English

• increasing their familiarity with a wide range of

books, including fairy stories, myths and legends,
and retelling some of these orally
• identifying themes and conventions in a wide range
Spoken language of books
Pupils should be taught to: • preparing poems and play scripts to read aloud
• listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers and to perform, showing understanding through
intonation, tone, volume and action
• ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and
knowledge • discussing words and phrases that capture the
reader’s interest and imagination
• use relevant strategies to build their vocabulary
• recognising some different forms of poetry [for
• articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions example, free verse, narrative poetry]
• give well-structured descriptions, explanations and • understand what they read, in books they can read
narratives for different purposes, including for expressing independently, by:
feelings
• maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative • checking that the text makes sense to them,
conversations, staying on topic and initiating and discussing their understanding and explaining the
responding to comments meaning of words in context

• use spoken language to develop understanding through • asking questions to improve their understanding of
speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas a text

• speak audibly and fluently with an increasing command • drawing inferences such as inferring characters’
of Standard English feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions,
and justifying inferences with evidence
• participate in discussions, presentations, performances,
role play, improvisations and debates • predicting what might happen from details stated
and implied
• gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener(s)
• identifying main ideas drawn from more than one
• consider and evaluate different viewpoints, attending to paragraph and summarising these
and building on the contributions of others
• identifying how language, structure, and presentation
• select and use appropriate registers for effective contribute to meaning
communication
• retrieve and record information from non-fiction
• participate in discussion about both books that are read
Reading – word reading to them and those they can read for themselves, taking
turns and listening to what others say
Pupils should be taught to:
• apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and
suffixes (morphology and etymology), as listed in Writing – transcription
English Appendix 1, both to read aloud and to understand
the meaning of new words that they meet Spelling (see English Appendix 1)
• read further exception words, noting the unusual Pupils should be taught to:
correspondences between spellingand sound, and where
• use further prefixes and suffixes and understand how to
these occur in the word
add them (English Appendix 1)
• spell further homophones
Reading – comprehension • spell words that are often misspelt (English Appendix 1)
Pupils should be taught to: • place the possessive apostrophe accurately in words with
• develop positive attitudes to reading and understanding regular plurals [for example, girls’, boys’] and in words
of what they read by: with irregular plurals [for example, children’s]
• use the first two or three letters of a word to check its
• listening to and discussing a wide range of fiction,
spelling in a dictionary
poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or
textbooks • write from memory simple sentences, dictated by the
teacher, that include words and punctuation taught so far
• reading books that are structured in different ways
and reading for a range of purposes
• using dictionaries to check the meaning of words
that they have read

Year 4 Curriculum Statutory English

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Overview Requirements Year 4
Handwriting • using conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to
express time and cause
Pupils should be taught to: • using fronted adverbials
• use the diagonal and horizontal strokes that are needed
• learning the grammar for years 3 and 4 in English
to join letters and understand which letters, when
Appendix 2
adjacent to one another, are best left unjoined
• indicate grammatical and other features by:
• increase the legibility, consistency and quality of
their handwriting [for example, by ensuring that the
• using commas after fronted adverbials
downstrokes of letters are parallel and equidistant;
that lines of writing are spaced sufficiently so that the • indicating possession by using the possessive
ascenders and descenders of letters do not touch] apostrophe with plural nouns
• using and punctuating direct speech
Writing - composition • use and understand the grammatical terminology in
English Appendix 2 accurately and appropriately when
Pupils should be taught to: discussing their writing and reading
• plan their writing by:

• discussing writing similar to that which they are

planning to write in order to understand and learn
from its structure, vocabulary and grammar
• discussing and recording ideas
• draft and write by:

• composing and rehearsing sentences orally

(including dialogue), progressively building a varied
and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of
sentence structures (English Appendix 2)
• organising paragraphs around a theme
• in narratives, creating settings, characters and plot
• in non-narrative material, using simple organisational
devices [for example, headings and sub-headings]
• evaluate and edit by:

• assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’

writing and suggesting improvements
• proposing changes to grammar and vocabulary to
improve consistency, including the accurate use of
pronouns in sentences
• proof-read for spelling and punctuation errors
• read aloud their own writing, to a group or the whole
class, using appropriate intonation and controlling the
tone and volume so that the meaning is clear.

Writing – vocabulary, grammar

and punctuation
Pupils should be taught to:
• develop their understanding of the concepts set out in
English Appendix 2 by:

• extending the range of sentences with more than

one clause by using a wider range of conjunctions,
including when, if, because, although
• using the present perfect form of verbs in contrast to
the past tense
• choosing nouns or pronouns appropriately for clarity
and cohesion and to avoid repetition

Year 4 Curriculum Statutory English

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Overview Requirements Year 4
Mathematics Number – fractions (including
decimals)
Pupils should be taught to:
Number – number and place
• recognise and show, using diagrams, families of common
value equivalent fractions
Pupils should be taught to: • count up and down in hundredths; recognise that
hundredths arise when dividing an object by one hundred
• count in multiples of 6, 7, 9, 25 and 1000
and dividing tenths by ten.
• find 1000 more or less than a given number
• solve problems involving increasingly harder fractions to
• count backwards through zero to include negative calculate quantities, and fractions to divide quantities,
numbers including non-unit fractions where the answer is a whole
number
• recognise the place value of each digit in a four-digit
number (thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones) • add and subtract fractions with the same denominator
• order and compare numbers beyond 1000 • recognise and write decimal equivalents of any number of
tenths or hundredths
• identify, represent and estimate numbers using different
1 1 3
representations • recognise and write decimal equivalents to 4 2 4

• round any number to the nearest 10, 100 or 1000 • find the effect of dividing a one- or two-digit number by 10
and 100, identifying the value of the digits in the answer
• solve number and practical problems that involve all of
as ones, tenths and hundredths
the above and with increasingly large positive numbers
• round decimals with one decimal place to the nearest
• read Roman numerals to 100 (I to C) and know that over
whole number
time, the numeral system changed to include the concept
of zero and place value • compare numbers with the same number of decimal
places up to two decimal places

Number – addition and • solve simple measure and money problems involving
fractions and decimals to two decimal places
subtraction
Pupils should be taught to: Measurement
• add and subtract numbers with up to 4 digits using Pupils should be taught to:
the formal written methods of columnar addition and
subtraction where appropriate • Convert between different units of measure [for example,
kilometre to metre; hour to minute]
• estimate and use inverse operations to check answers to
a calculation • measure and calculate the perimeter of a rectilinear figure
(including squares) in centimetres and metres
• solve addition and subtraction two-step problems in
contexts, deciding which operations and methods to use • find the area of rectilinear shapes by counting squares
and why • estimate, compare and calculate different measures,
including money in pounds and pence

Number – multiplication and • read, write and convert time between analogue and digital
12- and 24-hour clocks
division • solve problems involving converting from hours to
Pupils should be taught to: minutes; minutes to seconds; years to months; weeks to
days
• recall multiplication and division facts for multiplication
tables up to 12 × 12
• use place value, known and derived facts to multiply and Geometry – properties of
divide mentally, including: multiplying by 0 and 1; dividing
by 1; multiplying together three numbers shapes
• recognise and use factor pairs and commutativity in Pupils should be taught to:
mental calculations • compare and classify geometric shapes, including
• multiply two-digit and three-digit numbers by a one-digit quadrilaterals and triangles, based on their properties and
number using formal written layout sizes

• solve problems involving multiplying and adding, • identify acute and obtuse angles and compare and order
including using the distributive law to multiply two digit angles up to two right angles by size
numbers by one digit, integer scaling problems and • identify lines of symmetry in 2-D shapes presented in
harder correspondence problems such as n objects are different orientations
connected to m objects

Year 4 Curriculum Statutory Maths

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Overview Requirements Year 4
Geometry - properties of shapes (continued)
• complete a simple symmetric figure with respect to a
specific line of symmetry

Geometry – position and

direction
Pupils should be taught to:
• describe positions on a 2-D grid as coordinates in the first
quadrant
• describe movements between positions as translations of
a given unit to the left/right and up/down
• plot specified points and draw sides to complete a given
polygon

Statistics
Pupils should be taught to:
• interpret and present discrete and continuous data using
appropriate graphical methods, including bar charts and
time graphs
• solve comparison, sum and difference problems using
information presented in bar charts, pictograms, tables
and other graphs

Year 4 Curriculum Statutory Maths

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Overview Requirements Year 4
Science States of Matter
Pupils should be taught to:
• compare and group materials together, according to
Working scientifically whether they are solids, liquids or gases
During years 3 and 4, pupils should be taught to • observe that some materials change state when they
use the following practical scientific methods, are heated or cooled, and measure or research the
temperature at which this happens in degrees Celsius (°C)
processes and skills through the teaching of the
programme of study content: • identify the part played by evaporation and condensation
in the water cycle and associate the rate of evaporation
• asking relevant questions and using different types of with temperature
scientific enquiries to answer them
• setting up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair
tests Sound
• making systematic and careful observations and, where Pupils should be taught to:
appropriate, taking accurate measurements using • identify how sounds are made, associating some of them
standard units, using a range of equipment, including with something vibrating
thermometers and data loggers
• recognise that vibrations from sounds travel through a
• gathering, recording, classifying and presenting data in a medium to the ear
variety of ways to help in answering questions
• find patterns between the pitch of a sound and features
• recording findings using simple scientific language, of the object that produced it
drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts, and tables
• find patterns between the volume of a sound and the
• reporting on findings from enquiries, including oral and strength of the vibrations that produced it
written explanations, displays or presentations of results
and conclusions • recognise that sounds get fainter as the distance from
the sound source increases
• using results to draw simple conclusions, make
predictions for new values, suggest improvements and
raise further questions
Electricity
• identifying differences, similarities or changes related to
simple scientific ideas and processes
Pupils should be taught to:
• identify common appliances that run on electricity
• using straightforward scientific evidence to answer
questions or to support their findings • construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying
and naming its basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs,
switches and buzzers
Living things and their habitats • identify whether or not a lamp will light in a simple series
Pupils should be taught to: circuit, based on whether or not the lamp is part of a
complete loop with a battery
• recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of
ways • recognise that a switch opens and closes a circuit and
associate this with whether or not a lamp lights in a
• explore and use classification keys to help group, identify simple series circuit
and name a variety of living things in their local and wider
environment • recognise some common conductors and insulators, and
associate metals with being good conductors
• recognise that environments can change and that this can
sometimes pose dangers to living things

Animals, including humans

Pupils should be taught to:
• describe the simple functions of the basic parts of the
digestive system in humans
• identify the different types of teeth in humans and their
simple functions
• construct and interpret a variety of food chains,
identifying producers, predators and prey

Year 4 Curriculum Statutory Science

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Overview Requirements Year 4