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.

Spring 2021

RE:

The Come and See topics for RE in Spring are:

• Communities
  Children will be encouraged to reflect on what it means to be part of a community. They will look at Biblical examples of communities, and will think about the communities in their lives too.
• Giving and Receiving
  Children will focus on being grateful for life, for other people and for gifts. Children will reflect upon relationships with others and how praise/appreciation helps us to grow closer.
• Self-giving
  Children will prepare for and learn about the significance of Lent for Christians. Children will focus on how their lives are always full of opportunity to self-give and grow as a person.

English:

In Year 4 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, confidence, stamina and creative, independent thinking.

Key texts covered:

• Hansel and Gretel – Anthony Browne
• The King Who Banned the Dark – Emily Hanworth-Booth
• The Spiderwick Chronicles – Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

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

• Human Anatomy
  Children will study how the human body functions and the features, processes and necessity of our organs, bones, teeth, respiratory system and digestive system. Children will also compare our body systems to those of other animals.
• 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

• The Roman Empire
  We will expand upon our first topic (Roman Republic) with our new topic: The Roman Empire. 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

• The Rhine and Mediterranean
  Our topic this term is The Rhine and Mediterranean which we will study through a scheme of learning that the Haringey Education Partnership have developed. They will expand upon their knowledge of rivers by learning about the journey the Rhine takes as it travels from source to mouth, as well as learning about some of the cities it flows through and the Suez Canal system. 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. Year 4 teachers will take sessions of gymnastics and dance.

Art & Design

Art and design focuses on; Islamic and Middle Eastern Art and coastal scenes. Children will use a variety of media including chalk, pastels and water-colours. 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.

Year 4 spring curriculum map

Year 4 autumn curriculum map