Kestrel Class
Welcome to Kestrel Class
My name is Mr Clark and I am the Year 4 teacher. I am very excited to be teaching your child and getting to know them this year.
Together, through playing and learning we aim to REACH our full potential by inspiring to be:
Resilient
Engaged
Ambitious
Creative
Healthy
Autumn 2
This half term, we are going to be very busy learning lots of new things! In English, we are going to be focussing on our Literacy Pathways text, ‘Leon and the Place Between’ where we aim to write Leon’s diary at the end of our unit. In Maths, we will be covering area, multiplication and division. In RE this half term we will be exploring Christianity. Our science lessons will focus on states of matter.
Follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with our weekly learning!
Our handle is @LittleSuttonCoE
A Day in the Life
Below is a timetable of our week in Kestrel Class.
Expectations
P.E will be on Monday afternoons and Tuesday mornings. PE kits will be required for this. Kits consist of a white top, black bottoms with either pumps or trainers. Children are encouraged to bring a healthy snack into school for break time. Can you please bring a water bottle in for your child so they can stay hydrated throughout the day with their name on. We do encourage water only.
- Read, read and read some more! This will really help your child’s development across all areas of the curriculum. Please ‘strive for 5’ times a week. Please sign their reading diaries accordingly and have them in every day.
- TT Rockstars is also encouraged.
- A spelling list will be sent home to learn weekly.
Get in Touch
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to email me on
joe.clark@littlesutton.cheshire.sch.uk
Thank you for your support and I look forward to continuing to getting to know you.
Mr Clark.
Expectations
P.E will be on Monday afternoons and Tuesday mornings. PE kits will be required for this. Kits consist of a white top, black bottoms with either pumps or trainers. Children are encouraged to bring a healthy snack into school for break time. Can you please bring a water bottle in for your child so they can stay hydrated throughout the day with their name on. We do encourage water only.
- Read, read and read some more! This will really help your child’s development across all areas of the curriculum. Please ‘strive for 5’ times a week. Please sign their reading diaries accordingly and have them in every day.
- TT Rockstars is also encouraged.
- A spelling list will be sent home to learn weekly.
Get in Touch
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to email me on
joe.clark@littlesutton.cheshire.sch.uk
Thank you for your support and I look forward to continuing to getting to know you.
Mr Clark.
Meet the teachers
Mr Clark
Useful Information
In partnership with White Rose Maths, here at Little Sutton C of E we follow Power Maths, a whole-class mastery programme that fits alongside our Schemes. Power Maths is designed to spark curiosity and excitement and help you nurture confidence in maths.
Power Maths KS2 is recommended by the DfE, having met the NCETM’s criteria for high-quality textbooks, and have been judged as “fully delivering a mastery approach”.
Discover
Every lesson starts with a Discover task to get children to solve a problem that aims to generate curiosity. During the Discover section children may use manipulatives to help them understand the maths and explain their method.
Share
The next stage encourages children to Share the methods they have tried to solve the problem in Discover.
Think Together
We only learn when we are thinking! In this section Power Maths takes the approach “I do, we do, you do”, as children apply the knowledge they have just learned in a series of problems that continue to encourage thinking throughout
Practice
Children are then ready for some independent Practice.
Reflect
The final Reflect question helps the children evaluate whether they have understood the key concept and small step that they have been trying to master in the lesson.
Pathways to Write is a proven methodology built around units of work which develop vocabulary, reading and writing skills through the mastery approach. The units are linked to high-quality texts to ensure engaging and purposeful English lessons. Effective teaching strategies to challenge greater depth writers are included within each unit of work.
Within each unit, there are new age-related skills for children to work on and master through a variety of activities and writing opportunities. By limiting the number of skills the units contain, children can really hone their writing techniques, providing excellent, focussed assessment opportunities for teachers.
At regular intervals, there are suggestions for extending greater depth writers within the context of the lesson.
Pathways to Read is a brand-new programme designed to equip pupils with key skills to move them through the reading process towards becoming competent and fluent readers.
Pathways to Read ensures engaging and purposeful reading lessons.
The units are used thematically alongside our Pathways to Write to encourage a whole school curriculum approach with the opportunity for topics to link across all year groups. Both programmes compliment one another.
Pathways to Spell is an innovative and engaging programme to fascinate pupils about words. It is a research-based series of lessons following a Review, Explain, Practise, Apply and Reflect model. Through this programme, we aim to develop a school of spellers who use a series of strategies in lessons and in their independent writing. Unlike other spelling programmes, there is a cycle of review objectives covering the whole curriculum to ensure gaps in learning are constantly revisited.
Student-driven. Teacher-guided.
Accelerated Reader puts students in the driver’s seat. You guide students, while engaging quizzes and activities help hone students’ reading skills with authentic practice—encouraging growth.
Guide
Personalised goals help students stay focused on the factors that matter most for reading growth—and help you monitor their progress and provide feedback to keep learners on track.
Enga
ge
Individual reading recommendations use students’ interests and reading levels to suggest “just-right” titles—or students can self-select from over 200,000 choices!
Practice
“Just reading” transforms into high-quality reading practice that fuels growth: Reading quizzes monitor comprehension, while literacy skills and vocabulary quizzes extend student learning and build skills mastery.
Grow
Detailed reports provide insights into students’ progress. Paired with Renaissance Star Reading®, track students’ mastery of focus skills aligned to state-specific learning standards.
What is Kagan Cooperative learning?
Kagan cooperative Learning is a teaching strategy in which small teams of students (usually teams of 4) work together towards a learning goal. They may also be working with partners or the whole class. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus trying to create an atmosphere of achievement. Students work through the task until all group members successfully understand and complete it.
What does the research say?
Hattie (2009) found cooperative vs individualistic learning to have an effect size of 0.59 (An effect size above 0.4 is above average for educational research). He did however advise that it is most powerful when students have acquired sufficient background knowledge to be involved in discussion and learning with peers. He also found it was most useful when learning concepts, verbal problem-solving, spatial problem-solving, retention and memory. Effects increase with age.
Why Do We Use Kagan’s model of cooperative learning?
• To provide a structured approach to cooperative learning
• It gives teacher content free set structures, which have a series of steps, to use
• Develop children’s social skills such as turn taking, listening to others and sharing information
• It is backed by research which is in line with our principle that we base what we are doing on what has been proven to work
• Use of the structures will help to increase the amount of time pupils spend on task



