At St Michael’s our aim is to provide a rich curriculum and a wide range of opportunities that will build the habits of ambitious, capable learners and enable all children to flourish in their potential at our school.
We have had an amazing start to our school year. Y4 have settled in brilliantly. They enjoy learning and sharing ther ideas and thay are already producing excellent work. I am so proud of them.
Here is an outline of what Year 4 will be learning during the Autumn Term.
Literacy
We will be developing the children’s reading comprehension skills by studying the book ‘Varjak Paw’, using a whole class reading approach.
In writing, the children will be writing a fictional ‘journey tale/tale of fear’ (based on Zelda and the rain cat) as well as non-fiction writing, and poetry linked to ‘Varjak Paw‘.
Numeracy
In addition to embedding the children’s mental maths skills, through our daily CLIC programme and BMBT (Big Maths Beat That), we are following the White Rose Maths curriculum, which covers the whole content of the National Curriculum. This term the focus will be:
- Place Value
- Addition & Subtraction
- Multiplication & Division
Also this term, the children must learn their remaining x6, x7 and x9 times table facts so that they know them off by heart. They should also revise their x3, x4 and x8 tables, from the previous year. We will be having fun with speed tests and games and challenging ourselves to learn the division facts too!
TOPIC (History/Geography)
In Geography, as part of our whole school theme of ’Seven worlds, one planet’, Year 4 will study the continent of Asia. The learning will include using maps, atlases and globes to focus on key physical and human characteristics, countries and major cities. The children will learn about the position and significance of latitude, longitude, the Equator, the Northern and Southern Hemisphere and the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Ultimately our aim is to develop a better world view and to foster an appreciation for the complexity of the our world as well as the diversity of cultures across continents.
Science: ‘electricity’
Our aim is for children to learn about what electricity is and how it is generated. We want them to identify which appliances use electricity in their homes and how to keep themselves safe. The children will develop their scientific skills by constructing circuits, creating circuit diagrams and conducting investigations into insulators and conductors and different types of switches.
Religious Education
In RE we learn about the 6 main religions in the world, and this term our focus is on Judaism. As part of our topic, our learning will include
- Main beliefs
- Special places
- Holy book
- Symbols and meanings
- Jewish Pilgrimages
- Jewish Stories
We will also be dedicating some time to deepen our understanding of our school values of ‘Respect’, ‘Resilience’ and in the second half term ‘Hope‘.
PE
This term the children will be focusing on Hockey. They will be learning to pass receive and travel with the ball as well as tackle and shoot. They will also develop their understanding of the principle of attacking and defending in invasion games.
Please ensure that your child comes to school in their PE kit, tracksuit and trainers on Mondays.
CREATIVE CURRICULUM
In addition to all the learning already outlined, the children will also be given ample opportunity to do Art and DT (linked to their topic, but also a whole school art project), to participate in Music lessons, to take part in drama & dance activities, to develop their relationships and health education (RHE), to learn computing skills, including online safety and to learn a language other than English, which will continue to be Spanish.
HOME learning
Children are excited to receive extra class DOJOS for completeing their homelearning well and for bringing their homework to school on time.
Home learning will include:
- Reading – please encourage your child to delve into a good book and to read a little each day. Each child has a home reading log to complete.
- Mathletics (login and password card will remain the same)
- Weekly spelling words to learn (children will be tested on a Friday)
- The children will also be given a fortnightly comprehension (written) task on a Monday, which must be completed and handed in on a Friday. The specific return date will be written on their comprehension sheet. We will mark them together in class so it is important that it is completed on time.
stay in touch
Despite the current restrictions about entering our school premises, please do not let that stop you from staying in contact with us. If you wish to speak to us, please contact the school office via schoolmail@stmichaels.lewisham.sch.uk and we will be happy to address any concerns you may have.