Welcome to Year 4! On this page you can see what we will be learning about in the spring term.

Religious Education

In the spring term, the Come and See topics for RE are:

• Community;
• Learning about the Church community as continuation of the apostolic tradition;
• Giving and receiving;
• A close look the sacrament of Communion;
• Self-discipline;
• The season of Lent and Easter.

English
the children will enjoy reading a wide variety of texts and will learn to write in a wide range of genres. We aim to instil in our pupils a love for reading and writing, as well as confidence, stamina and creative, independent thinking.

We will be reading the following texts:

The Spiderwick Chronicles

Christophe’s Story

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

The hildren will use the above texts to inspire their writing for a variety of purposes: playscripts, diary writing, letter writing, newspaper reports, chronological and non-chronological reports, narrative prose, poetry composition and performance.

The model texts help children to identify the key structures/features that may be used within a particular piece of writing. Key writing techniques are then explored to ensure pupils develop a strong understanding of these before creating extended pieces of writing that aims to include these.

Key skills: prediction, questioning, clarifying, summarising, inferring, evaluating and making connections.

Grammar

Grammar is taught alongside the teaching of writing.

Key skills include using: conjunctions, adverbs, prepositions, fronted adverbials, punctuating direct speech and possessive and contractive apostrophes.

Spelling

Spellings are taught via a weekly list of words which are introduced to pupils in class, then set as activities on the Spelling Shed website.

Mathematics
In year 4, we will continue to use the White Rose scheme of learning which aims to provide pupils with key mathematical skills and knowledge using a mastery approach.  Using the CPA (concrete, pictorial, abstract) approach ALL children are encouraged to use equipment and visual representations in maths lessons and to learn conceptual and procedural variation to tackle problem solving and reasoning questions.

In the spring term, the children will continue to develop their Multiplication and Division skills, learn about Length and Perimeter and then work on Fractions (mixed numbers, improper fractions, equivalent fractions, adding and subtracting fractions) and Decimals (tenths and hundredths).

Science

We will be learning about Sound. Lessons will focus on:

• How sounds are made?
• How does sound travel?
• How our ears work;
• Pitch and volume.

The children will develop an understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that will help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them. They will be equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future. We will achieve this through practical investigations – working scientifically – as well as knowledge-based lessons.

Computing

The children will continue to learn to programme using Scratch. They will learn to use Scratch so that they can make a simple animation, use it to tell a story and to programme a game.

History

In year 4 we will be studying Roman Britain through a scheme of learning developed by the Haringey Education Partnership. We will learn about:

• The Roman invasion of Britain;
• Caratacus fights back;
• Boudicca’a revolt against the Romans;
• The Roman town of Aquae Sulis;
• Hadrian’s Wall and life on the frontier.

Geography

We will be learning about coastal processes and landforms. The children will study erosion and other coastal processes, coastal landforms and the Jurassic coast, before learning about coastal habitats in the Indian Ocean and the coast of west wales.

Music

The children enjoy weekly whole class singing and a music lesson with a specialist music teacher.

P.E.

Year 4 take part in a coach-led PE lesson every Friday as well as a teacher-led PE session on Tuesday. Sports coaches will focus on games and team sports such as: football, tennis, cricket and athletics. Year 4 teachers will take sessions in gymnastics and dance.

Art and Design

We will focus on Roman Art, including mosaics, using a variety of media including chalk, pastels and water-colours.

Homework

English and Maths homework is given out on Friday and should be returned by the following Thursday. Spelling homework is given out each Friday and there is a test on those spellings the following Friday. Children are expected to read regularly and record what they have read in their reading journals. Parents are strongly encouraged to listen to their children read at least once per week and record this in the reading journal.