Welcome to Year 4

Welcome to Spring 1 and Year 4! 

I do hope you all had a lovely New Year with your families.  As we enter 2026, Year 4 continue to explore and learn new ideas. 

As always we will continue to adhere to our school values of Respect, Good Manners, Patience, Perseverance and Honesty. We will understand the school rules of 'Be Safe, Be Kind and Be the best you can be!'  We will continue with our 'Brookhouse Dojo' rewards scheme to acknowledge positive attitudes and behaviours that are consistent with our values.  Homework will be collected in on a Wednesday to be marked and returned by Friday.  There will also be online tasks to complete on Purple Mash, SPAG.com, Reading Plus and Times Tables Rockstars. 

Our topic for this half term is 'The Great Plague.'

English

The unit for this half term is Persuasive Texts. Pupils will read and discuss various texts/videos relating to advertising and the key features that are used in order to persuade the audience.  We will develop our use of fronted adverbials and expanded noun phrases and begin to use figurative language techniques. e.g. alliteration, imperative verbs and rhetorical questions.  We will develop our understanding of the layout and composition of these texts and the purpose. By the end of the unit, pupils will design and write a persuasive leaflet of their own, using the conventions of the genre. 

Reading is a priority of ours at Brookhouse therefore Whole Class Reading sessions take place everyday, where children are expected to read a range of texts and answer questions by summerising, retrieving, making inference and explaining.  We also have a specific focus on vocabulary, which will be sent home to learn before the lesson.  In school, we will continue to use the online reading resource called 'Reading Plus' and encourage children to complete lessons at home.  It is imperative for you to support your child with reading, please use the question stems to ask your children questions to check for understanding.  Also, ensure your child is learning their spellings for ten minutes daily. 

Oracy - Voice 21

As a school we are developing our Oracy, learning through talk and learning to talk.  In class, we provide opportunities for discussion in all areas of the curriculum.  We encourage children to fully participate by taking on a range of roles and utilising the discussion guidelines created at the start of the academic year.

Mathematics

In Maths, our aim is to improve Maths Fluency, Reasoning and Problem Solving.  We do this through concrete, pictorial and abstract models. In Spring 1 we will continue focusing on multiplication and division facts and pupils will further develop our understanding of multiplication and division. We will learn how to divide and multiply by 1 and 0 and understand the law of commutativity. We will learn how to multiply three numbers together using prior knowledge of multiplication tables. We will use our tables and knowledge of place value to multiply multiples of 10, leading to the multiplication of 2-digit numbers using short multiplication. We will use our knowledge of multiplying multiples of 10 when multiplying multiples of 100, leading to multiplying 3-digit numbers using short multiplication. We will learn more about division and will divide 2-digit numbers using two methods, including numbers with remainders. We will then move onto graphs. We will learn how to interpret picture graphs and bar graphs. We will continue using NCTEM Math Mastery sessions each day to support our mental math strategies to deepen our understanding. 

In Year 4 we will be focusing on our multiplication tables with a view to the MTC Test in the summer term. Please do support your child at home to learn the multiplication tables. 

Science

The strand of science we will be focusing on for the whole spring term is Biology. We will learning about animals including humans focusing on the digestive system, teeth and food chains. We will look at what happens in each part of the digestive system and know the functions of: the mouth, oesophagus, stomach, small intestine and large intestine. We will sequence the journey our food takes and we will draw the main parts of the digestive system onto a human outline. We will then focus on teeth and learn humans have 2 sets of teeth, and that teeth can be classified into different groups. We will know about the number, location and function of the incisors, canines, pre-molars and molars. We will learn about the stages of tooth decay and how it can be caused and how to prevent it. We will then focus on other animals including humans and learn about food chains; focusing on consumers and know that they can be prey, plus,  predators and suggest why they are at the top of the food chain. We will construct different food chains and know the differences between carnivores, herbivores and omnivores,   Pupils will be expected to work scientifically by setting up simple practical enquiries including comparative and fair tests, making careful observations, identifying similarities and differences, gathering, classifying and presenting data, recording findings using scientific language, drawing and labelling diagrams. They will use scientific evidence to answer questions or support their findings. Please encourage your child to learn their knowledge organiser which will assist them with their weekly quizzes.

Art

In art we will be focusing on sculpture. To begin with, we will explore two artists, Paul Cezanne and Pierre Renior, thinking about their lives, motivations and visions. We will then explore still life art, focusing on the process of creation, colours and shape. We will produce sketches to represent still life objects, thinking about light and shade. We will use watercolours and different sized paint brushes to create different effects of light and dark, shade and texture. We will then use clay to create the shape of a sculpture, using our sketches to inform our decisions on adding texture/details and use watercolours to add colour and create effects.

Physical Education

P.E sessions will take place on a Monday afternoon, our unit this half term is Outdoor Adventurous Activities Team Work and Problem Solving. We will continue to apply and develop a broader range of skills, learning how to use them in different ways and to link them to make actions and sequences of movement. We will be working as teams, communicating, collaborating and competing with each other. We will develop an understanding of how to improve in different physical activities and sports and learn how to evaluate and recognise our own success.  Please ensure your child comes into school wearing their full P.E kit.  The kit should include a yellow P.E top with the school's logo matched with black shorts, joggers or leggings and black pumps or trainers.  Over the top, children will wear their school jumper or cardigan. All jewellery must be removed, ensure earrings are taken out before the session or covered with plasters.

History

In History we will exploring 'The Great Plague'. How did the plague arrive in Europe and the effects on towns and cities. We will focus on London; researching the history of the plague through hundreds of years. Developing our understanding  lives of people at the time of The Great Plague and how lives were effected in different ways due to social and economical differences. We will explore beliefs and superstitions around the plague at that time, plus symptoms, and remedies; how have these changed in modern times? We will research primary and secondary resources , then create enquiring questions to explore further the topic. 
 

PSHE

Sessions will take place on Thursday afternoon, our unit for this term is, Families and Friends recognising what constitutes a positive, healthy relationship and develop the skills to form and maintain positive and healthy relationships. We will explores different types of relationship, including those between acquaintances, friends, relatives and families. We will understand the skills when listening and responding respectfully to a wide range of people, to feel confident to raise their own concerns, to recognise and care about others people’s feelings and to try to see, respect and if necessary constructively challenge others’ point of view. We will understand the nature and consequences of discrimination, teasing, bullying and aggressive behaviours including cyber bullying, use of prejudice based language, ‘trolling’, how to respond and ask for help. We will understand how to recognise bullying and abuse in all its forms. We will learn how to recognise and challenge gender stereotypes, to understand personal boundaries; to identify what they are willing to share with their most special people; friends; classmates and others; and that we all have rights to privacy. 

If you have any queries, do not hesitate to discuss these with us at the end of the school day or arrange an appointment through the school office.

Thank you for your support.

All the best from the Year 4 team!

Miss Woodhouse (Class Teacher)

Mrs Khonat (Higher Level Teaching Assistant)

Mrs Matador (SSA)

Mrs Sadia (Teacher Assistant) 

Mrs Saleem (Teacher Assistant)