Year 4 Weekly News 12.09.2025

Happy Friday, Year 4. We have enjoyed our first full week of school together and we have certainly been busy.

It was our first Forest School session of the year this week. Despite the rain, our session was packed with fun and adventure! Mr Hadfield brought in some fascinating objects for us to explore, sparking our curiosity right from the start. We then got to work building shelters for our characters using natural materials from the Forest School area; teamwork and creativity were in full swing! To top it all off, we ended our session with a cosy treat: roasting marshmallows over the fire. What a brilliant start to our Forest School journey!

In English, it was time to shine! Using everything we've learnt so far, we created our very own short setting descriptions. With fronted adverbials, expanded noun phrases, and some brilliant vocabulary choices, you crafted amazing descriptions full of atmosphere. What a fantastic way to show off your writing skills! We then jumped into analyse our example text. We got to grips with the structure and language features of our model text.

We kicked off our reading unit this week by diving into a fantastic non-fiction text all about the Vikings! With a focus on how the text is organised, we explored titles, headings, and pictures to help us find key information quickly. We practised retrieving facts and thought about what made the Vikings such powerful warriors and traders. We were also set the challenge of proving that the Vikings were great travellers, and wow – we found so much evidence! From maps to bold captions, we learnt how to scan the text to locate important facts. We discovered that Vikings sailed far and wide across Europe, even reaching Constantinople! You really impressed me with your teamwork and how well you justified your ideas using the text.

In Maths this week, we continued exploring 4-digit numbers and really got to grips with understanding the value of each digit. Through some fun and interactive games, you investigated how place value helps us read numbers with confidence. We also learnt about standard and non-standard partitioning, discovering that numbers can be broken down in different but equally valid ways. It was great to see you using your reasoning skills and challenging yourselves to represent numbers flexibly and creatively.

We started our first RE unit this week. We began by talking about special days in our lives and what makes them meaningful. Then, we explored the Jewish tradition of Shabbat which is a day of rest, celebration and connection to God. You learnt that Shabbat starts at sunset on Friday and is rooted in the story of creation, when God rested on the seventh day. We thought about why rest is important and what we might include in our own special day. You even worked together to create your own "holy day" plans. It was a lovely way to see how faith and tradition shape people's lives.

This week in DT, we got stuck into designing our own pavilion structures. Inspired by real-world examples, we carefully considered our target audience, theme and the aesthetic of our design. We thought about what materials and techniques we would need.

In History, we learnt more about the Vikings. We imagined life as a Viking children and used the internet to gather information about their daily lives. We learned that they were more than just fierce warriors. They were also farmers and families seeking better opportunities.

We kicked off our Computing unit this week by exploring what the internet actually is and how it helps us in our daily lives. You learnt that the internet is a huge network of computers connected all over the world. We used role-play to act out how messages travel through the internet, helping you understand how routers pass information from one computer to another. It was great to see how quickly you picked up the idea that the internet isn't just one thing but a system made up of many connected devices!

In French, we began learning how to talk about our families. We practised introducing different family members using simple sentences like "Voici mon père" (Here is my dad). Using fun actions and flashcards, we worked on matching the correct French vocabulary to family members and practised saying them aloud with growing confidence. We also enjoyed role-playing short conversations to introduce members of our family and ask about others. It was great to see everyone remembering and using the new words with enthusiasm and expression!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend.

See you on Monday,

Miss Pennance