Cressing Primary School

Welcome to Year 4!  January 2026

Dear Parents, Children and Families.

Welcome back to school after the Christmas break.  The first term went really well with many great achievements and successes.   Baking bread and visiting George Yard were some of our highlights.  Performing Silent Night was an excellent experience for us all.  We were very proud of the children’s efforts and personal development.

Our new term has started with revisiting our Class Code of Conduct and whole school expectations, for example in assembly and at lunch times.  We have also discussed our Cressing 6C ‘Committed’, and explored what this might look like for us all.  It has been fantastic to see the class coming up with such thoughtful responses. 

Multiplication Tables Check.

In 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. It was great to meet with many of you last term to explain this.  Continued times table learning at home will help all pupils.  Please do message if you have any questions.  cmoulton@cressing.essex.sch.uk

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 in the next few weeks.

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 morning.

Class Outline Timetable.

This term’s main learning themes.

Water.  We will be learning about how we use it, how it is processed and how we can play our part to conserve it.

Modern Britain.   We will look at how different aspects of modern Britain came about and how they have developed over time.

We will be reading and writing descriptions with metaphors and similes, buddy stories, articles, letters and cinquain poetry.

Our class novel is ‘The Butterfly Lion’ by Michael Morpurgo.  We have already started this book that is one of Mr Moulton’s favourite children’s novels.

In February we will be taking part in activities to do with Children’s Mental Health Week and Safer Internet Day.  In March we will have our English Theme Week including World Book Day.

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 – January 2026