Autumn 2022

This term's class text is 'Stig of the Dump' by Clive King. Barney is a solitary boy who often wanders off by himself in the countryside. Exploring an old chalk pit, he finds himself in a cave where he meets a strange boy, Stig, who wears a rabbit skin and speaks in grunts. Central to Barney and Stig's story are two of the core elements of childhood experience; friendship and play.  Stig lives without rules or the restraints that Barney has and, above all, thinks freely.  This book provides many opportunities for philosophical discussion around the idea of freedom to choose how to live your life.

The children will also develop their comprehension skills in discussions about the plot and the author's intentions.  They will be encouraged to make inferences, and predictions based on what they have read so far and will expand their vocabulary with exciting words found in the text.

This engaging text lends itself drama and role play.  The children will explore scenes and challenge themselves to think about what might have happened if the characters acted differently.

In our writing activities, they will read and write poetry with an emphasis on developing their descriptive language. Inspired by events in the text, the class will write news reports, diary accounts and descriptive passages of the adventures that unfold.  Our grammar activities will also link to the text. We will focus on our use of subordinate clauses, fronted adverbials, dialogue, possessive pronouns and determiners and expand our range of conjunctions to use in our writing across the curriculum.