Friday 19th December 2025
We have had a fabulous final week of the autumn term. There has been dancing, Christmas dinners, games and lots more!
Wishing all of our year 4 families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
See you in 2026!
Friday 12th December 2025
The children have loved using their Chrome books to research some facts about Polar Bears to use in their information report, they have made a start and written the introduction and the appearance paragraph.
The Elf run was a huge success with all of the children running and enjoying themselves, even getting a little competitive with each other and who could run more lengths.
There are no new spellings to learn this weekend, I will send home next week the end of half term spelling assessment so that you can see how your child is getting on with retaining the spelling patterns.
We have PE and forest school session as normal next week as long as lots of Christmas activities.
Have a lovely weekend.
Y4 Team
Friday 5th December 2025
The children have been showing off their sewing skills this week and we have attached lots of photos of them to see.
Dates for final violin lessons:
Monday 8th Dec and Tuesday 9th Dec.
Spellings this week are:
breath, breathe, build, busy, business, calendar, caught, centre, century, certain
Don’t forget to keep collecting your donations for the upcoming Elf room on the 11th of December.
We are looking forward to seeing you all at the Christmas fair tonight, have a lovely weekend,
Year 4 team
Friday 28th November 2025
In Forest school some children enjoyed making candy canes by knotting together cord, it was very impressive to watch it come together.
All of the children have published their Outsider story about a bear which is based on the story ‘Leaf’. We have been impressed how much progress is being made with the presentation and have proudly displayed them in our classroom.
In geography this half term have started the topic ‘Earning a Living’, they have already explored some industries in the UK and how people earn a living in other parts of the world. It’s helping to have great conversations about what job the children aspire to have when they are older!
In music the children have been continuing to use a recorder or glockenspiel to make music, it gets better each week!
We have now taught up to 12 times tables so hopefully the quick recall skills of any times table will now be getting quicker, please encourage your child to keep using TTRockstars to support them in learning their multiplication facts.
Dates for final violin lessons:
Monday 8th Dec and Tuesday 9th Dec.
Spellings this week are:
meat, meet, missed, mist, rain, rein, reign, material, busy, business
Don’t forget to keep collecting your donations for the upcoming Elf room on the 11th of December.
Have a lovely weekend,
Year 4 team
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Friday 21st November 2025
The Chrome books are all set up now and have been so well received by the children as they are so excited to play TTRockstars and Magma Maths on there so far.
The log-in details for Magma Maths have gone home on Tuesday, this will be used as homework and to help cons9lidate learning as well as assessing the pupils’ knowledge. All year 4 have been on and shown how to calculate their answers – they were very impressed with this website and it was great to see how enthusiastic they were about maths!
In RE, Year 4 explored bible stories which show Jesus to be a 'light of the world'. Once we had listened to the stories, we acted them out in groups. There was some great acting!
Dates for final violin lessons:
Friday 21st Nov, Tuesday 25th Nov, Monday 8th Dec and Tuesday 9th Dec (we will perform to other year groups and show off our newly acquired violin skills!).
It is non-uniform day next Friday (28th)
Spellings this week are: BE CAREFUL WITH THE APOSTROPHES!
numb, climb, lamb, doubt, sweets’, cakes’, children’s, mice’s, knowledge, through
Have a lovely weekend,
Year 4 team
Friday 14th November 2025
It has been lovely seeing everyone’s parents this week at the parents consultations, we are so very proud of the children’s attitudes to learning and their progress so far this year.
Spellings this week are:
discussion, impression, permission, admission, magician, politician, optician, enough, imagine, increase
Violins on Wednesday next week.
Have a lovely weekend,
Year 4 team
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Friday 7th November 2025
In RE this week the children have thought about the questions: ‘How does Jesus bring hope, love and kindness to the world?’. They impressed us with their discussion skills and came up with a huge range of answers including showing us how to live a happy life, to be kind to others, to not let anyone feel like an out-sider.
In English, we have started a new book. The first lesson was making a prediction about what the story might be about and they did this by looking at five of the illustrations. They showed a polar bear in a forest, surrounded by other woodland animals, and then him struggling in the water. Will he get back to his home? We will find out next week!
PE lessons have seen all of the children getting involved and having fun playing hockey and netball. Please remember to bring a warm PE kit in now as the weather turns colder each week.
As usual, fun was had in forest school, there were so many leaves to pile up, play in and build dens near. The children learnt what help worms are to our outdoor area and how to be careful when we walk around in-case we seen any insects or animals hibernating nearby.
Violin lessons are going well, Laura is very impressed that the children and they are getting really good with their bow control.
The children have completed their end of unit assessment for addition and subtraction, next week we will be starting on multiplication and division.
Spellings this week are:
invention, action, operation, donation, expansion, comprehension, tension, fruit, grammar
We are looking forward to seeing you all at the parent consultations next week, have a lovely weekend.
Have a lovely weekend,
Year 4 team
Friday 17th October 2025
Bike Ability was enjoyed by all this week, everyone has learnt how to safely control their bikes.
In English, we have stated to plan for our very own poems that include; imagery, similes, alliteration and description.
In Forest School, the children have been doing their very own cave painting art inspired by their history lessons on the Stone Age.
Maths has been a little tricky this week as we have been subtracting 4-digit numbers with exchanges, but the children have been having a good go and we’re definitely better than we were at the start of the week!
And the winner is… year 6, with year 4 coming in 3rd place. The next battle will start after half term but your child can still use TTRockstars to continue to learn their times tables.
There are no spellings to learn for next week, have a lovely weekend and we will see you next week for the last three days of this half term.
Year 4 team
Friday 10th October 2025
Learning Exhibition – thank you to everyone who came to see our class’ work, they very proudly and confidently told all of the visitors about the work they have completed so far this year. It was great to see how proud they were of their work.
In PSHE, we have been talking about the different types of feelings and how we might show our feelings through their facial expressions and body language. We discussed how we could help other people if we saw them showing their feeling that might mean they need support. The children also recognised that their feelings might change towards someone or something once they have further information. We watched a clip form the film Wonder, that is about a boy the same age as our class and how he felt when he started school.
Violin lessons have begun this week, the children have been learning how to look after their instrument and strumming the strings G, D, A and E. Laura, the music teacher, has asked that no bows are used this week as they haven’t been taught how to use them yet, but they can show you how to hold the violin safely and to strum using their fore finger. Next week they will be learning to play the Irish Jig.
Spellings this week are made up from the statutory year 3 / 4 spelling list from the National Curriculum.
accident, accidently, actual, address, answer, appear, arrive, believe, bicycle
And the winner is… year 6, but year 4 came in a very impressive 2nd place. A special well done to Andy for getting 100% accuracy and Harry for improving his personal speed.
It is Bikeability on Wednesday 15th, please bring your child’s bike and helmet when you drop off at school, they can be left just outside the y4 door on the playground, then take them home when collected at the end of the day. Thank you.
Thank you to everyone who so kindly donated items for our Harvest Collection, have a lovely weekend!
Year 4 team
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Friday 3rd October 2025
In maths, the children have completed their unit on Place Value, and whilst rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 or 1,000 was tricky at times, their end of unit assessments are very positive. Next week we are moving on to addition and subtraction of 4-digit numbers.
In science, Mrs. Mitchell has been teaching how to input and analyse data from their invertebrate hunt from the previous week. Good scientists rely on data to explain their findings, so being able to represent this in tables and graphs is a key skill in KS2 science.
The children have started to play their report to persuade people to come to their magic show, they will write their report next week.
Spellings this week.
rein, veil, eighty, weights, obey, prey, survey, suppose, various, build
And the winner is…Year 4 again !!! Woo hoo!
The next battle has been set up against year 3,4,5 and 6! good luck everyone!
Unfortunately, Laura – our violin teacher, has been feeling poorly today but the lessons will be starting next week.
Have a lovely weekend, let's hope the rain eases off!
Year 4 team
Friday 26th September 2025
It was wonderful to see so many of you at the year 4 welcome meeting on Wednesday, if you were unable to attend, please don’t worry you can read through the information on our year 4 page on the website and if you have any questions please ask.
In RE the children have been writing a newspaper article to tell the news of David and Goliath.
In science, they have enjoyed counting mini-beasts for their data collection and learning the difference between an invertebrate and vertebrate.
History lessons have been exploring the evidence that have been found to give us clues as to what life was like for the Neolithic people.
The instruments have been out in music, with everyone playing a range in time. We have attached the photos to show you. It was lots of fun!
Spellings this week.
rein, veil, eighty, weights, obey, prey, survey, suppose, various, build
Maths homework books have arrived and been given out this week, the weekly pages will be confirmed on dojo each week. Books to be given out on a Wednesday and to be returned by the following Monday. Thank you for your support with the homework.
And the winner is…Year 4!!! Woo hoo!
The next battle has been set up against year 5, good luck everyone!
Have a lovely weekend!
Year 4 team
Friday 19th September 2025
The rain may have come out in force at the start of this week but it hasn’t dampened our enthusiasm to learn.
Mrs Forrester has been amazed with the children’s narrative story writing this week, they have been ensuring that they are including lots of description and leaving each paragraph on a cliff hanger so make us want to read on and find out what happens next! They have been getting back in to the habit of editing and improving their own work and being careful with their letter formation and spellings – well done, keep it up!
Wednesday’s Thrive lessons have been a hit so far; the children having been working together to solve problems then working as a team to play competitive games against each other. Mr. Aspinall has been delighted with their enthusiasm, their behaviour and above all, their sense of fairness and team spirit.
In history the children were learning how Neolithic people use trade to advance.
Spellings this week.
giggly, bubbly, crumbly, grizzly, optically, physically, poetically, wholly, believe, question
Reading is also a non-negotiable homework each week, please continue to listen to your child read at least 4 times a week.
TTRockstars is up and running, there will be weekly certificates given out for best effort. The first battle of the classes starts today (19th Sept) against year 3….come on year 4 you can do it! We have given out the log on details again today stapled to a times table poster.
Next week the year 4 will be choosing a string instrument to learn in school, a letter will be sent home next week for you to sign if you would like your child to bring their instrument home.
Have a lovely weekend!
Year 4 team
Friday 12th September 2025
Another week has whizzed by, the children have had their first forest school session of the year with Mr Simmons consolidating the history work from the end of year 3 on Romans and the children enjoyed making some Roman weapons. Thank you to everyone who brought in waterproofs or a change of clothes.
The children have been being vocabulary detectives in their English lessons and learning how vocabulary and phrase choices can have an effect on the reader and really improve a piece of writing.
In maths they continue to look at place value to 1000, ensuring they understand the value of each digit.
RE lessons this half term are based on: Which values are considered to be important by people of faith. This week the children have been thinking about which values they think are important and why.
In history they have had an introduction to the Stone Age period and talked about how the people living at that time survived.
Spellings this week.
strangely, patiently, instantly, wisely, lazily, messily, clumsily, fussily, occasionally, therefore
Next week the year 4 will be choosing a string instrument to learn in school, a letter will be sent home next week for you to sign if you would like your child to bring their instrument home.
Have a lovely weekend!
Year 4 team
Friday 5th September 2025
Welcome back everybody! Everyone has settled in well and worked really hard.
The children have been introduced to their new text in English lessons; Leon and the Place Between. They have been looking at the sentence structure and vocabulary use and writing their own descriptive character paragraphs.
In maths, the children have been working on place value by exploring number lines and counting on in thousands.
The children have taken part in PSHE lessons, exploring working collaboratively and how a team is stronger than any one individual.
Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to doing it all again next week.
Year 4 team.
Friday 27th June 2025
What an amazing week it’s been in Year 4! It has been filled with sports events, forest school and creating our own fantasy narratives.
In Maths, we began our unit on statistics, where we interpreted charts, compared the sum and difference between data, interpreted line graphs and even drew some. A line graph shows you data that has been collected over a period of time. We learnt that there is a title which tells you what the data in the is about. The horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) axes or lines are labelled to tell you what data has been collected and when. The horizontal axis is a line which goes straight across from left to right. The vertical axis is a line which goes up and down. The vertical axis is on the left-hand side of the graph and moves upwards from the horizontal axis.
In English, we wrote a fantasy narrative with a real-world trigger. The trigger was a washing machine... you read that right, it was a washing machine. We wrote about finding ourselves in an underwater world, through the mysterious portal which was the washing machine door. The new world was filled with sea creatures of many colours and swirls of magic.
In Spanish, we learnt a selection of the key phonemes to facilitate accurate and authentic pronunciation as part of our language learning experience. We then talked about own family in both spoken and then in written form.
In Computing, we discussed some of the methods used to persuade people to buy online. We explained the difference between fact, opinion and belief and recognised these online. We then discussed some positive and negative distractions of using technology and small strategies for reducing the time spent on technology. Finally, we created our own rap to help us stay safe online.
In Forest School, we had great fun building dens, creating models and spending quality time together. We fully embraced our outdoor environment and created a deep connection with nature.
Sports Day was great fun, we cheered each other on and enjoyed racing against our peers. This year was particularly good because we got to show you our field events and how much we have improved.
We hope you all have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the sun...if it makes an appearance.
The Year 4 Team
Friday 13th June
It was an unusual week for Year 4 this week- assessment week and the Multiplication Tables Check. Although quite an intense week, everyone got stuck in, feeling ambitious and ready to have a go.
This week, we have completed papers (or quizzes, as we told the children) in the key areas of Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG), Reading and three Maths papers. The results to these will be shared during parent consultations and in reports in July.
Well done to everyone in their preparation towards the MTC. These were completed on a one-to-one basis with your child choosing whether to complete on a laptop or an iPad.
We have also completed our RSE lessons this week. We have covered all topics on our Year 4 curriculum. The children have been very mature in their questions. They have taken advantage of the question box and also taken time to speak to either Miss Gadsby or myself if they wanted to. We have explained that now is a good time to talk to a trusted adult, if needs be.
In such a busy week, we have still managed to find time for other subjects! This week’s guided reading was in the form of a fact file all about dinosaurs. Again, the children are engaged with this new style of lesson, enjoying their Fastest Finger First activities and taking the chance to read aloud. Mrs Pirie explored how a volcano erupts- looking at the various processes that have to happen in order for this incredible event to occur. PE is very much focused on track and athletics at the moment. Year 4 showed keen competitive spirits particularly in their sprints and hurdles.
Isabella and Daisy were both Stars of the Week due to their superb work towards the MTC. Their approach and attitude were exemplary- well done. This week’s 2%er was James- truly deserved by someone who works consistently hard in all that he does.
A fabulous week, Year 4. Very well done. We wish you a very well-deserved rest over the weekend.
Miss Porteous, Miss Gadsby and Mrs Gleave
Friday 6th June
Welcome back to our final term in Year 4. We have really got stuck in this week and the children have worked admirably.
It will be a fascinating write over the next few weeks as we look at the inspirational life of Jacques Cousteau. This week, we have met him as a young boy who dreams to one day swim in the depths of the ocean. We have discovered that his obsession led him to invent the aqualung- the first scuba diving equipment. This week we have been immersing ourselves in the language needed for our writing.
It has been consolidation week in Maths. This means we have been revisiting subjects such as the Four Operations and Fractions. We have been deepening our knowledge through recap and word problems and working closely with our shoulder partners.
We have also spent time practising on the government website towards next week’s Time Tables Check. Please spend time with your child revisiting each time tables this weekend, particularly focussing on the 6,7,8 and 12s.
In the pictures you will see two large heart shapes. These were developed during our PSHE lesson. We discussed our school community and were surprised to find it took us around the world to places like Thailand as well as close to home. We then discussed the attributes needed to work within or be connected to a school environment, writing them on post-it notes and posting them within the heart.
Mrs Pirie began Year 4’s new Geography topic- volcanoes. This is particularly timely as Mount Etna has erupted. The class will be learning about the structure of a volcano over the next few weeks. Mrs Taylor began exploration into the medium of digital art this week too. The children worked collaboratively to begin their research.
We have begun an exciting new Guided Reading book- this week we looked at a factsheet all about sharks. The children enjoyed scanning their texts to play Fastest Finger and also composed their own retrieval questions.
Spelling has looked at homophones- words that sound the same but are spelt differently. An example would be weather and whether. We couldn’t decide whether Miss Porteous should have tuna mayo on her jacket potato or cheesy beans. Tuna won in the end!
As the week drew to a close, the children voted Joe our top 2% for his efforts in his classwork. Alberto was given Star of the Week for showing outstanding consideration to pupils who needed a helping hand this week. Well done to you both.
We wish you a lovely weekend and hope you manage to dodge the showers.
Miss Porteous, Miss Gadsby, Mrs Harrison and Mrs Gleave
Friday 23rd May
Another glorious week of sunshine has allowed the children to spend some quality time outside in break time. We even got a moment to take a class photo in the sun this afternoon.
The children have completed another good week of hard work. We have finished our journey of writing inspired by The Journey- this week completing our diary writing. Today, we have looked at accurately adding speech to our writing to add pace and variety.
We have continued our work on time in Maths looking at the several different formats- analogue and digital (both 12- and 24- hour clocks). We will revisit this at the beginning of next term before we begin our consolidation week.
In PSHE, we have completed our unit called 'What Makes Me Me?'. This week, we have looked outward considering how we can use our considerable talents to have a positive impact on the world.
The children have been gripped throughout our Guided Reading unit where we followed the adventures of Lila- The Firework Maker's Daughter. She finally reached the immense mountain where she needed to retrieve the Royal Sulphur in order to become a Firework Maker herself. Will she convince the sneering Razvani...?
This afternoon, we have also completed our RE unit entitled The Church. After writing about our trip to York Minster in previous lessons, we looked at the Jewish place of worship- the Synagogue. The children considered and wrote about the similarities and the differences between the Jewish place of worship and our own.
Very well done to Peyton, who received our certificate this week for her tremendous hard work throughout the week in all areas, particularly her English. Also well done to Aria who finally received her 2% certificate.
We all wish you a wonderful break and look forward to seeing you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on Tuesday 3rd June.
Miss Porteous, Miss Gadsby and Mrs Harrison
Friday 16th May
A great start to the week was our Music lesson. As SATS were on in the hall, we decided to take music outside in the sun. We learnt a rhythmic rhyme called Engine Engine Number 9 and through this worked on the difference between rhythm and beat. It was also a chance to try some two-part work which the children managed very well. We then tried to copy the syllabic rhythm of the words to line 1 in our feet and the differing line 2 in our claps. Very tricky but Year 4 began to get the hang of it!
Maths this week has focussed on Money. We have been counting denominations, adding up pounds then pence, as well as comparing various coins and notes. We have also been using the helpful tool of estimation and understanding how useful that will be when shopping in later life. We are still focussing heavily on our TTRS practice. Please see last week's blog for alternative sites too.
At the beginning of the week, We wrote our Journey stories. The children wrote some harrowing accounts of the choices the family had to make and their journey to freedom. We also published this work and will add these to our writing presentation book which will be available at the next learning exhibition. We will now look at several incidental writes in the diary style. This will make use of the first person and needs to take us on an emotional journey too.
In our photos this week, you can also see snaps from Mr Cotton's Science lesson on circuits and the use of electricity. There are also designs from our Computing session where the task was to design a warning sensor that would be vital in extreme weathers. For this the children planned our on paper first, considering the labelling of the vital components such as thermometers or weather vanes. this was then transferred to a digital version on sketch.io
In RE, we considered how Paul's letters to the Romans aligns greatly with advice given to us by our elders and also our school values. We are currently designing posters to show this close relationship.
Our Spelling work this week focussed on the prefixes super- and anti-, as in supersonic and antiseptic. Our Guided Reading book is the wonderful Firework Maker's Daughter by Phillip Pullman. We look forward to next week's instalments to find out what happens to Lila.
Very well done to Orla who is Star of the Week for her efforts in English and also Orla and Dougie for their 2% certificates!
Miss Porteous, Miss Gadsby and Mrs Harrison
Friday 9th May
After our wonderful residential the week before, Year 4 settled back into the classroom with renewed vigour and camaraderie. We had plenty to learn this week, not least our hard work in English as we continue our stories inspired by The Journey by Frenci Sanna. Throughout the week, we looked at how to develop drama and tension in our sentence writing, developing the structure of the sentence using fronted adverbials and conjunctions. We saw that the choice of conjunction can be very useful when wanting to alter the atmosphere of a paragraph, for example using conjunctions such as until and but. By the end of the week, we had written our first paragraph which describes the serenity of life in a seaside village. That is until the soldiers arrived. Next week, we will begin our journey to escape and find safety.
We completed our work on decimals which led on nicely to our next unit of Money. This of course uses our previous unit to two decimal points (£2.99). We are looking at coins and notes and will be completing word problems during next week's lessons.
High on our agenda is the Multiplication Tables Check which will begin from the 2nd June. We are practising hard to answer the questions within the 6 seconds allowed. In class, we are aiming for a time of between 4-5 seconds to build confidence. On TTRS, please focus practice on Garage and Soundcheck. I have set each child their own challenges on these games. Some children have asked for an alternative to TTRS. Here are links pages that have fewer distractions and are more like the test itself.
https://talkingtimestables.uk/y4_ks2_mtc_practice_tests_multiplication_tables_check.php
https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check
https://www.timestables.co.uk/multiplication-tables-check/
Our trip to York provided us with our RE writing this week. Our current topic is What Makes a Church? As we had such an inspirational day at York Minster, this provided many subjects for us to write about: the architecture, the history as well as our own reactions to the immense size of the building.
We finished our exploration through the poems of Where Zebras Go- a book the children have loved. We were able to share some of the riddles during our Learning Exhibition on Tuesday. Did you work out the creature being described in Who?
In Computing, we are using weather statistics to explore the properties of Excel spreadsheets. This week, we learnt how to input data and then sort from smallest to largest or vice versa. These computing sessions are also used for some TTRS practice until after our MTC.
The children had a super session with Mrs Forrester to celebrate VE Day on Thursday, looking at the history and important events as well as enjoying some art activities and some time outside in the sun listening to music of the era.
Our certificate this week goes to a very worthy winner- Arlo. His maturity, sense of fun and caring nature shone brightly during our time in York and all adults felt this was worthy to celebrate. Well done Arlo!
Finally, a very warm welcome to Mrs Harrison who has joined us in Year 4. It's great to have you with us!
Miss Porteous, Miss Gadsby and Mrs Harrison
Friday 2nd May
Here we are at Murton Park. It’s our final day and we are about to begin our Viking experience.
We have had an incredible time. The weather has been glorious, just right for walking and visiting this great city.
After the fabulous architecture and workshop of the Minster, Thursday’s trip was quite different.
At first we visited the DIG. This interactive museum has three sessions. The first is called Battle Tactics. Here, a historian dressed as a Viking explains the hierarchy and motivations of the Vikings, leading them to travel and explore in order to increase their wealth. He explained the innovative approach to weapons they had and how they used different skills and characters to invade and settle. This interactive session saw many of the children acting parts to reenact the tactics.
Then on to the archaeological sessions- first a fossil history and then the actual dig.
After lunch, we marched off to the Yorvik Centre to experience the real village and a see a reconstruction of Yorvik (the Viking name for York).
By this time, we were all a bit tired. So we strolled back to Stableside via a trundle through the countryside beside the racecourse.
Our evening was a relaxed affair- either at the nearby playground or relaxing back at our accommodation.
Mr Cotton completed his room inspection. Well done to Jack F, Joe, Ronaele, Isabella and Elinor who won the tidy room competition!
Thank you to everyone in Year 4 for a fabulous few days. I think they will sleep well tonight.
And thank you to Mrs Marshfield, Miss Gatsby, Mrs Cotton and Mrs Forrester. What an absolutely wonderful team!
See you all next Tuesday.
Miss Porteous
