1. WELCOME TO CLASS 4

2. WHO ARE WE? Mrs Orton (SpaG, science, times tables and mathematical shape and space) – Monday a.m. and Tuesday all day. Mrs Sharp (Literacy, maths, topic, RE, PE, French and ICT) – Monday p.m., Wednesday all day, Thursday a.m. and Friday a.m. Mrs East – full time T.A. and swimming teacher Mrs Bristow (art and music) – Thursday p.m.

3. EXPECTATIONS Part of our task in year 4 is to encourage and nurture the children’s independence, self-management, respect and sense of responsibility and to prepare them for being in the top part of the school next year. We would like to see the children managing their own belongings, behaviour and homework tasks as much as possible. WARNING! We are also quite picky about respect and good manners in class 4 – please speak to and treat others as you would expect to be spoken to and treated yourself.

4. OPEN DOOR POLICY We encourage all parents to take as active a role as possible in their child’s education. We ask that if your child has expressed a concern about an issue in school that you come and speak to a member of the class 4 team as soon as possible. Historically, it has proven very challenging for us to resolve issues if we find out about them 3 rd /4 th hand or days after the problem has occurred. We continue to welcome parents into the classroom before and after school to discuss any problems. However, could we politely request that if you wish to discuss something that may take more than 5 minutes you make an appointment the day before so that we are able to give you our full attention. Can we take this opportunity to remind you that children should not be in school before the bell has gone unless they have a club – this is for safety (and privacy) reasons not because we are grumpy before our morning coffee!

5. CURRICULUM We have now fully embedded the new curriculum into year 4 lessons. You may, or may not, notice the step-up in academic expectations. The new curriculum aims to provide a deeper and broader understanding across all subjects as well as ensuring that children leave primary school with secure skills in maths and literacy.

6. MATHEMATICS Maths is split into 2 key areas: fluency (being able to recall arithmetical knowledge) and reasoning (the ability to apply mathematical facts to a wide range of problems). Our aim is to make your child a fully rounded mathematician – ensuring that fluency and reasoning are given equal weighting. As a guide, by the end of year 4, all children are expected to know (by heart) every multiplication and division fact up to and including the 12 times table. They are also expected to be able to apply this knowledge in order to solve problems such as 3 x 6 = 189 Children will be tested on times tables weekly (the results of which can be seen in their pink books which should be coming home regularly) As a school we are making mathematics one of our key focus areas this year and would, therefore, like to take the opportunity to invite you to a mathematics information evening next Monday at 3:30pm.

7. SPELLING AND GRAMMAR (SPAG) Children will continue to follow the Read Write Inc spellings and phonics scheme this year. This is designed to revise year 3 spelling patterns and cover year 4 spelling patterns. We have left copies of the year 3 and 4 spelling list for you to take home (please do not try to get your child to learn all the spellings, by rote, in one sitting) many of which fall into spelling pattern categories covered by the scheme. Our spelling test will take the form of a ‘sentence of the week’ containing red (commonly used words), orange (words which follow spelling patterns covered in our lessons) and green (challenge) words. Your child may not necessarily be expected to spell every word correctly. These sentences will come home in pink books for the children to learn. In class 4 children will have specifically planned grammar lessons in order to ensure coverage of the grammatical elements of the new curriculum.

8. WRITING In class 4 we value every child as a writer and want to continue to encourage imagination and creativity. We will be covering a wide range of genres and asking the children to write for a variety of purposes. We hope that they will leave class 4 with a head full of new vocabulary and an enthusiasm for writing. The new curriculum has re-introduced the importance of neat and correctly formed handwriting and this is now assessed in year 6, counting as part of the children’s overall writing mark. By the end of year 4 children should be able to join letters where necessary and appreciate the need for good presentation. To celebrate good presentation, each class will be choosing a ‘writing of the week’ to go on a display board.

9. READING Research continues to prove that reading is the key to academic success. Children who read for pleasure are likely to do significantly better at school than their peers, according to new research from the Institute of Education (IOE). In class 4 children will be given the opportunity to read independently everyday and once a week with an adult (for some children this will be more often). Please, please, please encourage your child to read at home everyday. Please, please, please continue to read with and to your children – never assume they are too old to listen to a story. We cannot over emphasise how important this is. Researchers found that children who receive bedtime stories from their parents as infants perform better than those who go without. But reading for pleasure during secondary school had the biggest effect, with books judged to be more important to children’s development at an older age than the influence of their parents. The combined effect on children’s progress of reading books often, going to the library regularly and reading newspapers at 16 was four times greater than the advantage children gained from having a parent with a degree.

10. SCIENCE Mrs Orton?

11. TOPIC Term 1: India and the ancient Indus Valley Term 2: Anglo-Saxons and Vikings Term 3: The Rainforests of the World.

12. P.E. AND SWIMMING Class 4 weekly P.E. lessons are timetabled to take place on Monday and Friday afternoons and will be led by our sports apprentices under the guidance of Mrs Sharp and PPA staff. Can we please ask that a full P.E. kit is in school every day as we sometimes have opportunities to participate in sporting activities outside of our scheduled lessons. For a reminder of P.E. kit essentials please see the school website. Please be aware that we operate a NO KIT, NO P.E. LESSON rule (this includes footwear). This is not only to prevent damage to school clothing (and children!) but for hygiene reasons. Swimming lessons will take place on Friday afternoons in the summer term only. Mrs East will speak to the children in greater detail about this nearer the time. Everyone is expected to participate, but at their own level.

13. HOMEWORK Homework should be meaningful and manageable for both the children and the teachers. We take into consideration the fact that each week the children in class 4 should be: Reading at least 5 times; Learning spellings; Learning times tables; Enjoying out of school clubs and activities; Spending time with their friends and family. As a consequence we may not send home ‘extra’ homework every week. When we do it will usually be sent home on a Friday, to be returned by the following Wednesday. Homework will be based on an area we have studied that week and will, as much as possible, come with a covering note explaining what is expected.

14. EXTRAS Celebration assemblies will take the same format as last year – one assembly, per key stage, each term. We will try to inform children as soon as possible if they will be receiving a certificate. Please talk to your children at home about our metacognition skills and values and encourage them to display these at home and school. As a general rule we do not do ‘show and share’ simply because we have very limited time during the school day. However, if your child has been somewhere special and would like to share this we will endeavour to find time to do so. Drink bottles are welcome in class as it prevents children have to wander off to the water fountain during lessons. Can we please ask that they are named and regularly washed out (any water bottles left behind on a Friday afternoon will be recycled or sent to lost property). PLEASE NAME CLOTHES! Sleep – Children of this age need, on average, 10 hours of sleep.

15. ANY QUESTIONS?