The following information provides parents and prospective families with an overview of the curriculum content for Key Stage 2 - Grade 4.
The curriculum is divided into core and foundation subjects as follows:
- Core Subjects: Mathematics, English and Science
- Foundation Subjects: Geography, History, ICT, Art and Design, Design Technology, Physical Education, Music, Spanish, French, Drama and Citizenship
From time to time this content will see a process of appraisal and update. In line with a ‘Creative Curriculum’, a topic based approach to learning is developed, where cross curricular themes are integrated to enable relevance.
Children are given the tools to be an integral part of the learning process and the confidence to perform successfully beyond The International School of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
English - Key Stage 2 Curriculum
Unsure what your child gets up to in English lessons? Get clued up with our guide to the Grade 4 English curriculum.
Literacy is a daily lesson, made up of three aspects:
- Reading
- Writing
- Speaking and listening
In literacy this year, the children could be studying one or more of the following topics:
- Stories with a historical setting
- Stories in imaginary worlds
- Stories from other cultures
- Plays
- Newspapers and magazines
- Information texts
Reading in Grade 4 – your child will:
- apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes to read aloud and understand the meaning of new words they meet
- read a range of fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction texts
- re-tell stories orally
- perform poems and play scripts, showing understanding through intonation and action
- infer characters' feelings through their actions, justifying their inference with evidence
- identify main ideas drawn and summarise these
Children should be allowed to choose a book at school to take home with them to read. You may be given an exercise book to write your comments in when you read with them.
Children will be reading with their teacher in groups once a week (known as guided reading).
Writing in Grade 4 – your child will understand how to spell words with a variety of prefixes and suffixes, use the possessive apostrophe in words with regular plurals and use a wider range of connectives (when, before, after, while, so, because). They will start using inverted commas to punctuate speech and use fronted adverbials with commas and hopefully become more confident in joining their handwriting, increasing its legibility and quality.
Maths - Key Stage 2 Curriculum
Want to know what subjects will be the focus in maths lessons in Grade 4? Find a detailed breakdown here.
As with reading and writing, by Grade 4 most children have a good grasp of the basic maths skills and their mental maths recall is becoming more automatic.
It’s important by now that the children have a good knowledge of their times tables up to ten. The children will be starting to develop their own ideas of how to solve maths problems, and how to check that their calculations are correct.
Calculators may be introduced in this year, and your teacher will show the children how to use them correctly. Maths is still taught daily through a mix of oral, practical and written work, and the children are given plenty of opportunities to see how maths links to other areas of the curriculum, and real life situations.
Topics covered include:
- Number and Place Value
- Calculating
- Measuring
- Fractions and Decimals
- Geometry
- Statistics
Science - Key Stage 2 Curriculum
Find out what is taught in Grade 4 science and how you can build on your child’s learning at home.
In Grade 4 Science, your child will be encouraged to ask questions about scientific concepts and then carry out experiments to find out the answers. In doing this they will:
- learn what a 'fair test' is.
- take measurements from a range of equipment.
- gather and record data.
- report on findings orally and in writing.
Science topics in Grade 4 include:
- Living things and their habitats
- Animals, including humans
- States of matter
- Sound
- Electricity
The Grade 4 Foundation Subjects are: Geography, History, ICT, Art and Design, Design Technology, Physical Education, Music, Spanish, French, Drama and Citizenship.
Great consideration is given to our regional needs within teacher planning and all children are encouraged to understand how our locality relates to the rest of the world, thinking and enquiring as future world citizens.
Children are encouraged to develop self-motivation and encouraged to capture ‘Excellence and Enjoyment’.
It is our team goal to provide inspiration and a meaningful approach to learning. We are particularly driven to focus on local and global issues and the International communities that we serve, adapting the curriculum to meet these needs in a holistic way.