The Year 4 Team

Curriculum Overview

Online Advent Calendar

As Advent begins this Sunday with Advent Sunday celebrated in Churches, we would like to share this online Advent Calendar with you, produced by the Diocese of Guildford. It explores the Christmas story through Christian artwork, investigating a different artist and aspect of the story throughout the term time days of Advent. Please enjoy sharing this with your family as we prepare for Christmas in school and at home.

This week in Devon

Week beginning 8th December

In English, the children have been working hard on using speech marks, determiners and expanded noun phrases. They have been using dictionaries and thesauruses to define unfamiliar vocabulary and improve their writing which has had an amazing effect so far.

In maths, we have been recapping our column addition, column subtraction and knowledge of area. The class created some fantastic 'square drawings' where they calculated the area of each colour they had used. Some children even challenged themselves and used half squares in their drawings!

The dress rehearsal for the Christmas performance went well and the children are eager to get on stage to perform to their adults. We have been practising the songs at every opportunity during the day and I'm sure that all the practise will pay off to make a fantastic performance! We hope you enjoy it if you are coming to watch!

Class Timetable

This is an example timetable of what a typical week in Devon will look like.

PE is on Tuesday and Wednesday this term.

Home Learning

All of the children will have an investigative topic-linked learning task to complete, which is rotated over a three-week cycle. The children will focus on one of their three current foundation subjects each week.
To support this, the children are split into 3 groups, which you can see below.
This will be set on a Thursday and due by the following Tuesday.
In class on a Tuesday or Wednesday, the children will then share the outcomes of their research, and the knowledge they have retrieved, within their own group.

Times Tables Rockstars! 

To keep practising the multiplication taught in class, and challenging yourself to keep the ones you already know fresh, don’t forget to log into your Times Tables Rockstars account. 

https://play.ttrockstars.com/

Challenge yourself to beat your score and build your knowledge as you become a Rockstar!

Please ask your class teacher if you need replacement log in details.

Reading

Children should bring their Accelerated Reading Book to and from school each day. When they have finished reading, children are asked to complete a quiz before changing their book. 

https://global-zone61.renaissance-go.com/welcomeportal/6704864

Parents please log your child's reading on the BOOM reader Parent Portal or by using the BOOM reader parent app on your tablet/mobile no more than once a week.

boomreader.co.uk/parents

Below is a list of the 100 most common words that your child is expected to know how to spell by the end of Year 4 (please see attachment).

The spelling strategies document below shows what strategies are used in class, and can be used at home to aid learning new words: 

Spelling

Spellings will be set on a Wednesday and tested the following Tuesday each week. Our next spelling test will be on the 16th December. 

The link below will take you to the spelling scheme we are working from in school.

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/english/primary-spelling/

This document contains spelling strategies that are used in class, and can be used at home to aid learning new words:

Southborough's Spelling Strategies

Times Tables Rock Stars

To keep practising the multiplication taught in class, and challenging yourself to keep the ones you already know fresh, don’t forget to log into your Times Tables Rockstars account. 

https://play.ttrockstars.com/

Challenge yourself to beat your score and build your knowledge as you become a Rockstar!

Please ask your class teacher if you need replacement log in details.

This week we are focusing on the multiplication tables for x3, x6 and x9.

If you know them well, maybe challenge yourself with the corresponding division facts. For example:

6 x 7 = 42

42 ÷ 6 = 7

Below is a link to help prepare for the National multiplication tables check in June 2026.

Maths strategies

Please see below attachments for examples from White Rose Maths including the four operations, (add, subtract, multiply, divide) and how we extend learning using reasoning style questions. 

Music Knowledge Organiser