Year 4

Summer 2 Curriculum Newsletter
Year 4

Welcome!

Welcome back! We hope you all had a well-deserved, well rested break. We are glad to be back and hope your child is looking forward to the term ahead.

Uniform and water bottles

Please continue to make sure your child is wearing the correct school uniform and that it is clearly labelled to avoid confusion. Uniform guidelines are outlined on the school website – please contact the school office if you have any questions. All children should bring a labelled water bottle to school every day.

Nut Free School

Please can we remind you that we are a Nut Free School, so please do not pack products in the lunchboxes that may contain nuts; this includes chocolate spread and some Kinder products.

PE

Our usual PE days this term is Wednesday (indoors) and Thursday (outdoor).

Please can your child bring a suitable PE kit to school on Wednesday. PE kits can stay in class and will come home after the last PE lesson of each week to be washed.

• Indoor PE: Children will need black shorts and a plain t-shirt in their house colour or the old PE uniform and suitable indoor footwear.
• Outdoor PE:  Children will need black jogging bottoms, a plain t-shirt in their house colour or the old PE uniform top, a plain black jumper and suitable outdoor footwear.
• Jewellery: A reminder that only stud earrings and wristwatches may be worn to school. Earrings must be removed or covered for PE. Children should not wear bracelets to school.

Homework

Children will have one homework book which will be used for all homework. They will have weekly maths and reading homework. The maths homework will be set using the website Timetables Rock Stars. If you have any queries about the homework, please do not hesitate to come and speak to us or email the school office. Children are expected to read at least 4 times a week and record in their diary, which will be checked on Friday.  For their maths homework, children are expected to complete at least 20 games (or 20 minutes) in garage mode on Times Table Rock Stars.

Times Table Rock Stars

Hardwick Primary School is signed up to the Times Tables Rock Stars programme to support your child with their multiplication and division facts. The curriculum states that all children should be able to recall accurately their multiplication and division facts up to 12x12 by the end of year 4. Therefore, daily times table practice is crucial. When it comes to times tables, speed AND accuracy are important – the more fluent they are with their facts the easier they will access other aspects of the curriculum.  For their maths homework, children are expected to complete at least 20 games (or 20 minutes) in garage mode on Times Table Rock Stars.

Topic Homework Menus

Children will have a termly topic menu with additional homework options based on our STEAM curriculum. We would love it if all children could bring in at least one piece of homework that is based on our STEAM topic each term. STEAM homework will also be showcased at our showcase at the end of term.

Reading

We expect children to have daily opportunities to read to, or with, someone at home, as well as independently. Reading can include: books, newspapers, magazines, online reading, eBooks, reading tablets, information books, adverts, menus, poems, song lyrics – the list is endless. The important thing is that your child reads regularly (preferably daily) and is engaged and enjoying their reading! 

All children have a reading diary, which they should bring to school in their book bag every day. Please record your child’s reading (as well as any additional comments) in the reading diary including the date and, where appropriate, page numbers.

We will check the reading record is completed each Friday.  Children that have completed at least four reading sessions at home each week, will be awarded a raffle ticket, giving them the chance to win a termly prize.

How you can support us further

At Hardwick Primary School, we are committed to working in partnership with our families and our community. We welcome parent/carer involvement in our curriculum and would be particularly interested this term in working with anyone who works as an engineer.  Please speak to your child’s class teacher if you would like to come and visit us.

Curriculum

STEAM	This term our STEAM focus is the performing arts and we will be answering the question is ‘Can I explore cultures and celebrations from around the world?’ Children will create a campaign based on climate change.   During this, we will answer the questions: Morocco, Ghana and the UK: what is the same? What is different? Are all African countries the same? What is my focus country’s physical geography like? What is my focus country’s music like? How does sound travel? What is my focus country’s music like? What is my focus country’s food like? What is my focus country like? What makes a persuasive presentation?
English- Writing	Narrative – with a twist, using the story “Anansi and the Pot of Wisdom.” We will: Use of multiclause sentences including compound and complex structures. Use paragraphs to organise ideas around a theme.  Use inverted commas to punctuate speech. Use fronted adverbials, followed by a comma.  A non-fiction text.
Maths	Children will be learning about co-ordinates and giving directions using a grid. Children will also be interpeting data and use a range of graphs such as line graphs. Towards the end of term children be answering division with remainder questions.
Computing	Programming – Repetition in games, using Scratch
HRE	Media Literacy and Digital Resilience Economic wellbeing (money, aspirations, work and career.)
Music	Music will focus on the appraisal and improvisation of music from African nations (taught through STEAM.)
MFL	Holidays and hobbies
PE	Gymnastics Athletics
RE	Term 6 Big question: Are humans superior to animals?   explain Hindu practices relating to birth explain Christian practices relating to birth explain Humanist practices relating to birth