Cherry Class

Welcome to Year 4!

My name is Mr Malpas, and I am thrilled to be your teacher this year. I love finding creative ways to bring our curriculum to life through technology and interactive learning.

My goal in the classroom is to make learning memorable, engaging, and fun every single day. Cherry Class is an environment in which our school values of commitment, curiosity and kindness help our class members thrive in their learning.

Outside of standard lessons, I run a Dungeons & Dragons club, where students build teamwork, storytelling, and problem-solving skills through epic adventures - skills that sometimes even find their way into our lessons.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.

our learning in cherry class

Subject Areas	During this academic year, we will be learning...
Maths	In Year 4 we continue with Number Sense Times Tables which help us learn the Multiplication Tables facts in time for our Summer Term Multiplication Tables Check. This is where children are given 6 seconds to answer a question, and they have to answer 25 of these. We do plenty of practice throughout the year but we would encourage you to practise at home too. Alongside this, we cover a range of topics over the year in our daily maths lessons. Term 1: Place Value Term 2: Column addition and subtraction/multiplication and division. Term 3: Negative numbers and multiplying by 10,100 and 1000. Term 4: Fractions, perimeter Term 5: Decimals Term 6: Money, time, shape and co-ordinates
English	In our writing lessons we will be using a range of books to support and inspire us all with our writing. Term 1: We will begin with a strong start to focus on the basics of writing and sentence composition. After that, we will move into persuasive writing. Term 2: Children will be writing their own adventure stories and news reports. Term 3: Children will build their story writing skills by creating a story from other cultures. They will then write explanatory texts. Term 4: The writing this term will focus on recounting events in a diary before developing their persuasive writing. Term 5: We will be revisiting adventure stories and explanatory texts Term 6: The final term will end with stories from other cultures
Science	Term 1: Animals and Habitats Term 2: States of Matter Term 3: The Digestive System Term 4: Food Chains Term 5: Electricity Term 6: Sound
Geography	Term 1: Rivers Term 2 and 3: Latitude & longitude Term 4 and 5: Water cycle Term 6: Map skills & environmental regions
History	Term 1: We will begin the year looking at Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots Term 2 and 3: We then move onto looking at the Vikings. Term 4 -6: We will be studying the Ancient Egyptians in the second half of the year.
Religion and World Views	In Religion and World Views we will be answering a different question each term. Term 1: Are all religions equal? Term 2: What makes some texts sacred? Term 3: Just how important are our beliefs? Term 4: Who was Jesus really? Term 5: Does the language of scripture matter? Term 6: Does the language of scripture matter?
French	Colours, numbers, calendar and items from daily life.
Art	Term 1: Drawing Term 2: Painting Term 3: Printmaking Term 4: 3D and Collage Term 5: Painting Term 6: Art festival
Design Technology	We will be having DT days each term with a different focus on skills and the products we will create. Term 1: Structures Term 2: Cooking pizzas Term 3: Mechanisms Term 4: Electrical systems Term 5: Structures Term 6: Food Festival
Music	We will have music lessons with Mr Rees. Term 1: Start with playing - adding layers to major and minor songs Term 2: Singing together - how stories are shared through song Term 3: Compose and create - improvising with Hindustani classical music Term 4: Playing together - effective rehearsal in groups Term 5: Compose and create - composing a major melody on a stave Term 6: Singing for performance - discovering different ways to sing in harmony
Computing	Term 1: Collaborative learning + online safety Term 2: Collaborative learning + online safety Term 3: Scratch + online safety Term 4: Weather + online safety Term 5: Computational thinking + online safety Term 6: Computational thinking + online safety
PE	In Year 4 we are luck to have swimming lessons for each class over the year. When these happen, that will take the place of that terms PE lessons. Term 1: Rugby - Cherry are swimming Term 2: Basketball Term 3: Dance - Birch are swimming Term 4: Tennis Term 5: Athletics Term 6: Cricket
Enrichment	We have a number of enrichment activities happening this year which we are all excited about.
Assessment	Year 4 will have Times Table Check (MTC) during week beginning Monday 7th June 2027 and Monday 14th June 2027 (two weeks). Please do not take holiday during this period.

weekly timetable

PE Days

PE in Cherry Class will be on Tuesday with our Swimming day on Wednesday for terms 1 and 2. Our PE kit is plain black shorts, leggings or joggers, plain white or school PE shirt and a school jumper as needed. For swimming, children need to bring their swimming costume, towel, underwear and a hairband if their hair is longer. We have found that wearing tights can be tricky when going swimming as they have to take shoes and socks off when they arrive at the leisure centre.

Homework

Please read daily at home as much as possible. Ask lots of questions during this time to support their comprehension as well as their fluency. We ask for them to read their books with an adult at least 3 times, please make sure you are signing their reading record 3 times a week and your child can also write in entries when they read independently.

For maths practise, regular times table practice (you can use timestables.co.uk 'Multiplication Tables Check’ to prepare them for the MTC in June). Please also practise every day key skills like, reading and writing larger numbers, telling the time on an analogue clock, recognising coins and measuring in different units.

Useful information

Please ensure your child brings a water bottle to school each day and a coat with a hood when rain is forecast.