ENGLISH
Pupils will follow a complete literacy programme designed
to stimulate and challenge their thinking whilst creating
enthusiastic, lifelong readers and writers. Reading, writing
composition, grammar, vocabulary, transcription, critical
thinking and spoken language will be developed.
Fiction text focus: ‘Runaways!’ by Jim Eldridge (A
story with a historical setting)
Suggestions for wider reading: ‘Hetti Feather’ by Jaqueline
Wilson & Nick Sharatt, ‘Smith’ by Leon Garfield, ‘Street
Child’ by Belie Doherty, ‘Cecily’s Portrait’ by Adele Geras,
‘Lizzie’s Wish’ by Adele Geras
‘The Fly and the Fool’ by Lou Kuenzler (playscript)
Suggestions for wider reading: ‘Children of the Dragon:
Selected Tales from Vietnam’ by Sherry Garland & Trina
Schart Hyman, ‘Stories from Around the World’ by Heather
Amery & Linda Edwards, ‘Illustrated Stories from Grimm’
by Ruth Brocklehurst, Gill Doherty and Raffaella Ligi,
‘Brothers Grim Folk Tales’ by The Brothers Grimm, Michael
Foremand & Brian Alderson
Non-fiction text focus: London Herald’ & ‘VIPER!’ Critics’ Review ‘VIPER!’ - A Film Trailer (Persuasive
Writing)
Main Grammar focus:
 Standard & Non-standard English
 Adverbials, including fronted adverbials
 Plurals, possession & apostrophes
YEAR 4 TOPICS
SPRING TERM
These Colston’s Topic Plans
are intended to provide an
outline of our curriculum in
the main subject areas. It is
hoped this will provide a
useful guide for parents,
who may wish to aid and
support learning at home.
(Please note it is not
intended
to
be
an
exhaustive checklist of work
covered as teachers need
the flexibility to modify and
adapt
these
areas
of
learning).
MATHS
 Divide 2-digit numbers by 10 to create 1-place decimal
numbers
 Relate fractions to decimals (0.1 º 1/10)
 Add amounts of money using expanded and compact
addition
 Add three 2-digit numbers using compact addition
 Subtract 3-digit numbers
 Conversions for weight and length
 Identify equivalent fractions, especially in relation to halves
and quarters
 Simplify fractions by reducing to their simplest form
 Multiply multiples of 10 and 100 by single-digit numbers
 Use negative numbers in context of temperature
 Add/subtract single-digit numbers to and from 3 and 4-digit
numbers
 Add and subtract multiples of 10, 100 and 1000
 Use decomposition to subtract three-digit numbers
 Tell time on digital and analogue clocks using 24 hour
clock
 Use x, y co-ordinates on a graph (first quadrant)
 Revise all times tables up to 12 × 12
 Use partitioning to multiply 3-digit numbers by 1-digit
numbers
 Divide 2-digit numbers by single-digit numbers (with
remainders)
SCIENCE
Electricity
 Electrical safety
 Constructing simple circuits
 Using switches
 Testing conductors and insulators
 Testing light bulbs
States of Matter
 Solids liquids and gasses
 Temperature
 Using a thermometer accurately
 Changing states of matter
 Evaporation and condensation
 Water cycle
ART
Home Sweet Home:
 Sketches, paintings and ceramic work
based on children’s homes.
COMPUTING
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Understand the conventions for
collaborative online work, particularly
in wikis and blogs.
Become familiar with Wikipedia,
including potential problems
associated with its use.
Practise online research skills
Develop key word processing skills
Use computer-based data logging
Use spreadsheets to create charts
Practise using video and presentation
software
DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY
This term the children will be looking at the
construction of torches. They will look at
the basic requirements of a torch and how
they operate. A simple circuit will be
explored and then included in the design.
All the children will make a torch.
GEOGRAPHY
Understanding Towns:
 What are the features of a town?
 How did towns begin?
 How does a town work?
Food and shops:
 Where does our food come from?
 How does food get to a supermarket?
 Investigating local shops
Caring for towns:
 What happens to old buildings?
 How can places be improved?
 Comparing places
HISTORY
The Middle Ages:
 Knights: Jousting and Tournaments,
heraldry
 Food, farming and feasting
 Crime and punishment
 Henry II and Thomas Becket
 The Crusades: Richard the Lionheart
and Saladin
· King John and the Magna Carta
MFL


Parts of the body
Clothes
MUSIC
Victorians:
 Playing recorders
 Singing songs about Victorian times
 Acting scenes from Oliver!
Indonesia and Gamelan:
 The history of Gamelan music
 To play simple Gamelan melodies
 Compose short Gamelan melodies
PHYSICAL EDUCATION

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Health related fitness
PE games
Gymnastics
RELIGIOUS STUDIES:
Inspirational People:
 Anne Frank
 Gandhi
 Mother Teresa
 Oscar Romero
Becoming an Adult:
 Christian confirmation and
believer’s baptism
 Jewish Bar Mitzvah
 Sikh Amrit