Year 4 2025 - 2026

Welcome to Year 4!

Your teachers this year are Mrs Smith (4S) and Miss Gittens (4G).

Mrs Cunningham is currently covering 4G whilst Miss Gittens is absent.

Mrs Cunningham (please use main office email) - admin@pussbank.cheshire.sch.uk

Mrs Smith - 4S.Homework@pussbank.cheshire.sch.uk

Parents can contact teachers through the blue organiser - make sure your child knows there is a message to hand in. You can also use our e-mail addresses, which will be monitored on weekdays during term time and we will endeavour to reply within 72 hours. Please may we remind you that verbal messages at collection and drop-off times are welcome if brief. If you need more time to discuss something, pop a note in the organiser to let us know you need a longer appointment or drop us an e-mail to say so and we can ensure your query gets our full attention.

What will we be learning in the Spring Term?

English

We will be writing based on the book 101 Dalmatians. Later, our quality text will be The Iron Man, which will inspire us to write our own story settings.

Reading

Please do continue to read to your child and to hear them read aloud. Your child has been given a day of the week on which they should bring their books for changing, which is written in their organiser. In class, there is a wide selection of books available for their reading pleasure and children also are able to borrow books of their choosing from the KS2 library to read at school. It is fantastic to hear children telling us what they read at home and even that they have been inspired by our class book choices to find the same or similar books in the library or bookshop.

Please send organisers and reading books in every day.

Maths

We will further our skills with place value of 4-digit numbers and apply our learning of column addition and subtraction. We will then start our new unit – multiplication and division.

By the end of Year 4, the children are expected to know all multiplication facts to 12x12 and so this key knowledge will also have considerable emphasis throughout the whole year. Children will need to make this a priority in their homework.

Science

We will be learning about electricity and what makes a circuit work. We will then begin our learning on the states of matter.

Geography

In humanities, there will be a geographical theme this half term. We will be finding out about the formation and location of volcanoes through enquiry-based learning. We will consider the impact of volcanoes for humans and consider why people live near volcanoes.

Art

This term we will study the artist, Jim Dine. This unit is all about observational drawing of familiar objects. A range of drawing media will be used e.g. charcoal, pens and art pencils.

French

In French, we will learn about a French festival and start a new story book, “Luc Adore Les Serpents.” which our language learning will be based upon. Children will use sentences to express likes and dislikes.

PHSCE

We will be focussing on friendships.

P.E Days

4G - Monday and Thursday

4S - Wednesday and Thursday

On these days only, the children should come to school in their PE Kit - white t-shirt, navy shorts or bottoms and school sweatshirt or cardigan (the only logos should be the school logo.) Earrings must not be worn for PE lessons. If your child cannot remove their own earrings (to be placed into a secure bag or tuppaware), earrings must be removed before school, please.

Homework

Weekly homework is now set using the orange homework books, with the half term's activities glued in. It is given out on a Friday and should be handed in to the teacher by the following Wednesday. A copy of the homework grid is also published on teams. You can, of course, submit completed homework to us on teams or in your orange books.

If you have difficulties in accessing homework this year, please let class teachers know so we can help. Homework is not set in the first week of half term. TTRS is your child's maths homework and they should aim to complete 21 minutes of Garage sessions over the week.

Year 4 Statutory Times Tables Assessment

This year, all children will complete the times tables assessment. They will have the opportunity to see how the test works by first having a practice session. To prepare for this test, we will set times tables as homework all year long, whilst keeping tables a priority in class at school as part of the Maths curriculum and having some time allocated in school for using TT Rockstars or Purple Mash. The Purple Mash times tables app has the most similar format to that of the test itself and it is worth using this to practise.