Teacher: Mr Barnes

Teaching Assistants: Mrs Gerbrands, Mrs Wilson, Mrs Lane  

PPA Teacher: Mrs Liber (Tuesday afternoon)

Welcome to Year Four

My name is Mr. Barnes, I have been lucky to work at The Rosary for the past three years. I lead both science and PE within the school, and I’m passionate about making lessons fun, engaging, and full of energy for the children. I especially love teaching PE, with rugby being one of my favourite sports. It's incredibly rewarding to see the kids enjoying physical activity while developing their skills and teamwork..

Our School Day

To find out details of how the Y4 pupils spend their time, please take a look at the timeline of our school day. Important times to note are arrival time (8.40am) and registration (8.50am). It is important the children are at school and settled in time for the day to begin.

Curriculum Support

The English national curriculum means children in different schools (at primary and secondary level) study the same subjects to similar standards - it's split into key stages with tests. If you would like to know more about each individual subject please visit our Curriculum Page. Each term our class topic will link in to the curriculum in a way that brings the subjects to life for the children. 

Autumn Term Topic

This term, our Year 4 pupils will explore the fascinating world of rivers and how they shape our landscape. Linked to the National Curriculum for Geography, children will develop their understanding of physical geography, including the processes that create rivers and their key features, such as sources, tributaries, meanders, and mouths.

Through engaging lessons, hands-on activities, and investigations, pupils will:

• Learn how rivers are formed and how water flows from source to sea.

• Investigate the water cycle and understand the role of precipitation, evaporation, and condensation.

• Explore how rivers change the land through erosion, transportation, and deposition.

• Use maps and atlases to identify major rivers in the UK and around the world.

By the end of the term, children will have a clear understanding of the life of a river, the physical processes that shape it, and the importance of rivers to people and the environment.

PE

Our PE day is on Wednesday. The children will need to wear the Rosary PE kit to school on this day. We also take part in 'Fitness Fridays' with the rest of the school so the children will also need to wear PE kit every Friday. Please click here to find out PE kit requirements.

Forest School

We are very lucky to be able to offer regular Forest School sessions to all our classes at the Rosary School. Our grounds are perfect to help the children connect and engage with the outdoors, and learn through active and exciting tasks and challenges such as den building, making a fire or tools, and identifying insects and birds. Y4 Forest School sessions are every three weeks on a Friday morning.  Children will need to wear Forest School kit to school on these days, details of which can be found along with the session timetable, as links from the Forest School page.

Reading & Book Change

The children are encouraged to read the books they choose at school regularly. We now have completely new reading books which is very exciting! Please read with them at least 4 times a week and record your comments in their yellow reading record. When they are familiar with the book they should change it for a new one. Our book change days are Friday. The children will also participate in whole class guided reading taking place 3x a week. 

English 

This term, our Year 4 pupils will focus on writing explanation texts, using the beautifully illustrated book Varmints by Helen Ward as inspiration. Through this text, children will explore how the story presents ideas about nature, the environment, and change, and learn to explain processes clearly in their own writing.

Pupils will develop their skills in:

• Planning and structuring explanation texts with clear introductions, sequenced steps, and conclusions.

• Using precise and technical vocabulary to explain processes effectively.

• Writing in clear, concise sentences with varied punctuation.

• Linking ideas logically using conjunctions and adverbs.

• Editing and improving their work to enhance clarity and presentation.

By the end of the term, children will have produced their own explanation texts, demonstrating their understanding of how to convey information clearly and engagingly.

Rainbow & Read Write Inc Spellings

Our Rainbow Spellings in each year group focus on 'tricky words' that are commonly misspelled or do not follow regular rules. These words are re-visited two years in a row and are tested regularly. In Y4 we continue to practise Read Write Inc Spellings which focus on the rules of spelling. 

Maths

This term, our Year 4 pupils will build a strong understanding of place value, forming the foundation for all future maths learning. Pupils will explore numbers up to 10,000, deepening their knowledge of how digits represent different values depending on their position.

Children will develop their skills in:

• Reading, writing, ordering, and comparing numbers up to 10,000.

• Understanding the value of each digit in a number (thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones).

• Rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100, or 1,000.

• Counting in multiples of 25, 50, 100, and 1,000.

• Applying place value knowledge to problem-solving and reasoning tasks.

By the end of the term, pupils will have a confident understanding of place value, enabling them to tackle addition, subtraction, and further number work with accuracy and confidence.

Rainbow Maths

There is a National Curriculum requirement for children to know their times tables up to 12 x12 by the end of Year 4, at which point they take an online test. To support this objective, children from Y2 onwards take part in regular Rainbow Maths tests. Each new academic year they start on 'Red' and work their way up through Orange, Yellow and so on. The document below shows what is required for each colour.

The Multiplication Tables Check will be administered in the three-week period starting June 2026.

Our Class Saint - St. Josephine Bakhita

Feast Day: 8th February

For many years, Josephine Bakhita was a slave but her spirit was always free and eventually that spirit prevailed.

Born in Olgossa in the Darfur region of southern Sudan, Josephine was kidnapped at the age of 7, sold into slavery and given the name Bakhita, which means fortunate. She was resold several times, finally in 1883 to Callisto Legnani, Italian consul in Khartoum, Sudan.

Two years later, he took Josephine to Italy and gave her to his friend Augusto Michieli. Bakhita became babysitter to Mimmina Michieli, whom she accompanied to Venice’s Institute of the Catechumens, run by the Canossian Sisters. While Mimmina was being instructed, Josephine felt drawn to the Catholic Church. She was baptized and confirmed in 1890, taking the name Josephine.

When the Michielis returned from Africa and wanted to take Mimmina and Josephine back with them, the future saint refused to go. During the ensuing court case, the Canossian Sisters and the patriarch of Venice intervened on Josephine’s behalf. The judge concluded that since slavery was illegal in Italy, she had actually been free since 1885.

Josephine entered the Institute of St. Magdalene of Canossa in 1893 and made her profession three years later. In 1902, she was transferred to the city of Schio (northeast of Verona), where she assisted her religious community through cooking, sewing, embroidery, and welcoming visitors at the door. She soon became well loved by the children attending the sisters’ school and the local citizens. She once said, “Be good, love the Lord, pray for those who do not know Him. What a great grace it is to know God!”

The first steps toward her beatification began in 1959. She was beatified in 1992 and canonized eight years later.

Additional Curriculum Resources

For further resources to support your child across all subjects, please visit our Curriculum page which features links to many useful sites.