• This term, the girls will be diving into two exciting texts: Tuesday by David Wiesner, a beautifully illustrated, mysterious story, and Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo, a gripping adventure tale. These books will inspire a wide variety of writing, from imaginative diaries and letters to detailed recounts, non-chronological reports, poetry, and even newspaper articles. Alongside this, the girls will be consolidating and extending their knowledge of grammar and punctuation to strengthen their written expression. Spelling will continue to be taught in a fun and interactive way through Spelling Shed.

• In Guided Reading, the girls will work on a mixture of individual texts and practice papers, both to enhance their comprehension skills and to help them feel confident and well-prepared for their entrance exams. Our aim is to ensure they not only develop their understanding but also nurture a real enjoyment of reading and language.

• NUMBER: To consolidate and extend understanding of place value (whole numbers and decimals, positive and negative integers), to relate fractions to division, and to their decimal representations.

• CALCULATIONS: To practise and extend mental maths strategies, to carry out calculations using both formal and informal methods and to extend written methods to long multiplication and short division, 

• SOLVING PROBLEMS: To apply knowledge of the four operations to a range of single and multi-part worded problems involving numbers and quantities.  To discuss and explain methods and reasoning.  To carry out extended investigations based on real life situations to develop a sense of using mathematics in context. 

• HANDLING DATA:  To organise and interpret data presented in tables, charts, graphs and diagrams. To understand different types of average and to calculate the mean, mode, median and range.

• MEASURES, SHAPE AND SPACE: To understand area measured in square centimetres. To understand and use the formula in words ‘length x breadth’ for the area of a rectangle.  To recognise the properties of 2D shapes, classify triangles and rectangles using criteria such as equal sides, equal angles, lines of symmetry, parallel sides etc.

• Begin to complete tests in timed conditions and develop exam technique.

• This term in Science, the girls will be exploring the fascinating topic of Forces. They will discover that the unit of force is called a Newton (N), named after Sir Isaac Newton, and will carry out hands-on investigations to experience different types of forces, such as pushes, pulls and twists. Using force meters, they will learn how to measure forces accurately and identify the direction in which they act. The girls will also explore how friction and air resistance affect motion – from slowing us down when running, to resisting the movement of objects falling through the air. They will also investigate the force of gravity, learning how it pulls objects downwards towards the Earth and keeps us firmly on the ground, while making clear links between scientific ideas and the world around them. 

The first half term's lesson will be Art and we will begin with a focus on the artist and sculptor, Andy Goldsworthy. We will use inspiration from his natural world sculptures to create clay leaf bowls, to paint and glaze them. We will also practise using and blending watercolour paints to produce observational autumn leaf paintings. 

The second half term's lesson will be DT. We will be working on our hand-sewing skills by completing a fabric coin purse, including a button fastening. We will also look at our evaluation techniques and how a designer effectively evaluates and refines their plans and final products. 

Study of Judaism 

This term, we will be exploring Judaism, focusing on the enquiry question: “Are Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur important to Jewish children?” Through this study, the girls will discover how Jewish people reflect on the past year, seek forgiveness, and make fresh starts for the year ahead. They will also have the opportunity to reflect on their own experiences and consider what they might like to change or resolve from the recent past. To bring our learning to life, we are very much looking forward to visiting the Wimbledon Synagogue, where the girls will see Jewish faith and traditions in practice. 

In this geography topic, we will be exploring the amazing country of India, finding out about its landscapes, weather, people, and traditions. We will learn to spot important physical features, such as the tall Himalayan mountains, the mighty River Ganges, the hot Thar Desert, and the coastlines along the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. We’ll also discover India’s different climate zones—tropical, arid (dry), and temperate—and see how mountains, deserts, and other landforms affect the weather. By comparing India with our own local area, we will use maps, photographs, and fieldwork to collect and record information about human and physical features. We’ll look at busy cities and quiet villages, and find out how people use the land for farming, building, and transport. We will also explore how geography influences what people wear, the food they eat, and their traditions, as well as how rivers, natural resources, and tourism play an important role in daily life. Throughout the topic, we’ll become geographers—observing, asking questions, and making links between the land and the way people live. 

FRENCH

• Topics: School life, including telling the time, naming school objects, subjects and describing the daily routine.  Number work, including numbers in relation to ourselves and our world, practising high numbers.

• Grammar: Asking and answering simple questions; formal and informal modes of address; questions involving time and duration; further developing the notion of gender with nouns and adjectives.

• Culture: Learning about Josephine Baker for Black History Month; French schools, family celebrations and Christmas carols.

Throughout this term our school lessons and games afternoons will be focusing on invasion games through Football and Hockey skills. We are aiming for the girls to be able to see how skills learnt from one invasion game transfer to another even though the equipment they are using may differ the principles remain the same. We will also continue to start each lesson with our timed runs.

• The girls will be taking part in Football in the first half term and hockey following the  break.

• In the football sessions girls will need football boots, shin pads and navy football socks in their games afternoon but will need trainers, shin pads and navy football socks for the PE lesson.  The girls will work on develop dribbling, passing and structured game play.

• Girls will be working on attacking and defending skills, positioning and position roles. They must have mouth guards, shin pads and navy football/hockey socks for their hockey lessons. 

• Games Afternoon/ Matches – Thursday.

• Use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly; recognise acceptable/unacceptable behaviour; identify a range of ways to report concerns about content and contact.

• Design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals; solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts.

• Use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output.

• Use logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs. 

In our single weekly music lesson, we will use games that improve rhythmic co-ordination, songs that improve tuning and worksheets that develop our facility with musical notation.

Girls are encouraged to play in ensembles or sing in choir.  Performance opportunities are scheduled throughout the term.

• Understanding perspectives in scenes and how swapping perspectives can change a narrative.

• Working on stagecraft, stage presence and confidence in improvisation! 

• Empathising with characters and writing monologues from their perspective. 

• Being me in my world and Celebrating differences. 

This term in PSHE, we will be exploring the themes of “Being Me in My World” and “Celebrating Differences.” Using the JIGSAW programme, the girls will take part in thoughtful discussions and interactive activities that encourage them to value themselves and others, build positive relationships, and celebrate the uniqueness of everyone in our class and school community. These sessions will also link closely to our school’s core values, helping the girls to reflect on how they can live these out in their everyday lives.