Shwmae and welcome to Class 4! My name is Mrs Xiberras and I am the class teacher. Working alongside me is Mrs Johnson our Learning Support Assistant.

Teacher: Mrs Xiberras	Learning Support Assistant: Mrs Johnson

Communication

Contact us on Class4@stmellonsprm.cardiff.sch.uk

   X  (Twitter) - @stmellonsprm

 Our Schoop ID: 13339

Overview of the Day

8.55: Register

9.05 – 9.25: Worship ​

9.25-10.45: Literacy, Languages & Communication​

10.45 – 11.00: Snack / Break Time​

11.00 – 12.00: Mathematics & Numeracy​

12.00 – 1.00: Lunch​

1.00 – 1.25: Guided Group Reading​

1.30 – 2.45:​ Inquiry (Humanities/Science and Technology/Expressive Arts/Health and Wellbeing)​

3.00: Daily Welsh Activities​

3.20: Home Time   

Important Dates

Christian Value - Courage
5th January – Children return to school, Values celebration day
6th January - Epiphany Celebration
7th January - Candlemas Assembly for Children 9.15am
16th January - Chinese New Year Celebration PS1&2 for children
20th and 21st January - Spectrum Workshop Years 3 and 4
26th January - St Dwynwen’s Day Celebration for Children
25th January - Whole School Islam Celebration Day for Children
4th February - Courage Clergy Worship 9.15am for Children
Bishop Cherry visiting
2nd - 6th February - National Story Telling Week
6th February - Mid Term Reports sent out to parents
Year 4 Family worship at 9.15am, parents welcome
9th February - Welsh Language Music Day
12th February – Valentine Disco PS1 & 2- 3.30-4.30pm, PS3 4.45-5.45pm
Spectrum Workshop Year 5
9th-15th February - Children’s Mental Health Awareness week
10th February - Safer Internet Day
13th February – Last day of term
16th – 20th February 2026 – Half Term
Christian Value – Forgiveness
23rd February - Return to school, values celebration day
5th March - World Book Day
3rd March - Eisteddfod Celebration for Children
9th March - International Women's Day
9th - 11th March Year 4 Residential to Llangrannog
13th March - World Maths Day
2pm Parents Maths Workshop
17th March - Sikhism Celebration Day
20th March - Year 3 Family Worship at 9:15am, families welcome
Rags to Riches Collection
23rd and 24th March – Parents Evening 3.30-5:30pm
23rd March - Easter Eucharist 9.15am families welcome
23rd March – Easter Celebration Week
26th March - Messy Easter Celebration Day
Easter Bonnet Parade N- Year 3 - 2pm
Bonnet Parade Nursery am - 11.15am
27th March - Last day of term
Easter Holidays – 30th March - 10th April 2026

P.E. and Uniform

Our PE day is Tuesday - children should wear their PE kits to school every Tuesday.   

PE kit is a white polo shirt (or your house colour) and grey or black shorts/joggers & trainers.   Plain kits please, no patterns or large logos. 

Children should wear school uniform each day (apart from PE day). 

PLEASE LABEL ALL ITEMS OF CLOTHING. 

Snack 

Please bring a bottle of water to school daily, clearly labelled with your name. Healthy snacks can be purchased from the snack trolley (ordered via ParentPay) or brought in from home. 

Context for Learning

Our topic this term is 'The Terrible Tudors'.

Our Inquiry Question is: How did life in Tudor times differ from life today?

Throughout this theme, pupils will pupils will gain an understanding of the similarities and differences between life in Tudor times and life now. They will gain an understanding of periods of time and chronology. They will understand how the plague affected people. They will explore how health and disease is treated differently now and how diseases can be prevented. 

LLC -  We will be reading 'Shackleton's Journey' by William Grill. We will be creating formal and informal letters, interviews, diary entries, and newspaper reports.

Maths and Numeracy - Multiplying and dividing, fractions, measure, money, shape and time. 

Humanities - We will be learning about periods of time and chronology. We will be curious and find out how the Tudors lived and why. We will learn about life in Tudor times and life now.

Science and Technology - We will be learning about health and disease and how diseases are treated now, comparing this to Tudor times.  

RVE - Big Question: What do people do in order to feel like they belong? What is it like to follow God? How does visiting a mosque allow people to belong? How can we make refugees feel like they belong?

Health and Well Being - In PE, we will be working on our balance and counter balance, and developing our ball skills to send and receive. Our Jigsaw units will be 'Dreams and Goals' and 'Relationships'.

Expressive Arts - Our focus this term will be on our upcoming art exhibition, focusing on the artist Gwilym Prichard.

Pupil Voice Questions:

Who were the Tudors?

Why were they called the Tudors?

When did the Tudors start and end?

Did they build castles, where are they and what do they look like?

What did people eat in Tudor times?

Were the Tudors really terrible and why?

Why did King Henry VIII have six wives?

How did King Henry VIII start the Church of England?

Did they really behead people?

How did the Tudors live everyday?

Planning

Please see the Inquiry planning document below for our topic (coming soon)!

Please click here for our Inquiry planner

Homework

 Weekly homework – Numeracy / Literacy alternated each week. Usually based on something we have learned that week. Set on Friday, due in on Wednesday. Please submit via Google Classroom or send to our class email.

All learning context homework can be completed over the course of the term and your child can choose to do as many of the tasks as they wish. We would love to share some of their home learning within the classroom at the end of term so please send this in to us on our school email address. 

 Learning context homework which can be completed over the course of the term is below:

The Four Purposes

The Welsh curriculum has the four purposes as it's core, this is focused on ensuring that all children and young people will be:

The four purposes are that all children and young people will be:

Ambitious, capable learners who are ready to learn throughout their lives.

Enterprising, creative contributors who are ready to play a full part in life and work.

Ethical, informed citizens who are ready to be citizens of Wales and the world.

Healthy, confident individuals who are ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.

Christian Value 

Our Christian value this half term is 'Courage'.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
— Joshua 1:9

Literacy, Languages and Communication

In Year 4 our Literacy sessions will develop a range of skills including: Reading, Writing and Oracy. Each session will feature the following:

- An engaging warm up (Consolidating past skills or developing new skills)

- Concrete learning (Development of Literacy skills)

We will be working on developing our reading, writing and oracy through a range of genres. 

Reading continues to be an extremely important part of your child's learning. We take part in Guided Group Reading sessions daily.  

We will also be continuing to develop our Welsh language skills through daily Helpwr Heddiw sessions.

Mathematics and Numeracy

In Mathematics and Numeracy this term, we will work on multiplying and dividing, fractions and decimals, money, shape and time.  Please encourage the children to practice maths regularly at home (see links below for online math games); they really do make a difference to the children’s confidence and ability in maths. Each mathematics and numeracy session will have:

- Engaging warm-ups with a range of number work to practice past skills or develop new skills.

- Concrete learning to develop of Mathematics and Numeracy skills

Times tables games - Learn them all here!

Times Tables Games for 7 to 11 year olds (topmarks.co.uk)

Times tables games and songs 1-12 - BBC Bitesize

 - Times Tables Rock Stars - click here for information for parents. 

Welsh

The Welsh language is very important to us. We encourage both staff and children to use incidental Welsh both inside and outside of the classroom. We enjoy our daily Helpwr Heddiw sessions to support children in learning new phrases by playing fun Welsh games. 

This term, we will be learning days of the week, months and food.

Modern Foreign Languages

MFL is under review at the moment. It is a section of the 'Languages Connect Us' in our Literacy Curriculum.

Internet Safety

At St Mellons, we promote the use of 'SMART' rules, as we know how important it is to stay safe online.

Please encourage your children to use these 'SMART' rules at home too. 

For more information please visit https://hwb.gov.wales/zones/online-safety/key-information/primary-learners/ 

Jigsaw and PSHE

The Curriculum for Wales is now a statutory requirement since September 2022 for all schools in Wales. It has a key role to play in helping children and young people navigate the world safely. Welsh Government wants education to help our children to develop as healthy, confident individuals, ready for the next chapter in their life after school. Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) encompasses the knowledge, skills, dispositions and values that will empower learners to:

• support their health and well-being

• develop healthy, safe and fulfilling relationships of all kinds, including those with family and friends, and in time, romantic and sexual relationships

• navigate and make sense of how relationships, sex, gender and sexuality shape their own and other people’s identities and lives

• understand and support their rights and those of others to enjoy equitable, safe, healthy and fulfilling relationships throughout their lives.

Please click here for more information curriculum-for-wales-relationships-sexuality-education-code.pdf (gov.wales)  

Healthy Schools

We are very proud to be promoting a healthy school. We encourage all children to eat healthy during snack and lunch times. 

We are able to provide snack for your children in school at a daily cost of £2 per week / £14 per term. Please pay via ParentPay.

Please ensure that your child has a labelled bottle in school daily, containing water only. We have fresh drinking water fountains, where the children can refill their bottles.

For advice on how to make a healthy packed lunch, please visit: https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/recipes/healthier-lunchboxes/

Active Travel

WOW is a pupil-led initiative where children self-report how they get to school every day using the interactive WOW Travel Tracker. If they travel sustainably (walk, cycle or scoot) once a week for a month, they get rewarded with a badge. It's that easy!

Please support us on our Active Travel mission by encouraging your child to walk, cycle or scoot to school, or use Park and Stride. This will help keep our bodies healthy and help reduce our carbon footprint!

Picture News

During our worship time on Mondays, we have been discussing Picture News, challenging ourselves to use new, ambitious vocabulary to describe our feelings and opinions. We have been learning about current news, topics and events. 

Useful Links

Practice maths for 10 minutes a day on Doodle Maths to make great progress.

Click here to visit the Times Tables Rock Stars site to practice your tables....  who's going to be the first Rock Hero in your class?  Practice your maths skills by playing against other children all over the world. 

Reading books: every child has a reading book from our library and they may take them home to read.  Home reading books can be changed whenever necessary. 

Ask your teacher for your HWB password.  On Hwb you can...

• access Google Classroom
• access your personal Hwb email
• use online Microsoft software (Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc)
• use J2e
• and much, much more.

Practise coding skills on Scratch

Multiplication Grid Game

Hit the Button

https://hwb.gov.wales - Hwb Collection of online tools provided to all schools in Wales by the Welsh Government

https://www.purplemash.com - award winning cross curricular website for  primary school children. It enables children to explore and enhance their knowledge in a fun and creative way.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ - Great online games for curriculum areas

https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/levels/zbr9wmn - BBC Bitesize

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2literacy.html - Lots of online games linked to different areas of the curriculum

https://www.learn-welsh.net/welshgames - Online Welsh games

https://corbettmathsprimary.com/5-a-day/ - Corbett Maths - 5-a-day Challenges

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/ - White Rose Maths - Reasoning Challenges

Meet the teacher 2025:

meet the teacher 2025 cx.pdf

Reading books

Reading books: Every child is welcome to borrow a reading book from our class library and can take them home to read if they have a school book bag.  Your home reading book can be changed whenever necessary.  Please also use Giglets to access reading material suitable.