Looking for a Year 3–4 English tutor? This term’s novel study is about writing that has real heart — moving your child from “telling the plot” to actually writing a character who feels alive.
What This Class Is About
We read Leo and Ralph by Peter Carnavas, winner of the Prime Minister’s Literary Award. It follows the friendship between a boy, Leo, and his imaginary friend Ralph, who claims to be from one of Jupiter’s moons — warm, funny, and quietly about growing up and letting go.
What We’re Covering This Term
- Meeting Leo and Ralph: setting the scene and getting to know the story’s world.
- Exploring the friendship: what Leo’s loneliness and his bond with Ralph reveal about the story’s deeper meaning.
- Figurative language: how the author uses detail and imagery to bring emotion to the page.
- Narrative writing: applying those same techniques — detail, emotion, character change — to the students’ own stories.
Why It Matters
Finishing a whole novel is already a real achievement at this age. But if a child only ever reads for plot, their own writing tends to stay surface-level too. This unit teaches them to dig into what a character is really feeling — and write that way themselves.
Mica Academy teaches this class live online, so your child gets a qualified English tutor whether you’re in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or anywhere else in Australia.
Term 3 runs 18 July – 25 September. Spots are limited — get in touch to enrol your child.