Year 4 update

This page is updated every two weeks - 9th January 2026

 

Dear Parents and Carers,

 

Happy New Year and welcome back! I hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable break. It has been lovely to welcome the children back into school and see them settling so positively back into school life.

This term, we are looking forward to an exciting and busy time ahead. In literacy, we are starting a new story 'Varjak Paw' and will be building up the skills to write a suspense narrative. In Maths, we are looking at more formal methods of solving multiplication and division problems so please keep practising those times tables at home! Our Science learning will focus on electricity and how to be safe around electrical products in the home, as well as building circuits which leads nicely into our DT unit where we will make torches!

Alongside our curriculum learning, we will continue to place a strong emphasis on independence, resilience, and teamwork. Year 4 is an important year for building confidence and responsibility, and the children have already made a fantastic start.

Thank you for your continued support. If you have any questions or concerns at any point, please do get in touch.

Kind regards,

 

Ms Marshall and Mrs Steninger

 

 

We are delighted to be supporting the NSPCC by taking part in Number Day on Thursday 5th February 2026. 

 

Everything the NSPCC does protects children today and prevents abuse tomorrow. 

 

NSPCC Number Day makes maths meaningful and is a great way to make numbers fun and bring about a positive, ‘can-do’ attitude towards mathematics. 

• We will be taking on Buddy’s Key Challenge in our classes to help raise vital funds for the NSPCC. 
  We will be working to solve exciting maths puzzles in our classes, against the clock with Buddy, the Speak out. Stay safe mascot. 
• We will be having a fun day of maths activities, and we will be taking part in Dress up for Digits. Pupils are asked to wear an item of clothing with a number on it (sports top, football, rugby, netball, hockey shirt or cap). Or get even more creative and become a human calculator, dice or domino by dressing in a maths or numbers theme. To help raise money for the NSPCC, we are asking for donations, and we’d love everyone in the school to take part in this special event. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Snacks- Please send your child in with a healthy snack every day and please remember we are a no nuts school. This includes some types of hummus and pesto.

 

We have started our new spelling programme 'Ready, Steady, Spell!' Spellings for the half term are posted here: Hollymount School - Spellings with the dates of tests, we will also send a paper copy home with the spelling strategies that we use in class. Please note that the spellings that we learn in class each week will be tested 2 weeks later. More information can be found here: Hollymount School - Ready Steady Spell (Year 2-6)

To help your child prepare for the Year 4 multiplication check in June, please use this website to practise: https://urbrainy.com/mtc The important thing is that the children do not need to press enter after inputting their answer which gives them time to delete and correct if they make a mistake. Pressing enter immediately takes their first answer even if there is still time left. Please use this site to practise but TTRS and practising orally are still key to committing the tables to memory.

IDL https://idlsgroup.com/ is a great site to practise all maths skills and all children have access.  All children also have access to times table rock stars https://play.ttrockstars.com/ which is fun and they can challenge their friends! Passwords will be sent home in the next few days. Please see https://www.hollymount.org/Maths-at-home/ for more information. 

As you may know, all children at Hollymount are currently receiving an additional Dance and Performance Arts lesson each week as we really want to foster a love for creativity and performance. As part of this, we would love to invite you to an ‘open lesson’, where parents and carers can come and watch their children perform a short dance routine during their usual weekly dance slot.

The dates and times for these open lessons are as follows:

Class	Date	Time
4S	5th March 2026	11.15am
4M	6th March 2026	11.15am

Due to space limitations (as the sessions will be in the small hall), we please ask that only two members of each family attend.

Family members wishing to attend the open lesson should queue up by the green gate by the small hall and Charlotte, who leads the sessions, will greet you there. We hope you are able to attend and enjoy getting an opportunity to see your children developing their creative arts skills.

 

 

 

Maths- Multiplication and Division - moving on to using formal written methods

Literacy- Varjak Paw - suspense narrative

Science- Electricity 

RE- Food and Fasting

History - Where does our food come from?

French-  Ma famille

DT - Electrical systems - making torches

Art - Fabric of Nature

PSHE- Economic wellbeing

 

 

Hollymount Entitlement:

Buddhist Temple Spring 2 TBC

Maya Curriculum day Spring 2 TBC

 

PE Days (wear PE kit to school)                

4S - Wednesdays and Thursdays

4M - Monday and Thursday. Friday is dance, PE kit is optional.

 

Website information

Remember to check out our website page for more information https://www.hollymount.org/Year-4/ 

Our website also includes all curriculum information so you can find out what your child is learning https://www.hollymount.org/Our-Curriculum/  and has advice for support positive mental health https://www.hollymount.org/Mental-Health-and-Wellbeing/