Friday 17th October 2025

In English, we began the week by focusing on questions. The children worked in pairs to write questions for different characters in the story. Once these were written, children came up to be ‘hot seated’. This is where a child becomes a character and has to answer questions as if they were a character in the story.  Then we read and discussed Chapter 4 of Kasper: Prince of Cats. The children worked on using the context of the sentence to help them understand unfamiliar words. They also completed a comprehension, focusing on answering in full sentences and using evidence from the text to support their ideas. Please continue to ask your child questions when reading together at home, and encourage them to explain their answers using information from the text. This helps to build both comprehension and critical thinking skills.

In maths, We have been working on developing the children’s understanding of subtraction with exchange. The class has done lots of practical work using manipulatives to ensure they are secure with the concept before moving on to recording their calculations using the traditional column method next week. This is a crucial step in helping the children understand what they are doing and why, before progressing to more formal written methods.

In history, the children learnt more about Henry VIII focusing on whether he was seen as a ‘man or monster’. The children looked at different primary sources and then had to decide what the sources said about him.  The children work very hard on this and tried to justify their thinking.

Reminders:

• Please make sure your child is reading consistently and that the yellow reading record is signed so we can see what they are reading.

• Please ensure your child brings in their reading book daily so they can be listened to.  

Have a wonderful weekend and Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Mansoor, Ms Rose and Mrs Tapper

Friday 10th October 2025

Thank you to both Salem families for having our class join your sukkah.  The children thoroughly enjoyed the very special experience.

In English, the children continued with the story ‘Kaspar, the Prince of Cats’, reading chapter 3.  The children looked at what happened in the chapter and worked on using expanded noun phrases within sentences and then answering questions about the chapter. They focused on using the structure, point, evidence, explanation. When you are reading together at home, please encourage your child to answer your questions using evidence from the text.

In maths, the children worked on adding two 4-digit numbers when there was more than one exchange.  The children used column addition when the numbers added up to over 10 or 100 and had to make an exchange.  

In history, the children looked in more detail at Henry VIII.  They looked at different primary sources and evaluated what they said about King Henry and considered whether he was ‘a man or a monster’.  The children had lots of partner discussions about the sources and worked together to come to a theory about Henry VIII.

Have a wonderful Shabbat and a great weekend,

Miss Mansoor, Ms Rose and Mrs Tapper

Friday 3rd October 2025

In English, the children have used ‘when’ to add subordinate clauses to their sentences when writing about our main character Johnny Trott and his feelings in the book.  This was built on the work they did last week.  We then looked at answering questions about chapter two in full sentences.  The children understood the story well.

In maths, we reviewed rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 100, then we learnt about Roman numerals and began our new topic of addition and subtraction.  

In art, the children learnt about the artist Hans Holbein and his style of painting.  The children read about his life and wrote a fact file about him.  After this, some of the children sketched pictures in his style of painting.

In PSHE, we continued to discuss about ‘what makes a good friend’ following on from our last few lessons.  We then began to talk about how we can share and compromise out in the playground.  We talked in detail about how to discuss what games they could play and how to navigate differences in the playground.  During this time, the children role-played different scenarios and how they might deal with disagreements in the playground.

In spellings, we learnt about adding the suffixes -ed, -er and -ing when the consonant stays single. Examples of these are gardener, gardening, limited, limiting, offering, offered, benefited, benefiting, focused, focusing.

Reminders:

• Please see the attached new document on the blog under the ‘Useful Information’ section.  There are generic questions that you should ask your child/ren to check their understanding of what they are reading.

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Year 2 Team

Friday 26th September 2025

In English, we learnt how to use when in a subordinate clause to extend sentences and if the when is at the beginning of the sentence the subordinate clause will need a comma before the rest of the sentence.  For example, when the Countess arrives, Kaspar is yowling loudly.

In maths, the focus was on rounding to the nearest 10 and 100.

In history, we discussed the problems with Henry V11 reign.  We talked about Henry having a weak claim to the throne, that the people from the House of York were angry with him, there was not much money and the fact that England did not have a good relationship with other countries.

We wanted to wish our families a very happy new year and Gmar Chatimah Tova!  May we all have a peaceful happy new year and see the return of our hostages and peace in Israel.

Reminder:

• Please send your child's reading book in daily so we can hear them read and sign their yellow reading record book.

All our well wishes,

Miss Mansoor, Ms Rose and Mrs Tapper.

Friday 19th September 2025

We’ve had a busy week of learning. Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been up to:

In English, we reviewed Chapter 1 of our new book Kaspar, the Prince of Cats. The children answered some challenging questions before moving on to Chapter 2, where we focused on using have in the present perfect tense. They enjoyed sorting sentences and rewriting them in the correct tense. They created an emotions graph, and plotted Johnny’s emotions across the second chapter.
 

In maths, our place value work continued, exploring numbers to 10,000. The children partitioned numbers in different ways, found 1, 10 or 100 more/less, located missing numbers on number lines, estimated and compared numbers. Hands-on resources such as place value charts, counters and base 10 blocks supported their learning.

In science, we looked more closely at the digestive system, identifying each organ and its function. Using diagrams, the children researched and matched definitions, sparking discussion and collaboration.

In art, the children studied Tudor portraits in detail and explored clothing vocabulary such as ruff, breeches, hose and doublet.

In history, we learnt about the key figures of the Tudor period, and the children created fact files on their chosen person.

In computing, this week’s focus was on word processing skills, including bold, italics, underlining, centring text, highlighting, and changing fonts. These will be used regularly throughout the year when working on iPads.

In PSHE, following Monday’s assembly on Friendship, the children reflected on what makes a good friend and gave thoughtful, real-life examples. We also discussed how to seek help in the classroom or playground if they feel unhappy or unsure.

In verbal reasoning we continued our focus on letter sequences. The children are beginning to recognise how to solve these problems and moved on to more complex sequences. 
 

In music, we reviewed the names of the rhythms that we looked at last week. The children had to work together to play different rhythm patterns. 
 

Reminders

• No homework will be set over the chaggim period.
   

Wishing you a wonderful weekend and Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Mansoor, Ms Rose and Mrs Tapper

Friday 12th September 2025

We’ve had a very successful first full week.  The children have been settled into their classroom and have been enthusiastic about the work they have been learning.  Well done to the girls who participated in the netball tournament.  They showed persistence and resilience going up against much older children and of course, risk-taking, kol hakavod to them all!

In English, we started a new book, ‘Kaspar, the prince of cats’ by Michael Morpurgo.  We’ve read the first chapter and looked at the characters in detail.  The children brainstormed noun phrases and descriptive language from the text to help write character descriptions of Johnny Trott, Countess Kadinsky.  The children focused on the language used and used paragraphs in their writing.

In maths, we have been learning about place value.  The main themes of the week include viewing numbers to 1000 on a number line, looking at what thousands are made up of, representing numbers to 10,000 using a place value grid, base 10 and Gattegno charts and partitioning numbers to 10,000.  All of this was done practically and with visual clues to make and partition the numbers.

In science, we learnt about the digestive system.  We examined the various components that comprise our digestive system and the process by which food undergoes digestion.  The children learnt new vocabulary such as esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine and liver.  They soon discovered how our body uses all the nutrients from the food to return to our bloodstream and then eliminates the waste it can’t use.

In history, the children learned about the ‘Battle of  Bosworth’.  They learnt that a war had been going on in England for some years, known as the War of the Roses. This was a conflict between the House of York and the House of Lancaster. They acted out the battle and then created a comic strip of the battle.

In art, the children looked at Tudor portraits and discussed how the different monarchs had two very different styles of portraits, one that seemed much more ‘beautiful’ than the other.  We had a very interesting discussion about why the artists might have painted a more ‘polite’ version of the Kings and Queens. 

In PSHE, we talked about the children’s feelings about Y4 and what they want to achieve as well as reviewing the learning culture in class and the wider school.

In verbal reasoning, the children learnt about letter sequences, they used an alphabet to help them find the next letter pair in a sequence and will continue this work next week.

In music, we reviewed the children's rhythmic knowledge and we discussed the length of different musical notes. The children had practice in clapping and playing different rhythm patterns. We have also been learning songs for Rosh Hashanah.

In spelling, we looked at the spelling pattern ‘sure’.

Reminders:

• Book changing days are Monday and Thursdays.
• Please remember to send your child in with a rain jacket, as they still go outside in light drizzling weather.
• Children should wear their house badges daily.
• Trainers are only allowed to be worn on PE days, Tuesday and Thursday.
• please find the Slides from the Meet the Teacher Evening, in the important information section.

Shabbat Shalom and have a wonderful weekend,

Miss Mansoor, Ms Rose and Mrs Tapper

Friday 5th September 2025

We are delighted to welcome back all our families and to share that Year 4 has had a fantastic start to the new school year. The children arrived fresh-faced and eager to learn, and it was wonderful to see how much they have grown since we last taught them in Year 2.

On their first day, the class enjoyed exploring their new classroom and its resources before sharing favourite memories from their summer holidays.

This week, we focused on building a positive learning culture. The children thought carefully about what this should look like in our classroom and how they could put these ideas into practice each day.

We also explored the theme of ‘How to be a Mensch’ across three sessions. First, the children worked in pairs to discuss their understanding of the word mensch, before breaking it down into eight key qualities: compassion, integrity, responsibility, humility, respect, gratitude, justice, and fairness. Through discussion and examples from their own lives, the children created shields to represent these qualities. Later, they considered scenarios to decide who was behaving like a mensch and why. Finally, they wrote diary entries reflecting on the opportunities they found to show mensch-like qualities.  

In computing, we learned about caring for technology and revisited the importance of online safety, both in school and at home. The children carefully read and discussed our online safety rules.

In maths and English, we reviewed presentation expectations for Year 4. The children were introduced to the helpful mnemonic DUMTUMS (Date, Underline, Miss a line, Title, Underline, Miss a line, Start).

In art, the children worked on their “half-and-half” portraits, one side a photograph, the other completed with their own drawing. Having completed this project from Year 1, it was wonderful to see just how much their artistic skills have developed. These will be on display at the Meet the Teacher Evening, so do come and take a look!

Reminders:
📅 Meet the Teacher Evening – Tuesday 9th September at 6:45 pm

We wish you all a restful weekend and a peaceful Shabbat.

Warm regards,
The Year 4 Team