Year 4

Summer Term English

In English this term, we will begin exploring Beowulf, one of the oldest and most famous stories from Anglo-Saxon literature. This exciting tale of bravery, monsters and heroic deeds will give pupils rich opportunities to develop their narrative writing. We will use the characters, settings and dramatic events within the story to inspire our own writing, with a particular focus on atmosphere, description, tension, characterisation and ambitious vocabulary choices. Alongside this, we will continue to build confidence and accuracy in SPaG, revisiting key word classes such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and exploring how careful language choices can strengthen meaning and impact.

We will also use our class reader, The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown, to support wider reading and discussion. Through this text, pupils will consider themes such as survival, identity, friendship and belonging, while continuing to develop thoughtful responses to characters and events.

Guided Reading

In Guided Reading, our texts will link closely to our Vikings topic. Pupils will explore a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, including information texts about Viking life, raids, longships, settlements, beliefs and exploration. Through these texts, children will continue to practise key reading skills such as retrieval, inference, vocabulary understanding, prediction and summarising. They will also learn to recognise how writers organise information, create atmosphere and choose language to interest and inform the reader.

This work will help pupils deepen their understanding of the Viking period while strengthening their ability to read carefully, discuss ideas clearly and compare different types of texts.

Summer Term Maths

In Maths this term, we will continue to develop pupils’ confidence, accuracy and reasoning across a range of important Year 4 topics: decimals and money, geometry, statistics and time.

We will begin by building on our understanding of fractions as we move into decimals. Pupils will learn to recognise tenths and hundredths, make links between fractions and decimal numbers, compare and order decimals, and round decimals to the nearest whole number. We will then apply this knowledge to money, working with pounds and pence, converting between units, and solving practical problems involving addition, subtraction and giving change.

Later in the term, our focus will shift to geometry. Children will explore angles, shapes, symmetry and position, learning to identify and compare properties with increasing accuracy. They will also use mathematical vocabulary to describe shapes and explain their reasoning.

We will also revisit statistics, where pupils will interpret and present information using charts, tables and graphs. They will answer questions about data and begin to draw simple conclusions from the information shown.

Towards the end of the term, we will focus on time. Pupils will practise reading, writing and converting time between analogue and digital clocks, including 12-hour and 24-hour time. They will also solve problems involving durations, timetables and real-life time contexts.

Finally, we will explore statistics. Pupils will learn how to interpret and present data using bar charts, pictograms and tables. They will answer questions using data, compare results, and draw conclusions, developing their confidence in reading and understanding information presented in different ways.

Summer Term Science

In Science this term, our main focus will continue to be Sound, in line with the Year 4 programme of study. Pupils will explore how sounds are made, learning that sounds are created by vibrations and that these vibrations travel through different materials to reach our ears.

Children will investigate how sound travels through solids, liquids and gases, and will explore how the pitch and volume of a sound can be changed. They will use musical instruments, classroom equipment and everyday objects to look for patterns between pitch and frequency, and between volume and the strength of vibrations.

We will also consider how sound is used in the real world, including why sounds become fainter as the distance from the sound source increases and how our ears help us to hear. Throughout the unit, pupils will continue to develop their scientific enquiry skills by asking questions, making predictions, carrying out practical investigations, recording results and drawing simple conclusions from their findings.

During the final half-term, we will revisit and consolidate learning from across our previous Year 4 Science topics. This will give pupils the opportunity to fill any gaps, strengthen key knowledge and revisit important vocabulary from areas such as electricity, states of matter, classification, habitats and the human digestive system. This review work will help pupils make stronger links between different areas of Science and prepare confidently for future learning.

Summer Term History and Geography – Vikings

This term, our History and Geography learning will focus on the enquiry question: Were the Vikings deadly raiders or peaceful farmers? Pupils will explore the different sides of Viking life and consider why the Vikings are often remembered as fierce warriors, while also learning about their roles as settlers, farmers, traders and craftspeople.

From a History perspective, pupils will investigate Viking raids, including attacks on monasteries, and consider why these events had such a lasting impact. They will also explore everyday Viking life, including homes, jobs, beliefs, farming, trading, longships and settlements. By comparing different types of evidence, children will begin to understand that the Vikings were not simply one thing, but a complex group of people whose lives changed depending on where they lived and what they were doing.

From a Geography perspective, pupils will use maps, atlases and globes to locate Scandinavia, including modern-day Norway, Sweden and Denmark. They will trace Viking travel routes across the seas and identify areas of Britain where Vikings raided, traded and settled. Pupils will also consider how physical geography, including coastlines, rivers, seas and farmland, influenced Viking journeys, settlement choices and ways of life.

Throughout the unit, children will develop key historical and geographical skills by asking questions, examining evidence, using timelines, interpreting maps and explaining how people and places changed over time. This topic will help pupils build a balanced understanding of the Vikings and decide for themselves whether they should be remembered as deadly raiders, peaceful farmers, or something in between.