Hello!

Year 4 have had an exciting, activity-packed week, which has included our marvellous (if I may say so myself) Key Stage 2 Christmas Quiz!

I hope you enjoyed our carol service; a big ‘Thank You’ goes out to our wonderful RE Coordinator Mr Perry, who organised, planned, rehearsed and led the event, as well as Miss Rachel, who diligently taught and practised the songs with all pupils and provided some most excellent backing music!

However, it is definitely time for a much-deserved rest! Thank you for all the support you have offered me over the past term; it is hugely appreciated. I would also like to say thank you for the lovely Christmas gifts – you have been *very* generous!

Please note that there is NO HOMEWORK for the Christmas holidays; normal service will resume on the first Friday back (10th January.)

Here’s our poetry performance of ‘Don’t Put Mustard in the Custard’:

https://youtu.be/wfN3DvW5Weo

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year; I’ll see you all on Monday 6th January!

Mr Faith

Hello!

One more week until the Christmas holidays!

We had a fabulous trip to the Science Museum to enjoy a range of videogames from the past 50-odd years via the ‘Power Up’ exhibition. The children thoroughly enjoyed playing these games, and in doing so, made connections with the work they have done in Computing (Computer Science and coding in particular). In playing the games, pupils focused on how input (giving a game instructions using a controller) leads to an output (something happening within a game) and how sprites and backgrounds are used to create compelling gaming experiences. For those children, parents and carers interested in delving into the world of ‘Power Up’ further, extra resources can be found here:

https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/power/resources

A huge ‘thank you’ goes out to class parents / carers Alex and Laura, who did a great job in helping out on the trip!

During English, we moved onto our new unit of work on Short Stories. In doing this, we have been studying the (extremely!) short story of ‘The Dot’ by Peter H Reynolds. Just because a story is short doesn’t mean that it lacks substance though – it packs a real emotional punch in its 32 illustrated pages, teaching the children about the importance of accepting one’s emotions, managing them, finding ways of persevering and moving forward positively. This week, we reflected upon the feelings of the story’s main characters, and answered VIPERS-related reading comprehension questions about it.

In Maths, my group completed and reviewed our end-of-term assessments, practised multiplication and division techniques and drilled down on practise for our (very – June 2025!) upcoming Multiplication Tables Check (more information on that will be sent out early in the New Year).

During RE, Mr Christos, through studying scripture, led the children in exploring what the Bible tells Christians about Jesus’ message of peace.

In our Geography lesson, we wrote diary entries from the point of view of someone visiting India.

In Science, we looked at the water cycle, whilst During DT, the children finished building their Pavilions.

During Computing, we programmed procedures to draw a range of shapes, making use of the ‘repeat’ command as part of this process.

STORY COMPETITION

Mrs Pereira writes:

It may make for a nice Christmas project? The local story competition run by Daunt Books is back again, with every child who enters getting a £5 book voucher. Most years, we have a winner at St Stephen’s who receive a voucher and the glory of seeing their stories published – so a good success rate. Click on the link:

Library Corner

and check out the info in the sidebar.

Lia Pereira

Spanish Teacher, MFL Lead, English Lead, School Librarian

Here is this week’s homework:

131224 – Spellings Homework Sheet

(Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) Carols by Candlelight is rapidly approaching, and if you could all please play your part with our rehearsals by having your child/ren practise their songs, that would be greatly appreciated. PDFs of the lyrics can be found below, alongside their accompanying mp3s:

4 Bloom Song – We Three Kings

4 Rosen Song – Sweet Bells

Finale – Silent Night Revised

Finale – Traditional Carol Medley

Finale – Popular Medley

Have a great weekend,

Mr Faith

Hello!

Only two weeks to go until the Christmas holidays, and we’re almost a third of the way through our year together – where has the time gone?

During Maths, we finished our unit of work on Multiplication and Division, and then had a week of consolidation, where we reviewed all work completed during the Autumn Term, ahead of our completing our end-of-term tests early next week.

In our English lessons, we planned and wrote our own versions of Chapter 26 of ‘The Last Bear’, an emotionally charged scene between main character April and her father, writing from the latter’s point of view.

In RHE, we looked at what stereotyping is and how we can combat it.

In RE, Mr Christos and the class reflected upon how and why Christians believe Jesus brings peace.

We doubled up on Science this week, conducting an experiment in which we explored whether or not certain items softened and / or melted at room temperature, and also researched the melting point of various solids.

During DT, Miss Amy led the children in starting to construct their pavilions.

In our Geography lesson, 4 Rosen explored India’s culture and the influence it has on other countries.

During Computing, we learnt how to program and execute procedures.

Here is this week’s homework:

061224 – Spellings Homework Sheet

061224 – Reading Comprehension – What’s It All About

Carols by Candlelight is rapidly approaching, and if you could all please play your part with our rehearsals by having your child/ren practise their songs, that would be greatly appreciated. PDFs of the lyrics can be found below, alongside their accompanying mp3s:

4 Bloom Song – We Three Kings

4 Rosen Song – Sweet Bells

Finale – Silent Night

Finale – Traditional Carol Medley

Finale – Popular Medley

Have a great weekend,

Mr Faith

(Please note that this entry was posted on Thursday 28th November; one day ahead of normal schedule)

Hello!

Another busy week!

In our English lessons, after finishing ‘The Last Bear’ last week, we continued to work on it, analysing the key features of a related exemplar and identifying the key features of the text. We also completed a reading comprehension.

During Maths, we began to draw our unit on multiplication and division to a close, working on multiplying by 0 and 1, dividing numbers by 1 and itself, and exploring ways of efficiently multiplying three numbers.

In RE, Mr Christos led the class in reflecting on the meaning of peace at Christmas, whilst during RHE, we looked at ways we can deal with aggressive behaviour and how we can demonstrate respect.

During DT, Miss Amy led the children in drawing floor plans for their pavilions, and in Science, we conducted a balloon-related experiment to demonstrate that air does, in fact, have weight.

We doubled up on Geography this week, looking at human and physical structures and enjoying a visit from class parent Indro, who delivered a wonderful presentation about India. Thank you Indro!

On a parent / carer-related note, I just wanted to give a shout out to class parents Claire and Katie, who have generously given their time in reading with the children on a weekly basis since the beginning of the school year. Your efforts are greatly appreciated!

Here is this week’s homework:

291124 – Spellings Homework Sheet

Finally, here is a note from Linda, our wonderful, and sadly departing, Scientist in Residence:

Dear St Stephen’s

This is a little note to say a big thank you to each and every one of you. It has been amazing to have been your Scientist in Residence and working with all of you doing fun Science experiments, to learn together, and to answer all your great questions. I love Science and I loved doing Science with you all – and I hope you love Science too!

Thank you,

Linda

Have a great weekend, and hopefully I’ll see you at the Christmas Fair,

Mr Faith

Hello!

A big thank you to all parents and carers who came to watch our class Collective Worship / assembly on Friday – I’m sure you’ll agree, they did us all proud! Thank you again for you all being so accommodating with regards to us having to reschedule it too.

It wasn’t just assembly practise this week either. We also crammed in a near-full slate of lessons! Here are some of our highlights:

During Maths, we continued to work on multiplication and division, this week working on the 3, 6, 9, 11 and 12 times tables and its related division facts.

In our English lessons, we finished off reading ‘The Last Bear’ (talk about a powerful ending!) and completed a range of activities related to the same, ahead of our final write of the unit next week.

In RE, Mr Christos taught the children more about the Beatitudes. From there, we wrote our own Beatitudes and reflected upon all work done during our mini unit on the same.

During our RHE lessons (we did two), we thought about ways we can protect our body space and who can help us if it being invaded, and also reflected on the difference between a friend and an acquaintance.

In our DT lesson, Miss Amy led the children in designing their pavilions.

During Computing, the children continued working on ‘Level 3’ Logo programming, this time using the ‘repeat’ command.

Here is this week’s homework:

221124 – Spellings Homework Sheet

221124 – Reading Comprehension – Stowaway

Have a great weekend,

Mr Faith

Hello!

Another busy week!

Firstly, a huge thank you to all of you for our parents’ / carers’ evening meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday – it was fantastic to speak to you and tell you all about the wonderful things your children have been doing in and out of class! Thank you to those who attended the ‘open classrooms’ events too.

We have an exciting few weeks ahead of us! Here are some important notes:

I am looking forward to seeing you all next week for our class collective worship. If you haven’t read the ParentMail message I sent out earlier in the week, please note the (slight!) date change. See you then!

We have an upcoming Year 4 trip, one which I am *very* excited about. If you haven’t already done so, please provide payment and consent via ParentMail.

During Maths, we worked on multiplying and dividing by 3, 6 and 9 using a range of techniques.

In our English lessons, we continued to read ‘The Last Bear.’ Over the course of the week, we inferred how a character felt through their words and actions, then planned and wrote a descriptive paragraph.

We also started our new DT unit of work. In doing this, Miss Amy started to work on pavilions with the class – I was loving some of the Jelly Tot-and-toothpick structures that the children fashioned!

In our Science lesson, we started our new unit of work on States of Matter by exploring the differences between solids and liquids, whilst in Geography, we looked at different mountain formations.

In our Computing lesson, in a truly stunning turn of events (for those who haven’t been paying attention :-D) we moved onto Level 3 on Logo!

During RHE, we looked at negotiation and compromise and also took a look at how bullying can occur / can be prevented as part of Anti-Bullying Week.

Here is the homework for this week:

151124 – Spellings Homework Sheet

Have a great weekend,

Mr Faith

Hello!

First week back and surprise surprise, it’s been a busy one!

We have well and truly hit the ground running with our class collective worship practise, singing our songs and learning our lines. Please have your child practise their lines at home (we’ve been singing the songs every day at school, so I reckon we’ve got that area covered), alongside them knowing who speaks before and after them. This will allow them to accurately hit their cues.

During Maths, we finished our short unit on area. In doing this, we continued to count squares, as well as exploring other methods of calculating area. We rounded out our week in Maths by completing our end-of-unit test on area. My group also had a separate lesson where we revised / learnt specific terminology related to the four operations. There was a particular focus on trickier terminology, such as ‘product’ and, looking forward a few years, ‘the power of’.

In English, we continued to work on ‘The Last Bear’ and also had a Hispanic Day-themed activity where we wrote haiku based on Argentinian flora and fauna.

During RE, we had a special guest teacher: Mr Christos! In an impressively well-planned and resourced lesson, he taught the children about The Beatitudes, what they mean in general and what they mean to him as a practising Orthodox Christian.

During our new unit of work in Geography, we started to explore India and where it is in the World, whilst in Computing, we took our logo learning one step further and moved onto Logo Level 2!

In our Art lesson, Miss Amy led the children in creating artwork inspired by the Argentinian macaw.

In other Hispanic Day-related activities, class parent Carrie planned, resourced and delivered a cracking quiz about Argentina, and the children enjoyed a drumming-based percussion lesson.

Friend of the school Kat François also delivered a fantastic seminar about unconscious biases and discrimination. As always, Kat tackled often-complex and tricky subject matter in an entertaining, but still uncompromising fashion, and offered the class lots of food for thought – thank you Kat!

Here is the homework for this week, alongside the class poem, RHE knowledge page and key vocabulary for the half term:

4 Rosen Class Poem for Autumn Term 2 2024 – Don’t Put Mustard In The Custard

081124 – Spellings Homework Sheet

081124 – Reading Comprehension – Thrills City

RHE Knowledge Page – Year 4 Valuing Difference

Year 4 Key Vocabulary List – Autumn Term 2

Have a great weekend and I look forward to speaking to you all during our parents’ / carers’ evenings next week!

Mr Faith

Hello!

This (Black Voices) Week has been a most excellent one!

In-class, 4 Rosen worked on a series of activities related to our notable BVW person, who was Winifred Atwell, musical trailblazer. In doing this, we learned about Atwell’s life story and created colourful posters related to her.

We also looked at the rich and varied history of Black people in Britain, showcasing many often-under recognised figures, in line with this year’s theme of reclaiming narratives.

During Maths, after finishing our work on addition and subtraction (including our end-of-unit test), we have been working on a short unit on area, calculating the same by counting squares, making shapes by shading squares and understanding the importance of being fastidious when calculating areas.

In English, outside of BVW-related activities, we also completed our end-of-half term tests in reading, grammar, punctuation and spelling.

In terms of other lessons, during Science, we recapped everything we already learned about electricity this term (different components, how circuits work, conductors and insulators.) We then designed our own simple circuits to include simple switches made from paper clips and drawing pins, understanding that bulbs will only light up when a circuit is closed.

On Monday morning, both Year 4 classes took a trip to the London Buddhist Vihara in Chiswick to hear about what happens in this place of worship and how Buddhists live their faith. A great time was had by all during this most interesting and informative trip, which served as an excellent ‘ender’ to our unit of work on Buddhism.

During History, we reflected upon all work studied this past half term and thought about who may have been buried at Sutton Hoo. We also completed our end-of-unit test.

In our Art lesson, Miss Amy led the children in creating Rachel Jones-inspired compositions using oil pastels.

Please note that there is no official homework for the half term.

If you really want to do some homework with your children, I would recommend practising times tables (up to x12), their related division inverse operations (including ways of working out calculations with remainders, e.g. 52 ÷  7 can be calculated by first performing the inverse operation 49 ÷ 7 = 7, with 3 being the remainder) and telling the time. A daily diary is also always good when it comes to keeping writing skills sharp – please focus on good use of quality verbs, adverbs and paired adjectives.

Finally, thank you for all of the support you have offered me during our first half term together; I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching the class, and long may it continue!

Have a great half term,

Mr Faith

Week Commencing Monday 14th October 2024

Hello!

I’m sure you’ll be stunned to hear that 4 Rosen have, in fact, had a very busy week!

Here are some of our highlights:

On Tuesday, as a prelude to Black Voices Week, Miss Bill and I led the school in participating in a whole-school Collective Worship session where we enjoyed this year’s online ‘Great Big Assembly’. Mr Schumm also led an assembly on Friday in recognition of ‘Show Racism The Red Card’.

During English, we moved onto a brand-new unit of work, Letter Writing, doing this by reading and studying the book ‘The Last Bear’ by Hannah Gold. We got off to a great start this week, using the text to make inferences about characters’ thoughts and feelings, compared and contrast the two main settings the book takes place in and researched facts about polar bears.

During Maths, we focused on column subtraction, first performing it with no exchanges, then with one exchange, and finally two. To end the week, we started to work on efficient calculation methods and estimation.

We also finished off our unit of work on Buddhism by reflecting upon ways Buddhists might act in given situations.

During RHE, we continued to think about our feelings, this time reflecting upon how these can change over time.

During Art, Miss Amy led the children in painting their final compositions.

In History, we started to understand the impact that the spread of Christianity had on Britain and Anglo-Saxon society.

Here is this week’s homework:

181024 – Spellings Homework Sheet

Please note there is a grammar and punctuation worksheet to be completed this week.

Here is a YouTube video of our class performing our poem for the half term:

https://youtu.be/sr3VW4VHhrU

Have a great weekend,

Mr Faith

Hello!

Another busy week (quelle surprise…)!

During English, we *almost* finished off our unit of work on Varjak Paw. To do this, we planned, wrote and improved our own stories told in the Varjak Paw universe. A lot of effort was put into these across the class; well done 4 Rosen! We will finish off this unit properly on Monday by redrafting our improved stories.

In Maths, we added four-digit numbers using column addition, starting with no-exchange problems, then moving onto ones that did involve exchanging (one and two exchanges in fact). We rounded off our week by subtracting without exchanging.

In RE, we looked at the story of ‘Buddha and the Angry Elephant’ and used it to explore how Buddhism sets an example for others in terms of remaining calm and kind, especially in the face of adversity.

In our RHE lesson, we completed a mindful doodling task as part of celebrating World Mental Health Day, whilst during History, we learnt and rewrote the story of Beowulf.

We continued to learn HTML programming skills for Computing, and Miss Amy also led the children in creating compositional drawings this week – lovely stuff!

This week’s homework can be found at the link below:

111024 – Spellings Homework Sheet

111024 – Reading Comprehension 03 – Three Girls

The written homework for this is to be handed in no later than this coming Thursday, October 17th 2024.

Also, we will be performing our poem for the half term in the coming week; feel free to practise it (for your convenience, a link can be found here):

4 Rosen Class Poem for Autumn Term 1 2024 – Down Behind The Dustbin

I also hosted my yearly online safety workshop in the art room / via Zoom with a group of parents / carers. Thank you to all of those parents / carers who attended either session. Busy times indeed ahead of our half term break…

Have a lovely weekend,

Mr Faith

Hello!

A busy week for 4 Rosen!

During English, we started to draw our unit of work on Varjak Paw to a close. As part of this process, we analysed an exemplar, reflected upon the ‘take away’ moral / point of the story as a whole and examined the themes it contains.

In our Maths lessons, my group finished our first unit of work on Number and Place Value by rounding numbers to the nearest 10 / 100 / 1000 and completing our end-of-unit test. We then started our new unit of work – Addition and Subtraction – by adding and subtracting 1s, 10s, 100s and 1000s. We did this by working through multi-part questions that involved adding and removing counters, then noting the numbers that had been made.

In Science, we continued to work on currents and electrical circuits, creating our own versions and testing them out.

During RE, we worked on understanding the meaning behind the story of Buddha and the Swan, namely, the importance of being kind.

In our RHE lesson, we reflected upon the different feelings we may have.

In our History lesson, we used artefacts and research to find out about Anglo-Saxon life.

During Computing, we learned about how search engine advertising works, as well as how websites themselves are constructed. We then started to program our own ourselves, using this website:

webtech.lgfl.org.uk

This week’s homework can be found at the link below:

041024 – Spellings Homework Sheet

There is also a Grammar and Punctuation task, to be completed directly on the sheet provided.

The written homework for this is to be handed in no later than this coming Thursday, October 10th 2024.

Have a great weekend,

Mr Faith

Hello!

Another fun-packed, busy week for 4 Rosen!

In our Maths lessons, my group continued to work on Number and Place Value. This week, we compared numbers to 10,000, ordered numbers to 10,000, worked with Roman Numerals, rounded numbers to the nearest 10, then rounded out the week (if you’ll pardon the pun) by rounding to the nearest 100.

During English, we continued to look at Varjak Paw. In doing this, we wrote a range of VIPERS (Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval, Summarise) questions related to the text, used it to define and identify pronouns and identifiers, shared exciting vocabulary and phrases contained within the story and practised our paragraphing. We also got some creative writing practice in by writing short, detailed paragraphs that made good use of adjectives, pronouns and determiners.

In Science, we looked at ways current flows through electrical circuits.

During RE, we took a look at the Buddhist story of the Monkey King, exploring the concept of sacrifice as we studied it.

During our RHE lesson, we explored the importance of teamwork.

In our History lesson, we learned about the Picts and Scots, using online information texts to answer a range of questions about them both.

During Computing, we learned about the ways in which internet search engines work.

This week’s homework can be found at the link below:

270924 – Spellings Homework Sheet

270924 – Reading Comprehension 02 – On The Move

The written homework for this is to be handed in no later than this coming Thursday, October 3rd 2024.

Finally, a massive ‘thank you’ to all those pupils, parents and carers who came over to say hello to Apollo, Zoe and I during the Family Supper. I think it is fair to say that, much like last year, he was pretty overwhelmed by the amount of people present, and your kind words, smiles and general positivity really helped to put him at ease!

Have a great weekend,

Mr Faith

Hello!

Somehow, we managed to have an even busier week than the last!

During English, we continued to look at Varjak Paw. In doing this, we wrote a range of VIPERS (Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval, Summarise) questions related to the text, used the story to define and identify pronouns and identifiers, shared exciting vocabulary and phrases contained within the story and practised our paragraphing. We also got some creative writing practice in by writing short, detailed paragraphs that made good use of adjectives, pronouns and determiners.

During Maths, my group continued to work on Number and Place Value. This week, we worked with numbers to 10,000. We initially represented numbers to 10,000 using a range of means, then partitioned similarly-sized numbers, both regularly and flexibly. We also used number lines to sequence numbers up to 10,000.

In our Computing lesson, we finished looking at how emails work, demonstrating how confusion can often occur in their use, and simulated the use of email via Google Classroom.

During RE, we learned about the concept of suffering and how Buddhists perceive it, while in our RHE lesson, we reflected upon the various aspects of a healthy, positive relationship, as well as ways we can be politely assertive.

During History, we talked about the end of the Roman Empire and what that meant for Roman Britons. We learnt about the Anglo-Saxon invasion from the East coast which left Britain open to another attack from the Picts and the Scots in the North. We then discussed the impact of the invasion and the consequences of the Anglo-Saxon settlement. Finally, the children worked in pairs to find the answers to a quiz.

This week’s homework can be found at the link below:

200924 – Spellings Homework Sheet

Please note that there is no reading comprehension task this week.

Mrs Walsh and I are also introducing grammar, spelling and punctuation homework, to be distributed on non-reading comprehension weeks. These will be provided in hard copy format, and children are to write their answers directly on the sheets themselves, so they should be relatively quick tasks and will help in consolidating the GPS work we do at school. The first of these will be sent out today (Friday 20^th September).

The written homework (along with the Mathletics) for this is to be handed in no later than this coming Thursday, 26^th September 2024.

A message from Miss Rachel, our wonderful music coordinator.

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please find details below of two singing groups run by the Tri Borough music hub.

Our First Voices choir (years 1-2) is a group for children who love singing and enjoy taking part in performances. The students learn fun songs, rounds and musical games, as well as increasing their confidence when performing and developing fundamental musical skills.

Our Junior Voices choir (years 3-6) is a non-auditioned ensemble where students learn and perform music from a range of musical styles and through various teaching styles, including notation. The students develop key musicianship and performance skills, whilst engaging in regular performance opportunities throughout the year .For more details please follow the link below.

Registration – Tri-borough Music Hub (speedadmin.dk )

You can also contact Evie directly via email (evie.asio@rbkc.gov.uk) if you would like to discuss further.

Have a great weekend,

Mr Faith

Hello!

A busy week for Year 4 Rosen; we’ve crammed a lot into the last week!

During Maths, my group started to work on the Year 4 learning for the unit on Number and Place Value. As part of doing this, we identified place value up to the thousands, sequenced numbers according to their value, partitioned numbers and worked with thousands / tens of thousands.

In English, we looked at SF Said’s modern classic, Varjak Paw, and in doing so, predicted and inferred the content of the story by looking at its front cover, inferred character traits of the book’s main protagonists and practised our weekly spellings and expanded noun phrase use.

In our Science lesson, we started to work on Electricity by looking at currents and appliances that are powered by mains electricity and batteries.

During RHE, we explored how our emotions affect our physical state.

In Buddhism, we learned about the origins of the faith.

During History, we started to look at Anglo-Saxons, Picts and Scots.

In our Computing lesson, we looked at emailing and how the concept of ‘packets’ works via a hands-on unplugged lesson.

This week’s homework can be found at the links below:

130924 – Reading Comprehension 01 – The Eagle and the Turtle

130924 – Spellings Homework Sheet

Year 4 Key Vocabulary List – Autumn Term 1

4 Rosen Class Poem for Autumn Term 1 2024 – Down Behind The Dustbin

Your child’s spelling group can be found on the inside of their homework books.

The written homework for this is to be handed in no later than this coming Thursday, September 19th 2024.

Have a great weekend,

Mr Faith

Hello!

4 Rosen have settled in well and we have been having a lovely time together!

Our first week together has been a most excellent one – the class have worked extremely hard in getting our new room in tip-top shape (lots of display material has been produced and mounted) and completing beginning-of-year tests, and I am delighted with the work they have produced.

Homework will be set for the first time next week.

If you haven’t already done so, please take a look at the detailed message that Mrs Walsh and I sent out earlier in the week, which served as an FAQ of sorts for all things Year 4.

Have a great weekend, and please ensure that your children have a good rest – despite only being here for a few days, they’ve certainly earned it!

Mr Faith