Class teachers - Miss Tompkinson, Mrs McManus and Mrs Burr

• September - Respect and Responsibility 

• October - Compassion and Hope 

• November -  Friendship and Forgiveness 

• December - Understanding and Patience

Year 4 will continue with the Literacy Tree scheme to develop our literacy, language and communication skills this term. We will learn through teaching the book ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes. Pupils will explore mystery and suspense. They will write various text types, including letters, news articles, and poems, with the extended written outcome being a published narrative. They will work independently and in groups, using digital devices and enhancing their presentation skills. 

During the second half of the term, Year 4 will focus their literacy work around 'Winter’s Child' by Angela McAllister. The pupils will write descriptive poems, postcards (recount), dialogue, setting descriptions as a letter, and retellings. 

Pupils will participate in a Whole-Class Reading session each day. Over the week, they will read with the teacher and complete tasks independently and as part of a group, developing Voice 21 skills, spelling, and comprehension. 

We encourage the pupils to read every day at home with an adult. We ask you to ask questions about what is read, developing pupils' recall, vocabulary, and understanding of their chosen text. These can be magazines, fiction or nonfiction books, journals — anything that interests and engages them. 

During Welsh sessions, pupils will build on previous knowledge of questions such as Pwy wyt ti? And Ble rwyt ti’n byw? Moving onto more complex sentences and developing role-play conversations. Later in the term, pupils will build vocabulary around parts of the body and how to describe one another.

During the Autumn term, Year 4 will start with Place Value, developing knowledge of number values up to and including 10,000.  Pupils will use manipulatives to deepen their understanding and enhance their technical language, ensuring they can discuss numeracy and apply their knowledge.  Pupils will use their retrieved and new knowledge to order numbers and identify greater than and less than using all associated symbols. Once these skills have been mastered, pupils will apply them to subtraction and addition problems, moving on to inverse, showing deeper understanding. Answering questions using missing boxes and algebra equations will finish our Place Value objectives. 

In the later part of the term, pupils will begin their maths journey of multiplication and division. They will recall multiplication facts and vocabulary previously learned in Year 3 and apply them to procedural and reasoning-style questions. Much of our work will be oracy-based, so please feel free to ask them what they can remember and apply. 

Practising times tables daily will help pupils calculate problems more efficiently. In Year 4, pupils should know their 2,3,4,5,6,7 and 10 times tables.

Health and Wellbeing will be on a Friday.  Pupils will participate in enrichment sessions  where pupils will have opportunities to choose the activity they would like to engage with. 

Year 4 will continue to focus on building relationships and friendships and displaying kindness to those around them this term. 

Over the term, school values will include Responsibility, Managing Changes, Perseverance, Compassion, and Hope. These values will be covered throughout lessons, Morning Thoughts, and school assemblies. 

Pupils will explore the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), focusing on having freedom of thought and the right to express our ideas, thoughts and opinions. They will research the UNCRC and how the rights impact aspects of their own life.

Year 4 will be exploring Voices for change: Justice and Freedom. They will start building the foundation for their work in Years 5 and 6. Pupils will be developing their understanding of justice, freedom and fairness, both in their own lives and in the wider world. Our work will develop independent and group working, using digital platforms for research, with many tasks being oracy-based using the Voice 21 Framework. Collaboration will be essential this term, as will opportunities to work both within class and across the year group. Building on this learning, pupils will be encouraged to form and express their own opinions on issues that matter to them, while developing respect for the views of others.

Pupils must bring a water bottle daily and an age-appropriate reading book for independent reading sessions. 

Health and Well-being sessions will take place on a Friday. Pupils should wear their P.E kit every Friday. 

Please ensure pupils wear weather-appropriate clothing; we will aim to be outside daily; therefore coats are essential if forecasted wet weather.  Please label all of your child’s property to avoid losing items.

We have a number of children in school with a nut allergy.  We strive to be a nut-free school so please do not send in nut products in packed lunches such as nutella.

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To contact your child's teacher please drop us an email via ask@oldcastleprimary.co.uk or call us 01656 815790.  

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