Welcome letter – Year 4 (2021-2022)
Dear Parents and Carers
Welcome to Year 4! Croeso i Flwyddyn 4!
I hope you all had a great summer and are looking forward to a new and hopefully more settled year at Oystermouth. I know I am!
I am the class teacher Miss Draper, and have taught many of the children before in Reception. Before teaching Reception I was the PPA teacher at Oystermouth for a number of years, teaching all the different year groups. I am really looking forward to this move to KS2 class teacher. We will have Mrs John with us in class also every morning and some afternoons.
On Monday mornings, I will send out a letter via Class Dojo to let you know what we will be doing in the week and any special information you need to know.
If you need to contact me, the best and most immediate way is via Class Dojo, which I have up on my computer at school all day and again when I am working in my own time after school (usually in the evenings after my own children are in bed!) I don’t have Dojo on my phone and only check it when I am ready to work so you won’t be disturbing me sending a message! I will also use Dojo to post photos of what we are getting up to in class. Please let me know if you are having any problems accessing Class Dojo and I will help you to get connected!
Homework
Reading: We will be reading regularly in class but I want to encourage all the children to read as much as possible at home also, either by themselves or to an adult. Books can be brought home from school, borrowed from the library or could be a book they have at home. A Reading Diary will be sent home shortly for the children to complete when they read. I may send home specific texts with some simple related activities if I feel your child needs a boost with reading skills. Children can also use Reading Eggs / Reading Eggspress which they will be familiar with from Year 3, for reading and comprehension activities at home and in school.
Spelling: There will be a set of spellings to learn each week, sent out on Thursdays, with an informal spelling test the next Thursday. Please encourage your children to learn their spelling words as it will help them when completing independent writing and improve the quality of their work.
Maths: Each week there will be one piece of Maths homework which will be related to work covered in class that week. This may be a printed worksheet or an activity to complete on MyMaths. Please let me know if you have any problems accessing MyMaths and I will sort it out for you.
Homework menu: At the start of each new topic (every half term), a Homework Menu will be sent out with a list of activities for children to choose from. We encourage the children to complete at least one activity per fortnight and try to choose a variety of activities from the menu. Some of the activities will be children’s ideas from our EPIC planning. All homework will be rewarded with Dojo points!
Mascot: The class will have a Welsh mascot that will be sent home once a week once we have got ourselves up and running. When it is their turn to have the mascot, please encourage your child to write a short diary entry using our Welsh language patterns (don’t worry, I will include guidance and vocabulary in the pack!) and pictures or photos of what they get up to if they would like to include them. The mascot will be isolated on return ready for the new recipient!
General information
PPA: Miss Bawden will be taking my PPA sessions for the Autumn Term on a Friday afternoon when she will be teaching PE and RE. The children can come to school in a PE kit on Fridays ready for this session. PE kit is navy or black shorts, skort, leggings or joggers, white t-shirt without buttons, and trainers.
Uniform: Please ensure that school uniform is worn and that all jumpers, bags, water bottles, coats etc are clearly named. The children will be storing their bags and coats in the Year 4 area in the corridor.
Water: Please send in a labelled water bottle for your child. These can be refilled if they run out during the day.
Tuck shop: The KS2 fruit tuck shop will be running shortly. If your child would like a breaktime fruit snack, they can bring in money for items, 30p per item, or can pay on Monday for the whole week.
Stationery: Pupils may bring in a pencil case to keep in their trays. All the equipment the children will need is available in school but I know that many children like to bring their own things in. I will supply handwriting pens and normal pencils.
Topics: Each half term, we will be starting a new topic. The children will all be involved in planning the learning through our EPIC (Everybody Planning in Class) sessions. We began this process on the transition morning at the end of the summer term and the children had some great ideas for our first topic ‘What’s in Our Square Mile?’
Visits: Hopefully, we will be going out and about in the local area and there will also be visits linked to our class topics. Further details will be given as soon as they are arranged.
If you need to contact me, need to know any more information, or have any questions or anything you would like to tell me about your child please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can either send me a message on Class Dojo or email me on:
and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Many thanks and I very much look forward to working with you and your children!
Ellen Draper
