Welcome To Year 4
Welcome to Year 4
Meet the Year Group Teacher, Miss Gray…
Hello, I’m Sharon Gray. I have been a teacher at Oxclose Primary for over 30 years and have had the pleasure of teaching many of our parents, but no grandparents yet!
Most people know that I love teaching a ‘Creative Curriculum’ and children who have been in my class will have taken part in many themed days and events linked to our topic. I believe they give children the chance to write for a real purpose and some of my favourites in the past have included: organising a fashion show, opening a minibeast museum, training C.S.I. officers to solve a murder, running a Victorian school and opening a French bistro!
At home, I have a large family with two sisters, eight nieces and nephews and four (so far!) great nieces and nephews – the youngest, Orla, was born this July and is gorgeous! As you can imagine family parties and events are always large, always noisy and always great fun! I love gardening and hunting around antique fairs, but my main ambition is still to become a dog owner! (Ex pupils still ask me about my Jack Russell, Dog, the unofficial Oxclose mascot for many years and I miss all those long walks!)
I am really looking forward to teaching Year 4 this year and excited about being part of such a great team. The class will be taught music and R.E. by Mrs Jordan-Richardson and P.E. by Mr Beeston, who is Head of P.E. at Oxclose Community Academy, on Wednesday afternoons. Mrs Winlow will cover my Management Release time on Friday afternoons (teaching Makaton, P.S.H.E., geography and D.T.) and she will teach Mathematics and English groups each morning.
Meet the rest of our dedicated, hard-working team…
The Year 4 team are very experienced, with a range of skills. The ratio of adults to children is very good, so in any week, all children will get to work in small guided groups.
Mrs Winlow is our H.L.T.A. (Higher Level Teaching Assistant). She has been at Oxclose for eight years and we have always enjoyed working together in the past. She is especially excited about helping the children in her group to learn through a creative approach to the curriculum.
Mrs McDonald is one of our four teaching assistants and a First Aider. She has a lot of experience working across all age groups and enjoys helping children access every part of the curriculum. Mrs McDonald really cares about the children in her care and always strives to do her best for them.
Mrs Philpott-Smith is also a teaching assistant and First Aider, who has been at Oxclose for ten years and worked in most year groups. She says she really enjoys seeing children progress and blossom in her care and takes a pride in helping them learn.
Mrs Unsworth is an experienced teaching assistant who has supported children across Key Stage 2. She knows the class well, having worked with them in Year 3, and is keen for all children to do their very best at all times.
Mrs Wright is a very experienced teaching assistant, who is eager to help children behave appropriately in different settings. She takes the time to help children learn strategies to manage their feelings and to avoid confrontation and always has finds time to talk to children about their worries and concerns.
Art Day
Durham University
Design and Technology Day
Mad Scientist Day
Skipping Festival
Science Week
Year 4 Puzzle Day
Thank you so much to all the parents and grandparents who came to help! We had a great morning learning to play new games and applying all the skills we have learned in maths lessons this year.
Everyone, including adults, had a go at using strategy activities and puzzles, mental maths challenges and board games (although Miss Gray just couldn’t win in Number Bond Snap!)
World Book Day
Christmas in Year 4
Roman Day Games
Anti Bullying Week – Blue Friday
Puzzle Afternoon
Armistice Day
Roman Day
Red Riding Hood – The Trial
Roald Dahl 100 Day
Tortoises – Speedy and Rafa
Speedy and Rafa are Katie’s Horsefield Tortoises. Speedy first came to see us and then returned with his friend, Rafa, to show us his ‘tortoise table’ (his home!)
Speedy (darker markings) liked being handled, but Rafa (paler markings) was much shyer and didn’t leave the corner of his home all day.
The table has a light bulb to keep the tortoises warm as they are reptiles, so cold blooded animals.
Tortoise-Eye View!
“I’m not moving!” (Rafa)
“Well I love my grub!!” (Speedy)
We all had a close look at the tortoises and their home:
Hockey Festival
Buttlerflies
Ben purchased some Red Admiral eggs and hatched them out at home. They hatched as caterpillars, then turned into a pupa before finally emerging as fully grown Red Admiral butterflies. The butterflies have been fed sugar water and fruit, but Ben will release them this weekend, now we have all seen them.
Devil’s Wood
We will be visiting this area throughout the year to study the changing seasons and how plants and animals adapt.
On our first visit we found lots of autumn nuts and fruits such as blackberries, rose hips, acorns, conkers and pine cones.
We were lucky enough to see some squirrels perform acrobatics high in the trees, a pair of magpies having a dust bath and a feral cat stalking a mouse.
Sadly, however, we also found lots of evidence of how people have damaged the woodland environment by littering, graffiti, and setting fires.
We have decided to form the Green Planet Group to try to improve things for this local habitat. We are inventing a logo and setting up a plan of action to improve the local habitat, so look out for news of our plans soon!
Year 4 Press Day
Thank you so much parents for supporting your children in dressing for work today!
The offices of The Fairy Tale Times was busy today as we tried to get the paper to press!
We started by checking out the competition and seeing what they were offering their readers, then had an editorial meeting where the paper’s owner S. Gray and its editor, E. Thornton, set out their expectations for the latest issue.
Staff wrote front page reports on the recent arrest of Goldilocks Smith and local news stories such as Miss Muffet’s story of how she overcame her agoraphobia, the mystery surrounding the death of A. Giant, who fell when a beanstalk was unexpectedly cut down, the sad experience of Mrs Pig who lost two of her sons at the hands of B.B. Wolf and the plight of Mrs Hood, a 78 year old grandmother who no longer feels safe in her own home! The advertising department were also keen to make sure all companies who support The Fairy Tale Times had their adverts placed correctly.
The editor, Emily Thornton and her deputy, Alannah Taylor made sure the paper got to press on time and staff enjoyed a welcome break in the staff canteen!
