Welcome to Year 4

We hope your child enjoys their learning in Year 4. If you have any concerns or wish to contact your child’s teacher please feel free to use the email function on Purple Mash. Your child’s login details for Purple Mash can be obtained from the school office staff.

The Year 4 staff are as follows:

• Cat’s Eye: Mrs Innes and Mrs Gray
• Sunstone: Miss Thomas and Ms Royal
• Tiger’s Eye: Mr O’Sullivan and Mrs Ling
• Topaz: Mrs Balcombe and Mrs Janes

Our Topics in Year 4 are:

• Ancient Egypt (Year 3 catch up during Autumn One)
• The Ancient Greeks (Autumn two and Spring One)
• The Romans (Spring Two and Summer Term)

PE - This year each class will have 2 sessions of PE which will be held outside weather permitting. Your child isn’t required to bring in a PE kit this year but must have suitable footwear. If you choose to bring a PE kit to school, please only bring them on your PE days and then they should be returned home to be washed that same day. If your child wear jewellery, in particular earrings, they must be able to remove them themselves or alternatively choose not to wear any on a day they will be doing PE. Please send your child in with a bottle of water every day, clearly labelled with their name.

PE days are as follows for each class:

• Cat’s Eye: Friday (2 sessions)
• Sunstone: Wednesday and Thursday
• Tiger’s Eye: Tuesday and Friday
• Topaz: Wednesday and Thursday

Homework will be set on Mathletics and Reading Eggspress each week. Maths and English homework will be set online by the child’s teacher so as to be appropriate and challenging to their ability. We also expect the children to learn their weekly spelling list, which will be added to the blog on Purple Mash, as well as reading at home three times per week. Due to current restrictions, reading books will not be sent home instead the children have a login for an online reading library called MyOn. Times table practise is also very important particularly in Year 4 as they are scheduled to sit a statutory multiplication test (see the letter below from the school’s Maths Lead). To support this, there will be weekly practise set on Purple Mash.

Homework will be set weekly for and is expected to be completed in 7 days. The classes will set homework on the following days:

• Cat’s Eye – Friday
• Sunstone – Tuesday
• Tiger’s Eye – Thursday
• Topaz - Wednesday

To access any of these websites please use the following links:

https://www.myon.co.uk/

https://www.mathletics.com/uk/

https://readingeggspress.co.uk/

https://www.purplemash.com/sch/janet-duke

These additional websites will be used to help support the children throughout the year.

https://www.thenational.academy/

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check

Year 4 Multiplication Test

Dear Parent,

You may be aware that from June 2020 there is a new test for year 4 children called the “Multiplication Tables Check.” Here’s what you need to know:

Under the national curriculum primary school children are expected to know up to and including their 12 times tables by the end of Year 4. We’ve been preparing students to know their times tables by the end of Year 4 for quite some time now and are not concerned about the check at all.

 The check itself:

• Will take place in the Summer term in June.
• Is done online using a computer or tablet.
• Can be done one student at a time, in groups or as a class.
• Will take no longer than 5 minutes.
• Will feature 25 questions and children will have 6 seconds to answer each question.
• There isn’t any problem solving or division questions, just simple “3 x 4 =?” type questions

Here are some resources that you can use to support your child in developing a sound knowledge of all their times tables up to 12 x 12. We strongly encourage you to work closely with your child on using these resources if your child is struggling with recalling their times tables knowledge.

Thank you for your support,

Mr Lynn

Maths Lead

https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/janetdukeprimary/UploadedDocument/6c74dfd2c39e4ac4b66b8073704ba6db/activities-for-parents-to-support-times-tables.pdf