Welcome to Year 4!

A warm welcome to the Year 4 pages of our website.  Here we will share with you the learning opportunities that our Year 4 curriculum provides.  We will also detail key information and clear guidance about our routines and expectations to help you to support your child during their time in Year 4.

Meet the team

Our Year 4 classes are names after two native trees, Sycamore and Willow

• Sycamore - Mrs Bugler (Mrs Worsley PPA cover on Thurs PM)
• Willow - Miss Wring (Ms Fiore PPA cover Thurs)

Ms Brock and Mrs Waldren will be working in both classes as learning support.

Mrs Jones and Mrs Greer will be working in Sycamore class as individual learning support.

As a team we are looking forward to working with your children and are keen to share their journey with you.  You will find regular updates on our class page and via Studybugs.  If you need to speak to your class teacher please do not hesitate to make an appointment via the school office or by emailing the year group email address you have already been given. 

Routines and expectations

PE lessons

Sycamore - Monday (indoor) & Thursday (outdoor)

Willow - Monday (indoor) & Friday (Forest school)

Children can wear their PE kit to school on the days that they have their lessons.  Information about Forest School clothing will be in letters home.

Please ensure that your child comes to school wearing the correct school uniform each day. This helps to foster a sense of pride and belonging to our school family and reflects the high standards we are striving to achieve for every child. 

Children should bring their reading book and record, water bottle and lunch box (if required) in a small backpack. Please help us by reminding pupils that toys should not be brought into school.

Children in Year 4 can bring a small pencil case that will fit easily into their drawer. This can contain the following: a pencil, ruler, rubber, sharpener, coloured pencils. Felt tips, gel pens and calculators are not required.

Year 4 Long Term Overview

Please find attached a plan outlining the learning to take place across the whole of Year 4.

Year 4 Termly Overviews

Here you will find a more detailed plan of the learning taking place each term.

History and Geography Knowledge Organisers

For each new History and Geography unit, children will bring home their one-page ‘Knowledge Organiser’ which will contain some of the key knowledge and vocabulary that children will be learning as part of their work in class. The main idea is that they help children gain a strong knowledge and understanding of their topic in order to help them know and remember more and start to make links between subjects and topic areas. Please help your child to learn the information contained within the knowledge organiser through discussion, exploration and low-stakes quizzing for fun!

Science Glossaries

For each new Science topic, children will have a science glossary. This again helps them to make links with previous learning – reminding them of vocabulary and content already studied. It also introduces and explains the new vocabulary that will be key to their understanding of the concepts and processes under study.

Homework

Our school Homework Policy can be found in Curriculum Policies 

At Year 4, pupils are encouraged to spend up to two hours on homework each week.

This should consist of:

• Home reading, ideally a short burst daily but a minimum of 4 reads per week. This should be recorded by an adult in the home reading record.
• Times Table Practice (see useful websites for games and activities) and Times Table Rock Stars.
• Retrieval practice – various activities will be set by the teacher to help the children to consolidate the learning they are doing in class. This may be related to different subjects and will include the use of the Knowledge Organisers and Science Glossaries for retrieval practice.

Please do keep in touch, of course with your successes, but especially if your child is experiencing any difficulties with the homework set. We are here to help and are very keen that this does not become a deterrent to learning.

In Year 4, we use Padlet as a way of recording and uploading homework. Links to the Padlet can be found below.

Times Tables

The National Curriculum states that times tables are a key mathematical skill that children should know by the end of year 4. 

In the summer term, year 4 children will have a statutory Multiplication Test Check (MTC). They will need to know their times tables up to 12x. This will be an online test where children will have 6 seconds to answer each randomly generated question. 

In school, we will be practising times tables on a daily basis using a variety of strategies. Each week, children will have a focus times table and all of their times table work in school will focus on that times table. The order in which children will tackle the times tables is: 10, 5, 2, 4, 8, 3, 6, 12, 11, 7, 9. 

At home, it would be really helpful if you could support children to practise their focus table - and others if you wish! You could do this by encouraging them to use Times Table Rockstars or any of the websites and strategies listed below. Although division won’t be included in the test at the end of the year, it would still be useful to include division questions as you help your child learn their tables. 

On Times Table Rockstars, there is even a feature called 'Sound check' which is laid out exactly like the Multiplication Tables Check and will be a great way for the children to practise. (Remember to put on the 'Num Lock' button so that you can use the number keys in the bottom right corner of the keyboard to speed up your typing). If you are not sure of your child's TT Rockstars login, please get in touch with your child's teacher via Class Dojo.

A good grasp of the times tables is a key skill in Maths and will support children throughout their mathematical learning.

Suggested websites for times table practice:

• MTC practice
  This website is laid out like the MTC test so is a great practice tool! (Remember to turn on your 'Num Lock' to enable the numbers in the bottom right-hand corner of your keyboard for quicker and easier typing.)

• TT Rockstars
  Please get in touch with your child's teacher via Class Dojo if you need a reminder of your child's login.

• A fun fishing game that you can use to practise times tables

• Top Marks Games
  A range of different games for practising times tables