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.

Autumn 2021

RE:

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

• People
  Learning about the importance of family and the royal ancestry of Jesus
• Belonging
  A focus of the Sacrament of Baptism
• Gift
  A focus on the season of Advent as we approach Christmas

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 Tin Forest
• Varjak Paw
• Charlotte’s Web

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 from 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, place value, counting up and down in 1s, 10s and 100s, rounding, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division facts, multiplying and dividing by 10 and 100.

Science

• States of Matter
  Looking closely at liquids solids and gases.
• Rock Cycle
  Rock formation and other aspects of geology.

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 Chrome Books 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

• Ancient Greece
  We will expand upon our topics studied in Year 3 to enable children to become more History-literate. Topics include the rise of Athens, philosophy and culture. 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

• Volcanoes
• Pupils will learn about physical geography by studying how volcanoes are formed. They will also look at famous volcanoes and how people have learnt to live with them, despite their danger. They will be able to learn geographical skills by collecting, analysing and communicating with a range of data that deepen their understanding. This scheme of learning was developed through the Haringey Education Partnership.

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 linking to our humanities topics as well as cross-curricula links with other subjects. 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.

Year 4 autumn 21 curriculum map

Year 4 spring curriculum map

Year 4 summer curriculum map