Year 4

'Our aim is to prepare children for the future and for lifelong learning in a diverse and everchanging world with opportunities as well as challenges.'

Mathematics

At Hatchell Wood, we use the National Curriculum and the accredited White Rose Maths to structure the long term and medium term overview of our mathematics teaching.

The vast majority of children are taught in their own year groups, in mixed abilities. In every year group, concepts are taught using concrete resources, moving on to pictorial methods before developing abstract working. This approach means that most children can access the same learning while building a solid understanding. Where appropriate, some children have a personalised curriculum. All children are given an equal opportunity to achieve to their highest potential.

As well as discrete maths lessons, children also consolidate their understanding during topic lessons and through daily Maths Meetings which include key mathematical facts.

English

At Hatchell Wood, we believe that every pupil has the right to be able to read, write and communicate with others effectively. English is the main medium through which the rest of the curriculum is learned and taught and a major way in which children interpret the world around them, develop knowledge and understanding and communicate with other people. The teaching of English, in all of its forms, has a high profile within the school.

Writing 

We teach writing using the 'Pathways the Write' approach and over the year we cover six different texts which include Gorilla by Anthony Browne and Koji's Island by The Literacy Compmay. Within each unit, pupils focus on non-negotibles/basic skills (Gateway Keys) and are then taught national curriculum expectations through the use of Mastery Keys and Feature Keys. The Keys are repeated, practiced and applied in new contexts in preperation for the Writeaway at the end of each unit.

Grammar and Punctuation

At Hatchell Wood, we use the National Curriculum to structure the long term and medium term overview of our spelling and grammar teaching.

Spelling

Children will use a sounds and syllables approach to spelling. Jason Wade’s Sounds & Syllables teaching sequence teaches children how to spell by building upon what children already know and understand from phonics teaching, the crucial relationship between sounds and spellings. At the heart of Sounds & Syllables is a simple five step sequence: ‘say it’, ‘snip it’, ‘segment it’, ‘target it’ and ‘link it’. This approach is tailored for teaching children from year 2 - 6 after they have acquired a secure phonics knowledge. The teaching sequence for teaching spelling can be found here. 

Guided Reading

As pupils secure their early reading skills they are transferred onto our Book Talk approach. Pupils will study an age appropriate challenging text on a half termly basis that is delivered as part of a weekly lesson whereby pupils are encouraged to practise the vital skills needed to perform well as an independent reader. A consistent pedagogical approach towards the teaching of reading is delivered, which consists daily of some form of reading (either independent reading – using a dialogic approach, teacher reading, pre-reading, reading for fluency or accuracy or pace), text annotation, vocabulary work focusing on morphology and etymology, making precise predictions and summarising, as well as how to accurately answer comprehension questions linked to reading VIPERs (vocabulary, inference, prediction, explain, retrieve) and content domains, also a small group guided reading session using the reciprocal reading approach:

· Predict What are we going to read about in the next section?

· Clarify Which words or phrases do we need to find the meaning of?

· Question Can we ask questions to help us learn more about the text?

· Summarise What are the main ideas from this section?

At Hatchell Wood we use reading VIPERS to help pupils understand how to approach answering reading questions.

VIPERS is an acronym which stands for Vocabulary, Infer, Predict, Explain, Retrieve and Sequence (Key Stage One) or Summarise (Key Stage Two).

The following pages explain how this concept works and gives you ideas for how each type of question might look for pupils.

KS2 Reading Vipers - supporting children with comprehension skills. Click here to download the guide.

Text Study

Every half-term the children will engage in a whole class shared text that may have a theme linked to their current topic project. Year 4 children will also enjoy daily ‘story time', as well as this being a vital element of creating a positive, pleasurable experience, we also aim to:

• Provide opportunities to encounter new words and enriching vocabulary – they experience words that would almost never come up in conversation.
• Help students appreciate the beauty and rhythm of language
• Provide opportunities for children to enjoy and understand texts beyond their own reading ability.
• Enhance imagination and observation skills
• Improve critical and creative thinking skills
• Expands a student’s general knowledge and understanding of the world
• Developed empathy as they make connections with the experiences of the characters in the text and with each other
• Provide opportunities to experience fluent, expressive reading as it is modelled
• Enables them to make meaning from more complex texts
• Encourage a desire to read independently

CLASS TEXT
Autumn 1	Autumn 2	Spring 1	Spring 2	Summer 1	Summer 2
The Owl Tree		Varjak Paw		The Book of Hopes

Topic

At Hatchell Wood we use the Cornerstones approach to deliver exciting and engaging project based learning.

These are the projects that we cover in Year 4: 

	AUTUMN	SPRING		SUMMER
TOPIC	Invasion!	Misty Mountain, Winding River		Ancient Civilisations
	Click on the images below for the key knowledge and vocabulary the children will learn in each of the topics.
	Children learn why and how the Angles, Saxons and Vikings came to Britain and their impact.We will discover their daily lives and settlements as well as key figures present in this time period.	Children learn how mountains are formed and their uses in the UK and further around the world.  They learn about the structure of rivers and how they change over time.		Children learn about three of the first civilisations; the ancient Sumer; the ancient Egyptians and the first civilisation in the Indus valley. We examine how and why these civilisations formed; the lives they led; their achievements and what led to their eventual decline.
SCIENCE	SOUND	DIGESTION	STATES OF MATTER	GROUPING AND CLASSIFYING LIVING ORGANISMS	ELECTRICITY
INVESTIGATIONS	Can we block sound?  Can we change a sound?	What happens to food in my body? How effective is toothpaste?	How do smells get up your nose?  How can things change state?	How can we group and classify new species?	What conducts electricity?  Can you make a circuit from playdough?  How do plugs work?

PSHE

We use to Jigsaw PSHE scheme of work to prepare children/young people for life, helping them really know and value who they are and understand how they relate to other people in this ever-changing world.

*Our Sex and Relationship Education Progression Map can be found here and our SRE Supplementary Lessons plan can be found here.

Religious Education

We use Discovery RE scheme of work to learn about different religions and beliefs. Christianity is taught in every year group, with Christmas and Easter given new treatment each year, developing the learning in a progressive way. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism are also covered.

Home Learning

School Spider is our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) provider and can be accessed via our school website: www.hatchellwood.com
Year 4 children have access to Times Tables Rock Stars to ensure that they can practise leaning their multiplication facts on a regular basis.
Year 4 children are required to read at home to an adult at least 5 times per week.

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