Year 4 – Padley

Padley, a village in Derbyshire, is a special place where Catholics remember the Padley Martyrs (Nicholas Garlick and Robert Ludlam). They were priests a long time ago when it was dangerous to be Catholic in England. They were caught at Padley Manor, a house where they were hiding, and later died for their faith. Today, Padley Chapel is a place where people go to pray, learn about the martyrs, and think about being brave and standing up for what they believe in. It teaches us about faith, courage, and remembering others.

Our class teacher is Miss Hickling and our wonderful teaching assistants are Mrs. Baker and Miss. Shally (Thursday morning).  On a Wednesday, the wonderful Mrs Acton will be teaching the class

Meet the Teacher 

Please find below the Year 4 Meet the Teacher presentation for the 2024-25 year. It outlines who is who in Year 4, an overview of our curriculum, reading expectations, communication and reporting, and uniform expectations.

Meet the Teacher 2024-2025

If you are a parent of a child in Year 4, you can follow us on X (previously Twitter) (@StLizClass20) to see what we are getting up to in class each week and keep up-to-date with any class notices.

All of our class X pages at St. Elizabeth’s are private accounts, meaning only approved parents/guardians can access the site. Parents/guardians are asked to provide their X accounts for approval at the beginning of the account’s opening. Photos of your child will be only be put onto the X page, if prior consent from a parent or guardian has been given for this.

Homework is usually set every Monday and is due the following Monday. For some topics, however, we may set overarching projects, which are to be undertaken over several weeks. You will be given plenty of notice of the final due date in these cases.

The children will be rewarded for returning homework in on time. They are more than welcome to ask you for support with their homework if needed, but if substantial support was needed, please make note of this on the sheet so that I am aware of this upon return. Please ensure that homework is returned to school, and taken home, in their homework journals. This ensures that our work is kept neat and tidy. We should take as much care with our homework as we would with our classwork!

We encourage the children to use TTR, Arithmagicians and Accelerated Reader at home. We also ask that the children practice the words in their spelling log each night at home, revisiting words learned in previous weeks. Children are expected to read at home for at least 10 minutes every day; the more often they read the better!

Formal Column Addition Method Tutorial (Whole and decimal numbers)

Formal Column Subtraction Method Tutorial (Whole and decimals numbers) 

Formal Short Multiplication Method Tutorial (Whole and decimal numbers) 

Formal Short Division (Bus Stop Method) Tutorial 

St. Elizabeth’s has a Franciscan heritage, so our school values are based on Franciscan values. In Year 4, our class value is service. We understand service to be the action of showing God’s love to others with a willing heart. This means helping others, without the anticipation of reward. As written in Matthew’s gospel 20:28, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others.” Prayer and worship are an integral part of our day.

Religious Education

As a school, we continue to celebrate our Franciscan heritage through our seven values – based on the Franciscan values. The seven values are: Joy, Forgiveness, Faith, Respect, Service, Peace and Stewardship. These underpin all that we do as a school. We will all strive to live out these values on a daily basis.

In Year 4, our value is service. We will be thinking about how we can serve others in our lives, how Jesus taught us to serve and what service means to us.

In Year 4, we follow the Come and See curriculum. Throughout the year, we study various inspirational people who were called by God and discover how they served him in different ways. We will consider from and how we are all a part of God’s family, exploring the family tree of Jesus and learning about the story of Abraham and how he put his trust in God.

We will be revisiting Baptism and looking at the celebration of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of  Confirmation, learning about symbols
and actions used and how this
strengthens our relationship with God.

The learning for each topic is summarised in the R.E. knowledge organisers, which can be found on this class page.

In English, we practise our decoding, fluency and comprehension reading skills through whole-class Talk for Reading sessions, small group reading sessions as part of a carousel, and by reading 1:1 with an adult weekly.

Due to MyBookBlog’s collapse in 2024, starting in September 2024, we now use Accelerated Reader for our home reading scheme. Similar to MyBookBlog, this means the children have a dedicated home reading book which they have chosen from our collection in school. The books the children can access are based upon their optimal Zone of Proximal Development, as assessed by their progress on Accelerated Reader. This ensures that the books they choose are accessible to their reading level, but also promote challenge! Once they have read the book, they are to complete an Accelerated Reader quiz online, based on the events they have read. To support this, the children also have a reading ‘scrapbook’, in which they can take notes and draw images in to help aid their retention of the book. The children are free to change their book as soon as they have read and ‘quizzed’ it. Please ensure that your child continues to bring in their home reading book on their allocated day so that we can assess their progress regularly. Please also ensure that the children take care of these books at home; we politely ask for a like for like replacement to be purchased for any lost or damaged books.

Children are expected to read at home for at least 10 minutes every day and the more often they read the better! This includes reading to an adult. We no longer use home-school reading diaries, and instead the children each have a vocabulary bookmark, upon which they are to write any unfamiliar words upon. We then look up the meaning of these words during our guided reading sessions in class. Please encourage your child to use these as a learning tool!

Our writing lessons follow the Pie Corbett ‘Talk 4 Writing’ style of ‘Imitate – Innovate – Invent’; put simply ‘I do – We do – You do’. More information about this method of teaching can be found in the ‘Curriculum’ section of the website, under ‘English’. Our class will typically practise two genres each half term.

Starting in 2023, we have adopted a new spelling scheme, Read Write Inc. spelling. This follows on from our KS1 phonics scheme to allow for cohesive and consistent progression and development. The scheme teaches children methods for working out how to spell any words which have regular patterns. There is also a focus on irregular spelling patterns which need to be memorised.

We will now have set spelling sessions each week, running for 15 minutes 4x per week. All units follow the same format of fun activities, together with tips explaining when each spelling pattern is likely to be used. Assessment throughout a unit is ongoing and children will be logging spellings that they find difficult in their ‘Spelling Logs’. These words will be personalised to each child, as the children choose the words they wish to ‘log’, based on which words they have found difficult throughout the week. There will be 6 words to practise each week, with a focus primarily upon the spelling rule they follow. These words are then tested in partners (in a low-stakes manner) at the start of the following unit.  You can help support your child by practising the words in your child’s spelling log each night at home, and by revisiting words learnt in previous weeks.

We will also continue to provide SpellingShed as a practice hub for the children at home. We encourage the children to practice spellings daily. The spellings set each week on SpellingShed have been lined up with the spelling rules present in the RWI scheme, allowing children to continue practicing on SpellingShed. The children get chance to practice their spellings on the Spelling Shed Mastery Zone once a week. Please encourage this at home!

In Year 4, the children sit their Multiplication Tables Check in June. This consists of 25 times tables questions up to 12×12 and the children have 6 seconds to answer each question. The checks will be taken online during school time.

The Government made the check compulsory in 2022 stating,

‘The purpose of the MTC is to determine whether pupils can recall their times tables fluently, which is essential for future success in mathematics.’

Having rapid recall of times tables makes other areas of maths much easier. Fractions is the most obvious area where learning times tables well is essential. However, every multiplication, division, long multiplication method and short division and long division method require speed and instant recall of times tables. Furthermore, having the tables secure frees up their working memory for newer, more challenging tasks at hand. So learning them now, in year 4, sets children up for a more successful maths career later in their school life.

What can you do to help your child learn their times tables?
Each half term, your child’s heatmap will be sent home. This can also be accessed by logging in to your child’s account> Stats> Fluency. This shows their current recall time for each of the times tables facts. The greener the fact, the quicker the response time. Any facts shown in red or orange are slower than 5 seconds, and should be practised.

How can you help them improve their recall times?
There are lots of ways to learn times tables, but here are a few suggestions to get you started:
● Make sure they play daily in Garage mode on Times Tables Rocks Stars – The Garage game mode is very clever and will adjust the questions your child is asked, ensuring they are always working on the facts they need to improve.
● Sing times tables songs. There are hundreds available!
● Chanting the old-fashioned way- rehearse the tables forwards and backwards, gradually increasing in speed.
● Regular practice on the MTC on Arithmagicians.
● Write out the tables – This can be in the form of a simple list or you could also be a bit more fun. Being creative will make writing and learning the tables more enjoyable.
• Write the facts as the petals of a flower;
• Get them to test you on the facts and get them wrong on purpose and see if they correct you!
• Treasure Hunt: Hide the facts around the house and give them the answers. Can they find them in record time?
• Take a pot of water and a paintbrush outside to ‘paint’ the facts on a wall.
• Use chalks to write the facts outside in giant numbers.

Times tables are important, but it should be an enjoyable experience learning them!

 

We use the Power Maths scheme of work, and each term has an associated textbook: Power Maths Year 4 – Textbook 4A (for autumn term), Textbook 4B (for spring term), Textbook 4C (for summer term). If you are keen to follow our learning, these books are be purchased on Amazon and are £6.99 each.

Maths is a vast subject and we appreciate that there’s more to it than reciting times tables. However, a lot of the rich, interesting mathematical concepts are all about the multiplicative relationships, and these are hard to fully grasp without fluent recall of the tables. For that reason, learning the tables is fundamental – they are a key facilitator to the maths that sits on top.

When it comes to times tables, speed and accuracy are important – the more facts your child remembers, the easier it is for them to do harder calculations. Following on from the Year 4 multiplication check, in Year 6, we will continue to consolidate all of our times tables, up to 12×12. Times Table Rock Stars (TTR) is a fun and challenging programme designed to help students master the times tables and help them reach the goal of being able to answer any times table (up to 12 x 12) in under 3 seconds. We encourage the children to use TTR at home and in school, and we even have a weekly TTR award, which takes place in our Friday achievement Act of Worship.

We encourage the children to wear an analogue watch to school to help them to tell the time. If you have an analogue clock at home, encourage your child to look at it during the day and work out the time together (starting with o’clock, half past, quarter past, quarter to, then intervals of 5 minutes past the hour).

Children are asked to bring a water bottle to school each day. They are encouraged to drink water throughout the day to aid concentration. Healthy snacks (fruit and vegetables) are needed for break times to keep the children going until lunchtime. Please note that we are also a nut-free school due to allergies, so please do not send your child to school with any nut-based products for their snacks and lunches.