In English, we have finished drafting our stories, and the children have done a fantastic job of including all the features from our writing toolkit. We have been looking for dialogue, powerful descriptive vocabulary and similes to bring their stories to life. There have been some wonderfully imaginative ideas! We have also seen real improvements in handwriting, and it is lovely to see the care and pride the children are taking in presenting their work.

In maths, our focus has been on column subtraction with exchanging. This can be a tricky skill to master, but the children are working hard, developing their understanding and making great progress.

Foundation Subjects

• Science: We learned about the three different types of teeth and explored the important job each type does.
• DT: The children measured and cut the pieces for their catapults using a hacksaw. They showed great care and responsibility when using the tools.
• PSHE: During circle time, we explored different playground situations and discussed how we can resolve disagreements amicably and maintain positive friendships.
• Geography: We researched Mount Vesuvius and its famous eruption in AD 79, which destroyed the Roman city of Pompeii. The children then created their own slideshows to share their findings.
• PE: We practised mirroring techniques and worked on creating sequences of movements inspired by a cat. The children enjoyed exploring how movement can communicate ideas!

Looking Ahead to Next Week

Next week brings our final few days of the half term, and we have plenty to look forward to!

• Monday: Mrs Patel, a parent who is a dentist, will be visiting us to talk about dental health and help us develop our understanding as part of our science curriculum. We are very grateful to her for giving up her time to support our learning.
• Throughout the week: We will be publishing our stories. We cannot wait to celebrate the children's fantastic writing!
• Wednesday: It is DT day! The children will be assembling their catapults using the pieces they have carefully measured and cut.

Home Learning

Please continue to support your child with the following home learning activities:

• Reading: Please read at home and ensure the reading record book is signed five times a week.
• Maths – TT Rockstars: Following this week's assessments, we have set Garage practice to help the children continue improving their accuracy and speed with their times tables.
• Doodle Spelling: This week's revision focuses on the suffixes -tion, -sion, -ssion and -cian.

The Changemaker Project - Friendship Activity

A final reminder about our Changemaker Friendship Activity! Please support your child in completing the activity and ensure it is sent into school before Wednesday. We will be awarding the first of this year's stickers on Wednesday, and we are excited to celebrate the children's efforts to promote kindness and friendship.

Dates for Your Diary

We look forward to welcoming you into the classroom for our Book Look on Wednesday at 3:15 pm. Please head to the Year 4 classroom after collecting your child from the gate. We look forward to sharing the children's hard work with you!

Thursday 22nd October to Sunday 1st November – Half-term holiday (Tech & WOW Camp at St Mary's)

Monday 2nd November – Children return to school

Sunday 8th November – PTA Fireworks Night, 4:00–6:30pm

Wednesday 11th November – Armistice Day: Years 4, 5 & 6 attend St Mary’s Church

Monday 16th to Friday 20th November – Anti-Bullying Week

Monday 16th November – Odd Socks Day: wear school uniform with odd socks to celebrate our differences

Thursday 19th November – “Uniquely Us!” Non-Uniform Day: celebrating our differences and showing kindness. Please bring an item for the Christmas hampers.

Tuesday 24th November - Class trio to St Albans Verulamium museum

Friday 4th December - 3:30 - 5:00pm - PTA Christmas Event 

Friday 4th December – KS2 Target Reports shared with parents

Wednesday 9th December – KS2 Parent Consultations

Thursday 10th December – KS2 Parent Consultations

Friday 11th December – Christmas Discos: Reception–Year 2, 3:30–4:45pm; Years 3–6, 5:00–6:15pm

Tuesday 15th December – Beauty and the Beast at Watersmeet – afternoon

Wednesday 16th December – Christmas Jumper Day, Christmas lunch and afternoon class Christmas parties

Thursday 17th December – KS2 Christmas Service at St Mary’s Church, 6:00pm

Friday 18th December – End of term – school finishes at 1:30pm

Emails sent this week

Scholastic Book Club 

Xmas4Schools

Remembrance poppy Display - egg cartons needed

Christmas Wreath Making Night

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and encouragement. We hope you have a wonderful weekend, and we look forward to another fantastic week of learning in Year 4!

In Maths, we have been focusing on column addition, developing our confidence and accuracy when adding to 10,000.

In English, we have made a brilliant start to our first story, focusing on characterisation. We have been exploring how writers bring characters to life using our toolkit of writing features, including dialogue to show emotion, powerful verbs, descriptive adjectives and similes. The children have already made a fantastic start, and we look forward to seeing how their stories develop!

Tri-Golf Tournament

One of the highlights of our week was taking part in the tri-golf tournament at The Reach. Six schools competed in this exciting event, and we had a wonderful time!

We were organised into three groups, with each group taking part in eight different rounds led by Year 10 students. The children had the opportunity to practise a range of skills, focusing on accuracy, distance and direction.

It was a fun-filled experience, and we were incredibly proud of the children's enthusiasm, teamwork and excellent sportsmanship throughout the tournament. Well done, Year 4!

We have continued to enjoy our learning across the foundation subjects this week.

RE: We reflected on everything we have learned about the kind of world Jesus wanted to create. The children designed posters showing how people can put these values into practice in their everyday lives, including welcoming others, sharing what they have and showing compassion.

PSHE: We explored how we can support one another in developing and maintaining positive relationships, thinking about the importance of kindness, understanding and mutual respect.

Science: We completed our final lesson on the organs involved in the digestive system, consolidating our understanding of how our bodies digest food.

Home Learning

Please continue to support your child with their home learning by ensuring they:

• Read five times a week and have their Reading Record book signed.
• Complete the tasks set on DoodleLearning.

Thank you for your continued support in helping the children develop positive learning habits.

Multiplication Check

Next week, the children will complete their first multiplication check to assess their knowledge of times tables up to 12 × 12.

We will share the results with you and let you know which target tables each child should focus on practising. This will help us identify strengths and areas for development so that we can continue to build their confidence, fluency and recall.

Changemaker Project – Friendship Activities

A little reminder that we have just two weekends remaining to complete the friendship activities for our Changemaker project.

Please encourage and support your child to complete their chosen activity so they can collect their sticker and continue working towards achieving their badge. Every act of friendship and kindness makes a difference!

Dates for your Diary

Wednesday 21st October - 15:15 - 15:45 - Years 3 to 6 - Book Look

Sunday 8th November - 16:00 - 18:30 - PTA Fireworks Night

Emails sent this week

Fireworks poster and early bird discount

Easy Fundraising

Photo Proof

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Garland

This week, we have continued practising how to use inverted commas to punctuate direct speech correctly. We have also been developing our writing by using similes and fronted time adverbials to add detail and interest to our characters and settings. The children have been working hard to make their writing more descriptive and engaging.

In Maths, we have been learning how to position numbers up to 10,000 on a number line and have begun practising how to round numbers to the nearest 10. We have also enjoyed learning how to count using Roman numerals!

Our Science learning has taken us inside the human body! We explored the organs and body parts of the digestive system and investigated the important function that each organ performs.

In RE, we reflected on the story of Jesus healing the leper. We discussed what this story tells us about the kind of world Jesus wanted and thought carefully about the importance of kindness, acceptance and helping others.

Foundation Subjects

We have been busy across our foundation subjects too:

• DT: Exploring different types of catapults and how they work.
• Music: Singing and enjoying Rock Around the Clock.
• PSHE: Exploring how our feelings can change in different places and situations.
• Geography: Learning about the structure of volcanoes.

Home Learning

This week's home learning:

• Doodle Maths: Roman numerals
• English: Punctuating direct speech
• Reading: Please continue to read five times each week and sign your child's Reading Record.

Science Museum Trip

We are very excited about our trip to the Science Museum on Tuesday! A huge thank you to all the parents who have kindly offered to help us on the trip. We will be meeting at Rickmansworth Station at 8:30am for an 8:45am departure. We will return to Rickmansworth Station at 3:30pm, where you can collect your child.

Please remember:

Children should wear school uniform with comfortable shoes for walking  - trainers are fine. Children should bring a packed lunch, no nuts, sweets or fizzy drinks please. Please refer to Mrs Palmer's letter for all the trip details.

Dates for your Diary

Our Harvest Festival is on Thursday. Please drop the children directly to the church for 8:45am in smart uniform.

Friday 25th September - Vaccination UK – Flu Vaccinations

Tuesday 29th September - Year 4 class trip to the Science Museum

Wednesday 30th September - 8:50 - Class Rep meeting

Thursday 1st October - 9:00 - 10:00 - Harvest Festival at St Mary's Church - Years 1 to 6.  Drop off at the church (smart uniform)

Thursday 1st October - 16:00 - 18:00 - Multisports Event at St John's Catholic Primary School - limited spaces

Tuesday 6th October - morning - Individual and sibling photographs (smart uniform for Years 1 to 6)

Tuesday 6th October - Y4 Tri Golf for selected pupils

Wednesday 21st October - 15:15 - 15:45 - Years 3 to 6 - Book Look

Sunday 8th November - 16:00 - 18:30 - PTA Fireworks Night

Emails sent this week

Years 3 & 4 Multisport event for selected pupils

Young Voices audience tickets

Iced coffees and pastries

Ice Lolly sale

Keeping our school site safe

Year 4 Science Museum

Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Garland

It was also lovely to see so many of you at our Meet the Teacher session. We are really looking forward to working together with you to support your children to flourish throughout Year 4. Thank you for taking the time to come along.

English - We are continuing to develop our characterisation toolkit. This week, we have been exploring how to use direct speech effectively and how to describe characters' feelings using precise adjectives. The children have been working hard to make their writing more engaging and descriptive.

Next week, we will continue to develop our writing toolkit, focusing on similes and fronted time adverbials.

Maths - In Maths, we have continued to focus on place value, working with numbers up to 10,000. The children have been developing their understanding of the value of each digit and applying this to different mathematical problems.

Next week, we will be practising estimating, comparing and ordering numbers to 10,000.

Science - We have begun our new topic on the digestive system. We have been learning about the different organs involved and the important role each one plays in digestion.

We also had a wonderfully messy, hands-on lesson where we recreated the journey of food through the human body! There were lots of laughs, plenty of mess and, most importantly, lots of learning. We had great fun!

PSHE – We discussed how we can respond to one another in positive ways. We explored the importance of listening to others, showing kindness and thinking carefully about how our words and actions can affect those around us.

DT - We have begun our catapult topic in DT. The children started by researching how catapults work and exploring their history. We are looking forward to developing our understanding further as the project progresses.

Geography - we explored where volcanoes are located around the world. We began to identify patterns in their distribution and will continue to develop our understanding of volcanoes throughout the topic.

RE - We discussed how Christians make links between the 'good news' in the Bible and the way they live their lives. The children shared thoughtful ideas and considered how beliefs can influence actions.

Home Learning

• Reading: Please read 5 times and make sure your Reading Record book is signed.
• Doodle Learning: Two Maths activities have been set. Please also continue with English activities.
• Baseline assessments: There are still a few children who have not completed their baseline assessment. Please could you ensure this is completed by Wednesday, so that children do not need to complete it during lunchtime on Thursday.
• Spelling: We are no longer having weekly spelling tests. Instead, spelling will be assessed regularly during lessons through dictation and other spelling activities. Each week, we will send home three words from the statutory spelling list for children to practise. We encourage children to practise these regularly at home.
• Times Tables - Next week, we will be assessing the children's times tables. Following this assessment, we will send home the specific times table that each child should focus on practising. More information about this will be included in next week's blog.

Date for Your Diary – Science Museum Trip Tuesday 29th September

We are delighted to be able to take Year 4 to the Science Museum for a fantastic day of science learning. The children will take part in a workshop and have the opportunity to visit the Wonderlab, helping to enhance and bring to life our science curriculum.

Please check the letter from Mrs Palmer for further information. If you are able to help us on the day, please do let us know - we would be incredibly grateful for your support.

Friday 25th September - Vaccination UK – Flu Vaccinations

Tuesday 29th September - Year 4 class trip to the Science Museum

Wednesday 30th September - 8:50 - Class Rep meeting

Thursday 1st October - 9:00 - 10:00 - Harvest Festival at St Mary's Church - Years 1 to 6.  Drop off at the church (smart uniform)

Thursday 1st October - 16:00 - 18:00 - Multisports Event at St John's Catholic Primary School - limited spaces

Tuesday 6th October - morning - Individual and sibling photographs (smart uniform for Years 1 to 6)

Friday 16th October - Year 3 - Class trip to Celtic Harmony

Wednesday 21st October - 15:15 - 15:45 - Years 3 to 6 - Book Look

Emails sent this week

Y3 & Y4 Multisports Event

Choir – Young Voices

October Half term camp - Tech & STEM Camp

Nasal Flu Vaccine

Thank you, as always, for your continued support. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend and we look forward to another exciting week of learning in Year 4!

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Garland