Welcome to...Cressida Cowell ressida owell is currently the Waterstones hildrens Laureate (2019 –2021). She is the author and illustrator of the bestselling The Wizards of Once and

Welcome to Year 4

Cressida Cowell Class

Cressida Cowell Cressida Cowell is currently the Waterstones Children’s Laureate (2019 – 2021). She is the author and illustrator of the bestselling The Wizards of Once and How to Train Your Dragon books series, and the author of the Emily Brown picture books. She has

sold over 11 million books worldwide in 38 languages.

Cressida Cowell was born in London on 15th April 1966. Her first published work was a picture book called Little Bo Peep’s Library Book. It came out in 1998. Her best friend at

school was Lauren Child, the author of the Charlie and Lola books.

Cressida is an ambassador for the National Literacy Trust and the Reading Agency, a Trustee of World Book Day and a founder patron of the Children’s Media

Foundation. She has won numerous prizes, including the Gold Award in the Nestle Children’s Book Prize.

Meet the staff – about us!

Teachers

Laura Millson (Mon, Tues)

Katie Brown (Wed, Thurs, Fri)

Year 4 TAs

Mrs Lindsey Larkin and Mrs Teresa Wesley

Mrs Katie Brown

• I trained to be a teacher in 2003 after experience as an LSA and have taught mainly in KS2. I joined RAB in 2015.

• I have two children, Isla who’s 4 and Archie who’s 2. I enjoy yoga, cooking and am currently on the couch to 5K mission!

• As well as my role as class teacher, I am part of the English Team and lead on the Rights Respecting ethos.

• Wellbeing is key for me in class and we focus on ‘checking in’ so that the children can recognise their feelings and be as ready to learn as they can be.

• I am very happy and excited to be teaching your wonderful children and helping them to develop their talents.

Mrs Laura Millson

This will be my 5th year teaching at RAB.

I trained at Reading University and studied Primary Education with English.

I am married to Jon and have a little girl called Elizabeth.

Senior Leadership Team

If you have any concerns about your child or their education...

1) Class teacher – always your first port of call. Please give them time

to investigate & act upon your question/concern

2) Phase Leader – Mrs Liz Cobbold

3) Deputy Heads – Mrs Scott & Mrs Cooper

4) Executive Headteacher – Mrs Emma Vincent

Please note: any SEN concerns should also come through the class teacher initially, though you may then be referred to Mrs Sarah Spaxman (Deputy Head - SENDCo and Inclusion)

Contact and Communication

• The class teacher is your first port of call for any issues or questions regarding your child.

• It isn’t practical for us to talk to parents at the beginning of the school day, but we are always happy to give you a call to discuss any issues or questions you might have, arrange to meet you after school or reply to emails.

• You can email the office admin address and your message will be forwarded to us and we will always get back to you.

• [email protected]

Opportunities to come into Year 3 & 4

• Following our review of the parent questionnaires, rather than Class Assemblies, we will be trialling other opportunities for parents to share in the children’s learning.

• At least once a term, there will be the opportunity for parents / carers to come into school.

• This may be at various different times:– At the end of a topic unit to share outcomes and experiences– As part of a parent workshop– Open afternoons

• We will let you know when these will be asap to enable you to make arrangements to join us.

Knowledge Organisers

• This year we are trialling the use of Knowledge Organisers which are a one page summary of the key knowledge and vocabulary that the children will need to have about a particular subject or topic.

• We will be using these in Science and History this term.

• A copy will be sent home so that you can share in what the children will be learning.

• There may be homework tasks linked to this. (show example)

An example …

Curriculum Structure

• For our foundation subjects, we began last year ‘blocking’ our teaching and learning. This proved very successful and we will be continuing with this structure this year.

• Autumn Term 1Wk 1 Wk 2 Wk 3 Wk 4 Wk 5 Wk 6 Wk 7

4MM 6RS, Wonder of World, Class

AuthorHistory History

GeographyLinked to

settlement

ScienceLiving things

ArtSketching Skills

MusicGlockenspiel

Stage 24AF 6RS, Wonder of

World, Class Author

History History GeographyLinked to

settlement

ArtSketching Skills

MusicGlockenspiel

Stage 2

ScienceLiving things

4CC 6RS, Wonder of World, Class

AuthorHistory History

GeographyLinked to

settlement

MusicGlockenspiel

Stage 2

ScienceLiving things

ArtSketching Skills

P.E. Kit

PE will happen on a Wednesday and on a Tuesday or Thursday on alternate weeks.

Reading

It is important that the children read daily at home.• The children will have free access to high quality books from

our classroom book area that they may bring home to share with you.

• Even at Upper Key Stage Two, it is incredibly important that the children read daily, whether out loud to you, or quietly to themselves. Even if they don’t read out loud to you, do please discuss with them what they have been reading and ask them questions about it. Discussion about texts is just as important as the reading of the words!

• Reading will be recorded in their Reading Record books. The children will write the date that they take each new book, its title and then a short review / opinion when they have finished it.

The RAB Year of Reading

Reading Buddies

Reading Garden

Fun Reading Friday

Mr Boddington’s Tube maps

Reading groups

And so much more….

Reading

It is important that the children read daily at home.• The children will have free access to high quality books from

our classroom book area that they may bring home to share with you.

• They will be able to bring home a traditional ‘reading book’ each day plus a picture book of their choice – it may be fiction or non-fiction. We will remind them daily & multiple times of day too!

• It is incredibly important that the children read daily, whether out loud to you, or quietly to themselves. Even if they don’t read out loud to you, do please discuss with them what they have been reading and ask them questions about it. They or you need to record this reading in their diary each day.

• We will also visit the school library each week for the children to select another book to share with you (day to be confirmed)

Do you know what a difference 20 minutes reading a day can make?

HomeworkSet: Friday Due: Wednesday

English and Maths each week

English to be completed in the relevant books. Please use a pencil when possible.

SwimmingSwimming starts after half term in the autumn term. We would very much appreciate your help in accompanying us. If you can offeryour time, please let us know. We need parent helpers in order to have enough adults to walk there.

Parent/adult helpers

We’d like to encourage you to be involved if you can and we – and the children – really enjoy having their adults in school to help with

all kinds of activities.

These include- Swimming- Listening to readers- Practical activities- Trips

(PLEASE NOTE: DBS Check

is necessary – Please contact

Wendy in the school office).

RAB PTA• We have a very active PTA who raise £1000s each year. In

the 2018-19 academic year, they raised a massive £18,500

• It is led by a small committee, BUT they could not do all they do without parent involvement

• PTA welcome meeting and AGM on Friday 27th

September 2019 9.00am-10.30am ALL welcome

• First event – PTA Inflatables Afternoon on Friday 20th

September 3.30pm-6.00pm

Feedback Policy

• This is not just about marking, it is also about the verbal feedback your child receives about their learning

• You may notice your child completing slightly less work, this is to give a little more time for them to reflect on their learning

• You will see evidence of them self-reflecting on what has gone well in their learning that session and what they have identified as the thing they need to work on next time. This will be in purple.

• Continuation of Masterclasses and Growing Green Time. The children will respond to the teachers green questions but in purple at the beginning of each lesson. If your child has had a masterclass it will be evidenced in their book.

• Use of Feedback Five for children to let teachers know immediately how they feel about that lesson’s learning by placing books on a scale of 1-5.

Ancient Egyptians

Our theme for this term is ‘The Ancient Egyptians’. Much of the children’s thematic work will be based on this history unit. The children will also be reading ‘The Time Travelling Cat and the Egyptian Goddess’ by Julia Jarman, helping them to write their own portal tale based in Ancient Egypt.

Any questions?