Year 4

Curriculum Update

Spring Term 2025

Head Teacher Message
Happy New Year everyone and welcome to spring term 2025. The time has flown since children started their new classes in September! This Spring term will fly even faster no doubt as the evenings become lighter and the daffodils start to poke through putting a smile on everyone’s face.

As Head teacher of your school, I continue to be so proud of all of the children and the way they have started back since returning from the Christmas break. Their resilience and adaptability remain outstanding.

This was picked up on and noticed in abundance during the schools Ofsted Inspection on the 22nd and 23rd of October. The HMI Ofsted Inspector was blown away of what he described to us as ‘school is an oasis of calm’ for all children at Beech Grove.

“Pupils at Beech Grove are proud of their school, welcoming visitors with exemplary manners and conduct. They understand the school’s ‘next-door neighbour’ principles and the school’s five golden rules well. Pupils consistently show high levels of respect to adults and to one another. They are happy and safe. Highly trained staff put pupils’ needs first in all they do. Pupils thrive in the warm and nurturing environment that the school fosters.” Ofsted 2024/25. What a fantastic first paragraph of the Ofsted Report to read. I’m sure you’ll all agree.

This term we hope to pick up where we left off before Christmas with our children achieving good progress within their core subject areas, due to the tremendous hard-working attitude of themselves and the dedicated staff team here at school.
“Leaders have created a culture of high expectations for pupils’ achievement. Pupils meet these expectations… Behaviour across school is of a high standard. Well-trained staff create a purposeful learning atmosphere. Pupils’ learning is not disrupted by others. ”Ofsted 2024/25.

Children’s classroom and corridor manners remain amazing which continues to maintain a lovely, positive and caring atmosphere around school. The schools “Next Door Neighbour Qualities” of Respect, Tolerance and Kindness are certainly being upheld. The children take great pride in this in and around school and it is wonderful to see. Please keep having a bit of fun at home and test the children regularly on what it takes in school (and the community) to be a good “Next Door Neighbour”!

This term we will also be hoping for some lovely spring sunshine so that children can make full use of our Secret Garden in lesson time and maybe plant some wonderful spring flowers for us all to enjoy (even the ducks!!!). I always think that spring flowers with their vibrant colours and freshness cheer everyone up from the gloom of the long, dark and wet winter months. They are a sign that lighter nights and warmer weather is on its way! (fingers crossed)

Our teachers have lots of interesting activities planned for this term and hope that you will enjoy hearing what children have been working on at consultation meetings/phone conversations, and will support them with their homework and reading outside of school.

Please, please, please x10000 keep encouraging your child to read at home. Reading is the key to everything! The children are showing such a passion and love of reading in school, we hope you will continue this with them at home.

We also hope that every effort is made by you for every child to attend school regularly. It is so important for your child’s development. We can’t continue to stress this enough. (95% and above is GOOD attendance). As a school we need to bet better on the first and last day of terms. Far too many children have these particular days off.

In addition to this being ON TIME every day for school is absolutely vital so that your child does not miss any of their learning. It can be really upsetting and frustrating for children if they come into a lesson that is part way through and they’ve missed vital teacher input and modelling. It can cause them great distress and being left with a feeling of not understanding what is expected of them.
Its really pleasing to see that our ‘lates’ are reducing and that you are all working really hard to support school on this issue. Well done everyone. Keep up the great efforts. Let’s have all the children in on time every day!

Here’s to a really positive Spring term!

John Dixon

Our work for this term

English
We will be developing our skills in creating expert sentences that help our reader understand character feelings and emotions. We will be looking at a variety of genres, including first person narratives and newspapers.

Reading
In year 4, the children are encouraged to make their own reading choices.  They will be choosing their own books from the book corner and will bring them home.   In Y4, the children are expected to bring their book back to school three times a week with their reading record. If your child is in Read, Write, Inc it is vital that they read and return their books.

Spelling
Each child has access to our online spelling scheme of work.  Your child has been set spelling tasks, individualised to their own needs.

Please allow your child to access Spelling Shed at least once a week.

Mathematics
This term, we are working hard on our multiplication and division understanding, and then we will be moving into a block of work all about Fractions!  We need to focus on our multiplication tables as we will have a national test in June.

Times tables
In Year 4, every child takes a Government times table test.  We aim to teach them to know all of the multiplication and related division facts to 12 x 12 by the end of Y4. To support this, it would fantastic of your child could use this at home.   

Please allow your child to access TT Rockstars at least once a week.

www.ttrockstars.com

Please contact your child’s teacher directly if you need any of the codes for your child reissuing.

Science
This term, we will be looking at sound, and reversible and irreversible changes. We will be learning the key facts to build our knowledge, and investigating to find out all about these topics.

Topic
Traders and Raiders
We will find out about the lives of the Saxons, including how they lived and where they came from, and the bloodthirsty Vikings from Scandinavia. We will spend time looking at their lives and why they came to Britain. This topic will take us through both half terms.

Homework
Much of our homework is now set on our online platforms.  We encourage your child to visit Seesaw regularly.  This is our home learning platform where you and your child should be able to access all of our homework and talk with their teachers regularly.
Homework will also be sent home weekly if you cannot access it online.
Seesaw can be downloaded from Apple and Android App Stores, and can be accessed at:

https://web.seesaw.me

PSHE
We will be looking at our dreams and goals, and how we can cope if things do not go right for us. In Spring 2, we will be looking at how we keep ourselves healthy and how to make healthy choices.

PE
Please could your child bring a change of clothes – shorts, tops and trainers / plimsolls for PE on the day.
Y4D: Tuesday
Y4P: Tuesday

Dates for your Diary
Spring Term:   Monday 6th January 2025 – Friday 11th April 2025
Half Term:       Monday 24th February 2025 – Friday 28th February 2025