Teacher: Mr Barnes

Teaching Assistants: Mrs Gerbrands 

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. 

Summer Term Topic

This term, Year 4 will be diving into the fascinating world of the Vikings as we explore the big question: Were the Vikings raiders, traders or something else? Through history lessons, we’ll investigate where the Vikings came from, how they travelled and settled, and the different roles they played in society. We’ll look at evidence to help us decide whether they were fearsome invaders, clever traders, or something in between. In English, we’ll be reading the epic tale of Beowulf, using it to inspire our own heroic adventure stories and descriptive writing. This will help us understand the Viking world through the eyes of storytelling and legend. With exciting cross-curricular links to geography, art and DT, this topic promises to be a rich and engaging journey into the past.

PE

Our PE day is on Thursday. 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 Monday and Thursday. The children will also participate in whole class guided reading taking place 3x a week. Our library day is Thursday, when the children can choose any book to take home and enjoy.  They will be able to change these weekly.

English & SPaG

This term in English, we will be reading a range of exciting texts linked to our Viking topic, with a strong focus on myths, legends and historical adventure. Our class novel will be Beowulf – a thrilling tale of bravery, monsters and heroism. Through this gripping story, children will explore rich vocabulary, powerful description and narrative structure. Inspired by Beowulf, they will plan, write and edit their own heroic narratives, developing their use of language, sentence structure and storytelling skills. Alongside this, we will continue to build reading fluency and comprehension through guided reading sessions, and work on grammar, punctuation and spelling through engaging activities.

Below you will find the optional SPAG mats your children can do to help with developing their spelling, punctuation and grammar skills. 

Read, Write Inc. Spelling lessons will carry on Monday mornings and Rainbow Spellings will be tested every Friday (apart from forest school mornings when the test will be done on the Thursday). Please find below the spellings for this half term. 

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 in Maths, Year 4 will be developing their understanding of fractions and decimals. We’ll begin by exploring unit and non-unit fractions, finding equivalent fractions, and learning how to add and subtract them with the same denominator. Children will also learn how to convert between improper fractions and mixed numbers. Later in the term, we’ll move on to decimals, where pupils will recognise tenths and hundredths, compare and order decimal numbers, and link decimals to fractions and measures such as money and length. Throughout the term, there will be plenty of opportunities for practical activities, problem solving and applying skills in real-life contexts to deepen understanding and build 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 2024.

Our Class Saint

Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu , honoured in the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, was  an Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary. Mother Teresa said she received her "inspiration" to carry out what she described as the work of God, devoting herself to helping people who lived in the slums of Kolkata. On 17 August 1948, she stepped out for the first time in her white and blue sari, for which she is now so well known. Her charitable efforts have been widely celebrated and recognised all over the planet. Mother Teresa has won a string of awards for her charity work - the most notable being the Nobel Peace Prize which she was given in 1979. Mother Teresa died on 5 September 1997 at the age of 87, and was given a state funeral in India. She is remembered as an incredibly selfless person who wanted to help those less fortunate than herself. In 2016 Pope Francis recognised her as a saint. Mother Teresa had a huge heart for the poor and the ill. She had a beautiful mind and heart and many touching quotes are attributed to her including some of these wonderful sentences below:

"If you want to change the world, go home and love your family."

"Do not wait for leaders. Do it alone... person to person."

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."

"Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love."

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.