Since we returned to school following half term, we have packed quite a lot in! In Maths, we have moved onto our new topic of decimals and are working with numbers to two decimal places. In English, we have been planning our persuasive letter and rehearsed our powers of persuasion through a whole class debate (Should Primary School Children Have Mobile Phones was our topic). In Science, we are investigating sound and how we hear. We had a very loud hands-on lesson with a series of Vibration Stations and learned a lot about how sound travels.

We have now had our last swimming session for Year 4 - I know the children really enjoyed their lessons and it is great to see them becoming more confident in the water. 

Forest School sessions have started on Mondays. The children have had a fantastic time outside learning about the nature we have in our school grounds as well as fire lighting and other skills.

We have also been rehearsing for our upcoming production of Hoodwinked with Year 3. Thank you for all of your support helping your children to learn lines and songs. Please keep it up! It will all help.  The production performances are on the 1st and 2nd of April. 

World Book Day yesterday was amazing - we had such fantastic costumes and wooden spoon characters! Thank you very much for your support - and for donations of books for the big book swap.  I hope that you all managed to choose some lovely books to read. We had a very busy day - from assembly costume parade to Ultimate Character Champion battles to a Live Lesson with the BBC. The school was buzzing with excitement for reading and books, which is amazing.

Special shout out to Ioan's mum, Tracy Knatt, for making some excellent Welsh Cakes to help us celebrate St David's Day! They were delicious!

Year 4 will be again be taking part in the statutory Multiplication Tables Check in the summer term. This is done in all Year 4 classes in the country. All children are expected to know their tables up to 12 x 12 by the end of year 4, as this will support their Maths going forward. We use TT Rockstars to help us to practice for this, as well as other printed and online games etc and the children have all been asked to practice daily using the Soundcheck on TTRS as this is almost identical to the actual MTC. The children have also been shown how to find their 'heatmap' on TTRS which shows them the tables they need to work on. Once they have done 2 or more Soundchecks a day (which take only a few minutes) they can then focus on the times tables they need to work on.

Please support your child to become as fluent as possible in their times tables as this will increase their confidence across every area of Maths. 

Thank you for your continuing support with homework and with reading for pleasure. Our Reading Cafe last half term was a huge success and we can't wait for the next one, coming up in February.

Reminder: Our Homework in Year 4 consists of weekly Maths assignments on Century plus a Topic homework each half term.  Spellings are also set each week and posted on Google Classroom on Mondays. Children do practise these in school but we ask that they also practise at home to consolidate this. 

The children can access Century via their LEO Homepage on their chrome books. This will be uploaded weekly.  Unless we have had a message from parents with a reason, any children who have not completed the Century homework by the due date will be asked to complete this during their lunch time. If you or your children have any problems with homework, please let me know as soon as possible and I will help. 

Our topic homework, due just after the Easter break (Tuesday April 22nd) is to research one of the major rivers of the world and produce a presentation on the physical feature s of this, as well as any human impact. This can be completed as Google Slides, a video or a paper based presentation. An assignment has been created on GC and includes some links to useful resources.