Welcome to Year 4

1. Welcome to Year 4 Mr C. Sumner and Miss M. Lennon -Teachers Mrs J. Jones – Teaching Assistant Mr Brittain- Associate Teacher

2. Lines of communication We have an open door policy at Brookburn and are always happy to meet with you to discuss any queries or concerns that you may have. This is key to our partnership in supporting your child. Should you ever wish to speak to your class teacher, the following can be done: • Catch teachers on the door at the end of the school day • Pass a message on through the staff member on your child’s door in the morning – this will be passed on and your child’s teacher will get back to you • Phoning the school office to arrange a meeting • Emailing parentinbox@brookburn.manchester.sch.uk

3. Communication continued We would always ask that, wherever you have a problem or a concern, that we as class teachers are your first port of call. We are the staff who work with and know your children better than anyone else and we hope that we would always be able to listen and respond to concerns to remedy any issue. If you feel that you need to take your concern further though, you should speak to your child’s year or phase leader (depending on their year group). The phase leader for our year group is: Mr Alderdice Our SENDCo and Deputy Headteachers are always available to offer support. However, discussions at class teacher / phase lead level would always be encouraged before seeking SLT involvement.

4. Parents evening: Tuesday 15th and Thursday 17th October Tuesday 24th and Thursday 26th March

5. Behaviour Expectations • 6 Golden Expectations • Traffic Light systems • Golden certificates • Team points / stickers • Whole class rewards

6. Staying Safe on the Internet We take this issue very seriously at Brookburn Primary. Internet and social media safety is taught to all year groups at the beginning of the school year. We have school-wide safety features, but if anything gets past the filters, students are taught to switch off the screen and report to a member of staff immediately. Our digital code – Zip it, Block it, Flag it. We value your support in keeping children safe online by urging you to supervise your child’s on line presence at home and to regularly check your privacy settings on social media sites.- for more info see the IT section of our website under the curriculum tab.

7. Attendance and punctuality School doors open from 8.50am and close promptly at 9am. Once the door is locked all children must enter school via the main entrance to be recorded as late. Doors open to dismiss children at 3.30pm and are locked at 3.40pm. Any children not collected will be sent to the office where their parents will be contacted.

8. Attendance and punctuality Persistently late/poor attendance - a record is kept in the class register and parents are contacted. Learning sessions not attended significantly impact on children’s learning and are recorded as unauthorised absence in the register. Please be aware that the Local Authority monitor unauthorised absences and, where appropriate, will issue penalty notices or consider prosecution in the magistrates court. If your child is experiencing any problems that may be affecting their attendance or punctuality, then please contact their class teacher or the office.

9. Year 4 topics for 2019/2020 Autumn Science - States of Matter / Electricity Topic – Tudors PE – Swimming & Dance /  Invasion games Spring Science – Sound / Animals (teeth, eating and digestion) Topic – The Roman Empire PE – Swimming & Gymnastics / Net games (tennis) Summer Science – All living things Topic – Rainforests PE – Swimming & Dance /Cricket Art/DT will be taught cross curricular within topic lessons.

10. PE • Indoors • White t-shirt • Black or dark shorts / skorts • White socks • Black pumps • Outdoors • White t-shirt • Black or dark shorts / skorts • Black or dark jogging bottoms for colder weather • Jumper / hoodie for colder weather • White socks • Trainers A letter will be sent home to parents when a child does not have their PE kit on 3 consecutive occasions.

11. Swimming – Wednesday Children with long hair must wear a swimming cap. Long or baggy shorts, bikinis and jewellery are not permitted. Please remove earrings before coming to school. Den Tuesday - Children must have a change of shoes for the den that they can leave in school.

12. Maths Children should be able to: • Compare & order numbers with 2 decimal places. • Count in multiples of 6, 7, 9, 25 & 1000. • Recognise place value of any 4-digit number. • Round any number to the nearest 10, 100 or 1000 and decimals with 1dp to nearest whole number. • Add and subtract numbers with up to 4-digits using efficient written method • Multiply 3-digit by 1-digit • Recall & use multiplication & division facts all tables to 12x12. • Divide 3-digit by 1-digit • Write equivalent fractions • Read, write & convert time between analogue & digital 12 & 24 hour clocks. See draft calculation policy on website for more support.

13. Writing Children should be able to: • Variation in sentence structure, using different openers. • Use adjectival phrases (e.g. biting cold wind). • Appropriate choice of noun or pronoun. • Apostrophe for singular & plural possession. • Comma after fronted adverbial (e.g. Later that day, I heard bad news.). • Use commas to mark clauses. • Use connectives to link paragraphs. • Legible, joined handwriting of consistent quality. See Alan Peat sentence types

14. Reading In order for children to meet end of year expectations children should read for 10 to 15 minutes each day away from distractions. Children should be able to: • Give a personal point of view on a text. • Can re-explain a text with confidence. • Justify inferences with evidence, predicting what might happen from details stated or implied. • Use appropriate voices for characters within a story. • Identify how sentence type can be changed by altering word order, tenses, adding/deleting words or amending punctuation. • Skims & scans to locate information and/or answer a question.

15. Spelling • We are continuing the No Nonsense Spelling programme • The focus of the programme is on the teaching of spelling, which embraces knowledge of spell- ing conventions – patterns and rules; but integral to the teaching is the opportunity to promote the learning of spellings, including statutory words, common exceptions and personal spellings. • Tips for learning spellings at home • Learning at home needs to be an extension of the practice in school. We will send a list of words home each week for children to learn • Look at the spelling pattern and use the suggested strategies to support your child to learn them • We will assess the spellings in context, for example: learning spellings in a given sentence, generating sentences for each word, assessing through unseen dictated sentences • We will focus on ensuring that your child then applies the correct spelling in his/her writing. .

16. Assessing Children’s Progress Assessment Fortnight Over 2 weeks each term, teachers will assess and discuss progress targets with each child. These will be followed by Parents’ Evenings so that we can share children’s individual targets with parents. Parents’ Evenings ? There will also be an opportunity to meet, after reports go out to parents in July.

17. Homework • Homework is set on a regular basis, for all children. • Presentation of homework should match the standard done in school. Homework is always acknowledged but not necessarily marked in detail – the purpose is to reflect and reinforce children’s learning in school. • Maths, English and spellings are set on Friday to be returned by the following Wednesday. • Reading books will be changed on Thursdays. • We ask for your help in supporting children with this work and ensure that reading books are returned to school promptly • (£5 cost for lost books).

18. Blogs: Access our class blogs to see what we have been up to and to find links to play games that will help with your child’s learning: Miss Lennon: 4a2019.brookburnprimary.net Mr Sumner: 4b2019.brookburnprimary.net

19. Can you help? We are always on the lookout for an extra pair of hands to accompany us on school trips, special events, or for the preparation of class art projects, assemblies and school productions. If you are available at any time, please express your interest by letting your child’s teacher or TA know  Thank you!

20. Reminders • PE bags – bring in on Monday and stay in school • Labelling – please label clothing and shoes with children’s full name • Lost property – encourage children to be responsible for their possessions • Jewellery – watches and stud earrings only (must be removed for PE) • PE Kit - black or navy shorts/jogging bottoms/leggings and a white t-shirt – trainers for outside • Medical – inhalers to be kept in school • Wellies – bring into school and stay here