Welcome to Year 4

Our class is called Apollos and we are taught by Mrs Rowson. Miss Hunt is our teaching assistant. We are also supported by Mrs Hill and Miss Hall.

PE

Apollos have PE lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays where they are taught by our specialist PE teacher, Mr Milbourn. Children will need to wear their PE kit to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and will remain in their kit all day. 

Library

Children in Apollos will have the opportunity to visit the school library every Monday where they will be able to choose a book that they can read for pleasure as well as changing their reading practice book. Each day, children will spend some time reading a book of their own choice and therefore should bring their library book to school each day if they wish to read it during our reading for pleasure time.

Home Learning

Give Me Ten - Children are expected to read for at least ten minutes every day and should record this in their reading record. Children should bring their reading book and reading record to school every day. In year 4, children are not expected to always read to an adult, however a parent/carer will need to sign their reading record to show that they have read at home. We hope to see lots of children becoming Reading Champions each term! 

Maths Magicians - There are a number of key mathematical facts that children should know and remember. These are, of course, taught in school but it is essential that children practise them at home too. You can find out which facts your child is currently working on by checking the front of their home learning book.  Please practice Children will be quizzed on their maths facts every Friday. As they progress through the different stages of facts, children have the opportunity to earn rewards and work towards becoming Maths Magicians!

Times Tables - Times tables (and the associated division facts) are a vital part of mathematical knowledge and understanding. It is crucial that your child practises these skills at home by logging onto the Times Table Rockstars website daily, for at least ten minutes. In June, the Year 4 children will participate in the Multiplication Tables Check and we will provide you with more detail about this closer to the time. Please see the maths star on our class page for a link to the practice page for this.

Spelling - In school, we will teach the children spelling patterns and rules. At home, we would like the focus to be on learning and practising the Year 3 and 4 statutory spellings (you can find these by clicking on the spelling star at the top of this page).

Maths and English

Each week, your child will receive a grid of homework for maths and English that will focus on revisiting current learning as well as tracking back to learning completed the week before. Please be aware that this homework should only take them a maximum of 20 minutes and won't include any new learning. If your child needs any support with their homework, please do let me know by finding me on the door or writing a note in their homework book. Not only will this homework be a great way to consolidate any prior and current learning but will support your child in becoming more independent and will inevitably help to prepare them for homework in secondary school. 

Children should also aim to practice their times tables daily.

Handwriting

In order to support your child with their handwriting please use letter join - https://www.letterjoin.co.uk/. For more information on how to log on at home, with your child, head to the handwriting star.

Spring 1 Update

Apollos have had a great start to 2025. They have been working hard in subjects across the curriculum and have continued to impress with their teamwork, their kindness and their respect for each other.

In English, we have had a focus on oracy skills and have talked about how our conversations and discussions in the classroom can help us to learn and reason better.   We began the half term by working on our ability to write to inform by looking at newspaper articles and how they communicate important information. We wrote our own newspaper reports about a strange event that happened in our classroom when all of our chairs went missing! The children have also thought about the features of persuasive writing. We have explored travel leaflets and written our own persuasive adverts for visiting St Albans. We ended the half term by creating a travel leaflet that for an imaginary destination – I for one would love to visit some of the amazing places they have described. Throughout our English lessons, we have been focusing on writing super sentences that are properly punctuated and have a clear main idea that makes sense. We have expanded our sentences with conjunctions, fronted adverbials, prepositional phrases and great descriptive language.

In maths, we started the half term by looking at different units of measurement and explored how to convert between them – converting centimetres to metres, millilitres to litres and more. We then looked at data and how various types of graphs and charts work. Apollos worked hard to master the steps involved in calculating the perimeter of a shape. They have explored properties of different types of shapes especially the many different types of quadrilateral. Towards the end of the half term, we have been building on our understanding of place value to investigate decimal numbers. Keep practising those times tables facts Apollos!

History, this term, has been all about the Anglo-Saxons. We have explored why and when these people arrived in Britain, how they lived, what types of Gods they worshiped as pagans, and why they converted to Christianity. We thought carefully about how we know so much about these people despite them living such a long time ago. We learnt about archaeological artefacts from the Sutton Hoo ship burial and used our skills as historians to try to understand what these finds tell us about the people who made and used them.

In computing, our topic has been about programming.  We have been using the logo programme (www.turtleacademy.com) to explore how to code repeating shapes and patterns. The children have been resilient when learning to code using this program and have become experts at ‘de-bugging’ their code when it does not work first time. 

Our French lesson have been about objects that you can find in a classroom. We have learned how to saw what is (and what is not) inside our backpack or pencil case. We have explored French grammar and the importance of remembering if a word is masculine or feminine. Everyone in class is improving in their ability to role-play French conversations and carefully pronouncing words using French phonics.

In PE, Apollos have been developing their movements and mime skills. They have been carefully choreographing sequences of movement and have been selecting movements and facial expressions to convey a character. They have become experts at watching the performances of others and giving constructive and helpful feedback to help their classmates move more gymnastically and artistically.  We have also been lucky enough to have several cycling lessons– the children made great improvements in their cycling skills!

In science, we looked at the topic of ‘Sound’ and explored what sound is, where it comes from and how it travels from the source of the sound to our ear.  We learnt that sound can travel through water but not in space (because there are no particles to transmit the sound). We explored drums, tuning forks, straw buzzers, vibrating rulers and a host of other objects to understand how the features of an object affect the type of sound it makes. We also explored apps on ipads to better understand how to measure how loud a sound is (in decibels) as well as taking our learning outside to explore the relationship between tone, pitch and volume – and how far away from a sound we have to be before we cannot hear it any longer!

In music, Mr Mitchell reports that the children have been working very hard at understanding rhythm and recording their rhythms as written music.  They have been developing their skills on keyboard, tuned and un-tuned percussion as well as their voices and a variety of other instruments.

In art the children have explored a variety of exciting media. They have been ‘drawing with scissors’, making wax resist drawing as well as print making with Styrofoam tiles and ink.

In DT, Apollos had the ambitious task of designing and sewing a ‘book jacket’ with a button or other fastener. We looked at the different types of fasteners that we might use – button, buckle, bow, popper or Velcro - and then drew a design. The children showed such great resilience as they developed their sewing skills. They threaded needles, tied knots, attached buttons and dealt maturely with any aspect of their project that did not quite go to plan. I am super proud of all of them and the products that they created!

In RE, we have been looking at Buddhism and learning about the origins of this religion. We have studied the story of the Buddha and the children have discussed how his teaching relate to the key question ‘Is it possible for everyone to be happy’.  

In PSHE, we have been looking at our ‘Dreams and Goals’. Children have thought about what their goals are, as well as exploring what it feels like when a dream does not come true. We have used drama and class discussion to work out ways that we can help ourselves to feel better in these situations. 

Your children have worked hard this half term and have shown the Margaret Wix values in how they have approached their work and how they have worked with others.

I hope that you and your families all enjoy a fantastic half term break and I look forward to seeing your children again for more learning next half term!

Mrs Rowson

Autumn Two Update

What a super half term we have had! Apollos have been working hard and have shown curiosity about all of the topics we have explored.  They have impressed me with their attitude to learning as well as how they have improved their conversational and questioning skills.

In English, we started the half term thinking about how writers use language to explain ideas in non-fiction books.  Inspired by the cartoons of Wallace and Gromit, we wrote explanation texts describing our own ideas for crazy inventions. The children wrote about ideas such as ‘Auto-Shoppers’ and ‘Snoozatrons’ and I enjoyed reading their creative explanations about how these could work. We have also looked at the narrative texts of Starbird and Zeraffa Giraffe and have written our own animal adventure stories. In our English lessons, the class have improve their ability to use ambitious vocabulary, punctuate dialogue and use grammatical structures like expanded noun phrases and fronted adverbials to uplevel their writing. They have worked on all of these topics brilliantly and I have been impressed with how they have been able to incorporate new skills into their writing.

In maths, we have had a big focus this term on learning and securing our times tables. We have explored how multiplication is the same as repeated addition and have learnt about how different factors can be multiplied together to create a new number (the product). We have looked at a variety of methods for understanding factors, including making arrays, drawing factor bugs and solving word problems. The children showed resilience as they learnt to draw bar models to represent problems visually.  Towards the end of this term, children have been solving two-step word problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We have ended the term by looking at multiplying and dividing numbers by 10 and 100 as well as looking at problems involving time and measure. Keep practising those times tables facts Apollos!

Geography, this term has been all about our local area. Building on the work they did on this topic in Year 1, the children have explored how Margaret Wix Primary School, New Greens and St Albans have changed over time. We have looked at old photos as well as using satellite images from resources like GoogleMaps to see how land use has changed. We were surprised to find that in 1914 the whole of New Greens (and much of St Albans) was agricultural land.  Most of our houses were just fields! We have also looked at how other areas can experience more dramatic changes due to changes to physical geography (e.g. floods, hurricanes or earthquakes) as well as human changes (e.g. redevelopment or deforestation).

In computing, the class has been learning how to create different forms of media, mainly focusing on podcasts. They have been practising recording and editing their voices, making improvements each time.

In our French lessons, we have learnt how to talk about our families including their names and ages. We also learnt how to say whether we have any brothers or sisters, We have sung songs, played games and role played conversations to help our learning stick.

In PE, the children have had lots of fun practising tag rugby. They have also built bridges with their bodies and had a chance to play a game called Bocce which is inclusive for everyone.  They have shown great teamwork and are learning to work with lots of different partners

In science, we have had a half term full of exciting experiments that have helped us to understand how and why materials change state.  We started the half term by exploring solids, liquids and gases by looking at balloons full of different types of material. We went on to experiment with bicarbonate of soda and vinegar and were surprised to find that mixing this liquid and solid resulted in a gas.  We have looked at how different materials melt as well as conducting an experiment in the classroom to see where washing would dry best due to evaporation.  Finally, we looked at the role that evaporation, condensation and precipitation play in the water cycle.

In music, we have had some super ukulele lessons where they have learnt chords and how to repeat patterns. They have also been practising and performing the Christmas song ‘Last Christmas’. I have been so impressed with the musical talent and the resilience of the class as they have worked to improve their performance. 

In DT this half term, Apollos have had the fun of cooking as a topic. This started off with a biscuit taste testing lesson which was very exciting. The children then went onto make their own biscuits. The children also designed their own packaging and company logo for their biscuits brand as well as evaluating if they could add anything to their biscuits to make them better.

In art, the children have learned how to batik – using hot wax and dye to create patterns on fabric.  They have also explored collage and have used a view finder to look closer at patterns in the natural world.  

In RE, we have been learning about Christianity and exploring the Nativity story. The children have shown a great awareness of why Christians believe the things that they do and how symbols within the Nativity story relate to important aspects of Christian faith.

In PSHE, we have been ‘Celebrating Difference’ by exploring why we sometimes make assumptions about people, what it is that affects why we think the things we do, and whether we are sometime wrong. We have also spoken about bullying and online bullying and the children have been mature and thoughtful in their discussions with each other.

Your children have worked so hard this half term and have shown the Margaret Wix values in how they have approached their work and how they have worked with others.

I hope that you and your families all enjoy a wonderful restful break and I look forward to seeing you in 2025!

Mrs Rowson

Autumn One Update

Apollos have had an excellent first half term back at school. They have settled back into the routine of school really well and have been enthusiastic and curious learners.  I have really enjoyed getting to know each of them.

This half term, in English, we have focused on writing for a purpose. We began with a unit inspired by ‘Arthur and the Golden Rope’ where we aimed to entertain our readers  by writing a quest story and turning it into a graphic novel. We have also worked on writing to persuade. The children wrote and delivered really engaging and interesting speeches about issues that were important to them – from changing the school uniform to planting more trees. They worked on being direct and using persuasive language to convince their audience. We have also studied poetry and have all written our own poem about finding a strange creature.  The children impressed me with their creativity and use of ambitious vocabulary. We are continuing to focus on improving their use of punctuation and spelling as well as using a variety of sentence structures.

In maths, the children have been learning about how they can use their understanding of number to solve problems in the most efficient way. They have looked at place value and how to accurately position numbers on a number line. They have learnt about how to round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 as well as looking at a variety of mental methods for addition and subtraction.  The children have shown great resilience in trying out a variety of methods for mental calculations which have required them to think flexibly. More recently, we have been looking at formal methods for addition and subtraction. The children have shown a growing awareness of the importance of organised presentation in their books. They have been learning how to tackle addition and subtraction calculations with numbers that include thousands, as well as testing their understanding with trickier missing number calculations.  Please continue to focus on helping the children to learn their times tables facts as recall of these is essential in Year 4.

History, this term, has been all about the Romans and the effect that their arrival in Britain had on the country.  We looked at why the Romans invaded and what resources they gained by expanding their empire into Britain. We learnt about the resistance that British tribes and leaders like Boudica put up against the Roman invaders. We also examined what life was like for Romans living in Britain and wrote a reply to a real Roman letter that was found here. We also explored evidence for why Emperor Hadrian decided to build a wall across the north of Britain. Finally, we learnt about the Roman ruins that are found all across Britain, including here in St Albans.  We loved our visit to the museum and the children were brilliant on the trip as well as on the walk there and back.

In computing, the children have been learning about the internet - what it is made up of, how it works, what different parts of a website are called and how web pages are broken up. The children learnt new key vocabulary such as 'switch', 'router' and 'data centre' and the different roles that each of these play in 'The Internet'. They have also looked at different ways to access the internet and looked at 'content': what web content is, how it is uploaded to the internet, who has access and authorisation to upload content to the internet and why.

Our French lessons this term have focussed on introducing ourselves. We have learnt how to say hello, our names, how old we are, where we live, and our nationality.  The children have had shown good conversational skills as they have role-played conversations in French.

In PE, the children have developed their netball skills and have practised working as a team. Their attacking and defending skills have progressed well. They have also been practising their problem solving and navigational skills while doing orienteering. 

In science, we have been learning about living things and their habitats. We have been supported by a visiting teacher from St Albans School and have focused on how and why scientists classify living things in the way that they do. We have done lots of practical work – from creating our own human classification system on the field to hunting for mini-beasts in the forest school area. The children have developed their ability to ask questions that separate one type of plant or animal from another and have impressed me with their curiosity.

In music, we have been working with Mr Mitchell on our drumming, rhythm and improvisation skills.

In art, Mrs Campbell-Pugh has been working with the children to create some wonderful batik creations. In DT, we have looked at product design and created computer code and prototypes for a mindfulness timer.

In RE, we have learnt about a non-religious worldview – Humanism. We have learnt that Humanists do not believe in a god and instead choose to behave towards others in the way that they would like others to behave towards them. We have learnt that they use science and reason to explain the world.

In PSHE, we began our first topic: ‘Being Me in My World’. We explored what rights we have as individuals as well as looking at the responsibilities and rights of all members of our school community.  We talked about rewards and consequences as well as how our actions affect us and other people.  We celebrated Hello Yellow Day – where we learnt just how important it is to care for ourselves and others, as well as wearing red to support anti-racisim. Throughout October, we have celebrated Black History Month by learning about stories of significant black pioneers in science, civil rights, sport and the arts.

Your children have worked so hard this half term and have lived by our Margaret Wix values. I hope you enjoy a restful break, Apollos - I look forward to seeing you again soon!

Mrs Rowson