Welcome to Year 4

Times Table Rockstars

As a school, we are signed up to the wonderful online resource that is Times Table Rockstars.

It is a times tables game where the children can play a variety of challenges in order to improve their understanding of times tables. I can even set challenges!

This is a great resource to help with learning of times tables that are set for home learning each week.

The children have all been given their individual login details (recorded in their homework books) and were shown how to use the resource. They are already becoming quite competitive! A little bit as often as possible will make a huge difference! 

Just a reminder, details as follows:

Website: https://ttrockstars.com

Go to Login - School Pupils.

When School name box appears, type: CT1 1NE (St Thomas' Catholic Primary School Canterbury should appear).

Then enter unique individual username and password.

Enjoy and practice those times tables

Terms 5 and 6

Year 4 Minilympics

7th June 2023

Year 4 took part in the Canterbury Minilympics on Wednesday 7^th June 2023, at Birley’s Playing Fields in Canterbury. This event was organised by the outreach Team at Canterbury Christ Church University and The King’s School and featured 6 different schools from the surrounding area.

The day consisted of team athletics, sports science, field testing, cricket, and a fun discussion of healthy lifestyle and diet.

All children were impeccably behaved, competed with enthusiasm and thoroughly enjoyed the day.

"I loved playing cricket, I hit the ball really far." - Elena

"My favourite part of the day was the athletics, I got to take part in different sports." - Dominic

"I enjoyed using the different equipment to see how fast I could run." - Alexa

"Athletics, cricket and playing new sports was my highlight." - Dexter

Friday 12^th May 2023

King Charles III coronation celebration day

On 8^th September 2022, King Charles III’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died. This automatically made him King of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Realms. This is called ascension.

He was officially given the crown at a special coronation service. Usually, the coronation of a new king or queen takes place months after their ascension, due to the amount of time it takes for planning and organising such a large event.

King Charles III’s coronation service took place on Saturday 6^th May 2023. The service was part of a three-day event when people will come together to celebrate.

A coronation is a service at which a crown is formally placed on the head of a new king or queen, making them the official monarch. 

It is a service full of pageantry and celebration but it also has a solemn religious side. It focuses on the duty of the monarch to God and the people.

To celebrate this event, year 4 created information posters answering key enquiry questions including: What is a monarch? Who is King Charles III? Why is he Charles III? What happens at a coronation? 

As part of the ‘big help out’ which took place on Monday 8^th May 2023 - where people were encouraged to volunteer with charities and projects in their local communities – year 4 created special commemorative coronation cards to give out to Age UK ladies and gentlemen living in Herne Bay. Our cards included an inspirational quote and a thoughtful prayer.

Wow, we were busy!

Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter break. Thank you for attending the parents’ evenings at the end of last term, it was wonderful to catch up with you. Thank you also for attending the showcase of the children’s learning to date – for those who were unable to attend, highlights of the day, including the puppet show, can be found in the year 4 section on the school website. We have a busy term ahead, as usual. Please feel free to come and see me if you have any questions about this term, my door is always open.

A few things I would like to highlight;

Break time tuck is not provided by the government in KS2. Children can bring in a healthy snack to enjoy at break time, such as some fruit/cut up vegetables/raisins.

Children must have their full, named PE kit in school at all times with clothing suitable for outside weather as well as indoors. Please note: PE will be a Monday. If your child has ear piercings could tape be provided to cover the earring. Thankyou.

Children are encouraged to read daily at home, preferably reading aloud to an adult who can discuss the text with them. Children who read at home regularly have been shown to make much more rapid progress. Reading is to be recorded in their reading diary please.

Term 5 - Home learning will be set at the beginning of the term and will be ‘Topic’ based. This will be set on TEAMS with an overview and due in date. Please also use TTRockstars to support times table knowledge.

Term 6 – In preparation for year 5 home learning will be a weekly focus on maths and English. Home learning will be expected to be completed weekly.

Mr Todd.

Terms 3 and 4

Parent Showcase for Art and Music

Thank you to all parents who were able to attend our year 4 showcase on Monday 27th March 2023. The children were able to 'show off' their incredible learning from our driver subjects - Music and Art.

I think you will agree that all the children have worked incredibly hard over the course of the term and deserve to show their wonderful learning. We all hope you enjoyed it!

Below are some pictures from the day as well as videos of our artwork and music.

Mr Todd

Deanery Day - Year 4 - 22nd March 2023

Year 4 headed to St. Anselm's Catholic School to take part in a team building day with 5 other catholic schools from the surrounding area.

The first part of the day saw teams divided and taking part in circuit-style activities to build team work, conflict management and develop personal skills.

The second part of the day saw St Thomas' participate in a Benchball competition against the other catholic schools.

Well done to all of you for your wonderful effort, sportsmanship and pride at representing the school.

"I loved taking part in the different activities" (Jaeden - Year 4)

"It was fun and I was tired" (Alexa - year 4)

"I tried my best all the time" (Lilianna - Year 4)

World Book Day

Thursday 2^nd March 2023

Today, we celebrated World Book Day by taking part in a number of interesting ‘book’ related activities.

First, we participated in a ‘What Kind of Reader Are You?’ quiz to explore our likes and enjoyments of reading.

Next, we shared our favourite books with each other - we even shared books written in another language! It was fun to find out what interests we all have and to share books and authors we have never heard of – this will certainly build on our library of texts for the future!

After, we participated in a ‘Masked Reader’ game show where we had to work out who the celebrity-masked reader was from three clues.

Finally, we completed a book review of our favourite book.

What a fun morning!

Tuesday 7^th February 2023

Safer Internet Day

Throughout our enjoyable Safer Internet Day on Tuesday, Year 4 read the book Chicken Clicking by Tony Ross. 

We discussed what mistakes Chicken Clicking had made in buying so many things online as well as the terrible error of arranging to meet someone that she had only talked to online as we all learnt that people could pretend to be anything and anyone! 

We 'hot seated' Chicken Clicking so that we could explain to her how dangerous her actions were. We also discussed what made us feel safe online and came up with strategies to keep ourselves safe and happy. To complete our day, we created an email to send to ‘Chicken Clicking’ regarding her behaviour and how to remain safe using the internet.

Wow we were busy!

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year. Thank you for all the kind wishes, cards and gifts that myself and Mrs Concannon received at the end of last term. I hope that you have all had a fantastic Christmas break. We are very excited about our learning this term. Please have a look over our class curriculum for the coming term. If you have any questions, please come to the classroom at the end of the school day.

A few things I would like to highlight;

Break time tuck is not provided by the government in KS2. Children can bring in a healthy snack to enjoy at break time, such as some fruit/cut up vegetables/raisins.

Children must have their full, named PE kit in school at all times with clothing suitable for outside weather as well as indoors. Please note: PE will be a Monday. If your child has ear piercings could tape be provided to cover the earring. Thankyou.

Children are encouraged to read daily at home, preferably reading aloud to an adult who can discuss the text with them. Children who read at home regularly have been shown to make much more rapid progress. Reading is to be recorded in their reading diary please.

Home learning will be set at the beginning of the term and will be ‘Topic’ based. This will be set on TEAMS with an overview and due in date. Please also use TTRockstars to support times table knowledge and look out for spellings.

Mr Todd

Terms 1 and 2

Year 4 driver subject showcase

Thank you to all the parents who attended the 'Science and DT' electricity lesson on Friday 9th December. The children certainly put you through your paces in teaching you about electricity.

They were able to use their knowledge to create a workable circuit for the final DT project.

A wonderful end to a busy term.

Mr Todd

Anti-Bullying Week

Monday 14^th – Friday 18^th November 2022

For anti-bullying week 2022, Year 4 took part in lots of activities to explore the theme ‘REACH OUT’.

First, we identified why anti-bullying week happens. This week aims to educate people all about bullying and the ways in which we can help.

Bullying is a repeated action – this means that the incident happens over and over again.

We identified the different types of bullying.

Physical bullying involves pushing, pinching, hitting or kicking somebody or damaging his or her belongings.

Verbal bullying involves hurtful comments such as calling names, teasing or threatening them.

Social bullying means excluding someone, such as leaving them out of a game or conversation, telling others to leave someone out, talking behind someone’s back.

Cyber bullying involves receiving online abuse, emails and text messages.

Our first task was to create an acrostic poem ‘REACH OUT. We wanted to explain the things that could help others.

Bullying can happen anywhere, at any time, to anyone but it is important to remember that we have the right to feel safe; no one should ever be bullied, in school or out of school.

To help us further understand the theme ‘REACH OUT’ we completed a challenging reading comprehension.

In order to stop bullying, we all have to make a change.

Another of our tasks was to act out some challenging scenarios regarding bullying. This really opened our eyes as to what the victim of bullying would feel like.

We all advocate the term ‘REACH OUT’.

Language Day 2022

On Monday 31st October 2022, children of St. Thomas' participated in a Language Day to celebrate everything that is inclusive about our school. 

Year 4, celebrated all the different cultures that is the make up of our class family. We were also fortunate to learn about Makaton from Jean-Paul, who showed that language and communication is more then just speech.

Below our a few pictures and videos from our day.

Dear Parents,

I hope that you have had a lovely and relaxing summer as we welcome in another exciting school year.

It was wonderful to be reacquainted with the children at the end of last term and I am really looking forward to this academic year.

Year 4 is a highly enjoyable year which provides opportunity for your children to engage in swimming lessons, music theory and numerous sports, as part of the curriculum over the coming year.

In year 4 we will be doing everything we can to foster as much independence in the children as we can, so with that in mind, please do send messages in with the children as I will be unable to see you or speak to you first thing. I am available, once I have dismissed all the class, everyone afternoon should you need me.

We are looking forward to a fabulous term with your lovely children.

Mr Todd and Mrs Concannon.