During the Autumn term, our Year 4 children complete a vehicle which focuses on the Historical study of the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons. During the unit, the children work with Mansfield Museum, where they will learn about the job of a museum curator and will acquire the skills needed to run their own exhibition.  The children will explore and gain an understanding of the Roman’s invasion of Britain; what daily life was like under the Romans; where the Romans invaded and settled in Britain; what their settlements were like; the achievements that the Romans made and the legacy they have on present life. They will then learn about when and why the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain, what daily life was like for them, where they settled and what their settlements were like. Children will use their knowledge to compare these two historical periods.  The children will learn the location of Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlements, use maps to locate key places and understand about the geographical features of the places. Using all of this newly acquired knowledge, children will create their own exhibit for parents and carers to visit.

In the Spring Term, our Year 4 children will carry out a Geographical study of North America, with a specific focus on Mexico, in their ‘Magnificent Mexico’ Curriculum Vehicle.  During this vehicle, the children will recap learning about the seven continents in the world, locate Mexico on a world map and locate the northern and Southern Hemisphere. The Vehicle will then focus on exploring the human and physical features of Mexico that people may discover when they were travelling. Furthermore, the children will study the Rio Grande River and understand features such as the source, mouth, delta, ox-bow lake, tributary and estuary. Then, describe the journey of the river for a helicopter tour of the Rio Grande. They will also look at Mexican culture including an in-depth study into Frida Kahlo and designing, making and evaluating their own Mexican dips. 

The children will work to produce their own travel guide for Mexico using all of their knowledge. They will have contact with a travel agent at Trail Finders, who will explain the role of a travel agent and the key qualities needed to work in the industry. 

In the Summer term, Year 4 will study an electrical game Curriculum Vehicle. The children will learn about practical games for children and young adults. They will explore different criteria for games and how it allows children with disabilities to play them. Year 4 will investigate different games and evaluate them according to their accessibility for their audience. They will learn about electrical circuits and how electricity is used within games and then research the barriers that children may have. The children will design, make and evaluate their own game against a success criteria.

During the final half of the Summer, our children will complete a Historical study through the Curriculum Vehicle ‘The Maya’.  The children will discover where and when the Ancient Maya lived; what daily life was like for the Maya people; what their settlements were like; the achievements they made and the legacy they have on present life. When looking at the culture of the Maya people, the children will complete an artist study into Maya designers and make paper mache masks. Whilst learning about the Maya civilisation, the children will learn about their link to cocoa and chocolate, the children will investigate the chocolate manufacture and marketing now and designing and making packaging, following a given success criteria. This Vehicle will be enhanced by a visit from Partake theatre to complete some fun Maya workshops.

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In English, children use high-quality texts to develop their vocabulary, reading comprehension and writing skills. They produce written outcomes for a range of purposes, including writing to entertain, persuade and inform. Throughout the year, children follow our writing process of Engage, Discover, Compose, Evaluate and Publish to develop, refine and celebrate their writing.

In Year 4, children read a broad range of increasingly challenging texts and authors. They continue to develop their retrieval, inference, prediction and summarising skills while discussing vocabulary. Children are encouraged to read regularly for both enjoyment and knowledge.

Grammar, punctuation and spelling remain a key focus. Children apply a growing range of grammatical features and punctuation accurately to improve the quality of their writing. They continue to strengthen their editing, handwriting and proofreading skills while developing confidence when speaking and presenting their work.

For more information about our English curriculum, please visit our Curriculum page.

In lower Key Stage 2, the principal focus of maths teaching is to ensure that children become increasingly fluent with whole numbers and the four operations, including number facts and the concept of place value. This should ensure that pupils develop efficient written and mental methods and perform calculations accurately with increasingly large whole numbers.

At this stage, children should develop their ability to solve a range of problems, including with simple fractions and decimal place value. Children will also draw with increasing accuracy and develop mathematical reasoning so they can analyse shapes and their properties, and confidently describe the relationships between them. It should ensure that they can accurately use measuring instruments and make connections between measure and number.

By the end of Year 4, children should have memorised their times tables up to and including the 12 times table, and they will show precision and fluency in their work. Pupils should read and spell mathematical vocabulary correctly and confidently, using their growing word reading knowledge and their knowledge of spelling.

If you want to see how Year 4 at Sutton Road are taught to apply different calculation techniques in maths, click here to view videos support guides. 

We teach our wider curriculum through a mix of discreet (stand-alone) sessions and those taught through the curriculum vehicle. For more information on our Curriculum Offer, please visit our Curriculum pages.