Year 4
Welcome to the start of a new year at Southfields! We hope you all had a lovely Summer. It is going to be a fantastic year, the whole team are looking forward to teaching as well as caring for your children. We have a fabulous team in Year 4 and will all continue working hard to ensure your children have a positive, engaging and safe learning environment. Please take your time to read through the information below to discover more about the year 4 curriculum and further important information about the current rules and routines in school.
In year 4, we believe that our children should not only achieve their best academically, but also develop a thirst for knowledge, independent learning skills, foster a love of learning and leave year 4 with lifelong learning skills for the ever-changing world around us.
Our curriculum enables children to develop their communication skills as per the school’s belief that Communication is Key. This is achieved through books, reading, speaking and listening, debates and expressive arts; after all, reading is a passport to countless adventures. The curriculum provides children with creative and memorable experiences which build children’s aspirations demonstrating possibilities for their future lives. All of which is underpinned by our key beliefs – believe in yourself, value others, smiling, shining and being happy.
Important Information:
Arrival and Pick Up Times
Children need to arrive at school ready to start learning at 8:40. The children will enter school through the grey year 3/4 door into the corridor, the same as last year. Your child will then put their belongings in the cloak area and make their way to their classrooms.
Year 4 pupils will be picked up at 3.15pm. You will need to please pick your child up by walking around the school to the back of the year 4 classrooms. We ask that you arrive at the pick-up time promptly and remind you that the trim trail and play equipment are not to be used during pick up times.
Uniform
Children should wear their school uniform for four days a week and outdoor PE kit for one day (Thursday). Please see this outlined daily below.
- Monday - School Uniform
- Tuesday - School Uniform
- Wednesday - School Uniform
- Thursday - Own clothes can be work to promote well-being
- Friday - Outdoor PE kit (for example, joggers, t-shirt, sweatshirt/jumper [or tracksuit] and trainers)
In addition to this, your child can wear their own clothes on their birthdays as we have always done previously.
PE:
All Year 4 classes will have PE on a Friday therefore children need to please come into school wearing outdoor PE kit on this day. Children must have their hair tied up for PE sessions and no jewellery is allowed in PE for health and safety reasons. If your child wears stud earrings and cannot remove these themselves, we recommend that you remove these before your child comes into school.
We will complete PE activities outside wherever possible, if the weather does not permit this on our PE day and the hall is not suitable for the lesson then your class teacher will let you know when that has been rearranged for via dojo.
Bags and Water Bottles:
The cloak areas are open, please remember to label your child's jumpers, cardigans and coats with their names. Your child needs to bring in their water bottle daily. This should then be taken home, washed and returned to school each day filled up with fresh water. Water bottles can be re-filled with drinking water in the classroom during the day. If your school water bottle gets lost, it can be replaced however, replacement bottles will need to be paid for.
Lunch:
If your child has a packed lunch, they can bring it in a lunch box or in a plastic bag. Unlike in KS1, Year 4 (as well as all year groups in KS2) school dinners are to be paid for unless you are entitled to Free School Meals. If your child is having a school meal this must please be booked in advance. Mrs Buck will not be able to book meals on behalf of parents any more due to Data Protection therefore you must book your child's meal. If you do not book a meal, then you will need to please provide one and bring it into school.
Snacks:
If your child would like a snack at break time, this needs to please be brought in from home. This needs to be a healthy snack and brought in separate from your child’s lunch (if they have a packed lunch too).
Home Learning:
In Year 4, we expect children to practise their Reading, Spellings and Times Tables at least four times a week at home. Please record home learning that your child has completed in their diaries and home learning books and send these into school daily where they will be checked weekly. There will also be a menu of activities for your child to choose from each term, these will link into their curriculum learning for the term and dojo points are specified for each activity. These will be secured into children's blue homework books at the beginning of each term.
Reading:
Children will bring home two books from school, one book will be their book band book which needs to be brought into school daily. The second book will be a 'reading for pleasure' book to take home, these 'reading for pleasure' books are either from our class book corner or they are a 'love heart' book ('love heart' books have a heart sticker on them and these live in our corridor, they are updated regularly as we discover new and exciting books over time).
The children can keep their reading for pleasure books at home for the week, or they can bring these into school each day with their book band book if they'd like to, these 'reading for pleasure' books are going to be swapped once a week to encourage and promote the love of reading.
All books taken home will be logged. If your child has not finished their book in that week, they can keep their book the following week and hand it in on the following Friday.
Spellings:
Children will have a dedicated spelling session each week which is linked to Spelling Shed where they will be introduced to the spelling rule and words they need to learn. The list will then be posted to dojo on a Friday for parents to see and monitor as well. Spellings are set on a Friday and then tested on the following Friday.
Times Tables:
On a Friday, children will be given a Times Table to focus on for the following week. Children can practise these in whichever way you would prefer, for example, through writing them down, repetition, reciting, songs and more. We do recommend that your child uses purple mash, IXL or Times Table Rockstars to practise their times tables in a quiz/test-style format in preparation for their Times Table test in school next May. Children will be tested on their set of Times Tables (in a mixed order) on a Friday. Your child should aim for a high score in order to move up to practise the next set of Times Tables the following week.
Online Resources:
Your child will continue to have access to the following sites: Bug Club (on Active Learn), Times Table Rockstars, Purple Mash, Espresso and IXL. We recommend that your child uses their membership given by the school to the best of their advantage by thoroughly exploring these websites at home. These are really amazing and can really help to support and enhance home learning. Your class teacher will send these out to you during the first week back in school.
Bike Permits
If your child rides a bike to school and keeps their bike locked in school grounds, you will need to apply for a bike permit. If you would like to apply for a bike permit simply complete the form below. The school has limited spaces so will be allocating these to pupils who live the furthest away from school. The school will be handing out the permits in September. There will be no bikes allowed on the site until then due to a safe return on the first few days. Once the permits are allocated a space will be given and guidance on using it safely. Please complete the simple form in the link below if you would like to apply.
Class Dojo:
We love to use Class Dojo to communicate with you at home and lots of you will have seen photos and videos already uploaded by your child's teacher. Please do make sure you are connected to Class Dojo and keep an eye on Class Dojo for day-to-day class and whole-school information, photos and updates of our learning, updates on your child's behaviour and messages from the class teacher.
A key priority of our school is ensuring good relationships between teachers and adults at home, this is to ensure that the children are fully supported both at home and at school. It is important that you do not hesitate to communicate with your class teacher or year leader via class dojo if you have any questions, comments or worries. It should be noted that this tool is to be used in an appropriate and friendly way. At Southfields Primary School we operate a zero tolerance approach to the use of inappropriate behaviour anywhere on the school site, social media or via our communication systems with parents (*Inappropriate behaviour means disrespectful conduct towards people or property within the school site or via social media).
Additional Information:
- If your child requires medication or an inhaler in school, please complete the Google form and make sure that your child brings this into school to be kept in their classrooms.
I understand that this is a lot of information to take in, so please feel free to contact your class teacher or year leader if you have any further questions, as always we will try our best to help you.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs Hilton and the Year 4 team.
