Welcome to Year 4! On this page you can see our curriculum focuses for the term, as well as keep up to date with pictures and posts of what we have been up to.

Summer 2021

RE:

This term, the Come and See topics for RE are:

• New Life
  Children will be be taught about the Spirit of God and how it is present and active in each person and in the Church.
• Building Bridges
  Children will focus on the belief that through Christ, every human is offered the power to reach out in forgiveness, peace and reconciliation.

English:

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.

Key texts covered:

• The Spiderwick Chronicles – Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane – Kate DiCamillo

Writing

Children 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.

Reading:

We aim to continue the school-wide “Destination Reader” programme, in which daily lessons are taught to explicitly study each of the necessary skills for reading and comprehension of texts. Pupils also learn about each of the learning behaviours required for reading and will discuss texts with their partners and small groups. Children will also continue to answer “Big Picture” questions as a written comprehension skill that they need to master in preparation for Years 5 & 6.

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.

Maths:

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. The autumn term is a focus on fundamental skills for year 4 as well as recapping on the key learning that may have been missed in Year 3.  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.

Key skills include: multiplication facts, formal and informal methods of multiplication and division, multiplying and dividing up to 3 digits by 1 digit, equivalent fractions, adding and subtracting fractions, length, perimeter and area.

Science

• Electrical Circuits
  Children will learn about static electricity, electrical components, circuit diagrams, insulators and conductors, change within a circuit and reliance on electricity.

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:

Children will use PCs and iPads to develop their computing skills. E-safety is taught explicitly and is at the heart of all computing lessons. Alongside this, pupils are expected to use technology responsibly.

Pupils will build on skills and topics taught in Year 3:  to use computing to communicate, problem solve, research and code.

History

• Roman Britain
  We will expand upon our first topic (Roman Republic) and second topic (The Roman Empire) with our final Roman topic: Roman Britain. Children will learn about Roman expansion into Britain, as well as learning about key historical figures such as Caratacus and Boudicca. These schemes of learning have been developed by the Haringey Education Partnership. Discrete history lessons will allow pupils to regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance. They will learn to construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information. They will begin to understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.

Geography

• Population
• Our first topic this term is Population. Pupils will learn about population distribution and migration, before taking an in-depth look at the the diverse multi-ethnic populations of both London and Cardiff. Following this, children will learn about Welsh language and culture and Welsh and British identity. They will be able to learn geographical skills by collecting, analysing and communicating with a range of data that deepen their understanding of human population distribution and how this has changed over time, as well as learning about migration patterns and how many different kinds of people make up the population of London and the United Kingdom. This scheme of learning was developed through the Haringey Education Partnership.
• Coastal Processes and Landforms
  Our second topic this term is Coastal Processes and Landforms which we will study through a scheme of learning that the Haringey Education Partnership have developed. Children will learn about how coasts and landforms are formed through the process of erosion. Following this, there are case studies on the Jurassic Coast, the coastal habitat on Indian Ocean and the coast of west Wales . These lessons allow children to develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places and understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world. They will be able to learn geographical skills by collecting, analysing and communicating with a range of data that deepen their understanding of geographical processes; interpreting a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems and communicating geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps,  quantitative skills and writing at length.

PE

Year 4s take part in an LFA coach-led PE lesson every Thursday afternoon as well as a teacher-led PE session on Wednesdays. Sports coaches will focus on games and team sports such as: football, tennis, cricket and athletics.

Art & Design

Art and design focuses on;  coastal scenes and a sewing project. Children will use a variety of media including chalk, pastels and water-colours in their art. In addition to weekly lessons, we try to incorporate art and creativity into as many other curriculum subjects as possible.

MFL
Children will resume Spanish lessons this term with Miss Barratt.

Music
Children will take part in Music lessons once a week with Mr. Desmond.

Year 4 spring curriculum map

Year 4 autumn curriculum map

Year 4 summer curriculum map