Year 4

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Meet the Staff

Class Teacher: Veronika Eager

Teaching Assistant: Debbie Pearce

Year 4 Term 2 curriculum overview

Exploring Anglo-Saxon Britain

This term, Year 4 will explore the world of the Anglo-Saxons and Scots, using stories, historical evidence and creative work to deepen understanding. Anglo-Saxon Boy will inspire our English learning. We will also investigate sound, strengthen multiplication and division skills, and explore how empathy and peaceful choices support our relationships.

English: reading Anglo-Saxon Boy

We will read and discuss Anglo-Saxon Boy, developing our understanding of character, setting and events. Children will infer thoughts and feelings from actions and dialogue, support interpretations with evidence and explain how their ideas develop as they read. We will summarise important events and discuss how an author creates atmosphere or tension.

Historical vocabulary will be explored in context and revisited in discussion and writing. Children will recognise that historical fiction combines a researched setting with storytelling. We will connect the novel with our history learning while checking which details are supported by historical sources.

Writing: letters, description and speeches

Children will write a letter linked to the text, considering who is writing, who will receive it and why. They will organise information into paragraphs, choose an appropriate greeting and ending, and develop a voice that reflects the writer’s situation and feelings. Oral rehearsal will help them decide which details the reader needs.

Descriptive writing will focus on selecting precise details to bring a character or setting to life. Children will explore how vocabulary, sensory details and sentence choices influence the reader. They will discuss the effect of a phrase and improve descriptions that are vague or repetitive.

Our speech writing will develop the ability to address an audience with a clear purpose. Children will organise ideas logically, support points with reasons and choose an effective opening and ending. Rehearsing aloud will help them consider pace, emphasis and whether a listener can follow their message.

Grammar, spelling and editing

We will use pronouns to avoid unnecessary repetition while keeping it clear who is being discussed. Children will practise apostrophes for contractions and possession, including the distinction between one warrior’s shield and several warriors’ shields.

Fronted adverbials will help vary sentence openings: “Before sunrise, the travellers set off.” We will practise the comma that follows the opening phrase. Prefixes will help us explore changes in meaning, such as appear/disappear and possible/impossible. Editing will bring these skills together through checks for accuracy, clarity and impact.

Key vocabulary: inference, atmosphere, audience, purpose, paragraph, pronoun, apostrophe, fronted adverbial, prefix.

At home: Ask your child to explain a character’s decision using a detail from the story, or rehearse a short speech giving reasons for a familiar choice.

Mathematics and science

Mathematics: multiplication and division

Across our multiplication and division units, children will build fluency while explaining how calculations work. We will connect equal groups, arrays and number sentences, and use multiplication facts to find related division facts. For example, knowing that 7 × 8 = 56 helps us explain why 56 ÷ 7 = 8.

Children will continue developing recall of times-table facts towards the Year 4 expectation of facts up to 12 × 12. They will explore factor pairs, use known facts to work out unfamiliar ones, and explain the effects of multiplying by zero or one and dividing by one. We will also use place value to connect calculations such as 6 × 4 and 6 × 40.

Partitioning will support calculations with larger numbers. For 23 × 4, children can combine 20 × 4 and 3 × 4 to make 92. We will connect this reasoning with written multiplication, including two- and three-digit numbers multiplied by one digit as the unit progresses. Division work will use grouping, sharing and related multiplication to explain each step.

Problems will involve equal groups, scaling quantities and deciding which calculation is needed. Children will estimate, choose a method and check whether an answer fits the situation. Explaining a mistake will be as valuable as finding a correct answer.

Key vocabulary: factor, product, multiple, equal groups, partition, scaling, inverse.

At home: Ask for a related division fact when practising a times table. Use everyday problems, such as the total in six packs of eight or sharing 48 objects equally.

Science: sound

We will investigate how sound is produced by vibrations and how it travels through a material, such as air, to our ears. Children will observe or feel vibrations in suitable classroom examples and use labelled diagrams to explain the connection between a sound source and a listener.

We will distinguish pitch—how high or low a sound is—from volume—how loud or quiet it is. Children will explore how changes to an object affect its sound and how stronger vibrations relate to greater volume. Investigations will also consider why a sound becomes fainter as the listener moves farther from its source.

Children will make predictions, identify what to change and what to keep the same, and record observations clearly. They will look for patterns in their results and use evidence to explain a conclusion. We will connect this learning with the sounds made by voices and musical instruments.

Key vocabulary: sound source, vibration, medium, pitch, volume, distance, pattern.

Supporting learning at home

Ask your child to explain a historical claim, teach you a Spanish number or describe the difference between pitch and volume. Read together and discuss different characters’ perspectives. Short conversations, including in your home language, help children rehearse ideas and strengthen understanding.

History, art and digital creativity

History: Anglo-Saxons and Scots

We will explore Britain after Roman rule and investigate who the Anglo-Saxons and Scots were, where people travelled and where they settled. Timelines and maps will help children place this period in relation to earlier learning and recognise that Britain was made up of different communities and kingdoms.

Children will investigate everyday life, including homes, work, beliefs and craftsmanship. They will consider reasons people might move to a new place and explore how settlements developed. Comparisons with life today will focus on specific evidence, helping children explain both similarities and differences without assuming everyone in the past lived in the same way.

We will use photographs of artefacts, buildings and archaeological finds to practise historical enquiry. Children will describe what a source shows, make a supported inference and identify questions it leaves unanswered. Comparing sources will help us consider how reliable an interpretation is and why a single object cannot tell the whole story of a community.

Key vocabulary: migration, settlement, kingdom, chronology, artefact, source, inference.

Art: monoprinting inspired by Anglo-Saxon art

We will examine decorative details in Anglo-Saxon objects, noticing the use of line, shape, pattern and animal forms. Children will record ideas in sketches and select features to develop into an original design. They will explain which details inspired their choices and how they have adapted them.

Through monoprinting, children will create individual prints by transferring a prepared image from a surface to paper. We will experiment with mark-making, the amount of printing material and the pressure used. Comparing trials will help children identify what produces a clear line or an interesting texture, refine their technique and evaluate the finished composition.

Key vocabulary: monoprint, motif, line, texture, composition, transfer, pressure.

Computing: combining images and photographs

Children will create digital artwork by combining images and photographs. We will explore selecting, resizing, cropping and arranging images to communicate an idea. Children will compare different versions, considering how placement and scale change the overall effect, then save work with a clear name so it can be retrieved and improved.

We will discuss how an edited image can give a different impression from an original photograph. Children will use approved source materials and learn to recognise when an image is a creative composition rather than an unchanged record of an event.

Key vocabulary: crop, resize, composition, edit, source image, digital artwork.

Bringing learning to life

The curriculum map includes an Anglo-Saxon day and a visit from an Anglo-Saxon character. Arrangements will be shared once confirmed. These experiences will support questioning, discussion and reflection on how historical interpretations are constructed.

Beliefs, wellbeing and performance

Religious education: peace

We will explore what peace can mean for an individual, a friendship and a wider community. Children will consider how religious and non-religious ideas can encourage peaceful living, and discuss examples of people responding to disagreement. They will reflect on the difference between simply being quiet and helping others feel safe, respected and heard.

Discussion will help children compare viewpoints, ask thoughtful questions and give reasons for their own ideas. We will consider how actions such as listening, apologising and making amends can contribute to peace, while recognising that difficult situations may need adult support.

Key vocabulary: peace, belief, community, conflict, reconciliation, respect.

PSHE: empathy

Children will develop empathy by considering how a situation might feel to somebody else. We will use stories and everyday scenarios to notice emotional clues, listen without interrupting and check our understanding instead of assuming we know how another person feels.

We will practise choosing helpful responses, such as acknowledging a feeling, including someone or asking what support they need. Children will learn that understanding another person’s feelings does not mean agreeing with every action. They will consider when to seek help from a trusted adult and how respectful disagreement can protect relationships.

Key vocabulary: empathy, perspective, emotion, listening, support, disagreement.

Physical education: dance

We will develop and perform dance sequences with increasing control, coordination and expression. Children will explore changes in level, direction, speed and movement quality to communicate a theme. Working with others will involve agreeing a sequence, practising transitions and keeping time together. We will use specific feedback to refine a movement and evaluate how clearly the performance communicates its intention.

Key vocabulary: sequence, transition, coordination, expression, timing, feedback.

Music: Christmas songs

Children will learn and rehearse Christmas songs, developing accurate pitch, clear diction and a steady pulse. We will listen for entries, endings and changes in volume, and practise singing together with confidence. Rehearsal will help children remember lyrics, respond to cues and explain how a change in expression affects the mood of a song.

Key vocabulary: pitch, pulse, diction, dynamics, cue, expression.

Spanish: numbers and instructions

We will learn to recognise, say and use numbers to 31 through counting, listening and matching activities. Children will practise responding to familiar instructions and connect the spoken language with an action. Repeated short exchanges will build accurate pronunciation and confidence, gradually reducing the need for an adult model.

Key vocabulary: veinte (20), treinta (30), treinta y uno (31), escucha (listen), mira (look), repite (repeat).

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