Brill Church Of England School

Year 4

Welcome to Year 4

Happy New Year to you all and welcome back to what I hope will be a fantastic Spring term with lots of new experiences! I am Mr Backhouse and I am very excited to join you in all of our new learning. I will be learning just as much as you, trust me!

Thank you for being so welcoming before Christmas; parents and children, during my handover days. You all put my nerves to rest.

I am looking forward to exploring our topic 'Can you come on a great American road trip?' this half term. We will use maps, compass directions and new skills to learn routes and destinations along the way! In Maths, we will be furthering our understanding of multiplication and division, fractions (don’t panic!) and measure.

As we go forward, please remember that it is OK to not know something and make mistakes. As long as we work together and share our thoughts and feelings along the way, we will have a successful and happy time!

Please wear PE kits into school on a Wednesday and Thursday.

We look forward to seeing you all soon.

Mr Backhouse

Mr Backhouse j.backhouse@brillschool.org.uk

Please note that this email is not monitored during the school day as I am teaching. My admin time will be after the school day ends at 3pm, Monday to Friday. For all immediate enquiries please contact office@brillschool.org.uk

Important notices:

Please send children to school in their PE kit on Wednesdays and Thursday.

If children have a sporting club after school they should come to school in their school uniform bringing their PE kit in a bag to change into at the end of the school day.

Year 4 Multiplication tables check.

In the summer term, all children in Year 4 across the country will be taking part in a multiplication tables check.

The purpose of the MTC is to determine whether pupils can recall their times tables fluently, which is essential for future success in mathematics. It will help schools to identify pupils who have not yet mastered their times tables, so that additional support can be provided.

Please find below a link for the Gov website if you would like some more information: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/multiplication-tables-check

We are going to be using the laptops more to practice this style of timetables. This is to get the children used to using the keys and learning where they keys are so they are able to access them quickly during the test. We are encouraging this style of practice at home too.

TTRS is a great way to practice at home. All children have their own log ins. If you are unsure of yours, please do ask.

Download Document

The Curriculum

At Brill School, English, Maths and Core Skills are taught through focused daily lessons; usually in the morning. For other lessons we have in recent years moved away from narrow subject based teaching and have developed a curriculum that is imaginative, child focused and cross curricular.

Year 4’s thematic topic units for this year are:

Term	Theme/topic	Main focus
Autumn 1: Autumn 2:	Location, Location, Location Unforgettable Monarchs	Geography History
Spring 1: Spring 2:	Can you come on a great American road trip? Ancient Egyptians	Geography History
Summer

Click on the topic units below for an overview document for the term's work or on the subject links for more information about the long term curriculum in each specific area.

Name
Topic Web Autumn 1 - Location, Location, Location.docx	Download
Topic Web Autumn 2 - Unforgettable Monarchs.docx	Download
Topic Web Spring 1 - Can you come on a great American road trip.docx	Download
Topic Web Spring 2 - Ancient Egyptians.docx	Download

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Our PE lessons will be taking place on a Wednesday and a Thursday. They will stay in their PE kits all day so there is no need for them to bring a change of clothes. Please ensure that children have weather appropriate kit as we will have PE lessons outside.

Please also ensure that you child has a pair of trainers in school at all times for our daily mile, along with a pair of wellies for break times and lunch times.

A general PE kit would include: Brill polo shirt, hoodie, shorts, tracksuit bottoms/comfortable trousers, change of socks, appropriate trainers (hats and gloves maybe need in the winter months).

Reading books: Children will each take 2 ability appropriate book from the school library. One to keep at school and one to take home. When children have finished reading either book they will be able to change return them to the library and take out a new book.

Pencil cases: Please do not send your children in with pencil cases. We will be providing the children with all necessary equipment while they are here.

Homework: Homework will be given out at the start of each half term and a date will be given for children to bring their work in for sharing. The homework in the learning logs is a chance for the children to engage in project based work along with core skills.

Ways you can help support your child’s learning in school

Spelling

In Year 4 the children take part in regular phonic sessions which focus on a variety of spelling patterns. The children are assessed on these spelling patterns regularly to assess if they are able to apply the learnt patterns independently. The children will bring home some words which demonstrate the spelling pattern that they have been learning.

Reading

In Year 4 the children take part in a guided reading session weekly where all the children are required to read and discuss a part of a book as a group. The sessions are designed to focus on different areas of reading comprehension and allow the children opportunity to look further into the meaning of the book, the author’s intentions and reasons for choices of words etc.

There are also opportunities for quiet reading and children are able to change their reading books most days as needed. It is still vital that they have regular opportunities to read to you at home and take part in discussions about their book and what has happened. This ensures that they are reading at the appropriate level and more importantly understanding what they are reading.

Encourage your child to read (and share with you) the texts from our Brill School Year 4 recommended book list.

Mathematics

All children should be urged to know as many of their times tables from 1-12 as possible off by heart, out of order, with quick recall. This may not be possible for all children however it is still something we can all strive towards. It would be great if you could regularly discuss and learn times tables with your children. We practise our tables most days using a program called Wizard Maths.

The Year 4 Team...

Mr Backhouse

Class Teacher

Mrs Barlow

Teaching Assistant

What have we been up to!?

French - Guess Who morning!

This morning, Year 4 took part in games of Guess Who but with a twist! We had to play in French! This was a lot of fun and really showed how well we have been learning our new vocabulary. We were also lucky to have some delicious croissants and hot chocolate! Take a look at the photos below.

Here are Yr4 consolidating their learning on Henry VIII at forest school.

07.11.22

We had great fun exploring circuits in Yr4 today!!

This week, we have started to learn about our first Monarch, King John! We have learnt loads of interesting facts - both inside the classroom and at forest school.

15.10.22

Yr4 had so much fun making their settlements this week and were so excited to share them with you.
As well as this, they have massively impressed us with their maths skills! We have been using column addition, and every member of year four has challenged themselves - whether with concrete methods, written methods or abstract puzzles!
Have a great weekend all.

04.10.22

Year 4 experimenting with different materials, in preparation for their mixed media collage they will make at the end of this term.

26.09.22 Our melting investigation!

23.9.22

This afternoon, the children in year 3 and 4 decided to hold their eco council elections together!

The children took some time to write a persuasive argument on why they should be in the eco council. Everyone was very brave and we are so proud of how the children stood up in front of everyone and gave their speeches.