Birkby Junior School

Welcome back Year 4!

What will we be learning?

We will be focussing our learning in English around a range of fictional texts, including our class texts; Tuesday, The Witches and Ice Palace. In addition to learning about these texts themselves, we will use them as a basis for writing a range of fiction and non-fiction pieces, as well as exploring drama alongside this. These include: Newspaper reports, Character descriptions, diaries and short narrative. We will also focus on further developing our reading skills, through ERIC sessions and phonics interventions, and our comprehension skills through a variety of activities. All questions will be related to a text mentioned above. Cracking Comprehension sessions will reinforce important reading comprehension strategies

In Maths, we will focus for the start of term in Maths is to develop and master understanding of place value. This will involve reading, writing, representing, ordering and comparing numbers to at least 1,000 and determining the value of each digit. This understanding will be used to round numbers. We will then move onto addition and subtraction methods [mental and written], using the school’s calculation policy. Following this, we will build on our multiplication and division understanding and exploring factors. As in year 3, there will continue to be a big push on ensuring that the children are secure in their times tables knowledge. We are hoping to see lots of children feeling like times tables rock-stars! Throughout our Science learning, we will develop and use a variety of scientific vocabulary.

During Autumn 1, the children will be taught a unit called ‘Living things.’ They will understand that living things can be grouped in different ways and will use classification keys to group, identify and name living things. They will create their own classification keys and will also describe how changes to an environment could endanger living things.After that we will be learning about animals including humans. They will identify the parts of the human digestive system, describing the organs and their functions. They will also be identifying types of teeth and their function.

During Autumn 1, we will be learning about the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain. Children will learn that the conquest of Britain took a number of years and the Romans faced revolt and raiding on a number of occasions. We will also learn about the technology that the Romans brought to Britain such as roads. They will also learn about Slack Fort—a Roman fort in Huddersfield. This unit follows on from our previous one, building upon children’s knowledge. We will learn about how the Anglo Saxons settled in Britain and how the contributed to the culture and ways of life of today. Children will also learn about the kingdoms of the day and why Alfred the Great was one of the most famous Anglo-Saxon Kings.

Our PE sessions will be taught each week, allowing children to develop skills and team building. On their allocated PE days, children should come to school in their PE kit bottoms and their normal school polo shirt and sweatshirt (e.g. black tracksuit bottoms rather than trousers or skirts). Class teachers will let you know which days your child will have PE. Please see the curriculum newsletter for more detail about other aspects of our learning.

What will I need to bring to school?

You need to remember to bring your homework diary into school every day. Your teacher will check your diary regularly and an adult at home will need to as well. What work will I need to do at home? English and Maths homework will be set every Wednesday and will need to be handed in on the following Monday.

Weekly spellings will be shared with the children and sent home on Wednesday. Children will be tested on these the following week before your receive your next spellings Bringing your homework diary to school every day will help you to remember what work you need to do. This is a good habit and will help you to become an independent learner. Remember to complete Mathletics activities and practise your Times Table using TTRS. In addition to this, it is important that you continue to read and discuss texts with someone at home on a regular basis. You will be able to visit the school library once a week, in order to select a new reading book as well as have a home reading book that will require changing every week. Try and read every day, even if it’s just for 10 mins. It doesn’t have to be the school library book – it could be a magazine you have read, game instructions, a recipe or any other texts you have been reading.

We know that your child will have a fantastic time in Year 4; they will experience new learning and become inquisitive and independent learners. We are so excited about having our new year 4’s in school after their summer break!