Year 4 2024 - 2025
 |
Welcome back, and let us wish you a very happy New Year! We hope everyone enjoyed the break and is ready to make 2025 another great year. We’ve got some fascinating units coming up in all subjects, so read on to find out more about what we’ll be learning:
This term the children are going to be looking at myths and legends from around the world. Tying in nicely to some of the earlier work on Robin Hood, we’ll be looking at stories from ancient Greece, Rome and Scandinavia, as well as local legends like the story of the Lambton Worm. The class will be learning about the common elements in fantastical myths such as heroes, quests, and monsters; and how to look for hidden messages and teachings in the stories.
There will be a strong focus on how to produce coherent, well-thought-out story writing, and how to embed atmosphere, drama and suspense in our prose. We’ll also go deeper into the work we’ve already begun on descriptive language to really help pupils bring their characters and settings to life.
We started off this year with a strong focus on place value and written addition and subtraction methods for 3 and 4-digit numbers. We’ll now be looking at how to tackle multiplication problems for larger numbers too, using grid method, before moving on to bus shelter (short) division method.
Number work is, of course, the most important aspect of mathematics and the foundation that the pupils’ understanding of most other units will rest upon, so we want to make sure that all pupils are as confident with it as possible before moving on to other areas. Please ensure that when children are working from home, they continue to use the written methods taught in school - set out in the same way they’ve learnt in class - as learning multiple techniques simultaneously can lead to confusion.
Remember that all children should have login details for Times Table Rockstars and it’s extremely important that all children practise their multiplication skills on this site every day for at least 10 minutes. Each child will have their TTRS account tuned to their current ability level, helping them progress in the areas they need to and at a speed they’re capable of. TTRS is particularly useful now that we’ll be focusing on multiplication and division.
Having finished our topic on the Romans, we’re now moving on to learn about Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. This fits in nicely against the previous topic, as after learning about how Britain was passed from Celtic to Roman rule, the children will now be able to learn about the Germanic tribes which took over after the Romans left. They’ll find about old Germanic beliefs, everyday life for Anglo-Saxon and Viking people, and how many types of technological knowledge were actually lost after the Roman withdrawal, allowing living conditions in Britain to drop for hundreds of years.
In geography, we’ll be exploring climate, and how different parts of the world exist under very different conditions in terms of heat and humidity. They’ll find out how this affects the land in places like deserts, jungles, or arctic areas, and how both plant and animal life has adapted to exist in those areas.
This half term our science lessons will be based around electricity. The children will have the opportunity to learn about what electricity can do and take part in practical experiments with circuits. They’ll find out some of the many uses humans put electricity to, and try to answer the unit question “Would Humans Become Extinct Without Electricity?”
Throughout the year the children will be practising with various art media, techniques, and styles. They’ll also be looking in detail at the work of a few important artists. This term we’re going to look at Picasso as well as the cubist movement in general. Pupils will have a chance to learn about how art doesn’t always have to be realistic, and how it can try to find alternative ways of viewing a subject. During this unit, they’ll have the chance to create cubist works of their own using a variety of media.
In DT, the children will be designing and crafting money containers, considering and testing different materials and shapes to make something both practical and decorative.
Both classes will have PE twice a week (with a focus on fitness during this first half term). It’s essential that your child always has their kit in school, and we recommend leaving it on the premises – only taking it home during the half-term breaks for cleaning. It’s also important that your child has the correct St. Luke’s kit: a plain, white t-shirt; black shorts or knee-length leggings; and pumps or trainers. Please also remember that they have off-site swimming lessons each week, and must have the correct swimming kit and a towel (and a suitable bag to transport them in) with them every Thursday morning.
Literacy and numeracy homework will be given out each Friday. Please make sure that it is completed and returned to school on the following Monday, as children who do not hand it in on time will be asked to redo it in their free time. In addition to this, children will have weekly spellings which must be learnt for a test the following week.
Please read at home daily with your child (for about 15-20 minutes each night) and sign their reading record. To help them learn and pick up speed with their times tables, all children will be given a Times Table Rockstars login, which they should use to practise their tables for about 12 minutes each day.
So what are Times Table Rock Stars and Purple Mash? Put simply, they are online tools which we use to help us teach the children, both in and outside of school.
Times Table Rock Stars
Times Table Rock Stars (sometimes abbreviated as TTRS) helps the children with their times tables. Multiplication skills are extremely important at this age, and children need to not only be able to work out times tables, but know them by heart and be able to answer them quickly. Children who struggle with their tables will have a lot of difficulty doing multiplication and division problems with larger numbers in maths lessons, and will struggle with the government-sent Year 4 tables tests they’ll have to do later in the year. TTRS gives them simple games to practise their times tables, and the opportunity to earn “coins” which they can spend on decorating their avatar.
What do you have to do? Children should be logging on to TTRS every day and practising the multiplication games for at least 10 minutes. It’s not a lot of time, but if they do it daily it will have a massive impact. All children will have log in details given to them in the first couple of weeks back at school. After going to the TTRS website at https://ttrockstars.com/ go to LOGIN on the top menu and select SCHOOL PUPILS. Before your child can enter their details, you’ll need to find our school by entering its postcode: M124NG (This is better than typing “St. Luke’s” as there are several other schools around the country with that name.) Once you’ve done this, they’ll be asked for their username and password. Note: It is VERY important that the children do not give their login details to anyone else, or leave them around carelessly where someone else could see them. We do not want other children playing the games under the wring account, as this will affect our assessment of their abilities. We also do not want anyone else going into the TTRS store and spending coins earned by the user.
Purple Mash
Purple Mash is a learning platform we use in school. It has things like maths games, art packages, and coding interfaces built into it for the children to use. We use it a lot in ICT to help the children learn how to program, create digital art or simulations, and even make simple games. The good thing about PM is that it can be used out of school as well. The children will have login details which they can put in on most devices (computers, tablets or phones) at home so that they can practise using the same tools they’re using in ICT! You can find it at https://www.purplemash.com/login/
What things do you and your child need to remember day-to-day?
Uniform & PE Kits
Children should always have the correct uniform for school. The St. Luke’s Uniform consists of a white shirt, blue sweater, fleece or cardigan (sweaters with the school logo on them are available from the school itself, please just ask) grey or black skirts, trousers shorts or pinafores or check dresses. Pupils should wear black shoes, not trainers. More information can be found here: https://stlukes.sites.schooljotter2.com/parent-zone/school-uniform
Your child’s PE kit should stay in school at all times, including weekends. (We recommend that they only bring it home each term break so it can be washed.) For gymnastics and dance, children should wear black shorts and a T-shirt or leotard. For games and athletics, a pair of black shorts, white t-shirt and trainers or pumps may be worn. School P.E. kits are available to purchase from the school office at reasonable prices. It is a very good idea to put your child's name in any clothes worn for school. as most of the clothes are nearly identical, if an item is lost without a name inside it, it is unlikely that it will be recovered.
Reading, Spellings, and Homework
All children will have a reading book which is suited to their current ability, and they should read it for at least 15-20 minutes each night with an adult. When reading, the adult should ask them questions that require literal responses, such as “Why did Molly say she needed a car?” and ones that need the child to infer why something may be the case, such as “Why do you think Ahmed was angry with Tim when he gave him the cake?” Also, children should be encouraged to talk generally about the book they’re reading, perhaps saying whether or not they like it and why, or making predictions about what they think will happen next. Each child will have a reading record book, which can be signed after they have finished, with a comment about their performance. Children should not sign their own reading records. The children also need to make sure that they bring their reading book back into school each day.
Children will be given ten spellings (set to their ability) each week. They have a full week to learn them before they’re tested and receive a new set. These spellings are important to help develop the children’s vocabulary, and they should be encouraged to practise them a little each evening. It is also important that they know the meanings of these words – so that they can use them in their own writing and speech – and have practice looking up the definitions of words they’re unfamiliar with, so please ask them to explain what each word means if you think that they may not know.
Children will usually have a piece of literacy and numeracy homework given to them each Friday. They need to make sure that both pieces are complete and ready to be handed in on the following Monday. If your child is struggling with a piece of work, it’s fine to offer assistance, but please only explain or help them enough to get them started, and leave them to complete as much of it themselves as possible