Autumn Term
AUTUMN 1 – A Child’s War
A siren sounds and a Spitfire zooms overhead! It’s 1939 and Britain is at war.
This half term, we’ll imagine what it was like to be evacuated and live with a family other than our own. Using different source materials, we’ll learn about evacuation and write letters to our families ‘back home’. We’ll plot the Second World War’s events on a timeline and learn about rationing, Pearl Harbour and the Battle of Britain. From a range of maps, we’ll identify safe and dangerous places during the war and make persuasive posters to support the war effort. After reading an extract from The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, we’ll write our own diaries. From a range of sources, we’ll find out about children and school during the war and learn about discrimination that existed at the time. We’ll learn about what it was like during the Blitz and think about how soldiers might have felt. In D&T, we’ll make Anderson shelters and cook delicious wartime food.
At the end of the ILP, we’ll reflect on Winston Churchill’s stirring speeches and write our own. We’ll compose and perform wartime songs and create a presentation to show what we have learned.
Help your child prepare for their project
We’ll meet again! Why not visit a local museum together to investigate how the Second World War affected your local area? You could also read an exciting fiction book set during the war. Alternatively, you could ‘make do and mend’, working together to create a model inspired by the Second World War from recycled materials or unwanted household items.
AUTUMN 2 – Britain At War
In the Britain at War project, your child will learn about the main causes of the First World War and which countries were the major players. They will investigate why so many men volunteered to fight and then sequence the events at the start of the war. Using various sources of evidence, the children will learn about life in the trenches and the consequences of new weaponry. They will listen to first-hand accounts of life on the home front and evaluate the impact of war on everyday life. They will also discover the events that led to the Allied Powers’ victory and the consequences of the Treaty of Versailles. The children will also learn about the causes and main events of the Second World War. They will find out how Britain prepared itself for war and the war’s impact on civilian life. They will learn about the Battle of Britain and how it proved to be a key turning point for the Allied Powers. They will also hear about Anne Frank and discover what her story tells us about the treatment of Jewish people by the Nazi Party. The children will research the causes and consequences of the end of the Second World War and investigate the legacy of the wars in Britain. Closer to home, the children will research the life of a local First World War hero who sacrificed their life fighting for Britain. They will also investigate the legacy of these global conflicts in the post-war period.
Spring Term
SPRING 1 – Sow, Grow and Farm
In the Sow, Grow and Farm project, your child will learn about allotments in the United Kingdom and how the government encouraged people to have them to support food rationing during the Second World War. They will learn about food webs and animal life cycles, including how living things are dependent on one another within a habitat. They will investigate the different ways that plants reproduce and will dissect flowering plants to identify the different structures. They will have the opportunity to learn about farming in the United Kingdom and the techniques used in modern farming, including the challenges that farmers face. They will learn about the benefits of eating seasonally and about the pros and cons of importing food. They will also learn about world farming and how the different climate zones affect where different foods can be grown.
SPRING 2 – Investigating Our World
During the Investigating Our World project, your child will study Ordnance Survey maps to write a description of the local area. They will learn about contour lines and revise six-figure grid references to locate features on maps. Your child will learn about the Prime, or Greenwich, Meridian and find out that Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT, is taken from the Prime Meridian. They will know that the Earth is split into 24 time zones and calculate the time in places worldwide. Your child will learn about climate zones, vegetation belts and biomes. They will find out that the climate and vegetation in an area determine the animals that live there. Your child will learn about the human geography of the continents and locate capital cities around the world. They will identify relative locations and use the scale bars on maps to find the distance between places. They will study the motorway network across the United Kingdom, learning how they connect towns, cities and transport links across the country. Your child will explore a settlement hierarchy diagram and learn about the relative size, significance and populations of settlements. At the end of the project, they will carry out a fieldwork enquiry to discover which settlement types are in their local area.
Summer Term
SUMMER 1 – Maafa
In the Maafa project, your child will learn about Africa today and the ancient kingdoms that thrived on the continent for thousands of years. They will learn about the origins of the transatlantic slave trade in the 15th century and Britain’s involvement from the time of Elizabeth I, when John Hawkins became the first British slave trader. Your child will understand the structure of the transatlantic slave trade and the consequences of enslavement for enslaved people. They will also discover how the people of Britain benefited from the money and goods produced by the slave trade. They will learn about the causes and consequences of the abolition of slavery in the 19th century, the worldwide African diaspora and the European colonisation in Africa. They will explore the lives and actions of black people in 20th century Britain. They will understand how the Race Relations Act of 1965 became the first piece of British legislation to tackle racial discrimination and know that the Equality Act 2010 provides people with protection against racism and other forms of discrimination, today. Your child will also explore the lives of black people who have made significant contributions to Britain and will celebrate black culture in Britain today.
SUMMER 2 – Tints, Tones and Shades
This project teaches children about colour theory by studying the colour wheel and exploring mixing tints, shades and tones. They learn about significant landscape artworks and features of landscapes before using this knowledge to create landscape paintings.