It's officially Autumn now! As the weather turns colder, please make sure your child is bringing a coat to school. We've been lucky with the weather so far but no doubt the rain will return.

In our English this week, however, we've been imagining beautiful, hot weather as we've been writing our own class version of Meerkat Mail in which our main character, Kevin the house cat, travels all over the world to stay with his big cat relatives. I've been pleased with the writing the children have produced but we will be working on proofreading to make it is the best it can be.

In Maths, we've continued our work on Place Value. This is such a key part of Maths as it underpins a lot of other topics. The children should have a secure understanding of the values of ones, tens, hundreds and thousands.

We have carried on learning about States of Matter in Science and this is the focus for this week's homework. In History, we've learnt more about the Roman empire and the invasion of Britain. The children have practised their teamwork skills in P.E. with some games of football, and we have finished the week off with making our stamps to use in Art.

Next week, we are really lucky as we are starting weekly French lessons with a specialist tutor.

Just a reminder - please keep reading (this should be recorded in the back of the children's new homework folders) and practising times tables. 

It's been a great week and the children are really showing independence and maturity in their learning now.

Have a lovely weekend.​

We've had a busy week in Ash Class this week, starting lots of new units in our learning.
In Maths, we've learnt how to round to the nearest 10 and 100. We had some Maths experts from Year 5 come to help us with this!
We've been looking at what makes a sentence in our English lessons, and written some sentences about Meerkat Mail (our key text) using coordinating conjunctions.
Science was our first lesson on States of Matter. The children enjoyed sorting different materials into solids, liquids and gases. 
A popular lesson this week was our first History lesson where we have started out unit called 'Roman Britain'. We learnt how Rome began as a kingdom, then became a Republic and finally how it became an Empire. Ask the children about society in the Republic of Rome - they know all about consuls and senators now! 
We had a lovely end to the week with an Art lesson this afternoon exploring how we can use charcoal to represent words in an abstract way, thinking about different textures.

Homework: A sheet with information about this week's homework has been sent home. Please keep reading daily, and this week I've asked for a book review (due next Thursday), and logging onto TTRS and Numbots to keep practising those Maths facts.

Have a great weekend!

Hello everyone,

I'm really excited to be starting a new school year with all of our new Year 4 children! We've had a really great first week back and although the children have only been in school since Wednesday, they are all settled, happy to be with their friends, and used to the daily routines of school life again. 

We've taken our time to get to know each other this week. The children have shown their creative side by designing a puzzle piece to reflect who they are and show how we all fit together in Ash Class, and by painting a self-portrait in a colour theme (photos next week!)

Some general information:
-  In Year 4, there is an expectation that children are reading everyday for at least 10 minutes. This doesn't have to be their colour-banded reading book, it could be another book from home, a magazine or even a recipe. We will be giving out reading record books soon but until then, just enjoy the daily reading.
- Later in the year, children will sit the Year 4 Multiplication Check. As such, it is vital that they are learning and practising their times tables. They are expected to know all times tables up to 12x12 by the end of Year 4. Please try to log onto Times Table Rockstar daily to practise these, and if you need reminding of log in details then let me know.
- Every Friday, I will issue spellings and homework (this might be a reading task or a topic-related activity) which will be due the following Thursday. This will start next week.
- Our PE session with Mr Berry (SAINTS coach) will be every Thursday morning. Please could children come to school dressed in their PE kit ready to go. As it gets colder, they might want to bring a warm jumper or tracksuit bottoms to keep warm.
- If your child is being collected by someone else or is absent, please let the office know as soon as possible. They will ensure the message gets to me.

I think that's all for now! Next week we will get going with our topics: Place Value in Maths, Meerkat Mail in English, States of Matter in Science, The Romans in History and plenty more.

Have a great weekend,
​Miss Radbourne