Year 4

April 2026 Round-up

April has flown by and has started really positively! We are joined this term by Miss Grundy, who will be teaching some lessons alongside Miss Highfield. The children seem to have grown up so much over the Easter Holiday and have shown such a mature attitude to their learning since we have been back. We can all really see the progress they are making and they are rising to the challenges set in the classroom.

This half term, we are reading two stories: The Sea Swallow, a folk tale inspired by the Fylde Coast, and also The Famous Five by Enid Blyton. These books will inspire our writing over the next few weeks. We have already written haiku poems based on nature and water and the children really impressed with their use of language - they enjoyed writing them so much that we spent a whole afternoon immersed in poetry!

In Maths, we are doing lots of consolidation of the four operations and we will be introducing the column method of multiplication too.

Our topics this half term include learning all about sound in Science and the Ancient Maya in History. We are focusing on working like scientists and historians by investigating key questions and conducting our own research, by carrying out experiments and studying artefacts.

Swimming will continue throughout the Summer Term. The children are making fantastic progress in their strength, fitness and technique in the pool. We are also loving our walks to the pool now the sun is shining and the trees are bursting into life. Last week we were a little bit late, because we stopped to watch a heron fishing in one of the brooks as we walked by!

We enjoyed the House Team Maths Competition last week too. Children worked in their teams to solve logic puzzles based on The 1% Club. They worked so well together - it was lovely to see their collaboration, resilience and competitiveness. Willow Team were the winners in Year 4 and Oak Team were the overall winners in school. Well done!

Our big focus this half term will be practising our times tables in readiness for the times tables check after half term. Any extra practice the children can do at home by logging into TTRockstars will be hugely beneficial.

March 2026 Round-up

We’ve had a fantastic and very busy March in Year 4!

We began the month by celebrating Book Week, which the children thoroughly enjoyed—especially dressing up as their favourite characters. Thank you to all the parents who joined us for our reading session; it was wonderful to share that time together and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

In English, the children have completed writing their own chapter for World Burn Down. It has been lovely to see their growing maturity and creativity shine through in their writing. Maths has taken a very practical approach this half term. We have explored shape, measure and statistics through a range of hands-on activities, helping to deepen the children’s understanding.

In Science, we have been busy conducting experiments while learning about changes in the states of materials—from solids to liquids to gases. For Science Day, we had great fun investigating the question: “Why does toast always land butter-side down?” The children have also been working hard to use accurate scientific vocabulary and to explain their ideas in greater detail. Geography has been equally fun. The children have enjoyed hands-on learning while exploring coastal erosion. They created their own beaches and headlands, observed how waves erode them, and designed sea defences to protect coastlines.

A real highlight of the month was our Samba performance at the Winter Gardens. The children were absolutely brilliant, and it was a joy to see how proud they were to represent Team Baines on such a big stage.

Finally, a big thank you to all our Year 4 families for your continued support—it truly makes a difference.

We hope you all have a wonderful Easter break and look forward to an exciting Summer Term ahead!

February 2026 Round-up

February has flown by in class! We began the month with our fantastic class assembly all about the importance of the RNLI for the Fylde Coast, and the children spoke so clearly and confidently in front of such a large audience — I was incredibly proud of them. Thank you to all the families who came to support us; it means so much to the children to share their learning with you. To round off our topic, we visited the Fleetwood Lifeboat Station, where the children loved seeing their learning come to life, exploring the lifeboats and equipment, and asking thoughtful questions to the wonderful crew and volunteers. Following our visit, the children would like to hold a fundraising event for the RNLI, so watch this space!

We also had an unforgettable trip to Co-op Live for the Young Voices concert — the children represented Team Baines brilliantly and sang their hearts out. It was a truly special experience and has hopefully sparked a lasting love of music for many of them.

Our auditions for the Britain’s Got Talent were also held before half term, and we were amazed by the variety of acts and the hidden talents across Year 4 — it certainly made choosing finalists very difficult! After a class vote, we selected Ivy and Matilda for dance, Lily and Emily for cheerleading, and Alice with her impressive hoop acrobatics. The final judging is going to be a tough decision this year for sure!

Alongside all of these exciting experiences, the children have continued to work incredibly hard behind the scenes in all of our other subjects... They are constantly striving to improve and are showing a wonderfully mature and resilient attitude towards their learning. We are very much looking forward to sharing all of their hard work with you during our Book Week reading sessions and at our Celebration of Learning at the end of term.

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!