Year 4 Newsletter Spring 1 2026

Dear Parents, Carers and Children, Happy New Year! We hope you all had a wonderful festive season with your family and friends. Thank you so much for your very generous cards, gifts and messages, too! It really was so kind of you all. We hope that 2026 brings you all everything that you’re hoping for. We have lots of exciting things planned for the Spring term and we can’t wait to get started. Hopefully this newsletter answers any immediate questions, but please do get in touch if you have any questions or concerns and we’ll be more than happy to help. Many thanks, Erin Campbell, Fiona Jones and Gary Burnett

Reading

A reminder that children can change their books on any day. Please ensure that your child has their planner in school every day as well. We read with the children frequently at school and it would be very much appreciated if you could encourage your child to read as often as possible at home, too. Thank you for your continued support.

PE

Our PE lessons continue to take place on a Wednesday afternoon and a Friday morning. At the start of each PE lesson, the children will be required to get changed so we would be very grateful if PE kits could be kept in school for easy access. It can get quite chilly outside so extra layers like sweatshirts, hoodies and joggers/leggings are useful to keep in PE bags.

Times Tables

All Year 4 children across the country will participate in the Multiplication Tables Check in June 2026. Further information will be provided closer to the time but in the meantime it is crucial that children know their multiplication tables and are able to recall these facts quickly and fluently. We are working on them in school but any further work at home will be much appreciated. Children can also access Times Tables Rockstars and a practice MTC check by clicking on the following link:

Multiplication Check Practice

Homework

Homework will continue to be set on a Friday in homework folders which the children will bring home and return to school by the following Tuesday. We have been very impressed by the effort that you have all put into your homework so far, this term! The activities are set to support learning in class and is matched to the children’s abilities.

Spellings

Children continue to bring spellings home to learn each week. Their spelling test is on a Tuesday morning and this is when they will be given their new spellings, too. These will be written in their planners and are set using the National Curriculum spelling rules for Key Stage Two.

Curriculum

I’m sure the children have told you all about their learning from last half term! We wrote our own recounts and stories in English and learned our 6, 7 and 9 times tables in maths. We did all of this with smiles on our faces and we impressed our teachers with our determination and enthusiasm!

Curriculum Overview

English

During this half term, we will continue to follow the structure of Talk for Writing as we immerse ourselves in explanations and then use the techniques taught and follow the structure to write our own.

After this, we will move on to non-chronological reports, linked to our learning across the curriculum so far in Year 4. And finally, we will begin some persuasive writing.

Maths

Multiplication and Division:

  • Factor pairs
  • Multiply by 10 and 100
  • Divide by 10 and 100
  • Related facts – multiplication and division
  • Informal written methods for multiplication
  • Multiply a 2-digit number by a 1-digit number
  • Multiply a 3-digit number by a 1-digit number
  • Divide a 2-digit number by a 1-digit number
  • Divide a 3-digit number by a 1-digit number
  • Correspondence problems
  • Efficient multiplication

Length and Perimeter

  • Measure in kilometres and metres
  • Equivalent lengths (kilometres and metres)
  • Perimeter on a grid
  • Perimeter of a rectangle
  • Perimeter of rectilinear shapes
  • Find missing lengths in rectilinear shapes
  • Calculate perimeter of rectilinear shapes
  • Perimeter of regular polygons

Geography

In Geography this half term, we will be learning about where rainforests are in the world and how they are structured. We will also be looking at the role of rainforests within climate change and the impact of rainforest destruction.

Science

In Science this half term, we will be looking at identifying how sounds are made, associating them with vibrations, looking at how sound travels and finding patterns between the pitch of a sound and features of the object that produced it.

PE

In PE this half term, we will be working outdoors (when the weather allows) to develop our skills in lots of different sports. Teamwork, communication and cooperation will be themes running throughout the lessons alongside the skill development.

Computing

In Computing this half term, we will be writing our own algorithms as well as creating loops in programs and debugging them when required.

RE

In RE this half term, we will be learning about the Sikh religion and beliefs. We will explore the foundations of the religion, symbols and festivals as well as who and where Sikhs worship.

Music

In Music this half term, we will be developing our music appreciation skills and representing notation using Charanga. We will also be dusting off our recorders and learning to play and sing the song Hoedown!

PSHE

In PHSE this half term, we will be learning about how to keep ourselves and others safe. We will also be learning about puberty and the physical and emotional changes that people experience during this stage.

Spanish

In Spanish this half term, we will count to higher numbers, looking for patterns along the way. We will practise the days of the week and we will also begin to describe what the weather is like.

Art

In Art this half term, we will be inspired by the rainforest and creating a series of drawing and interpretations to make a mood board before designing our own fabric.

Credits:

Created with images by Kwangmoozaa - "Colour pencils isolated on white background" • Oleksandr - "Open vintage ancient book. Pattern background for design. The book on a round oak wooden table and green wall background." • Naypong Studio - "Sports Equipment on white background" • amazing studio - "Math Number colorful on white background, education study mathematics learning teach concept." • Raul Mellado - "rocket made with crayons on a blackboard" • Sanhanat - "Close up hand holds paper card with text vocabulary. Concept, education, learning, studying language. Education. Reading and memorizing strategy of learning process lesson. " • david_franklin - "Open writing book notebook or notepad blank white on a school student desk with pencils crayons college studying homework photo" • Tierney - "English concept with notebook" • patpitchaya - "Mathematics" • Tanes - "Deep tropical rainforest at sunrise." • sakhorn38 - "adjustable knob" • Pixel-Shot - "Set of sport equipment on floor near color wall" • daily_creativity - "Programming code on monitor screen. Developer work. Abstract background for search job. HTML, php web programming source code." • Africa Studio - "Business people hands, top view. Teamwork concept." • MarekPhotoDesign.com - "wooden recorder flute instrument, classic German style, against textured art paper" • Pixel-Shot - "Hands of voting people indoors" • weyo - "Spain flag of silk. Spanish national colours with emblem" • Przemek Klos - "Little girl preschooler showing painted colourful hands. Child having fun making a stamps on sheet of paper with painted hands during an art class in the classroom"