Maths

At Humberstone we follow White Rose and use the Small Steps planning to structure our curriculum and lessons. Children will work through the units with opportunities to develop their fluency and apply their mathematical knowledge to reason and justify as well as solve mathematical problems. In Year 4, children will build upon their prior knowledge of place value to read, write and represent numbers to 10,000. Furthermore, they will be introduced to rounding numbers to 10, 100 and 1,000. Children will also consolidate and develop their knowledge of addition and subtraction and multiplication and division by using formal written methods to calculate accurately and efficiently. Throughout the year, the children will also build upon their knowledge of fractions before being introduced to decimals. The children will then revisit and apply this new learning during the teaching sequence on money. All children take part in a daily skills and drills session which provide them with opportunities to review prior learning as well as develop their automaticity in recalling their times tables and fundamental number facts. 

English:

In Year 4, as part of their English teaching the children will read: The Wolf’s Secret, The Iron Man, a selection of poems by Ted Hughes, The Butterfly Lion, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as well as Botanicum. Throughout the year, the children will have opportunities to develop their grammatical knowledge and vocabulary to support and enhance their own writing. The children will complete a range of outcomes including: narratives, non-fiction pieces and letters. Within guided reading sessions, there are further opportunities for children to analyse and read extracts from a wide range of high quality fiction, non-fiction texts and poems. 

Science

Science is taught discretely at Humberstone, in Year 4, the children will continue to develop their substantive and disciplinary knowledge through a range of taught topics. In the Autumn term, the children will be introduced to electricity. By the end of this topic, children will know how to make a simple series circuit using cells, wires, bulbs, switches and buzzers. The children will also carry out a scientific investigation to discover which materials are conductors of electricity and which materials are insulators. During the topic on animals including humans, the children will learn about the digestive system and the different types of teeth humans have and their function. As well as this, children will learn about food chains and build upon their knowledge and understanding of predators and prey by being introduced to the term producers.  In the Spring term, children will review their prior knowledge of everyday materials before learning about states of matter. During this topic, children will learn about the properties of solids, liquids and gases and observe materials changing state.  In the Summer term, children will learn about how sounds are made as well as how sound travels. Within the topic of living things and their habitats, the children will learn about classification keys and use these to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their environment and answer questions about animals found in the local area. The children will also have the opportunity to build upon their prior knowledge of plants by grouping these into categories. Throughout the year, the children will have the opportunity to carry out scientific investigations to develop and deepen their knowledge of fair testing by learning about variables. Furthermore, cross curricular links provide the children with the opportunity to apply what they have learnt during their unit on data and statistics in Maths to present their findings from investigations using line graphs and bar charts. 

History Projects

In History, children begin by learning about The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain. Throughout this project, the children will have the opportunity to develop their knowledge of the substantive concepts: empire, settlement and invasion. Children will learn when the Romans conquered Britain, the impact the Romans had on architecture as well as learn where there is evidence of Roman sites in Leicester and visit these. The children will carry out a case study of Kathleen Kenyon – the archaeologist who excavated the Jewry Wall in Leicester – to develop their knowledge of how historians find out about the past. In the Spring term, the children will learn about Empire Windrush and why this is classed as a significant event in their local area. As part of this project, the children will develop their disciplinary knowledge by finding out how historians use specific sources of information to find out about the past.

Geography Projects

In Year 4, the first Geography project is focused around how and why the world’s geographical features have changed over time. By the end of this project, the children will know that both human actions and physical geographical processes such as erosion and desertification can impact geographical features and landscapes. Within the Summer term, the children will learn that topography describes the physical features of an area of land and that a topographic map uses contour lines and relief patterns to show the rise and fall in elevation of an area. As part of this project, the children will also learn to read an Ordnance Survey Map and use this to plan and carry out a walking route in Derbyshire. 

Art

Within the Art curriculum in Year 4, the children will study a range of artists, paradigms and outcomes. In the Autumn term, the children will apply their new knowledge of fabrics and textiles to produce a woven landscape inspired by the artist Ann Roth. In the Spring term, the children build upon their prior knowledge of printing to print a repeated pattern in the style of the 19th century British artist William Morris. In the Summer term, the children will visit the Fitzwilliam Museum as part of their Art Gallery visit. The children will also learn about Claude Monet and analyse some of his most famous paintings to develop their knowledge of painting as well as tone and shade. At the end of this unit, the children will create a landscape painting inspired by Monet and their visit to the Peak District as part of their Geography project. 

Design

Within the design and technology curriculum the children learn about the design cycle and will design, plan, make and evaluate in line with different design briefs. The children will use research to inform their designs and will create innovative, functional and appealing products that are fit for purpose and aimed at particular individuals or groups. In Year 4, the children will build upon their knowledge of mechanical systems to produce a toy that uses a pneumatic system. The children will also have the opportunity to apply their scientific knowledge of electricity to design and create a working torch. In the Summer term, the children will also create computer aided designs for their project on shell structures.

RE

RE is taught weekly in Year 4 and throughout the year they explore the key concepts of Belonging, Holy Books and Worship. Children are encouraged to share their own ideas and views where appropriate. In the Autumn term, children learn that some religions use the metaphor ‘Life as Journey’ and explore ceremonies which represent significant milestones on this journey such as Bar Mitzvah in Judaism and Confirmation in Christianity. Children then  build upon their knowledge of Hinduism which will include a trip to a Hindu temple. In the Spring term, children consider why Jesus is inspiring to some people. By the end of this unit, children will know that the events of Holy Week and Easter tell us why Jesus is so important to Christians today as well how these events are celebrated by Christians. In the Summer term, children learn why festivals are important to religious communities, considering the similarities and differences between the beliefs that festivals express.

PE

The children will have two lessons of PE a week and they will be taught by a specialist sports coach as well as their class teacher. In Year 4, the children will have the opportunity to build upon their prior knowledge, and skills. The children will develop their flexibility, strength, control and balance through their unit of gymnastics  alongside developing the basic principles of attacking and defending through Handball, Football and Netbell. Within Athletics, the children have many opportunities to compare their own performances with previous ones and demonstrate improvements in order to achieve personal bests.  The children will also have the opportunity to take part in various sports clubs, events and competitions throughout the year. As well as this, the children will have weekly swimming lessons in the Spring term to develop their ability to swim a minimum of 25 metres unaided.

MCT

In Year 4, the children will continue to build upon their knowledge of coding to create programs by planning, modifying and testing commands to create shapes and patterns. In the Spring term, the children will apply their knowledge and understanding of networks to appreciate the internet as a network of networks which need to be kept secure. They will learn that the World Wide Web is part of the internet, and be given opportunities to explore the World Wide Web for themselves to learn about who owns content and what they can access, add, and create. They will also evaluate online content to decide how honest, accurate, or reliable it is, and understand the consequences of false information. Towards the end of the academic year children will explore the concept of repetition in programming using Scratch. Children will look at the difference between count controlled and infinite loops and use their knowledge to modify existing animations and games using repetition.

Music

In Year 4, children will learn about Ostinatos and know the difference between a melodic ostinato and a rhythmic ostinato. Throughout this unit, the children will have the opportunity to imitate and perform a rhythmic ostinato and work collaboratively to compose a rhythmic ostinato. There will be opportunities to explore the History and origins of Roman music and learn about the instruments the Romans used to create music. The children will then learn about the composer Johann Pachelbel through their unit on Ground Bass and Variation. Throughout this unit, the children will learn that a Ground Bass is a repeating bass pattern and know that a variation is how a melody changes each time it is played. In the Spring term, the children will explore music from South America and the Caribbean which provides opportunities for cross curricular links as the children will be learning about the Windrush Generation in History. In the Spring term, the children will have the opportunity to build upon their prior knowledge of Ukuleles and apply their new knowledge to play a part on a Ukulele as part of a whole class performance. Within the Summer term, children will have the opportunity to consolidate and build upon their prior knowledge of notation before they move onto looking at Musical Theatre. Throughout this unit, children will learn that Andrew Lloyd Webber is a composer of Musical Theatre and develop their knowledge and understanding of the stories, origins and the social context of musical theatre. Throughout the Music Curriculum, children will have the opportunity to develop their scientific knowledge of sound.