Our classroom is situated within the original school building and is over 600 years old! In fact, it is the oldest classroom in the whole of the UK which is still in use! We are really fortunate to have a large, open work space as well as a mezzanine library and quiet area which we also enjoy working in!

This term, our topic is The Victorians! We are learning all about this fascinating historic era, with a focus on chronology. We are going to be gaining an overview of significant people, places and events from the Victorian era and comparing and contrasting daily life – particularly of children – with modern day lifestyles.

Our English units this term link to The Victorians. We are going to be writing biographies about Queen Victoria, ensuring that we include the expected language and structural features to engage and inform our audience. Later in the term, we will be writing to entertain by describing Victorian settings in detail using figurative language, studying ‘The Highwayman’ (a narrative poem written by Alfred Noyes) and finally writing film reviews based on the popular Christmas film, ‘A Muppet Christmas Carol’!

In Guided Reading, we are currently reading ‘Street Child’ by Berlie Doherty, which links to our Victorian topic. We are using this text to support our reading comprehension, including our inference, prediction and summarising skills. Nearer to Christmas, we will be reading a child-friendly version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens, which will link nicely to our film review work (and hopefully get us in the festive spirit rather than saying ‘bah humbug!’)

In Maths, we are working hard to consolidate previous learning of Place Value and Number, whilst also learning new skills in this area. We will also be looking at the Four Operations (addition and subtraction, followed by multiplication and division) including learning about mental and written methods, and applying our fluency skills to reasoning questions and word problems.

Our Science unit this term is Evolution, where we will be learning about inheritance and adaptation as well as focusing on the work of famous Victorian Charles Darwin. After half term, we will be learning about Living Things and their Habitats (life cycles) with Mrs. Lawrence in Mr. Tayler-Codd’s PPA time on Wednesday afternoons. 

In Art, we are focusing on the work of LS Lowry, who was born towards the end of the Victorian era. Even though lots of his work was created following the time of the Victorians, we will be learning about the iconic style of his work and will be attempting to create our own Lowry-inspired pieces which include some infamous matchstick figures!

In PE, we are currently developing our football and tag rugby skills with Mrs. Seymour on Mondays and going swimming at Didcot Wave with Mr. Tayler-Codd and Mrs. Tuffin on Thursdays. Please remember to wear PE kit on Mondays and wear swimming kit (bringing a swimming hat and towel) under school uniform on Thursdays.

In other subjects, we are learning…

• To play the ukulele in Music (with Mr. Golec)
• How to code more complex games and stay safe online in Computing
• To explore the Christmas story in RE
• To construct stable and secure bridges of differing structures (inspired by the work of Brunel) in DT

Other topics this year include Ancient Greece and Democracy and World War II. 

The children in De La Pole have homework books which need to be handed in every Thursday. New homework (a maths task, a SPaG task and weekly spellings – or a special topic-based project) is then handed out every Friday.