Lower Key Stage 2
Foxyards Primary School
Curriculum newsletter
Summer Term 2015
At Foxyards we:
Respect everybody and our environment.
Aim high in everything we do.
Year 3/4
Mr Weaver
Phase leader
Year 3
Miss Hadley
Year 4
Mr Hickman
Support Staff
Mrs Morris
Miss Mountford
Mrs Robinson
Welcome back to all staff, children, parents and carers after an exciting Easter break! The children
worked exceptionally hard last term and progress made so far is looking good. Our children who haven’t
made as much progress will continue to be targeted in various interventions, led by our support staff.
Last term they did a great job in supporting various children, of all abilities, in helping them make the
progress that is expected of them and so that they can achieve to their full potential.
Science
Our topic for the first half term will be ’Animals, including humans’, whereby the children will explore
teeth and their importance in both humans and animals before learning about the digestive system. In
the second half term, we will investigate ‘Sound’, looking at how sounds are made; recognising that vibrations occur when sound travels; find patterns between the pitch and volume of sounds and recognise how
sounds get fainter as the distance from the source increases.
ICT
This term we will be using the online programme Purple Mash to use writing frames linked to our topic
about ‘The Great Escape’ to improve their typing and presentational skills. We will also continue to develop the children’s understanding of coding through using 2Code as well as using Revelation, to create artistic patterns and designs. We will also continue to develop their understanding of e-safety through learning how to stay safe online.
PE
On Fridays, Year 3 will continue with swimming lessons while Year 4 will be taught games sessions led by
our Specialist P.E. Teacher Jeanette Evans, who is employed through ‘A Sporting Chance’.
Music
This term Miss Mountford will continue to teach Music throughout the Phase during afternoon sessions.
The focus of these sessions will be listening to and exploring musical moods. Later on, they will develop
their singing through the use of singing games.
RE
Miss Mountford will also continue teaching RE throughout the Phase during afternoon sessions. This term
the focus will surround Buddhism where the children will learn about religious celebrations associated
with this religion. Later on in the term, the children will learn about a religion of their choice.
MFL
This term Year 4 will be focussing on spoken French while the Year 3s are swimming. Sessions will be led
on a Friday by Mrs Jones, who is a specialist French Teacher.
Literacy
This term we will be exploring a range of genres, including: Playscripts, Information texts, Instructions, Poetry and Stories with a familiar setting. These genres will be supported by various
texts linked to our topic for the term, ‘The Great Escape’, such as ‘Extracts from Zlata’s Diary’
by Zlata Filipovic, ‘The story of Harry, A World War Two Evacuee’ by Andrew Donkin, ‘The Lion
and the Unicorn’ by Shirley Hughes and ‘War Boy’ by Michael Foreman.
Each genre will undergo a cycle, starting with Immersion of Text, followed by a piece of assessed writing and VCOP (where the children will develop their understanding of VCOP—
Vocabulary, Conjunctions, Openers and Punctuation) to improve their writing. The last part of
the cycle will contain modelling, demonstrations and up-levelling of work to improve its complexity.
Children will also read at least once a week in a group during Guided Reading. Please help your
child by hearing them read at home in order to achieve the ‘Reading at Home’ certificates.
Homework will be set on a Thursday and will be expected in no later than Tuesday morning. The
homework task will be explained in class, and will generally be an activity to consolidate learning.
Please encourage your child to check that they understand what they need to do on a Thursday,
and bring it back into school on Friday or Monday to ask a teacher if they are unsure.
Maths
This term we will revisiting and building on the children’s understanding of all the previous areas
taught, further developing the children’s understanding of place value, counting, rounding and
learning known facts such as number bonds to 10 and times tables, as these continue to be a vital
part of the Maths Challenges this term. We also have a big focus on problem solving this term,
as this is an area that most children find challenging.
Homework will be set on a Thursday and will be expected in no later than Tuesday morning. The
homework task will be explained in class, and will generally be an activity to consolidate learning.
Please encourage your child to check that they understand what they need to do on a Thursday,
and bring it back into school on Friday or Monday to ask a teacher if they are unsure.
Please be aware that homework is a statutory requirement and helps pupils to reinforce what
they have learnt in class. Incomplete homework will be completed during break and lunch times.
Topic
This term, we begin a new topic ‘The Great Escape’. This will have a Geography focus, looking at
the movement of people throughout the world over the last 100 years. For example, children
evacuated during World War II or, more recently, refugees from the Syrian war.
We will be focussing on the following areas:

Use maps, atlases and globes to find features of countries (inc. surround seas/oceans)

Make field sketches of the features of a location.

Draw maps and plans of localities I have studied, which includes symbols and keys on maps
to communicate knowledge, the eight points of a compass and basic grid references.

Name and locate the countries of Europe and identify their main physical and human characteristics.

Develop geographical language when describing similarities and differences between given
countries.

Using photographs and aerial maps identify how the local area has changed over time.