Cressing Primary School

Welcome to Year 4 Summer Term! April 2026

Dear Parents, Children and Families.

Welcome back to school after the Easter break. The last term went really well with many more great achievements and successes. We were particularly impressed with the children’s commitment to developing their times tables and division skills, with so many making progress and reaching the required level. World Book Day, the visit from Alice Sharpe and the tennis coaching were real highlights for our class - excellent experiences for us all. We continued to be very proud of the children’s efforts and personal development.

Once again, our new term has started with revisiting our Class Code of Conduct and whole school expectations, for example in PE lessons and in the corridors. We have also discussed our Cressing 6C ‘Contributing’, and explored what this might look like for us all. It has been impressive to see the class coming up with such thoughtful and mature responses.

Multiplication Tables Check.

In the first two weeks of June, every Year 4 child in the country will undertake the Government’s national Multiplication Tables Check (MTC). The children will be electronically tested on times tables questions, to ensure they have quick recall of all the table facts. Continued times table learning at home will help all pupils. Please do message if you have any questions. We will be sending home a pack of cards for some children who need an extra boost to reach the required standard. cmoulton@cressing.essex.sch.uk

Visit to Colchester Zoo. Tuesday 16th June 2026.

We are looking forward to this visit which is always a great day for the pupils and staff! Thank you to everyone who has returned their forms already. Please remember these forms need to be returned by 1/5/26 so that the final preparations can be made. On this occasion we do not require any adult helpers.

The three animals that we will focus our learning on are meerkats, elephants and spider monkeys.

Art Project – Plain t-shirt request. July.

Our art project this term is tie dye. This will be linked to our learning about oceans, pollution and the zoo visit. If possible, please can each child bring in a plain white (or light coloured) t-shirt, that they can tie dye. Please send to school by Monday 29th June. We will be sewing embellishments on to these t-shirts. If you have any spares, please do also send in! Linked to this, if you have any old oversized shirts that could be used as art aprons, they would be gratefully received. We will be sewing on Friday afternoons during the last half term. If you are able to join us to help support groups, please do email Mr Moulton! 😊

Home Learning.

New home learning tasks are set for the class each week on a Monday, to be completed for the following Monday. They will alternate between maths and English tasks. These continue the same this term. We strongly encourage children to do working out on paper, then input answers etc.

The codes for maths.co.uk and spag.com are in their reading records.

We also recommend…

1. Daily times tables learning. Try to learn these in lots of different ways during the week. Chanting, singing, random questions or computer games etc. Ongoing. Times Tables Rock Stars is an awesome way to help develop fluency with this. Each week we have a new battle to see which house group and individuals have spent the most time gaming.

3. Daily reading. 15/20 minutes. We encourage a wide variety of reading! Please sign diaries each time the child reads to / with you. If you can quiz at home, then that is really helpful. The link for this is always on the latest copy of the school newsletter.

4. Learning the Year 3 and 4 Common Exception spelling words. Reading these. Discussing the words and their meanings. Spelling them. These words are in the reading record and home learning book. This is an ongoing task.

Important Class Information.

· PE is on Tuesday and Wednesday.

· Homework – as above.

If your child has a One Plan, we will be making arrangements to review these with you later in the term.

Snacks Please ensure you child has a healthy snack each day that does not include nuts.

Adults in Year 4.

Mr Moulton – Class Teacher. Monday. Tuesday morning. Thursday. Friday.

Mr Chambers – Class Teacher. Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday.

Mrs Bartlett – Class Learning Support Assistant / 1:1 LSA every morning and Tuesday afternoon.

Mrs Brignull – 1:1 LSA Thursday afternoon.

Miss Sabini – 1:1 LSA Tuesday and Friday mornings.

Class Outline Timetable.

Monday Early Morning Tasks Handwriting Guided Reading Maths Skills Break English Skills Lunch Maths Skills & Times Tables RE PSHE Story & Assembly

Tuesday Early Morning Tasks Spellings Guided Reading Maths Skills Break English Skills Lunch PE Computing Assembly

Wednesday Early Morning Tasks Spellings Grammar Science Break Science Lunch PE Music French Assembly

Thursday Early Morning Tasks Handwriting Guided Reading Maths Skills Break English Skills Lunch Maths Skills & Times Tables History Geography Story & Assembly

Friday Early Morning Tasks Spellings Guided Reading Maths Skills Break English skills Lunch Maths Skills * Times Tables Design & Technology Art Story & Assembly

PSHE

This term’s main learning themes.

Animals and zoos. We will be writing persuasive letters, animal poetry and learning about habitats and deforestation.

Ancient Greece. We will look at different aspects of life in Ancient Greek times and how these continue to shape our world today.

We will be reading and writing in the style of Michael Morpurgo, diary extracts, tanka poems and some extracts from A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream.

Our class novel is The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate Di Camillo. This is a fantastic novel about the journey of a special toy rabbit!

In May we have our Sports Day (see school newsletter for information) and in June we have our STEM theme week. On Tuesday 7th July, we will be taking part in the Royal Ballet and Opera’s mass dance event called ‘Dance for Rights’ celebrating children’s rights.

Our PSHE unit is about Growing Up and looks at how families can sometimes look different to others, that there are different types of stable, caring relationships, about the commitment of marriage, and how to recognise if family relationships are making them happy or unsafe.

If you have any ideas / thoughts / expertise in any of these areas – please do let us know.

We look forward to working alongside you to help your child achieve their very best. Please let us know if there are any questions / ideas that we can help with. The email address is above.

Mr Moulton, Mr Chambers, Mrs Bartlett, Mrs Brignull and Miss Sabini – April 2026