Welcome to Year 4!

2025-26

In Year 4, our teachers are Mrs Collins (Class 4), Mrs Webb (Class 5), and Mrs Taylor (Class 6). We are also supported by our dedicated Learning Support Assistants (LSAs): Miss Jackman.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with your child's teacher. If they are not around at pick-up, you can speak to them by phoning the school office and requesting an appointment.

Keep referring back to this page for regular updates about the children's learning. 

Curriculum Newsletters

Year 4 Spring 1 - Curriculum Newsletter

Year 4 Autumn 2 - Curriculum Newsletter

Year 4 Autumn 1 - Curriculum Newsletter

Update - Friday 5th December 2025

We have started our final English unit for the year - Performance Poetry! We have been very busy learning about all of the important features of performance poetry and have now begun rehearsing for our Christmas Carols Concert performance. 

In Science, we experimented with pitch. We set up common investigations, such as a rubber band guitar and glass bottles with water in them, to test out what could affect the pitch of a sound.

The final part of our History unit relies heavily on our ability to analyse and understand primary sources of information. We are investigating the Coppergate dig and summarising the most interesting information as part of a two-week project to showcase all of our historical knowledge and skills. 

 

Update – Friday 28th November 2025

We were very lucky this week to have the Explorer Dome visit our school! Each class had their own session inside the Dome, where we got to learn and experience our science topic of sound. We heard different sound frequencies and learnt how some animals can hear things that we can't. Using different-sized cork tubes, we played a song as well!

In History, we created a fact file about King Athelstan - someone who is considered to be the first king of all England. We worked in pairs to examine primary and secondary sources and pull out key information about who he was and why he was important.

We also had another go at weaving. Everyone has improved so much since last time, and all of the teachers were incredibly impressed by the quality of our work. There will be more weaving for us in the coming weeks, so who knows how good everyone will be by then?

Update- Friday 21st November 2025

In Geography this week, we used our research skills to compare the different cultures in North and South America. We thought about the languages spoken, the common religions, sports, art and settlements as well. In groups, we put together a small summary to share with each other.

Our science experiment this week involved going outside and investigating how the distance from a sound source affects the level of volume heard. Using sound meter apps and meter sticks, we worked in pairs to carry out our investigations and draw up our conclusions. 

We are coming towards the end of our Maths unit on multiplication and division, with only a few lessons left. It is clear how much everybody has been practising on TTRS because everyone has done excellently!

Update - Friday 14th November 2025

Another busy week! One of our Year 4 reading groups practised reading and performing poetry as part of the book 'Poetry is Not For Me!'. We have lots of excellent readers in the year group, and it was lovely to see that some were feeling brave enough to perform in front of the rest of their group.

In Art, we looked at weaving skills and practised making our own woven squares. We found it hard to keep the pattern of 'over, under, over, under' going, but everyone worked incredibly hard to make their own piece of fabric. These skills will be built on further in the unit. 

The inner ear was our focus in Science this week, and we investigated how we hear sounds. Using words like 'ossicles', 'cochlea' and 'pinna', we looked at the journey of a sound wave through the ear and up to our brains and had to explain it to our partners.

      

Update – Friday 7th November 2025

We've gotten stuck in straight away after the half-term break with some exciting lessons. In history, we learnt about the first Viking visit to Britain by acting out what happened to the reeve of Dorchester. After this, we started to think about the short and long-term effects of this very first raid on the Anglo-Saxons. We will be continuing to learn more about what the Vikings were like over the coming weeks.

Our new English topic is all about persuasion and is based on our new book: Loki, A Bad God's Guide to Being Good. We have been looking at different types of letters and the basic features that we will need to use when writing our own persuasive letter at the end of the unit. It has also been fascinating to learn about Norse mythology, which links well with our learning about Vikings as well.

In science, we have started our new topic about Sound. We have had some hands-on lessons where we got to do activities and experiments that taught us how sound travels. We used string phones to communicate, made rice move without touching it and also used a range of musical instruments to play with how volume and pitch can be changed.

         

Update - Friday 24th October 2025

In our final week of half-term, we were very busy! We finished our DT unit - Fresh Food, Good Food - with a wonderful cooking lesson where the children all cooked their own healthy snacks. We tried egg muffins, flapjacks and fruit popcorn. The children were all excellent sous chefs and really enjoyed the experience. 

We finished our Maths unit on addition and subtraction and have moved on to area, which we will finish after half term. We will be learning all about what area is and how we are able to measure the area of a shape and compare it with other shapes.

In History, we reflected on what life might be like without the influence of the Anglo-Saxons. We thought about what words we still use today, the way our farms are run and even how place names introduced by the Anglo-Saxons are still around today! It turns out that life would be very different had the Anglo-Saxons not invaded.

We hope everyone has a restful half-term and comes back raring to go on Monday, 3rd November.

   

Update - Friday 17th October 2025

We finished our addition and subtraction unit in Maths this week! After lots of column method practice, we can exchange when working with 4-digit numbers. Next, we will be moving on to a measurement unit focusing on area. 

As part of our English unit on Katherine Johnson, we wrote the first half of a biography about her. The writing was excellent, and it's clear to see how much we have all learned about this important historical figure! When we write our final pieces next week, we will be able to showcase even more of our expert knowledge.

A fascinating part of our week was the end of our Science unit. We investigated how effective fluoride toothpastes are by leaving eggs in vinegar with just some toothpaste for protection! It was fascinating to see how much the toothpaste protected the egg shell from the vinegar, and we really enjoyed discussing why these changes happened.

       

Update – Friday 10th October 2025

DT was so much fun this week – we made healthy snacks! The children tried their hand at making hummus with carrots and celery, vegetable crisps and even rainbow fruit skewers! They were excellent little chefs and even got to taste the fantastic food they had made.

         

We got out our Atlases in Geography this week to learn more about the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, and also to find out what countries are on the continents of North and South America. We were even able to identify some capital cities!

Our new English unit is linked to Black History Month, and we will focus on Katherine Johnson, about whom we will write a biography. We have spent the week learning lots of facts about this inspiring woman and thinking about how to structure a biography.

Update – Friday 3rd October 2025

This week in DT, we looked at how different types of packaging can be used to keep food fresh. We examined different food packaging and discussed how it preserved our food for longer. We then had a go at using nets to create our own 3D shapes to use as packaging! It was quite challenging, but everyone worked so hard at it.

   

In Science, we have started exploring the digestive system. We played a game on BBC Bitesize in which we could play through the digestive system and learn about the journey of food as it is digested. We were then able to match up cards that explained what each organ is and what it does. We mainly focused on the mouth, oesophagus and intestines. 

    

We were also lucky enough to be able to share our recent writing from English with the Year 2s! After spending weeks learning about fables and how to write them, we planned and wrote our own fables with lessons we thought the Year 2s would need to learn. We really enjoyed visiting the younger children - and they even shared some of their own writing with us!

Update - Thursday 25th September 2025

This week in PSHE, we have been discussing how all of our actions have consequences - both for ourselves and for others! We thought about how consequences can be both good and bad, and how the choices we make can directly change the consequences of something. We acted out some scenarios to help us understand this.

      

Continuing our 'Invasion!' History topic, we started to think about the causes and consequences of invasions after the Romans left Britain. Lots of the children already knew some interesting facts about the Vikings, Normans and Anglo-Saxons and were excited to share what they knew! We built on this knowledge using timelines and discussing how certain events would have an impact in the future.

We have started to look at the techniques used by the Aboriginal people when creating art and have tried 'dotting'. We practised using cotton buds to create simple patterns in warm colours with the goal of recreating aspects of Aboriginal artwork that we liked. Using warm colours was really common in Aboriginal art because of the natural materials they had available to them, and we reflected this in our sketchbooks this week.

      

Update – Friday 19th September 2025

In Computing this week, we tried out some collaborative online learning tools. We talked about the skills we need to use those tools - such as communication and teamwork! We were then able to apply this to produce a document that contained the favourite colour of every member of the class. Over the course of the unit, we will be continuing to expand our bank of online learning tools. 

We wrote our apprentice pieces in English and retold the fable of the Hare and the Tortoise. This is in preparation to write our final pieces next week, where we will be planning and writing our very own fables to help teach each other important life lessons. 

Our Maths unit (place value) is progressing well, and we are now able to understand and estimate number lines up to 10,000! Our big focus at the moment is reasoning questions - word problems where we might have to explain our answers. This can be challenging at first, but all of us in Year 4 have been impressed by the children’s positive learning attitudes this week!

Update – Friday 12th September 2025

Our first full week in Year 4 was full-on, but the children were (again) brilliant! Our geography unit – 'Interconnected World'–has started with a recap of some of our previous map skills. We revisited key map symbols and then used the inter-cardinal compass points to plot different human features on a map. Our next lesson will be about grid references... it will be tricky, but we are looking forward to being able to identify features on a map more accurately!

      

In French, we have developed our conversational skills and are now able to greet each other and discuss how we are feeling! We are expanding our vocabulary each lesson to enable us to express more and more. 

Our science lessons have focused on ecosystems and the importance of each part. We built our own food chains and were able to identify consumers and producers. The next steps involve food webs, which can become quite complicated. This will help us to understand how food chains can be affected by natural disasters or by human intervention. 

Update – Friday 5th September 2025

What a wonderful start to Year 4! The children have settled in excellently, and we got stuck straight in with our learning. Our first Maths unit is all about place value, so we have learned how to represent and partition numbers up to 1,000. We are going to be building on this key knowledge over the rest of the unit. 

In English, we are learning all about fables! At the end of our unit, we will be sharing our very own fables with Year 2, so we have explored the key features of fables and started to learn a very famous one – the Hare and the Tortoise. We have learned actions alongside the story to help us remember the important events. 

Our new History topic is called 'Invasion!' and looks at life in Britain after the Romans. This week, we became detectives and had to listen to important information before sorting statements out into facts and lies. All the teachers were very impressed at how much the children remembered from their Roman topic last year, and it was a great place to start building up our knowledge.