Latchmere School

Year 4

Autumn Term

We hope that you had a lovely and relaxing summer break. Welcome to Year 4 and the autumn term where we look forward to the continuing partnerships between home and school.

As we begin the new academic year, we would like to remind everyone about the importance of attendance. Many of the subjects we teach rely on carefully sequenced and linked lessons and a missed lesson can have a detrimental impact children’s understanding and ability to ‘keep up’ over 
the year. If your child will be absent for any reason, please let us know and do speak with your teacher if you have attendance difficulties that you need support with.  

Reading

Our goal is to create confident, fluent, independent readers. We prioritise reading at Latchmere School and have very carefully chosen the texts your child will study this term. We focus on word reading to develop fluency and encourage the whole class to join in through strategies such as choral reading (the whole class read together) and echo reading (the teacher models the reading and the class echo back). We also have the Latchmere Reading skills. These are based on comprehension skills such as retrieval, inference, summarising, making links, prediction and vocabulary.

In Year 4 this term, we will be studying: Mouse, Bird, Snake, Wolf by David Almond; The Wild Robot by Peter Brown; The Grendel by Anthony Horowitz and The Lost Happy Endings by Carol Ann Duffy. 


Maths

Our curriculum is based on the White Rose Maths programme. This research-based initiative ensures that the skills and concepts children taught are fully embedded before moving on. The children are taught strategies such as bar modelling and have plenty of opportunities to use ‘manipulatives’ such as counters and dienes all the way through the school.

This term, we will be focusing on place value, addition and subtraction, area and multiplication and division.

Children should also use the TimesTables Rockstars program to increase their quick recall of multiplication and related division facts.

Spelling

Spellings will be handed out every Monday and children will be tested at the end of the week.

Curriculum Highlights

This term, Year 4 will be learning about:

This term, we will be learning about:

Science – Electricity and Living things and their habitats

History – Anglo Saxons

Geography – The World Around Us

RE - Hinduism

PE – Fitness and Tennis & Gymnastics and Basketball

PSHE – Family & Relationships & Health & Wellbeing

Thank you in advance for all of your support in the term ahead,

Kind regards,

The Year 4 Team

Miss Paish - Mandela and Year Group Lead

Mr Cooper - Parks

Mrs Haffejee - Pankhurst

Key dates

Swimming (Week beginning 14th September 2026)

Monday - Parks

Tuesday - Mandela

Thursday - Pankhurst

Get to Know You Meeting

Wednesday 16th September at 10am

Live Lesson/Workshop on te Bayeux Tapestry

14th October 2026

Vikings Workshop

6th January 2027

PGL Residential

28th April 2027- 30th April 2027

Hampton Court Trip

27th May 2027

'Get back on your soapbox'

Summer term

Updates and Reminders

Morning Routine – The school gates will open at 8:40 every day. Your child will stay on the playground and be taken inside by the class teacher at 8:50.

Snacks – Please ensure your child comes with a snack for morning break. This should be a healthy snack such as fruit and not contain any nuts or seeds.

PE Kits – The same as last year, children will be required to come to school wearing their PE kits. For Year 4, your children will be required to wear their PE kits on Wednesday.

This should be a Latchmere blue t-shirt, school jumper and blue shorts in line with the school uniform expectations.

Pencil Cases

You can send your child to school with a small pencil case. You may want to include:

·         2 HB Pencils

·         A ruler

·         A pencil sharpener with the capacity for the collection of shavings

·         An eraser

·         A whiteboard pen

·         A red biro

·         Child-friendly scissors

·         A glue stick (Pritt Sticks are much better for long term use)

If you are unable to acquire the above items, they will be available in your child’s classroom.

Medication

Any medication your child should need should be handed to the school office where it can be administered by a first aider. Please let the office know of any updates on your child’s medical needs.

Parent Reps

As in previous years, each class should have 2 parent representatives to help forward any information throughout the year and help organise events such as Cake Sales. If you are interested in becoming a parent rep, please email the office or speak to your child’s teacher.  

Home Learning Update

Year 4 home learning is a 3-2-1 tasks approach. Instead of choosing from a wide range of optional activities, children will complete three clear daily tasks related to reading, learning of times tables and spellings. This structure aims to provide clearer expectations and help families balance home learning with other commitments. By prioritising these core skills which are essential foundations for success across the curriculum, we can help children build confidence, develop fluency, and strengthen the knowledge they need to progress in all areas of learning. Please 
see the 3-2-1 home learning document for further information and note that the expectation is that children complete these activities daily.