We hope that you had a lovely Easter break. Welcome to the summer term where we look forward to the continuing partnerships between home and school.
Attendance
As you may be aware, we closely monitor the attendance of pupils at our school as there is clear evidence which shows the correlation between attainment and attendance and pupil well-being.
We believe working with families is very important, therefore when a child’s attendance falls below 94% we intervene quickly to work with parents to identify any barriers to regular school attendance and identify how we can support further.
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, we will be studying Poems Aloud by Joseph Coehlo, The Firework Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman and The Pebble in my Pocket by Meredith Hooper.
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 place value counters and dienes all the way through the school.
This term we will be focusing on measurement and geometry. Our topics will be: decimals, money, time, statistics, property of shape, position and direction.
Children should also use the TimesTables Rockstars program to increase their quick recall of multiplication and related division facts.
Multiplication Check
In early June, your children will be taking part in the statutory multiplication check. This to ensure your children can fluently, accurately and quickly recall their multiplication tables up to 12. We encourage children to practice for the multiplication check by using the soundcheck feature on Timestables Rockstars as frequently as possible. More information about the check will be shared with you closer to the time.Curriculum Highlights
This term, we will be learning about ‘The Tudors’ in history. We will be focusing on how The Tudor monarchs and how their dynasty affected Britain today. We will then move onto looking at ‘‘Volcanoes and Earthquakes’ in summer 2. In science, we are learning about ‘Teeth and the Digestive System’. We will be learning about the different names of the teeth and their roles and then how the digestive system works. In PE, children will be taking part in dance, cricket, rounders and athletics.
You can find out more information about the spring term learning by looking at the overviews and programmes of study on the website.
Thank you in advance for all of your support in the year ahead,
Kind regards,
The Year 4 Team
KIeran Maguire, Claire Grima, Daisy Cook and Jagoda Skawinska
Updates and reminders
Morning routine – Children are to continue to go straight onto the playground as they arrive through the junior gates. The gates will be opened at 8:45 and they will be collected at 8.50 by their class teachers.
Home Learning and Spellings – An electronic version of the home learning grid have been sent out alongside this letter. Spellings will be sent home on a Monday and children will have their spelling quiz on a Thursday. 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.
Reading Records – Please remember to write a comment in your child’s reading record weekly and encourage children to write in them every day.
PE days – As last half term your children are to come to school in their PE Kits. Your children will be required to wear their PE kits on:
- 4M – Wednesday and Thursday
- 4S – Monday and Wednesday
- 4G – Tuesday and Wednesday
- 4C – Tuesday and Wednesday
This should be a Latchmere blue t-shirt, school jumper and blue shorts in line with the school uniform expectations.
Warmer weather –please make sure your child brings a water bottle to school, a hat on hot days and suntan lotion.
Key dates
PGL – 24th to the 26th April
Hampton Court – 16th May (4M and 4C) and 17th May (4G and 4S)
Multiplication tables check – Early June (TBA)