Year 4

Porpoises and Dolphins

Welcome to the Year 4 page!

Here, you can find out all the latest information and some home learning tasks.

Parent/ carers: If you have any questions, queries or comments about Year 4, please catch us on the playground, or email the school office at: admin@southmead.devon.sch.uk and we will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible, within normal working hours. 

Residential

If you missed the residential meeting on the 19th March, here are the slides with all the important information that you need!

If home learning has been requested as a photo, or an image, please do submit these images to homework4@southmead.devon.sch.uk - Please note: this inbox will only be checked for dates where homework has been requested as such.

Times Tables

Here, in Year 4, we LOVE times tables! We spend a lot of time getting to grips with these number facts and celebrate the learning our students undertake.

We are using Number Sense Maths' Times Table Fluency Programme daily. This breaks down the learning into 36 facts to have learnt by the end of the year. Each times table has a dedicated session, where we look at the structure of the multiplication facts in depth, before daily practise sessions commence. 

In addition to this, we spend time practising our times tables through our Maths lessons, playing plenty of games and using resources such as the Rekenreks and Times Table Rockstars!

Later in the year, we take part in the Multiplication Tables Check - which after all of their hard work, often has our students coming out with a big smile on their faces! We hold annual meetings on this to update parents, plus we always add the slides onto this page afterwards.

Looking for some fun activities to boost your skills in Times Tables? CLICK HERE!

Check out what we've been up to this year!

Migrant Help Visit - 30/04/25

We were really lucky today to be visited by John from Migrant Help, who came in today to talk about the differences between migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. He shared with us that the majority of refugees look for homes close to where they have come from as they hope to go home one day. We also thought about what it would be like to travel to a new country where you may not speak the same language, or eat the same foods. Thank you for visiting us, John, and for helping us to build our empathy skills and understand each other better.

RNLI Visit - 25/04/25

We were very lucky today to be visited by the RNLI, who taught us all how to ensure that we are safe at the beach! Thank you for visiting and teaching us, we learnt so much!

Cricket Visit - 25/03/25

We were lucky to receive a visit from Martin today. He talked to us about how Cricket can inspire confidence, showed us some famous cricketers from the area (including two from Barnstaple!) and told us about new clubs starting up. He also took each class out for some time to learn some of the skills needed to play Cricket. We had such a great time! Thank you so much for visiting, Martin! Thank you for organising this, Miss Brailey!

British Sign Language Week - 17/03/25-23/03/25

Today, we participated in a lesson led by the British Deaf Association. We loved learning how to sign the alphabet out, some of our favourite lessons and colours. We appreciate and understand all languages are important. Thank you to Mr Plumb, for signing our school up for this opportunity.

Wind Farm Trip - 13/03/25

We learnt so much visiting a wind farm! Mark, our guide, was happy to answer our questions and he told us some really interesting facts. He told us that the oldest wind turbine he had worked on was from 1991. We found out that Denmark are the biggest producer of wind turbines. The wind turbines we saw have three blades for balance. The blades are 40 metres long and you can even go inside them! The cell of the wind turbine is about the size of the coach we arrived on. The wind turbines are painted in a matte colour to make sure they are not shiny and do not affect drivers who are passing by. Thank you so much for teaching us about wind turbines, Mark! Thank you, Miss Brailey, for organising the trip today.

Virtual Author Visit - 12/03/25

We were lucky enough to join in a live streamed talk from another real author today! Thank you to Mrs Fryer for arranging this for us. We learnt about the differences between inner and outer conflict and why this is so vital to story-telling.

World Book Day 06/03/25

Reading is such a key aspect of learning and underpins so many other subjects, we love celebrating it! We had a HUGE range of characters appear today for World Book Day. From footballers to animals, from queens to witches, we have had such fun. 

Two Johns Visit - 03/02/25

Today, we were visited by the Two Johns, along with Caen school, to discuss and learn about online safety.

We learnt about how we should always speak to an adult if someone is acting oddly online - a lot of us were worried about speaking to an adult and getting in trouble, but the Two Johns reassured us that our adults would rather know and help us. They suggested that children can always talk to their teachers, who can then talk to their parents with them about how they are feeling and what is going on - something we are always happy to do.
A big thank you goes out to the Two Johns from Year 4, for taking the time to come and speak to us today about such an important topic.

Exmoor Zoo Visit - 28/01/25

Today, we were very lucky to have a visit from Exmoor Zoo. Rob brought a huge range of creatures for us to get to know and he taught us so many wonderful facts. We met a range of insects, a corn snake, even an owl! We also got to check out the skin that Sharon the bird-eating spider had shed!

Did you know that praying mantis have one ear that can be located between their four back legs? This is to listen out for bats and their echolocation.

Fruit Salad, the corn snake, has four bits of jawbone that can open both up and sideways!

We would like to send the biggest thank you to Rob and the Exmoor Zoo team for coming in to teach us all about these fascinating animals; we are so excited for next half-term, when we will get started on our next unit of writing, based on the book, Intriguing Animals.

Christmas Dinner -18/12/24

We had a cracking time at the Christmas dinner this week. We would all like to thank all of the staff that helped make this possible and the SFA.

With the year at a close, we would like to wish our students and families a wonderful winter break. See you all again in 2025!

Carol Service at St Brannock's - 06/12/24

We are so incredibly proud of our Year 4s. Today, they led the carol service at St Brannock's; performing carols, giving readings (really clearly across the church!) and even finishing the event off with a round of We Wish You a Merry Christmas. If you had the pleasure of joining us, you know how spectacular they were. Thank you to St Brannock's for hosting us, thank you to our parent volunteers for helping us get to the church safely, thank you KS2 for coming to see us and thank you parents and carers for coming to celebrate with us today.

Volleyball Taster - 29/11/24

We were so lucky today to receive a visit from Mr Dunbavin, a volleyball coach. He taught us how to serve, spike and more! We absolutely loved trying out our new skills. Excitingly, he has also let us know that a volleyball club will be starting on Saturdays across the road for children in our age range - keep an eye out for more information in due course! Thank you so much Mr Dunbavin for coming in and we also would like to say a big thank you to Miss Brailey for organising this for the whole school!

BAE Systems, RAF and Royal Navy Education Programme Roadshow 14/11/24

We were delighted to spend some time looking at Science via our visitors from BAE Systems, the RAF and the Royal Navy. We loved how it linked to our module on Electricity. Thank you to our guests and a special thank you to Dr Corney for organising (and for his hard work during the "Pedal Power" segment)!

Exeter Museum 07/11/24

We had a fantastic experience at Exeter Museum, looking at the Ancient Egyptians in order to consolidate our History learning this term. We were able to handle real and replicated artifacts, take part in mummifying a body, learn the Ancient Egyptian game of Senet (we quickly learnt that we have some RUTHLESS Senet players in Year 4!), explore the museum and even see a real mummy from Egypt! Thank you to all the staff and volunteers at the museum for working with us. Special thanks also to our coach driver, who bought us a film to watch on the way home!

Welsh Brass Band 16/10/24

On Wednesday 16th October, we were lucky enough to have the Welsh brass band performers come in and perform to the whole school. The children were mesmerised by the variety of amazing instruments they brought in and they were very comedic! 

Author Visit 27/09/24

We were incredibly lucky today to receive a visit from Dave Cousins, author of A Robot Ate my Grandma. He read us an excerpt from his book, shared how he got into writing, showed us how to use characters to drive a story and even gifted each of us a signed copy of his book! We were all so excited and inspired. Dolphins and Porpoises would like to give the biggest thank you to Dave Cousins, his team and Mrs Cooper for organising such a fantastic experience for us!

Residential Information 

  It's important to know how to stay safe online.

For child friendly online safety games and parent support please click here

                Home learning in case you need to isolate at home

Please find 1 day's worth of home learning if you are well enough.

Reading Comprehension - Summer  Term

SPELLING AT HOME

Spelling practise at home can often be challenging. Why not try using a multi-sensory approach! Try making the spellings using play dough, using coloured pens, using toys to make the shape of the letters or even during baking with flour! Rap, sing or link spellings to stories and shapes.

Supporting spelling practice

• Spellingideas
• Spellingideas2
• Year34words
• Extensionspellings

READING AT HOME

Our whole expectation is that children will read at home at least 3 times per week, this can be to an adult or independently. Below are some ideas to help support you at home with reading and questioning your child. 

Supporting reading at home

• Funreadingquestions
• Questioningreading