic appeal of their product. In the third session, the children will incorporate their knowledge of levers, sliders and linkages to bring their design to life as they make their very own pop up books.  Finally, they will look at, use and evaluate each other’s final products.

In Geography the children will begin by locating the South West region of England, identifying the shape of the land, a peninsula, and then looking at its climate and the effect the Gulf Stream has. We will move on to locating the National Parks and areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty on a map of the South West. The children will identify the counties in the region and label a map with key places. We will then move onto learning that the South West of England is a peninsula and that it is an area known for its coastlines. They will learn that the Jurassic Coast is known around the world for its rocks that tell a story of what the land was like millions of years ago. Children will learn that the waves and the weather along coastlines can cause erosion including landslides and rockfalls and look at Durdle Door as an example of coastline eroding over time in interesting ways. The children will learn that geologists are people who study rocks. We will look at tourism and its importance in the South West of England. The children will learn that tourists come to the South West for a number of reasons including the areas of outstanding natural beauty, the beaches, the moors and the historic buildings. They will look specifically at Stone Henge, Glastonbury Tor

and the Eden Project. The children will then move on to learning about the link between climate an agriculture in the Southwest. They will use a climate map to describe the climate of the South West. They will learn that barley, wheat and oats are all grown in the South West and that this area is well known for its dairy produce including cheddar cheese and clotted cream. We will finish the term by exploring how the South West has changed over time. The children will be taken on a journey from the Jurassic times, through Roman settlement and Norman activity in the region. Children will learn that tin was mined in Cornwall and used to make bronze. 

In History our learning about the Anglo Saxons continues. This term we will be learning about the monk and scholar, Bede the Venerable, who wrote a book about the English people and the church. We will then move on to learning about the Vikings and the significance of Viking Long ships that enabled them to travel, trade, raid and invade. They will look at the relationship between the Anglo Saxons and the Vikings; the battles and the compromises that took placeduring this period. They will learn about the lives of significant people during this period such as Alfred the Great, King Canute and Edward the Confessor and about the famous Battle of Hastings in 1066.

In Latin we will continue to learn about  our Roman family, living in England, and learn about their lifestyles, home and food. The children will learn how to read, and translate, stories about the family and how to communicate in simple Latin sentences.  Throughout their learning journey, the children will start to see how the roots of many commonly used English words today actually came from Latin.

In RE we will be exploring the Sikh faith to help us answer the question “How does the teaching of the gurus move Sikhs from dark to light?”.  The children will begin by engaging with the idea of someone who helps them move from the light to the dark, either at home or at school.  They will learn what a Guru is and then compare this with adults who support them.  We will then enquire into the idea of Nanak as a Guru and learn about what this important story teaches Sikhs.  Our enquiries into Guru Nanak continue as we learn how he challenged people’s beliefs about different faiths and focused on what people had in common with each other, rather than focusing on dividing differences.  The children will then explore how the Sikh Holy book, the Gurdwara and Mool Mantar support learning.



In Science, the children will look at flowering plants, their features and the functions of their features. They will look at specific species including hydrangea and cacti. We will learn that the scientific study of plants is called botany and that what we understand about plants comes from contributions from many botanists over the years.  We learn  about Joseph Banks, the famous botanist who gathered over 30,000 plant specimens on his travels around the world with Captain Cook and Agnes Arber, who was one of the first women to be recognised for her contribution to botany. The children will develop their understanding of what botanists do by looking closely at plant specimens, drawing and annotating pictures and diagrams.  They will study and ask questions about how plants behave, for

example how they reproduce.  We will then move on to learning that although plants all need light and water to thrive, they need it in differing amounts. They will recognise that plants grow in diverse environments around the world and even within a garden, there are some plants better suited to particular places than others. The children will then go on to focus on how plants transport water from their roots to the rest of the plant. They will see how celery does this by investigating what happens when we place a stick of celery in brightly coloured inky water. The children will learn about pollination and seed dispersal, two vital parts of the life cycle of a plant. There is an emphasis on interconnection and we will discover how animals, such as bees, are vital for the pollination process and also, in some instances, for seed dispersal.