The Year 4 Team are Miss Hinton, Mrs Allmark, Miss Capron-Tee, Miss Edwards, Mrs Morris and Miss Cole. We have 56 children in two classes and The Pod. 

Year 4 Learning 

Mantle of the Expert 

We are always involved in creating a story in our class where we use drama, inquiry and tasks for the responsible team to increase our curriculum knowledge and understanding.

In the Autumn term we are a team who organise camps all around the world. 

We need to make sure our clients have the accommodation they want so that they can get their jobs done or their events go ahead successfully. 

Here is the curriculum we were learning along the way: 

In the Spring term we are working on a real life commission with a company called C+T or Collar and Tie. They want us to create the content for an interactive walk in our local area - how exciting! We are finding out all about the needle making history of Redditch and thinking about how we can organise this into an exciting story for a walk! 

We are also using our imagination to work as a team of specialist caterers setting up a food van somewhere around the Arrow Valley Lake. We will need to use Geography and Design Technology knowledge and skills for this Mantle. 

Check the class links in the pencils above for more details. 

Writing Curriculum

We follow the Year 4 curriculum to learn the technical aspects of writing. We use "The Write Stuff" to learn how to stack sentences into meaningful paragraphs in narrative, story and poetry writing. We use the same approach to learn how to organise our writing to produce non fiction texts about what we are learning - for instance a report about digestion. 

Our writing is often linked to the work we do in Mantle; we write to entertain, inform and persuade as described by Michael Tidd on his website. 

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We are constantly developing our vocabulary and handwriting using the Spelling Shed programme. Children can practice spelling at home by using the free Spellingframe website. 

We have started a new handwriting programme called Kinetic Letters. Children are taught how to form their letters with the help of Brave and Scared Monkey. From the spring term, they will be following the joining programme. 

Reading Curriculum

In Key Stage 2 children read a whole class text and develop their reading skills by discussing and summarising the text.  We also use " Fred's Reading" resources which link to a wealth of quality extracts so that we read and learn from a wide range of texts.  

For instance:

We read non fiction texts as part of our Mantle work [for instance reading about digestion or about the Anglo Saxons] and often research using child friendly websites. 

 This is often a  favourite story of Year 4 classes and we hope S.F. Said finishes his new book soon!

Another favourite is "The Wild Robot" by Peter Brown and lots of the children are looking forward to watching the brand new film based on the book - out now!

All KS2 children choose a book from our library which they can read during reading time. Additionally, there are daily story times where the teacher reads to the children. 

Some children need extra 1:1 or small group reading practice and do this as part of our school Little Wandle programme with Mrs Morris, Mrs Griffin and Miss James. 

Maths Curriculum

In Key Stage 2 we use the White Rose Hub Maths plans. We follow a concrete, pictorial and abstract approach to learning in maths.

Children work on times tables everyday and should practise regularly at home too. 

Science

Sometimes our science learning learning is part of our Mantle story and sometimes we just do science! Whichever way, we always do lots of working scientifically - testing our ideas, making observations and measurements and trying to find patterns and explanations. 

These are the National Curriculum areas of study we focus on:

RE

We follow the Worcestershire Agreed Syllabus for RE. 

RSE

We follow the PSHE Association Programme Builder plan to structure our teaching in this area. We use the resources recommended in the plans such as Discovery Education and NSPCC Share Aware. 

Computing and Online Safety

We are working towards becoming a verified National Online Safety school. We will be following their plans across school to teach online safety. We are also continually updating our training in this area through the "Teach Computing" programme and trialling the use of their plans. 

Miss Capron Tee teaches the whole school during singing lessons - our turn is in the autumn term and we will have a chance to learn to play the recorder with her in the summer term. In the meantime, we are using Kapow’s music units to make a Rainforest themed body percussion composition to be played in our Mantle. 

Year 4 have the chance to go on a residential trip in the summer term. Please see below for a copy of the presentation shown at the Bell Heath parents meeting last year. If you require any further information please see Mrs Allmark.