Year 4

Welcome to Year 4!

Over the year, children will embark on exciting adventures by exploring a range of fascinating and varied texts. These texts allow us to investigate different themes and connect learning across the curriculum. Our Power of Reading texts include: How the Stars Came to Be by Poonam Mistry, The Boy at the Back of the Class, Spy Master, Escape from Pompeii, and Kidnap on the California Comet.

Our learning in Year 4 is engaging and builds upon progression from Key Stage 1 and Year 3. Children travel back through history to explore Ancient Mesopotamia and the Roman Empire, learning how these periods have shaped the world we live in today. We also study the Tudors, explore how they live and what they did for entertainment. A visit to Hampton Court Palace enables children to truly immerse themselves in this fascinating period of history.

Through our Power of Reading text The Boy at the Back of the Class, children learn about refugees and explore the importance of treating others with kindness and respect. Other areas of learning include making catapults and developing practical skills such as sawing and gluing in Design Technology, learning about the digestive system and teeth in Science, and developing sewing skills when making bookmarks.

Children are also given the opportunity to attend swimming lessons at another school within the Trust for a period of 10 weeks.

In addition, children enjoy a local residential trip — an incredibly exciting experience that creates lifelong memories for our pupils.

Throughout Years 1–6, learning is focused on mastering the end-of-year objectives set out in the 2014 National Curriculum. In Years 1 and 2, children follow the Key Stage 1 programmes of study, and in Years 3, 4, 5, and 6 they follow the Key Stage 2 programmes. The National Curriculum for both key stages consists of the core subjects: Mathematics, English, Science, and Computing; and the foundation subjects: History, Geography, Design and Technology, Art and Design, Music, P.E., and RaWV (Religion and World Views).

We have ensured that the knowledge and skills pupils learn in Year 4 build on prior knowledge and prepare them for their next stage of learning. All learning can be found on the Curriculum Web (updated each half term) and in the Curriculum Overview for the entire academic year. Our Knowledge Organisers show the key knowledge children will be learning across our curriculum themes.