Guiding Question: Who is top of the food chain in our outdoor classroom—and how do they survive?
Year 4 pupils will take on the challenge of finding out who rules our outdoor habitat. They’ll track signs of predators and prey, examine food webs, and use research to build connections. Children will ask big questions like “What would happen if the top predator disappeared?” By the end of the year, they will be able to explain how food chains work and why top predators are essential to balance in nature.

In AUTUMN, children observed and learnt:

• The children recalled the safety rules around foraging (we never pick anything unless told to do so by the adult experts).
• Not all berries, fruits and nuts are edible to animals and humans.
• There are food sources in the school's environment that are part of a food web – humans eat apples, but these are also eaten by worms, squirrels and maggots.
• The children are expecting the top predator to be the fox, but we could also find evidence of other predators like badgers, buzzards and other birds of prey.
• There is a lot of food available in Autumn. We found lots of leafy greens, berries, nuts, fruits, fungi and leaf litter.