What will my child need at school?

· PE kit including one pair of trainers which can also be worn at break times. Children with long hair should have it tied back for PE lessons. A spare pair of socks is needed to change into if your child is wearing tights. A sweatshirt and tracksuit bottoms can be provided for colder months.

• A small pencil case that can remain in school all the time. Some colouring pencils would be helpful too. We provide all other pens, pencils and equipment as required.

How you can help at home

Reading

We would like you to either listen to your child read and / or discuss what they have read together regularly. To ensure best progress in reading, this should be daily. A variety of reading material is helpful, both fiction and non-fiction texts. As well as books chosen from school and home, visiting a local library gives a great choice of reading material.

Spellings

Spelling sentences will be given out weekly and tested each Friday. Your child will have been told if they are to learn 1, 2 or 3 sentences. This may be changed as the year progresses. Best progress is made with frequent practice.

Times tables

National curriculum expectations are that by the end of Year 4, children have an instant recall of all times tables facts up to 12x12. There will be a national test in the summer which all Year 4 children must sit. To prepare for this, we will be doing lots of work in school to learn and understand these number facts, but regular practice at home is invaluable to support this work. Playing games, including the many available online is a great way to reinforce this knowledge.

A meeting for all Year 4 parents will be arranged later in the year.

Homework

Each half term, children will be given a grid with a range of homework tasks which are all linked to our topic. Children can select which tasks they would like to do and complete them at their own pace, preferably spaced out over the whole half term and handed in as each is completed. This can be done via the class email address below. If it is not a written task, a signature on the grid is fine. Let us know if you have any questions about the homework tasks. There is a copy of the homework grid on the website

class3@upham.hants.sch.uk

A typical week in our class

Most mornings, children will have lessons in Maths and English. These are often linked to some of our topic work.

We have weekly tests to reinforce learning of the key skills of spelling and recall of multiplication facts.

Tuesday: Times tables.

Friday: Spelling sentences.

Other subjects such as science, history, art, IT, DT and geography are usually taught around our topic theme. Other subjects such as French, PE, PHSE and RE may be unrelated to the main topic.  Not all subjects are taught every half term.