Hello and welcome to Year 4,
Our class saint is St John Paul II, who was Pope between 1978-2005 and was made a saint quite recently, in 2014.
St John Paul originally came from Poland. He was a man of many talents: he could speak many languages, he enjoyed music, he wrote plays and poetry, he excelled at sports and was passionate about life and the beauty of the outdoors. Most importantly, St John Paul placed Christ at the centre of his life and used his gifts and talents to help others to know God.
In Year 4, we strive to be like St John Paul. We help each other to learn more about the world around us and encourage each other to work hard and overcome challenges, so that we can also use our God-given talents to serve God.
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Our Catholic faith is very important to us. Throughout Year 4, we build on our exciting knowledge of the sacraments and begin to make links between Christian beliefs, scriptures and actions. We also continue to learn how we can live-out key Christian beliefs in our own lives. Just like St John Paul, we are keen to learn about the beliefs of others and cover Judaism, Islam and Sikhism as part of our ‘Other Faiths’ topics.
Geography
In Geography, we continue to learn about the world around us, building on our knowledge from Year 3. We learn about the physical and human geography of Poland, the home country of St John Paul. We also learn about the rivers, the water cycle and natural disasters such as volcanoes and earthquakes.
Science
During Year 4, we continue to learn about the biology of the human body, recapping our knowledge of the skeletal system before moving on to learning about teeth, the digestive system and food chains. We also are introduced to the idea of classification (which we will build on in Year 6). Physics and chemistry are also taught through our electricity, sound, and states of matters topics.
History
Year 4 is an exciting year for learning about significant individuals and periods of history. We start off by learning about the Ancient Egyptians. We then move onto focusing on Boudica, building on our knowledge of the Romans, but this time seeing the history from a different perspective. We end the year by learning about the Tudors.
Art & Design
Our Art and Design curriculum themes run throughout the school, drawing, painting and sculpting. We will continue to build on the skills needed for these areas of the art curriculum, to become skilled artists.
Design Technology
In DT, we will be focusing on mechanical systems, structures, electrical systems, and Egyptian textiles.
Writing
At St John Fisher, we use the Talk 4 Writing approach to help us develop our writing. Throughout the Year 4, we will continue to explore different writing toolkits through the study of an exciting and engaging range of model texts about hidden treasure, wizards, monsters, precious gems and intriguing animals. These texts serve as inspiration for both narrative and non-fiction writing.
Maths
Year 4 is a pivotal year in maths. By the end of the Year 4, children are expected to be able to fluently recall all their multiplication facts to 12 x 12 – this means recall any multiplication fact within 3 seconds! At the end of the year, children will take part in the Multiplication Table Check (MTC) to assess that they have reached the expected standard. Therefore, during Year 4 we encourage children to practice their multiplication tables by playing games on Times Table Rock Stars regularly. By the end of the year, children are also expected to be able to read the time to the nearest minute on an analogue clock, therefore, children are encouraged to wear an analogue wristwatch to school so that they can practise.
