Elm Class

Welcome to Elm Class (Year 4).

Year 4 is an exciting year! In schools in England, Year 4 is for children 8–9 years old, and is the second year of Key Stage 2. The children will have the opportunity to develop more independence in their learning and become more skilled in using resources available to them without as much adult support. We will also be focusing on editing and reflecting on our work.

In maths and English, the teachers will be aiming to ensure that your Year 4 child knows and understands particular key skills. Apostrophes, commas, times tables and key spellings are just some of the things children in Year 4 are expected to use accurately. Furthermore, this will be the year that your child will undertake an assessment in their times tables – you will be able to find more information about this here.

In English, there is a focus on using grammar and punctuation to improve our writing. We’ll be making sure we can identify and name different types of words and punctuation and use them correctly in our own writing to add interest. Independent editing is also a key part of our work. The children develop their reading and comprehension skills during our whole class reading sessions. Handwriting continues to be taught and the children have the opportunity to earn their Pen Licence! Speaking confidently is also a key skill and the children are given opportunities to present their ideas in groups and to the whole class during lessons.

In maths we cover place value, statistics, geometry, fractions, measurement as well as mental and written methods in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It is important that children develop their abilities to work confidently mentally and having quick recall of multiplication facts is key to this. We concentrate on these in class but also expect the children to spend time learning them at home. Times Table Rock Stars is a valuable resource which will help them practise this.