Curriculum in Snowdrops Class
At Tarporley, our hope is that all our children flourish so they can live life in all its fullness. John 10:10
In order that all learners grow and reach their full potential, we want our curriculum to:
Demonstrate BRAVERY – we want our teachers to be ambitious when planning our curriculum with high expectations of all learners. We want our learners to be brave, willing to take risks and get things wrong, and show resilience alongside a strong desire to learn and grow
Be OUTWARD-FACING – our curriculum will look beyond our school to our local community and will encourage children to see themselves as part of the wider national and global community. They will learn from other countries, faiths and cultures and we will celebrate differences while recognising that all life on Earth is precious. Our children will understand they have the power to affect change through courageous advocacy and both ask and answer Big Questions
Create memorable OPPORTUNITIES – we want our children’s time at Tarporley to be filled with happy memories that spark their curiosity, motivate them to reach their full potential, ensure learning is ‘sticky’ and instil in them a life-long love of learning. Our broad and ambitious curriculum will embrace learning outside the classroom, and will recognise the importance of cultural capital in preparing our children for life and learning beyond our school
Develop KNOWLEDGE and SKILLS – we recognise that knowledge is key. Our coherently planned and sequenced curriculum ensures all children can achieve, make sense of the world and make informed judgements and decisions. Vocabulary development will be at the heart of this. Our children will leave us with the skills they need to thrive in the next stage of their learning
Nurture SPIRITUALITY – led by our Christian Values, staff will nurture the whole child by developing their social, moral, cultural and spiritual well-being. We recognise spirituality as ways of being with God and the ways God is with us
…while always having high-quality BOOKS and reading at the heart of our teaching and learning!
This term, we will focus on...
English
We have a books-based approach to the teaching of writing and we choose books that will inspire, entertain and excite our children. We ask that you don’t read these books in advance as it’s lovely to discover them together. It’s also important that we can develop their prediction skills which is difficult if they already know the book!
Core text for autumn 1: Coming to England by Floella Benjamin which we’ll use to develop our letter-writing skills
Core text for autumn 2: Winter’s Child by Angela McAllister which we’ll use to inspire a fantasy story
In Guided Reading, we'll be exploring a nonfiction text about the Windrush story, and in autumn 2, we’ll read the fantasy story The Ice Palace by Robert Swindells.
Maths
Geometry – Shape
Place Value
Addition and Subtraction
Multiplication and Division
Religious Education – Christianity
Answering the Big Question How do Christians use the Bible to help them with their lives? and exploring the symbolism around the celebration of Christmas will be the focus of our learning this term. We'll learn about the Bible as a sacred text, why it is important to Christians and the meanings behind the symbolism in the Christmas story.
Science – Forces and Magnets (Autumn 1)
We'll learn about how objects move on different surfaces, different types of forces and how they act on objects, whether objects are magnetic and making predictions.
Science – Light (Autumn 2)
In this unit of work, we will be learning about how light reflects from surfaces, how we can protect our eyes from light sources such as the sun, how shadows are formed and how we can alter the size of shadows.
Geography
Our theme this term is Our United Kingdom. We’ll focus on both the human and physical geography of the UK, naming the counties, using a range of maps including OS maps, and studying two contrasting cities in more detail.
Art and Design
Our artwork will be inspired by an autumn-themed poem, and we'll be developing our skills in sketching, telling a story through images, using colours sparingly for impact and working in a range of media such as pencils and charcoal.
Design and Technology
Structures will be our focus this term. We will explore nets and how they can make different shapes, while linking this with our work in Maths. Our final outcome will be to design and make packaging to protect biscuits from being broken!
Computing
Pupils will learn how to keep themselves safe while using the internet as well as looking at computer simulations.
How you can support at home…
- While we request that you avoid the core English texts (so we don’t get any spoilers!), any reading or further research you can support your child with, which we call pre-learning, will be of huge benefit. We’d almost always favour the local library over online research, but any additional learning linked to any of our topics would be great.
- Supporting your child with their quick recall of multiplication and related division facts will make so many areas of maths easier and will stand them in good stead for the next stage of their learning. Pupils have to know all facts to 12x12 by the end of Year 4. There are links to games and activities on our class pages to support with this.
- All the activities on the optional homework menu (which you can download from our class pages) link with the learning taking place during the autumn term. We’d recommend encouraging your child to choose from the menu – the activities can be done in any order and at any point during the term – so they have opportunities to deepen their understanding and practise their skills.
Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour. Psalm 25:5
