Focus Narrative:

Creature Story

Key Text/Stimulus:

Beowulf/The Land of Roar

Writing Outcome:

Overview

This writing task is inspired by Beowulf. In an Anglo-Saxon village surrounded by dark forests and open fields, a dragon has begun stealing sheep under the cover of night. With winter approaching and food supplies running low, the villagers call for a monster slayer to save them.

Writing Task

Write a short story about a monster slayer who arrives at an Anglo-Saxon village to help defeat a creature that has been stealing sheep. Your story should:

Clearly establish the Anglo-Saxon setting (village, hall, landscape, way of life)

Introduce the monster slayer as a distinct character.

Build tension before the confrontation.

Include a key encounter or battle with the creature.

End with a clear resolution (victory, sacrifice, twist, or unexpected outcome)

Writing Focus

Use expanded noun phrases to describe the dragon and setting. Use relative clauses to add detail. Build suspense through varied sentence lengths. Develop character through dialogue and action. Use fronted adverbials to show shifts in time and place. Organise writing into clear, cohesive paragraphs

Focus Grammar

• Using the perfect form of verbs to mark relationships of time and cause
• Expanded noun phrases to convey complicated information concisely 

Hot-seating as characters

Freeze frame

Conscience alley

Focus Non-Narrative:Information Texts - Field Guide

Key Text/Stimulus:

Dragons

Writing Outcome:

Overview

Dragons appear in stories from the Anglo-Saxon period and other times in history. If they were real, how would people have known how to survive them? Scholars, villagers and warriors would have needed accurate information to understand where dragons lived, how they behaved and how to stay safe.

Writing Task

Create a detailed page (or double-page spread) for a Dragon Field Guide describing a dragon species you have invented. Your writing should clearly explain what your dragon looks like, where it lives, how it behaves, what it eats and what dangers it presents. You should also include information about its strengths and weaknesses, along with advice for travellers, villagers or warriors who may encounter it. Write in a formal, informative tone, as though your guide will be used as a reliable survival manual.

Writing Focus

Organise information clearly using headings and subheadings, grouping related ideas into well-structured paragraphs. Use formal and technical vocabulary appropriate to a field guide, along with expanded noun phrases and relative clauses to add precise detail. Include modal verbs to give advice or indicate possibility (such as must, should, may and might) and use fronted adverbials to organise information (for example, Typically, In most cases, During winter). Ensure ideas are linked across sections using cohesive devices and present information factually rather than as a narrative. Label diagrams or include captions where appropriate to support the reader’s understanding.

Cross-curriculum support genres:

Non Chronological Reports

Recounts

Pathway: Using Natural Materials to Make Images 🔗

In this pathway children are introduced to Cyanotypes, and the work of the first female photographer Anna Atkins. They are also introduced to artist Frances Hatch, who finds and makes pigments from the landscape she is drawing.

Disciplines:

Cyanotype, Anthotype, Painting with Natural Pigments, Drawing, Sketchbooks

Medium:

Natural pigments from earth and plants, paper, light.

Artists:

Frances Hatch, Anna Atkins

How does the cyanotype process create images using natural materials?Cyanotype is a photographic printing process where objects such as leaves or flowers are placed on light-sensitive paper and exposed to sunlight. The light changes the paper’s colour, creating a blue print with white silhouettes where the natural materials blocked the light.

Cyanotype – A photographic printing process that uses sunlight and light-sensitive paper to create blue images with white silhouettes.

Anthotype – A natural printing process that uses pigments made from plants (like berries or spinach) to create images using sunlight.

Pigment – A coloured substance used to give colour to paint, ink, or natural dyes.

What key events happened at the end of the Roman Empire?
The Roman soldiers weren’t getting paid, so they decided to stop defending the land. 3 tribes settled after the Romans – the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes.They came to settle because Gildas the Monk wrote recounts about the fall of the Romans.

How was Anglo-Saxon England ruled after the settlement of the Angles, Jutes and Saxons? Anglo-Saxon England was split up into seven kingdoms: Wessex, Sussex, Essex, Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent.
Each kingdom had its own King. These Kings did not get along and each was striving to have power, influence and lots of money.The kingdoms fought many times.

Who were the Scots and what was their role in early British history?The Scots came from Ireland and settled in the west of Scotland, joining with local tribes to form the Kingdom of Scotland. They played an important role in the early history of Britain, especially in the north. The Scots had their own culture and language and often clashed with other groups like the Picts and Anglo-Saxons. Eventually, they helped shape the country we now know as Scotland.

Invader – A group or person who enters a country by force, like the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and Scots after the Roman Empire fell.

Kingdom – A land ruled by a king or queen; early Anglo-Saxon England was divided into seven kingdoms such as Wessex and Northumbria.

Danelaw – The area of England where Vikings settled and ruled, mainly in the north and east of the country.

Raid – A sudden attack, often by Vikings on monasteries to take valuables.

Monastery – A religious community or building where monks lived and worked—often raided during Viking invasions.

Pathway: Developing a recipe 🔗

Learning a simple bolognese recipe and adapting it to improve nutritional content.

Core: Cooking and nutrition

Giving instructions

What does it mean to develop a recipe?Developing a recipe means adapting or changing ingredients, quantities or methods to improve flavour, texture, appearance or nutritional value while making sure the dish still works successfully.

Why is it important to evaluate and refine a recipe?It is important to evaluate and refine a recipe to identify what works well and what needs improving, so the final dish meets the design criteria (such as taste, texture, cost or healthiness).

Adapt – To change or adjust something to improve it or make it more suitable.

Refine – To improve something by making small changes.

Nutritional value – The amount of nutrients (such as vitamins, minerals and protein) that food provides.

Investigations:

The Wright Brothers -How paper plane flight is affected by weight and balance.

Famous scientists from history

Discussions, explanations, presentation

Online Safety

Lesson 4: Online Bullying 🔗

Learning the differences between online and offline bullying and how to deal with online bullying.

Programming

BBC micro:bit 🔗

Exploring how to program the BBC micro:bit, creating interactive projects with sensors, variables and conditional statements.

Oak Academy

Compose and rehearse: creating and combining minimalist cells 🔗

Language Angels Unit 🔗

• Mi familia (My Family)