Class 4 Routines 

This year we will be working in the mornings with Miss Jackson and Myself and on Tuesday afternoons, Miss Jackson will be taking the class for French and PE.

There will be a homework menu on the homework page.  The idea is that you pick one piece a week and have a go at it.  There may be weeks when you can't do one or want to try one of the easier ones.  They are all linked to our topics.  

You will be able to change your book whenever you have finished it at break times or during group reading times in the mornings.

We are still coming to school in PE kit on PE days.  These will be on Tuesdays and Fridays.  Friday will be swimming.  But don't come to school in just your swimming costume, you'll freeze!  Instead come in normal school uniform and we can change when we get there.

There is a time table document below which we will stick to generally but other than PE slots, they may change a little over the weeks depending on the nature of the lessons.

Behaviour

This will follow the usual "Good to be green" system which you will be used to.  There will be the usual gold cards for extra good work and platinum cards for exceptional work and behaviour.  Please note, no everyone gets a platinum card; it is a merit based system. In Year 4, we will be collecting as many gold cards as possible and if, as a class, 1000 gold cards are collected in a term, there will be a whole class reward.  Platinum cards are worth 10 gold cards!

If a child breaks a rule they will get a warning, a yellow card if they break a rule again and a red card if they do it a third time.  If a child gets a red card, parents will be contacted to help support the school and to keep them in the loop regarding their child's behaviour.

Summer Term

This term we will be enjoying learning about the following areas:

History: The Mayans

Art: Sokari Douglas Camp sculpture (which we ran out of time to do last term)

ICT: Writing for different audiences and Logo (with Mr Mazzotti)

RE: Pilgrimages and the People of God

DT: is TBC in the second half term but I'm very excited about it and it is linked to our class trip and History topic.  Watch this space...

Science: Classifying animals and their habitats and science skills

Maths: Decimals, money and angle then statistics, position and direction using coordinates and problem solving / application of skills

PE: Tennis with me and Athletics with Miss J

English: Character descriptions, free verse poetry, short story writing, persuasive texts and balanced arguments

People skills: (Also with Mr M.) Digital well being and working as a team

The planning over view is on the page "Letters and Useful Information" - see the link on the left of this page.

Family Week

As part of our People Skills curriculum, we teach children in each year group a comprehensive and inclusive Relationship, Sex and Health Education Programme, which complements our Christian values. The focus of this learning will take place during Family Week (19.06.23-23.06.23), where children in Year 4 will be taught the following, in line with DfE statutory guidance:

Spring Term

This term we will be learning about the following topics:

Geography: Polar regions and local Geography

DT: Pneumatic Toys

Art: Sokari Douglas Camp sculpture

ICT: Spread Sheets and writing for different audiences

People Skills: Money Matters and Internet Safety

RE: The Journey of Life and The Gospel - How did Jesus want people to live?

PE: Swimming and Dance / Invasion games and outdoor and adventurous activities

Science: Sound and food, digestion and food chains

Maths: Multiplication and Division; Measuring and Converting Lengths and Perimeter and Fractions and Decimals

English: Play Scripts, Adventure Stories, Science Reports, Poetry

 

Topics for Autumn 2022

We will be learning about:

History - Anglo Saxons and Vikings

Science - Electricity and Sates of Matter

PE - Swimming and more

RE - Hinduism and Hindu worship and The People of God (2 topics, just to save confusion!) 

Maths - Place Value, adding and subtracting, measuring, perimeter and length, multiplication and division.

PSHE - Thinking positively, Anti-racism

ICT - Programming, Internet safety

Art - Printing

DT - Making structures (a long boat) 

English - Viking Sagas, Newspaper Articles, Information Texts, Recounts

Welcome to Class 4

Some background information about me.

Hi Class 4,

I’m Mr Collins and I am going to be teaching you in Year 4.  I’m very excited about all the fun we are going to have finding out new things together.  I wonder what you like to learn about.

My favourite things to learn about are Science, History, Maths and PE.  If they are not your favourite, don’t worry, we will have fun learning about everything.  We should be learning about sound and digestion in science (hopefully not at the same time – that would be super yucky!) and about the Vikings and Anglo Saxons in History.  They were brilliant and I love finding out new things about them.  Did you know Vikings had door keys to lock the doors on their long houses?  Did you know that Vikings once sailed passed where we are today (just a very long time ago)?  It’s funny that I like PE because I was rubbish at it at school.  I was always the last one to get picked for teams.  I fact, I was so bad at football that I was worth 5 goals to the other team if they’d have me.  So I don’t let people pick teams because it makes people feel rubbish about themselves.  I think everyone should try their hardest at PE and be happy with themselves and others regardless of how well they do.

When I am not at school, I like to walk and camp in the hills and mountains.  I just bought a really big new rucksack and I can’t wait to try it out.  I think I could actually fit Bethany inside it.  This summer, I’m going to go hiking in the Lake District with my family.  I’ve got lost more times than I can remember but I’ve always got “un-lost” in the end.

I love cooking and playing the guitar (but not at the same time).  I think that I’m not very good at either because people “have to always go out when” I do them!  My kids tell me that the worst thing I ever cooked them was lambs liver goulash.  I remember that I thought I should have found a recipe but it seemed more fun without!  What do you do when you’re not at school?  Do you spend lots of time outside or do you prefer playing inside?

I’ve got a lovely wife called Julie and three children: Ben (17 and wants to do art at university), Naomi (15 who would love to be a professional baker) and Bethany (6 who would like to be Mr Tumble when she grows up).  Bethany has Down Syndrome and this has a massive impact on our family.  When she gets the giggles, we all wind up rolling around laughing too.  She finds communicating tricky so we talk and sign with her using Makaton at the same time (just like some of what we do in Collective Worship).    I bet you could learn some Makaton too.  I wonder who is in your family and what you would like to do when you grow up.  When I grow up, I’m going to be a clown and run away and join a circus!  I can just about juggle and can nearly ride a unicycle but I’ve got a long way to go and I am very determined to manage it (not at the same time)!  Has there ever been anything which you really wanted to do which you have been determined to do even though it was really hard?

I hope you have a lovely summer; I’d love to hear all about it and about you in a letter when we get back in September.

Yours excitedly,

Mr Collins