Year 4

January 2026 Round-up

January may have felt like a gentler start to the year, but Year 4 have certainly been busy and productive as they prepare for an exciting February ahead! A key focus this month has been writing and presentation across the curriculum, and the progress since September has been fantastic. The children are now confidently using adverbial openings of time, place and manner to enhance their writing and create engaging, imaginative stories.

In English, we have been enjoying The Fastest Boy in the World by Elizabeth Laird. The children have learned about the author’s fascinating life and the many places she has lived and worked. They are currently planning their own endings to the story, ready to write next week, and I am very much looking forward to reading their creative ideas.

Our History work has centred on the RNLI and its vital role along the Fylde Coast. The children have explored its history and learned how lifeboat crews help to keep people safe at sea. We will also be studying Grace Darling as a significant figure in British history, alongside learning about the Riverdance rescue at Cleveleys. This exciting topic will conclude with a visit to Fleetwood Lifeboat Station, where the children will see the lifeboat in action and meet crew members involved in the Riverdance rescue.

Science has been packed full of experiments so far as we learn all about the changing states of materials from solids, liquids and gases. We love opportunities to be hands on with our learning and get a little bit messy too!

In Maths, we have been consolidating our understanding of number and the four operations. The children are now fluent and confident in addition, subtraction and multiplication, and we are ready to move on to division next.

We will finish the half term on a high with our visit to the Co-op Arena for Young Voices. The children have been singing enthusiastically at every opportunity and are incredibly excited for what promises to be a memorable day for all.

As always, I am extremely proud of the enthusiasm, effort and positive attitude the children bring to their learning each day. On reflection, January certainly hasn’t been a slow start at all!

December 2025 Round-up

December has been full of sparkle and shine; glitter and glue; fun and festivities! (and lots of incredible hard work too!)

In English, the children have continued to show incredible progress in both reading and writing. They have loved writing and information text about their own made up animals and finishing off a story about elves on Christmas Eve. I am so proud of their creativity, how well they listen to advice and how determined they all are to make improvements to their writing. They are excited to share their work with you all at our celebration today!

Science and Design Technology have featured heavily through December and we have made light up Christmas Cards using our knowledge of circuit design. The children have shown lots of resilience and real life problem solving skills, because it definitely wasn't easy!

Mixed in with all of this has been lots of festive fabulousness! We have enjoyed decorating school, pantomime visits, nativity performances, the carol service, Christmas dinner, sing-a-longs, Christmas parties.... Christmas spirit has been at fever pitch this month! A huge thank you to all of the support from our families, we couldn't do this without you. We hope that you have enjoyed celebrating with us and creating memories for our children that will last a life time.

Have a wonderful Christmas and we can't wait to do it all again next year!

November 2025 Round-up

October 2025 Round-up

October has flown by! We finished our English topic based on How To Train Your Dragon by writing our won endings to the book. The children worked so hard to engage the reader with exciting vocabulary and description. In Maths, we are continuing to work hard with our times tables. Look out for an updated "heatmap" in children's homework books so that you can see how much progress they have made already.

We finished our History topic all about the Victorians in Thornton and The Fylde Coast by making posters about the railway station. The children are excited to share these with the community and we will put them up on display soon, but we have decided to wait for some kinder weather so that they don't get ruined.

Our science topic about digestion finished with an experiment all about poo! The children explored different poo samples and used their knowledge of diet, teeth and food chains to work out which animal the poo belonged to.

As we continue to develop our curriculum, this month we have installed an orienteering course around the school grounds. This can be used for many different subjects and will provide a huge benefit for engagement in the curriculum and also the health and wellbeing of the children. We had a first go in a Maths lesson on rounding. Children loved being able to read the map, run around to find the markers and then answer the different questions. Watch out for much more of this throughout the year!

There was also some amazing homework shared at our homework celebration and it was lovely to catch up with families and friends. Hope you have had a lovely half term and are ready for Autumn 2!

September 2025 Round-up

Year 4 have got off to a swimming start! We love our swimming lessons at Big Fish Little Fish and already the children are having lots of fun and making super progress. It is also so lovely to walk together to the pool; it gives us the opportunity to have some fresh air and have a good chatter on the way too. Hopefully the weather will continue to be kind to us.

In English, we are reading How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell. We are focusing on using exciting vocabulary in noun phrases to create detailed descriptions of characters and settings. This will build up to writing our own chapter of the book. There are some budding authors in Year 4 and I can't wait to share their writing with you all.

In Maths, the children are working incredibly hard to beat their own scores in Times Tables Rock Stars and make it into our weekly Top 10! It is so positive to see children keen to learn and improve - look out for their certificates in homework books.

We are learning about The Victorians in History and hope to be out and about in Thornton next month to see the impact that Queen Victoria had on the Fylde Coast. In art we have been learning about tinting and shading - check out some of our fantastic work below.

This year, we are having a huge focus on the importance of beautiful handwriting and presentation. I am so proud to say that several children have already earned their pen license and we also have been awarded the first fountain pen license too! Well done Year 4!

July 2025 Round-up

July has been a short but another busy month!

The children started July by visiting St. Johns church ⛪ Rev. Jane delivered a really informative and sentimental lesson based off altruistic love, which supported our learning in class. The children were so well behaved and a credit to Baines!

In English, we started our new topic on debates. The children have been very enthusiastic with this, and had some very serious debates...parliament style! The children chose to do a written debate on whether AI or teachers are more effective to teach children....thankfully they thought teachers are more effective!

In PSHE, we have been focusing on money budgeting. I gave the children a budget of £25 and gave them a list of things to buy for a 'birthday party' using online shopping. It was very interesting to see what the children were adding to their basket, but overall they were amazing and very money savvy 💰

In DT, the children have been building pavilions. Their teamwork and structural engineering knowledge was very impressive. Seeing all of their designs come to life was brilliant.

And finally, all children in the school had 2 transition mornings in July. Our Year 4 children moved up to Year 5 for taster sessions with their new teacher, Mrs Holland! All children are very excited to move up to Year 5 😆 We have had a wonderful year together, and have no doubt they will excel in upper KS2!

June 2025 Round-up

Wow! What a busy but fabulous month June has been!

I want to start off with congratulating the Year 4's for their Multiplication Check Results...they were outstanding! To reward all of their hard work, they enjoyed an ice lolly in the sunshine 🌤

In Geography this half term, we have started looking at rivers. The children explored and demonstrated their understanding of the structure and the features of a river by creating a 3-D model using forest school resources. Their teamwork and 3-D models were truly mind-blowing 🏞

We also had a homework celebration, where the children designed their own habitats based off their learning throughout Year 4 in Geography and Science! They were so impressive, and really demonstrated their understanding of different habitats!

During health week, we had sports day and involved in a range of fabulous activities - taekwondo, UV dodgeball, yoga and frisbee. The children had so much fun!

In English, our focus has been Folktales. The children have loved reading and learning about a variety of different folktales - and even produced a fabulous role-play based off 'why the bananas belong to the monkeys.'

In Science, the children have been consolidating their knowledge of Year 4. We have been investigating the viscosity of different liquids and they have been doing a range of experiments to test if the viscosity of a liquid affects how it is absorbed in the human body.

May 2025 Round-up

In English this month, we have been learning all about 'The Sea Swallow' by Gareth Thomson. The children have had a fabulous time acting out and roleplaying the book and as a result have written some very imaginative stories!

This month we have also had BGT! We had the amazing Reuben and Etta through to the finals that were held at Millfield. They were both outstanding, and Etta came 3rd place! What an amazing achievement! A massive well done to all children that auditioned.

To celebrate VE day, we had a school picnic out on the field. The sunny weather definitely topped this off! We had such a good time, eating, laughing and sun-bathing. We even had time for a quick selfie!