Areas of learning years 3 and 4
Reading
Your child should be able to read books written for their age and be developing their understanding and enjoyment of stories, poetry, plays and non-fiction.
They will be encouraged to learn to read silently.
They should be learning to justify their views about what they have read, with support at the start of year 3 and more independently by the end of year 4.
Writing
They should be able to write down their ideas with a reasonable degree of accuracy and with good sentence punctuation.
Spelling
Your child should be learning to spell new words correctly and have plenty of practice in spelling them.
Maths
The main focus of maths will be learning ways to perform calculations accurately with larger numbers.
Your child should be developing their ability to -
- solve a range of problems, including simple fractions and decimal place value
- analyse shapes and their properties
- use measuring instruments with accuracy
- make connections between measure and number
By the end of year 4, they should have memorised their multiplication tables up to and including 12.
Science
Your child should be broadening their scientific view of the world around them through exploring, talking about, testing and developing ideas.
They should ask their own questions about what they observe and make some decisions about the best ways of answering them. This should include:
- observing changes over time
- noticing patterns
- grouping and classifying things
- carrying out simple comparative and fair tests
- finding things out using secondary sources of information
They should be drawing simple conclusions and using some scientific language to talk about and later to write about what they have found out.
Art and Design
Your child should be developing their techniques with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.
Geography
Your child should be extending their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area to include the United Kingdom and Europe, North and South America.
This will include the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features.
They should be developing their use of geographical knowledge, understanding and skills to enhance their locational and place knowledge.
History
At this age your child should be developing knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history. They should note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms.
They should regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance. They should construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information.
They should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.
Modern Languages
You child may be taught any modern or ancient foreign language. The focus should be on enabling them to make substantial progress in one language.
The teaching should provide an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and should lay the foundations for further foreign language teaching at key stage 3, focussing on practical communication.
Music
Children should be taught to sing and play musically with increasing confidence and control.
They should develop an understanding of musical composition, organising and manipulating ideas within musical structures and reproducing sounds from aural memory.
PE
Your child should continue to develop a broad range of skills, learning how to use them in different ways and to link them to make actions and sequences of movement.
They should enjoy communicating, collaborating and competing with each other.
They should develop an understanding of how to improve in different physical activities and sports and learn how to evaluate and recognise their own success.