Latchmere School

Year 4

Spring Term

We hope that you had a lovely Christmas break. Welcome to the spring term where we look forward to the continuing partnerships between home and school.

As we continue in this 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:

Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo and Coming to England by Floella Benjamin.

Maths

Our curriculum is based on the White Rose Maths programme. Its research-based learning strategy ensures that the skills and concepts children are taught are fully embedded before progressing. As well as being taught traditional abstract (numbers) methods of calculation, children will also use strategies such as bar modelling and have opportunities to use physical tools where it is supportive to learning.

This term we will be focusing on multiplication and division, length and perimete, fractions and decimals. 

Children should also use Times Tables Rockstars to increase their speed of 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:

English – Edward Tulane and Coming to England

Maths – Multiplication and Division, Length and Perimeter, Fractions and Decimals

Science – States of Matter and Sound

History – The Vikings

Geography – Fair Trade

PE – OAA, Handball, Dance and Golf

PSHE – Safety and Citizenship

RE – Christianity

Computing – Programming


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

Miss Luck - Parks

Miss Haffejee - Pankhurst

Key dates

Wednesday 25th March - PGL Parent Information Talk at 9:15am in the Drama Hall

Class Assemblies

Thursday 12th March - Mandela

Thursday 26th March - Parks 

Thursday 23rd April - Pankhurst

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.

Reading Records – Please remember to write a comment in your child’s reading record weekly and encourage children to write in them every day. 

Home Learning Update - From this term, Year 4 home learning will move from the previous Home Learning Grid to a new 3-2-1 tasks approach. Instead of choosing from a wide range of optional activities, children will now complete three clear daily tasks related to reading, learning of times tables and spellings. This new 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.