'The boy at the back of the class' will be our first core text this half term, we will explore the life of a nine year old Boy called Ahmet, a refugee who has run away from war, initially thought of to be strange, until realisation sets in, and its realised,  he is just the same as any other child, just facing different challenges.

Year 4 will also explore ' I am not a label', an eclectic range of stories, biographical accounts focusing on the individual's unique experiences, reminding us of the diverse spectrum encompassed by the word 'disability'.

Year 4 will explore the Gospel accounts of key events in the life of Jesus: Ascension, develop awareness of the customs and traditions of Christian feasts, will know the significance and power of signs and symbols of Christians around the world.

This half term Year 4 will be making a whole with both tenths and hundredths, partitioning decimals, comparing decimals and ordering them. The children will also explore money; writing money as decimals, converting pounds and pence and estimating and calculating using money. They will  solve time problems, looking at hours, minutes, years, days and months too.

Games - batting and bowling will be the main focus. Beginning with rolling, underarm bowling to knock a target, batting, wicket keeping and fielding.

Animals including humans will be our science topic, learning all about how digestion takes place in the human body. They will identify the functions of different types of teeth, understand that the digestive system helps to break down food and extract nutrients, and that it starts with our teeth.

This half term the children will recognise factors influencing value for money, the importance or monitoring money and different ways of keeping money safe.

In history this half term, the focus will the The Roman Empire. Year 4 will explore all about what the Roman's contributed to Britain, via chronologically ordering events in time, exploring features of Roman settlements in Britain and identifying their purpose leading on to gaining an understanding of the Roman army and its role in the conquest and control of Britain.

In computing the children will change digital images, via rotation and photo editing skills and will understand that colours can be changed in different images.

DT this half term will enhance our knowledge of the Romans, as the children will be investigating levers and types of catapults and their functions in order to help them to design and make their own Roman Catapult using materials such as dowels, lollipop sticks, glue and masking tape.

Ancient Britain - In this unit pupils will be taught three high frequency verbs in the first person singular form. The verbs are: ‘to be’, ‘to have’ and ‘to live’. Through the medium of this period of history, pupils will pretend to be characters from the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. By the end of the unit pupils will be able to say / write who they are, where they live and which hunting tool they use, incorporating the three high frequency verbs in their phrases. 

Blackbird by the Beatles - the children will sing and appraise this song, explore its features and vocals and use instruments to undertsnad the depth of the music.

• Monday 6th May: Bank Holiday

• Friday 10th May: Maths Learning Together Morning 

• Friday 24th May: Last day of term (normal school day) 

• Monday 3rd June: Back to school 

Our core text this half term is 'Who let the Gods' out by Maz Evans. The children will follow Elliot, the books main character along his funny journey and will be focussing on descriptive writing for character and settings, as well as exploring internal dialogue and writing a press release.

This half term Year 4 will build upon their prior knowledge of the topic 'discrimination' and will learn how to 'build bridges' in relationships and how we can use this skill across different religions, and how such a skill takes courage and strength.

They will identify what actions can change discrimination and enable us to make a change and an impact.

In maths, Year 4 will be looking at fractions and decimals this half term. Comparing and ordering mixed numbers, subtracting two fractions,  understanding improper fractions and converting mixed numbers to improper fractions.

The children will continue to focus on their multiplication up to 12 also.

Year 4 will be exploring different methods of communication in PE, moving quickly, and using their bodies to move safely and effectively as well as co-operating well and as a team.

The children will work on their ball skills, sending and receiving, juggling within a team and rolling a ball.

Sound will be our focus in science this half term, How do we hear sound?

The children will be exploring and investigating sound, understanding how sound travels, looking into how pitch and volume are altered, exploring the functions of different parts of the ear and investigating how different materials affect the pitch, volume and sound.

The focus in PHSE this half term will be e-safety and the changing body. Building awareness of online safety and the benefits and risks of sharing information online; identifying the difference between private and public; age restrictions; exploring the physical and emotional changes in puberty; the risks associated with tobacco; knowing how to help someone with asthma.

The children will be focussing on Greece v UK in geography this half term. they will use prior comparison knowledge from Autumn 1 (Sri Lanka V UK) and will use maps, atlas and globes to identify human and physical features, leading on to the exploration of thier impacts, describe geographical similarities and differences between the two countries, as well as identifying how a locality has changed over time.

The main computing focus this half term will be for thildren to use codong, to build an online game.

In DT the children will be creating from a design their very own parthenon. They will research and look at key features of parthenon, before designing their own, then making them using explored cutting and measuring techniques, leading on to their self evaluations of their final products.

In French pupils will learn 10 familiar activities that they are able or are not able to do in French. This is one of the first units introducing the negative form, allowing the children to build more interesting and complex sentences including the option of using conjunctions.

Feelings in music is the main focus this half term, the children will learn how listening to different genres of music and how we listen to them can affect our moods - slow music may make us feel sleepy where as fast, upbeat music can make us feel energised and happy.

• Thursday 14th March: Year 4 Class Assembly

The children will be setting sail to Ithaca this half term, joining Odysseus for his grand welcome home from the long, brutal Trojan war in our core text, named after the main character 'Odysseus. 

In reading, children will focus on a range of reading skills including inference, making connections, summarising, evaluating, clarifying and questioning.  They will be reading a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts linked to our Spring 1 topics of identity and diversity, electricity and the Ancient Greece.

This half term, Year 4 will be exploring the theme of discrimination. How people can be discriminated against, reasons why people may discriminate or be discriminated and how can our outlook to such issues, help change the shape of the future.

In maths, children will be continuing to use practical resources, drawings, and formal methods to develop their understanding of multiplication, division and also how to calculate area and perimeter.  Furthermore, they will use their skills and knowledge to solve word problems and reasoning questions in real life contexts. Finally, they will continue to consolidate their knowledge of times tables and division facts up to 12 x 12 through daily practise.

PE will be on Wednesdays and Fridays this half term. Wednesday will be a session taught by Palace for life, and will be an outdoor session of multisports.

Friday sessions will be indoor gymnastics sessions, looking at travel, balance and flight.

This half term children will be learning about electricity.  They will create simple electrical circuits and will develop their investigation skills by making predictions and carrying out investigations based on what materials make the best conductors and insulators.  They will also evaluate the risk and safety requirements related to electrical appliances. 

This term we will be looking at the theme of hopes and dreams. Children will be  identifying their own hopes and dreams for the future .  They will  learn coping strategies and how to be resilient to overcome disappointments. We will be discussing vocabulary such as: dreams, goals, hopes, disappointment, fears, hurt and resilience 

This half term the children will be learning all about Ancient Greece. The first Olympics,  the Greek class system and how Greece fell to the Roman empire.

In computing, Year 4 will be looking at Online Safety within daily activities, as well as delving into discrete digital skills, using creative media to make their own animations.

The children will continue looking at Ancient Greece in art this half term. Focussing on Ancient Greek vessels, how they were used everyday in many different ways and then they will design and make their own interpretation using clay.

This term children will be building on their knowledge of describing people’s appearance, and will learn different adjectives to describe personalities.  The focus will be on accurate pronunciation, being able to read and understand adjectives and be able to orally describe and write a character description in third person. 

In Music this half term, year 4 will be exploring sounds. they will look, through the music, at the question 'How does music make the world a better place?'

Our core text this half term is 'Greta's story', a book all about the young activist Greta Thunberg and her journey to campaign and raise awareness of climate change and global warming. The story will tach the children all about Greta's courage and determination and how she is trying to make a difference in the world.

The children will explore different ways of writing descriptions, through fact-files,  persuasive speech, composition and vivid imagery. They will write, edit, up-level and publish poems too.

Throughout this half term the children will continue learning about Judaism. The will build on their existing knowledge and learn further about the Rosh Hashanah and the festival of Yom Kippur.

Year 4 children will explore area of shape, making shapes and comparing areas. They will learn that area is the amount of space taken up by a two-dimensional shape.

They will look into the link between counting in 3s and the 3 times table, using a range of strategies to support their fluency.

The children will apply their knowledge of equal groups and will multiply and divide by 7, 12, 2 and 1.

This half term the children will use a variety of different passing techniques, shooting a ball at a net, playing in different positions within a team in the context of netball. The PE coach will again be teaching children and building their abilities within a netball game. Indoor PE will see the children look at passing, catching, jumping and landing.

States of matter is the Year 4 topic for this half term and the children will be leaning all about solids, liquids and gases. they will compare and group materials, investigate how gases can be made visible, use thermometers to measure temperature and understand how states of matter change.

PHSE will see the children look at a range of topics this term, including wellbeing and how we look after out teeth. relaxation, celebrating mistakes and our emotions.

Year 4 will be looking at climate change in geography this half term, linking well to our English core text 'Greta's story'. We will be identifying different climates in regions of the world, as well as describing the weather and climate in different regions and then understanding the impact that the climate change and global warming is having.

In computing we will be learning the structure of the language 2Logo and using it to create shapes, repeat commands and build procedures.

The children will be able to explain how online identities can be very different to those offline and will learn how people online can pretend to be someone else.

The children will be exploring textiles in DT this half term and will investigate and analyse items and will think about how the items are used and how they are made. We will be exploring the work of textile designers such as Cath Kidston, William Morris and Lucienne Day and will then design and produce our own drawstring purses/bags, using techniques such as cutting, measuring and sewing.

In French the children will be creating a wanted poster, using knowledge that they will have learnt , in order to be able to build a picture describing colours, facial features such as eye colour and hair colour in French

In music this half term we will be exploring feelings as we play. Sometimes, the music we hear highlights the words that we are singing! There might be a special effect in the music on a particular song lyric to make that word stand out. The children will be exploring how special effects in music can make the words we sing more meaningful, as well as the sounds that we hear in music can also help us to communicate specific moods. 

• Thursday 23rd November - Oak Class Assembly @ 8:50am

• Friday 24th November - Inset Day (school closed to all pupils)

• Tuesday 28th November - Parents Evening 3:45pm - 7:15pm

• Thursday 30th November - Parents Evening 3:45pm - 5:30pm

• Thursday 7th December - Christmas Jumper Day

• Wednesday 20th December - Christmas Lunch (pupils can wear a festive jumper)

• Thursday 21st December - Whole School Carol Concert 

In English, our core book for this half term is ‘The Girl Who Stole an Elephant’ by Nirvana Farook.  The story is about Chaya, a rebellious child, who is daughter to the headman of her village.  She takes trinkets from the rich to help those in need, except, one day she goes too far and steals the Queen’s jewels – leading to an escape into the jungle with her friends and the King’s elephant. The children will use drama and talk for writing to develop emotive and descriptive language.   Children will then plan, draft, edit and publish their own narrative of the core text, ensuring that they include structural and language features to engage the reader. In reading, children will develop learning behaviours such as supporting and actively listening to each other. They will read a range of fiction and non-fiction texts and focus on reading skills including evaluating, inferencing, making connections, summarising, predicting, and clarifying their understanding of words and phrases.

Throughout the term children will learn about Judaism and explore the theme of peace within symbolism and religious stories.

During this half term, children will be developing their knowledge of place value of numbers including decimals.  They will use partitioning to explore the composition of numbers and will learn about negative numbers and Roman numerals.  They will also order and compare numbers and decimals, and round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000.   Children will learn the vocabulary associated with place value and apply what they have learnt through reasoning and problem-solving activities.

Our PE sessions will be taught by the sports coach, who will be developing children’s hockey skills with a focus on passing, moving and travelling with a ball.  Indoor PE will focus on a range of activities that develop children’s footwork coordination and balance and will promote challenge and improved performance with an aim to beat their personal best.

In science, we will be learning about learning about living things and their habitats.  Children will sort living things in a variety of ways and make a dichotomous classification key to identify local invertebrates. They will make observational drawings and a large-scale group drawing of an insect. Finally, they will demonstrate their knowledge of classification keys by presenting their findings to an audience.

During Autumn 1, we will be looking at the topic ‘Being Me in My World’.  Children will learn about what it feels like to feel included and excluded within different communities.  They will discuss their rights and responsibilities within the school community and create a class charter.  Children will also learn about the importance of democracy when working with others to ensure everyone feels included and that their voice is heard and respected. Key vocabulary that will be discussed will include mutual respect, lonely, exclude, include, communication, worries, anxiety, democracy, valued, community, rights and responsibility.

During Autumn 1, the focus will be on geography, where children will learn how to use atlases and a globe to locate different countries, cities, and biomes across Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Africa. They will use a key to locate physical features on a map and read and write coordinates for different locations.  Children will make comparisons between Sri Lanka and the UK, whilst simultaneously looking at the distribution of power. They will learn about how a country or region is governed and the need for rules within a society and how everyone can play a role in the creation and amendment of them.   

In computing, children will be learning how to design, write and debug simple programs using sequence, selection, and repletion commands.

This term children will create a landscape using mixed media in the style of the artist Jill Pelto, who incorporates graphs in her artwork that represent data on climate change. Children will explore different shading and water colour techniques and use a variety of mixed media including biro, wax crayons and watercolours to create their own landscape artwork.

This term, children will be learning how to read, write and say colours and numbers 31-60 in French.  They will also be able to say who their family members are and describe their own appearance.

PE Kit

Children will have PE every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Please ensure your child wears their kit to school on these days and that all items are clearly labelled with their full name.   

• Friday 15th September - Year 4 Meet the Teacher Meeting

• Thursday 5th October - Reading Learning Together Morning (8:50am - 9:30am)

• Friday 20th October - Show Racism a Red Card (wear something red)

• Friday 20th October - Break up for half term

• Monday 30th October  - Autumn 2 term beings