Welcome to Year 4
Our Class Teachers are Miss Capper and Mrs Sumser
ROMAN BRTITAIN
This term is packed with exciting topics across the curriculum that will inspire curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking.
- Was the Roman army really as Powerful as History suggests?
- Why did the Roman’s want to invade Britain when they were already so successful?
- Did the Celts try to resist the Roman invasion?
- Did the Romans have an impact on Britain during the Roman era and in today’s modern world?
- What was life like in Britain during Roman times?
HISTORY
The Roman Empire and Its Impact on Britain
This half term, Year 4 will be embarking on an exciting historical journey to explore The Roman Empire and its influence on Britain. Through engaging lessons, children will develop a strong understanding of how the Romans shaped the history, culture, and landscape of our country. Studying the Romans helps children build a strong sense of historical context and national heritage. They will make connections between the ancient past and the world they live in today and deepen their understanding of how Britain has been shaped over thousands of years.
Children will explore key aspects of Roman history, including:
- Life in early Rome and the rise of the Roman Empire
- Important Roman leaders, including Julius Caesar and Emperor Claudius
- The power and organisation of the Roman army
- Julius Caesar’s failed invasion attempts in 55–54 BCE
- The successful invasion under Claudius in 43 CE
- Celtic resistance, with a focus on Queen Boudicca’s revolt
- A comparison of Roman and Celtic settlements
- How the Romans defended their land and expanded their territory
- The development of towns like Chester and Caerwent, and the spread of Roman technology, culture, beliefs, and early Christianity
- The lasting legacy of the Romans in Britain, including roads, language, architecture, and law
As young historians, Year 4 will also build a wide range of historical skills:
- Evidence & Interpretation: Using multiple sources to understand the past more accurately
- Chronology: Placing events and figures on a timeline, using BCE and CE
- Historical Significance: Discussing the importance of key people and events
- Cause & Consequence: Understanding why events happened and their impact
- Similarity & Difference: Exploring different accounts of historical events
- Change & Continuity: Recognising how things changed or stayed the same over time
- Organisation & Communication: Presenting historical understanding using relevant details and time-specific vocabulary
Science
This term, Year 4 will be learning all about the human body and how it functions, with a focus on the digestive system, teeth, and food chains. This unit, called Animals Including Humans, helps children understand how living things survive, grow, and interact with their environment.
Year 4 will also understand how our bodies work and how living things interact in ecosystems builds strong foundations in biology and scientific thinking.
This unit encourages curiosity, supports healthy habits, and develops confident scientific communicators.
Children will explore and understand:
- The basic parts of the digestive system in humans and their simple functions (e.g. stomach, intestines, mouth)
- The different types of human teeth (incisors, canines, molars) and what each type does
- How to construct and interpret food chains, identifying producers, predators, and prey
As scientists, pupils will build a wide range of enquiry and investigation skills, including:
- Asking questions and deciding how to investigate them
- Setting up comparative tests independently
- Observing carefully and identifying patterns and relationships
- Using evidence to draw simple conclusions
- Communicating findings using scientific vocabulary
PATHWAYS TO WRITE 
This half term, Year 4 will be exploring the beautifully illustrated and thought-provoking book Gorilla by Anthony Browne. This story follows a lonely girl named Hannah who longs for attention from her busy father. On the night before her birthday, a magical encounter with a gorilla helps her experience the adventure, connection, and joy she's been missing. The book explores themes of loneliness, imagination, and emotional connection and making it a perfect text for discussion and creative writing.
Using Gorilla as inspiration, children will develop a variety of writing pieces across both fiction and non-fiction genres, including:
- A non-fiction fact file
- A diary entry from the character’s perspective
- A third-person narrative
- A fantasy story
Throughout this unit, children will also be learning and applying key grammar and composition skills, including:
- Using expanded noun phrases with adjectives, nouns, and prepositional phrases
- Choosing appropriate nouns and pronouns for clarity and cohesion
- Using fronted adverbials with commas
- Organising writing into clear paragraphs around a theme
- Re-capping the use of inverted commas for direct speech
Children will also focus on handwriting, aiming for joined, legible, and consistently sized writing across all work.
Reading
Children will continue to develop their reading through reading sessions. These lessons will be structured around the VIPERS reading domains:
- Vocabulary
- Inference
- Prediction
- Explanation
- Retrieval
- Summarising
They will also work on reading fluency and focus on improving pace, expression, and confidence when reading aloud.
Children should also continue to update their BOOM Reader log.
Children’s Rights and Global Goals
This half term and including next half term, Year 4 will be learning about key global and personal responsibilities.
Children will explore:
- SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities and explore the key question: What makes a city or community safe, inclusive, and sustainable?
- Article 17: Access to Reliable Information (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child)
These themes will be closely linked to our Geography unit on settlements, where children are learning how and why communities are built, what makes a location suitable, and how people interact with their environment. Children will also connect these ideas to their Computing unit on Online Safety, where they will discuss how to access trustworthy information, avoid misinformation, and stay safe when using technology.
PSHE
The focus for PSHE lessons this half term is families and relations. These lessons aim to help Year 4 children understand different kinds of relationships, respect, boundaries, and diversity. Pupils will be taught to be more aware of behaviour (their own and others’), how stereotyping can affect people, and how to cope with change or loss in families.
Please check your child’s Curriculum Map for further details.
Don’t forget to follow their learning journey on Seesaw, where you’ll find updates, homework, and announcements.
Thank you for your support,
Miss Capper and Mrs Sumser