SPRING TERM 2026

Our topic this term is 'All Aboard!'. We will build on our Victorian learning from the Autumn term to find out what transport was like during the Victorian era and how ti changed over time.

 

History

We will research and find out about a significant person, George Stephenson, to understand the impact that transport played in the everyday lives of Victorian Britain. The children will also have the opportunity to compare transport used at the beginning and end of the era, specifically looking at how the railways grew. We are so lucky to be visiting the Black Country Living Museum to look at some of the transport during that time period.

      

Design Technology

As part of our Design Technology lessons, we are going to use our History lessons to help us create a Victorian pull along toy in the shape of transport. This term, the children will explore axles and wheels to design, make and evaluate their own moving toy. Come back for some photos of finished designs!

Science

In Spring 1, the children will be learning all about animals, including humans. They will be able to explore different animal groups and how they survive (through their wants and needs). We will then move onto learning about humans and more specifically, exercise and healthy eating which links to our PSHE learning.

During Spring 2, the children will learn about plants and specifically, what plants need to grow. The children will have the chance to grow their own broad beans to witness germination first hand!

English

In English this term, we will use the book 'The Wolf's Story' by Toby Forward to investigate different character viewpoints. To begin, we will make predictions about what we think the wolf will be like and write a 'WANTED' poster to warn people about the awful beast lurking in the forest!

We will then write letters of advice to the wolf to tell him what he did wrong in the story and how he can become a good wolf after all. Unfortunately, we're not sure the wolf will listen to us, so we will have to get him arrested and sent to jail! We can then prove his innocence to get him out of jail by explaining his side of the story.

After, we are going to use an alternate story, 'Little Red Reading Hood' by Lucy Rowland to write the story from another point of view and explain the wolf's journey through the forest in the form of a poem.

     

Maths

In maths, we are going to focus mostly on multiplication, division and fractions. We will revisit counting in steps of 2, 3, 5 and 10 to support our multiplication knowledge and build up our fluency. This skill will then be transferred to division. Eventually, all of this will be used to help us find fractions of quantity, amounts and shape.

    

Art

In Art, we are going to look at a new artist - Esther Mahlangu - to help us explore the use of paint in artwork. The children will use the skills of colour mixing and creating shades to create a house from Staithes in the style of our artist. Come back to see some final pieces!

  

 

AUTUMN TERM 2025

Our topic this term was 'Vaynor or Victorian?' and we were developing our learning to understand what the Victorian Era was like and to find out what life for a Victorian child was really like! 

History

The children spent the autumn term learning all about Victorian childhoods and how they were very different from today. The focus looked at school, home life, work life and how these changed over time due to the introduction of new laws.

We were able to 'magically' go back in time and turn Vaynor into a Victorian classroom! The children were able to experience what it was like for a child to attend a Victorian school. They took part in Arithmetic, writing on slates, drill and even played with Victorian toys!  Would they rather be a Vaynor child or a Victorian child?

        

 

English  

We focused on Narrative in English in this first half term and built some of the learning around the text 'The Three Little Wolves' by Eugene Trivizas. The children (and teachers!) love how this story takes a twist on the traditional and is full of brilliant surprises! The children then looked at 'The Storm Whale in Winter' by Benji Davies to help them develop their writing skills for different writing purposes.

     

Steering the children's learning towards more Non-Fiction elements, we will look at the largest animal on the planet... the mighty Blue Whale! We researched facts to amaze the reader about this almighty mammal. Did you know a Blue Whale's tongue weighs the same as an elephant?

Art

In art, we looked at Illustrator Axel Scheffler. We focused on our drawing skills and used different types of skills (such as dots, dashes and lines) to create our own artwork inspired by his book 'The Three Little Pigs'. We also experimented with tones and smudges. Our new skills helped us to use lines to create facial expressions on our characters, before using oil pastels to finish them.

     

Maths

Our Maths focus this term was 'Number'. This included: place value of 2-digit numbers, ordering and sequencing and counting in different steps. We had lots of fun this term, using practical resources to support our learning. In Autumn 2, we moved on to addition and subtraction and used our place value knowledge to support our calculations.

Science

In Science, the children looked at materials and their properties. They had the opportunity to plan and conduct different experiments to test the suitability of materials. Working in groups, they were able to do the experiment and explain their findings. I wonder if there are any silly inventions that the children might be able to use their findings to explain why they might not be the best. Chocolate teapot anyone?

Geography

In Geography, the children recapped the four countries of the United Kingdom and their capital cities. Moving on from this, we looked at coastal towns before focusing more directly on the coastal town of Staithes. We then looked at the Urban city of Birmingham, comparing the two places in terms of physical and human features, but also the way of life for people living there too.