Welcome to our fantastic class for the oldest pupils in school!
A bit about us…
Class 4 is our upper Key Stage 2 class for Year 5 & 6 pupils. Our class teacher is Miss Murphy 
. She is constantly keeping the pupils on their toes, stretching and challenging their learning, helping them to collaborate with each other, encouraging them in their strengths and supporting each pupil as they demonstrate determination, perseverance and resilience, in order to make the very best of themselves.
Whilst we work hard in Year 5 and 6, be prepared for lots of fun and to take part in lots of sports! We love sports in Class 4 and take part in local sporting leagues, where we learn new skills and how to work as part of a team!
Year 6
Year 6 is an incredibly important year, giving children the opportunity to bring together all of their prior learning in preparation to achieve the highest academic level possible ready to embark upon the next step at secondary school. It is also the year that pupils take parts in SATs (Statutory Assessment Tests) in Reading, Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling and Maths. These take part annually in the month of May.
To find out more about our curriculum, you can read our curriculum over view, view our Long Term plans below, or read the whole-school curriculum offer by clicking here.
Things you should know:
*Each child is given a reading book to read at home. Children will be listened to reading during shared reading sessions, as well as by different adults in school. Reading at home is expected and encouraged; we aim for at least 3 times a week as this will really help your children’s progress.
*Your child will bring home 10 spellings each week to learn for a spelling test on Friday.
*One of our key focuses in numeracy is times tables, ensuring children are ready for the multiplication check in year 4. Every child, from Year 2 onwards, is expected to complete 20 minutes of multiplication practise each week on the TTRockstars app.
Class Four Planning Documents
English Long Term Planning
Y5 & Y6 English Cycle A Y5 & Y6 English Cycle B
Foundation Subjects Long Term Planning
Class 4 Cycle A LTP Class 4 Cycle B LTP
What have Class Four been up to?
February
We have had a brilliant half-term and finished lots of our topics off in February. We particularly enjoyed finishing our dance to Physical by Dua Lipa in PESSPA.
In English and maths, there has been lots to celebrate. After finishing our formal letters, pupils peer-assessed each other’s work, confidently spotting features such as formal language, cohesive devices, parenthesis and modal verbs. It was brilliant to see how secure their understanding of these writing tools has become. In maths, Year 6 have been working incredibly hard — practising times tables outdoors before moving on to exploring volume in cubic centimetres. Using concrete cubes, they built 3D shapes and counted the cubes carefully to calculate volume, even tackling trickier problems involving hidden cubes with real determination and resilience.
We’ve been using our oracy skills a lot this month, especially in history! We started with a concept cartoon to recap our learning about the Vikings, debating whether they were all ruthless raiders or whether some were settlers and traders. The quality of discussion was fantastic, with children challenging each other’s ideas and backing up their thinking with evidence. This led into a brilliant speaking and listening activity where partners sat back to back: Partner A described Viking trade routes on a map using precise geographical vocabulary, while Partner B drew what they heard and asked clarifying questions. It was amazing to hear words like settlement, trade route, Scandinavia and Europe being used so confidently around the room. As part of Children’s Mental Health Week, we also enjoyed a high-energy assembly with Pirate Rob and Pirate Luke, learning about simple but important ways to look after our mental health — exercise, sleep, healthy eating, drinking water and doing something we love — and of course, plenty of dancing! We also celebrated PALentine’s Day, with Class 4 looking fantastic in red and pink and proudly sharing their palentine gonks with one another.
Art has been full of creativity and teamwork this week. Class 4 had a fantastic afternoon completing their mini world light boxes. Working in pairs, one partner focused on painting the floors using watercolours while the other created detailed sculptures and wall art for the interiors. They then collaborated to assemble their final pieces, showing brilliant teamwork, patience and imagination. Once complete, we used torches to shine light through the coloured windows, exploring how light transformed the atmosphere inside their miniature worlds — a magical way to finish the project!
January
Core learning has been busy and lots of fun! In shared reading, we’ve loved diving into Wonder and learning more about its author, R. J. Palacio. The children then wrote their own biographies, making sure to include formal language, passive voice, a wide range of punctuation and cohesive devices to link ideas clearly and effectively. We’re really proud to say their finished pieces have now been published!
In maths, we always try to keep learning practical and engaging. We’ve been using hands-on resources and dice games to practise multiplication facts and explore square numbers in a fun, active way.
In science, we’ve just started our electricity topic. The children gathered the equipment, experimented with different components and successfully built their own simple circuits — testing, tweaking and problem-solving as they went.
In art, we’ve started our new topic, Brave Colour, and have been exploring how different colours can show mood and emotion. We began by looking at how artists use colour to create feeling, then created our own colour mood pages using paint samples, thinking carefully about shade, tone and combinations that work well together. We talked about how certain colours can feel calm, energetic, dramatic or even mysterious, and why some colours clash while others complement each other. We then used magazines to create personal mood boards to represent how we were feeling, selecting and arranging images and colours thoughtfully to create a clear visual message. In geography, we’ve been travelling (virtually!) across Eastern Europe, researching cities such as Odessa, Timișoara and Kraków. Using the internet to gather information, we created detailed city fact files including population, landmarks, climate and interesting cultural facts, helping us build a stronger understanding of the region.
December
December was the most wonderful time of the year for Class 4! We got into the Chirstmas spirit and enjoyed lots of festive activities, as well as learning lots of new and exciting things.
We were very creative this month and completed our art and DT topics. In art, we explored activism artists. We were really interested in the artwork of Luba Lukova and Shepard Fairey and made some of our own sketches based on their art. We annotated what we thought these pieces of art might mean. There were some very interesting interpretations of meaning. We then tried to compare the two pieces of artwork.
After exploring activism artists, we generated ideas for our own artwork. We thought about different causes that were important to us, such as: racism, equality, homophobia, protecting the environment, greed and used these to create our own activism artwork. We used mixed media (collage, pen, black fine liners) to create our final pieces and then showcased them in the classroom. They were absolutely fantastic!
Our DT topic this term was bridges. We explored many different types of bridges: arch, beam and truss, as well as different bridge designers, including Zaha Hadid and Thomas Telford. Then, Class 4 were challenged to design and construct a truss bridge using spaghetti as their main building material. Pupils carefully measured and cut (or rather snapped!) each piece to the correct length, ensuring their triangular shapes were accurate and consistent. They explored how triangles create strength and stability within a truss structure, considering precision and symmetry throughout the process. Once the triangular sections were complete, secure beams were constructed to join and support the framework. Then, we strengthened and refined the designs before testing! We added small weights on top of the bridges and recorded how much weight they could hold before snapping.
November
November has been a very busy and exciting month in our class, filled with hands-on learning, outdoor adventures and lots of thoughtful discussion.
We began the month with a walk around Sunnybrow, spotting a range of living things and practising classifying them by diet, appearance, habitat and structure. The children used magnifiers and binoculars to study different animals before creating their own imaginative “living things” out of clay.
Back in school, we explored how and why scientists classify organisms, sorting animals into groups using scientific reasoning and vocabulary. We also visited the nature area to hunt for invertebrates, finding spiders, caterpillars, woodlice, worms, beetles and centipedes. The children produced labelled diagrams and classified each creature into scientific groups such as insects, arachnids and myriapods.
In reading, we held a lively debate on whether Robin Hood was right to steal from the rich to give to the poor. Using traverse grouping encouraged everyone to share different viewpoints, and some arguments were so persuasive that many children changed their minds!
In English, we gathered sensory details from the nature area to support our setting descriptions—followed by some well-deserved hot chocolate to warm us up. We have also been working hard on our non-chronological reports about Sherwood Forest.
In geography, we learned about the parts of a volcano and produced detailed labelled sketches. In PE, we began our gymnastics unit, practising different ways of travelling and using our bodies to make shapes (and even spell out some words!). For UK Parliament Week, we explored what parliament is, why democracy matters, and how debate works in the House of Commons. Our own class debate, Should 6/7 be banned in schools?, led to some excellent arguments during the Sunnybrow Great Debate.
We’ve also enjoyed toasting s’mores around the bonfire in the nature area for Bonfire Night, taking part in Odd Socks Day, and learning about staying safe during Road Safety Week.
October
It’s been a jam-packed month for Class 4 – full of learning, laughter, and lots of fun!
Class 4 have been busy writing diary entries inspired by our class text Outlaw. They stepped into Robin’s shoes, imagining his daring escape from Nottingham Castle with his father. After editing and revising their work, they’re proud to show off some fantastic handwriting too! In maths, we’ve been getting hands-on with practical resources to tackle some tricky concepts, including square numbers, cube numbers, mixed numbers, and improper fractions.
October is Black History Month. We’ve been learning about the Bristol Bus Boycott, and the inspirational people involved. Our class were outraged to hear people were denied jobs based on the colour of their skin and thought those who stood up for what they believed in, through peaceful protests, were inspiring. We explored the life of Paul Stephenson and his role in the Bristol Bus Boycott, as well as changing the laws regarding race in the UK. To honour this special month, we have created some fantastic art work based on our learning, which will go on a whole-school display. We are so proud of our work!
It’s been a wonderfully creative month in Class 4 as we explored our art topic, ‘2D Drawing to 3D Making’. The children have worked hard throughout, showing off their artistic flair and design skills. As part of the unit, they redesigned popular food packaging, transforming everyday items like pizza boxes, cereal packets, ice lolly wrappers, and yoghurt pots into imaginative and eye-catching creations. We’re so proud of the fantastic final pieces!
We’ve also been busy with a whole host of other activities that have kept us learning, thinking, and creating.
We were visited by Sian from Chartwells, who helped us explore the Eatwell Plate and learn more about healthy eating. We even got to taste a variety of vegetables and make our own delicious wraps. For World Mental Health Day, we took part in a special ‘Tea and Talk’ session. With hot chocolate and biscuits in hand, we shared our thoughts and worries with our partners, practising kindness, empathy, and good listening. In computing, we’ve been diving into spreadsheets. After cracking a tricky spreadsheet code to reveal a hidden message, we explored how spreadsheets can be used for budgeting – a great mix of problem-solving and real-world skills!
Back to School!
What a busy few weeks we have had back at school! Everyone in Class 4 has settled back into their routines so well and have been hard at work already!
Here’s what we have been up to:
We love sports in Class 4! In PE, we have been learning all about handball, starting with the rules of the game before practising key skills such as moving with the ball, shooting into a goal, and developing our teamwork and passing. We then put these skills into action at our handball festival, where we enjoyed fun games that showcased brilliant defending, great communication and lots of resilience. The children showed ambition, excellent behaviour, and above all, a fantastic team spirit throughout the morning!
During the first few weeks of the year, the children have been working hard in Maths and English. In Maths, we have begun our work on place value and even took our learning outside to explore counting through zero using negative numbers. In English, we started with the beautiful wordless picture book Journey, sequencing the story and retelling it orally to help us prepare for writing our own narratives. We are now moving on to persuasive texts, ready to create our very own persuasive advert for the magical red pen!
It has been a busy and exciting start in our other subjects too! In Music, the children were challenged to create their own loops with three melody lines and two percussion lines, experimenting with beats of silence and thinner layers of sound to produce some really interesting mixes. They then listened to each other’s final versions and offered thoughtful feedback on what they enjoyed and what could be developed further. The children also took part in voting for our new School Council and Reading Ambassadors, after hearing some very confident and compelling speeches. In Science, we have begun our topic on living things and their habitats, starting with a recap of animal types before exploring how different animals reproduce and identifying both similarities and differences.
Archived Class Information
You can view our archived Class Information on our website.
