Meet our Classes
Information and outline of work: Autumn Term of 2011
Dear Parents,
Welcome back for the new school year.
This letter provides details on Year 4 routines and an outline of areas of the curriculum to be covered in the forthcoming term. I hope that it answers any questions you may have.
Routines
- Homework is set every Friday and need to be handed in by the following Tuesday. The children’s new Personal Organisers allows for you to make comments – please do let me know if your child finds the homework too difficult or takes too long to complete. Homework needs to be completed in their A4 homework books (unless otherwise instructed).
- Spellings will normally be set on a Monday and tested on a Friday. In addition, spelling sentences must be completed in their spelling sentence books for Friday.
- Children are expected to read at home and record in their Personal Organisers on a daily basis. They must bring both their book and organiser into school every day.
- Children are expected to have all the equipment they need for daily lessons in a pencil case.
- PE kits must remain in school on all days. Many of this term’s PE lessons will consist of outdoor games, so children may wear tracksuit bottoms when the weather gets colder. Please ensure girls have a pair of socks for PE, as tights are not suitable. For safety reasons, watches and earrings must be removed for PE lessons. Children can only be excused from PE if a note has been provided in advance.
- Full school uniform must, of course, be worn unless otherwise stipulated.
- Please would you ensure that all of your child’s clothing and equipment is named.
- Please make sure that your child has his/her dinner money if a hot lunch is required.
Subject responsibilities in Year 4
Art: Mrs Matthews
ICT: Mr Panchal & Mr Bornman
PE: Mr O’Connor & Mr Bornman
French: Mr Norris
Science: Mrs Henton
Literacy: Mr Bornman & Mrs Henton
All other curriculum areas: Mr Bornman
Here are the curriculum areas I will be covering this term:
English
We will be studying stories based in historical settings and stories from other cultures, looking at a variety of texts and text types. There will be a focus on non-fiction texts, such as reports and information texts, as these will lend themselves well to the children’s main topic this term. They will also continue to use VCOP (Vocabulary, Openers, Connectives and Punctuation) to enrich their written language, complimented by a regular “big write” to encourage the implementation of skills acquired during lessons.
Drama: The children will take part in many drama activities (especially building up to a “big write”). In addition, they will be visiting the Bloomsbury Theatre in London in October to see a “Horrible Histories” performance entitled “The Awful Egyptians”, complimenting this term’s topic: Ancient Egypt & The Exodus
Maths
During the Autumn Term, the children will be covering the following:
Place value, addition and subtraction, reasoning about shape, length, perimeter & co-ordinates, properties of number, sequences, reasoning about number, multiplication & division, money & real life problems, fractions & decimals and data handling.
As part of our numeracy lessons, there will also be an emphasis on mental maths and multiplication tables. Children will often be provided with “real life” problems, so as to apply their classroom knowledge and understanding to situations they may encounter in everyday life.
Science.
The curriculum focus this term will be Habitats, as well as Keeping Warm – the children will be building on work covered in lower year groups to extend on their scientific knowledge & understanding.
RE.
We will continue to follow the London Diocesan Board for Schools’ syllabus entitled “Every Child Matters to God”, with an emphasis on Vulnerability.
Foundation Subjects
Our topic this term is “Ancient Egypt and the Exodus”. This topic will encompass many of the Foundation subjects (including History, Geography, DT and ICT) in a far more cross-curricular, natural and child-friendly manner. The topic is thoroughly planned, meaning that all of the relevant objectives and aims are covered, though not in clear-cut subject ‘boxes’. This is called the ‘Creative Learning Journey’. The main benefit is that children can see the relevance of their learning so that facts and skills acquired in one subject area can be transferred to others.
PE and PSHE
PE will include a variety of invasion games taught by Mr O’Connor on Wednesdays and other physical skills with Mr Bornman on Tuesdays
Residential & School Trips
In addition to the Horrible Histories trip in October, we hope to take the children to Dorset and are currently in the midst of arranging dates. Further details regarding Dorset, and other trips, will be provided in due course.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further information. I look forward to getting to know you all over the coming academic year!
Yours sincerely,
Mr Bornman
Click here for a print version of this letter (PDF) |
