Year 4 The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

This week in Year 4, the classroom has been full of imagination, discussion, and thoughtful writing as the children focused on developing their storytelling skills. They have been practising how to start sentences with fronted adverbials and similes, using these to set the scene and create mood for the reader. 

Alongside this, the children explored how to add dialogue to their writing so the reader could find out more about the characters. They learnt how speech can reveal feelings, build relationships, and move the story forward. Through carefully chosen conversations, Edward Tulane and the characters he met were brought to life.

After practising these skills, the children wrote their own chapter for The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Each child planned a brand-new adventure, taking Edward on his next journey into the unknown. To finish, they crafted a cliffhanger, cleverly leaving the reader guessing what might happen next. The results were creative, exciting, and full of suspense—showing just how much the children have grown as confident and capable writers.

"I loved pretending to be the characters to turn it into dialogue for our story." Alexandra, Maple 

                      " It was exciting creating our own adventure for Edward."   Munsha, Willow

"I am really proud of my atmosphere I built up! about grandma's house." - Chirag, Elm 

Letter Writing in Year 4

Letter Writing in Year 4 

This week in English, our Year 4 children have been busy becoming letter detectives! Their mission: to explore and identify the key features of informal letters — the kind you might write to a friend or family member.

To begin, we read a few example letters written between friends and noticed how different they looked compared to formal letters or emails. The children quickly spotted that informal letters have a friendly, chatty tone — just like having a conversation on paper!

Together, we created a list of the important features every informal letter should include:

✉️ The sender’s address and date – usually written at the top so the reader knows when and where the letter was written.
👋 A friendly greeting – such as “Dear Ben,” or “Hi Grandma,” depending on who the letter is for.
💬 An opening paragraph – where the writer might ask how the reader is or mention something nice to start the letter off.
📝 The main body – where most of the details are shared, often including news, stories, or questions for the reader.
😊 A closing line – something warm like “Hope to see you soon!” or “Write back soon!”
✍️ A sign-off – like “Love from,” “Your friend,” or “Best wishes,” followed by the writer’s name.

“I didn’t realise letters had so many parts! Now I can write one that sounds just like I’m talking to my friend.” – Anaelle, Maple

After identifying these features, the children worked together to spot the different sections of a letter and label each part correctly. They discussed how each section helps the letter flow smoothly and keeps the reader engaged.

To test their detective skills, the children were then given a mixed-up letter! They had to work in groups to put all the sections back in the correct order. There were lots of thoughtful discussions (and a few debates!) about where each part should go. By the end, everyone was confident in recognising how an informal letter is structured from start to finish.

“I liked putting the letter back together because it felt like solving a puzzle — and now I know exactly what goes where when I write my own!” – Wais, Willow

“I liked learning about informal letters because you can make them sound friendly and write about things you really care about.” – Eva , Elm

Broadford Celebrates Black History Month 2025

What a joyous month it has been celebrating the impact of Black pioneers, creatives and world changers. This year's theme was 'Standing firm in power and pride' which was a powerful tribute to the resilience, strength and unwavering commitment to progress that defines the Black community across the globe.

The children experienced a guest speaker, Dr Grace Bello, who shared her journey to becoming a doctor and stirring up ambition in our children. She spoke about barriers and hammers to achieving your goals and had a session with some children who aspired to work in the field of science and medicine.

 "I could listen to Dr. Grace speak all day!" - Emmalee, Larch

During the month, there was a research and art project that allowed each year group to explore a Black Briton who had made significant impact in their field. These pieces were collated into a growing whole school History book filled with fantastic pieces of work.

This year, we also spent time discussing the power of voice and wrote poetry to convey this message.

Our third, seemingly annual, music video is out now!

Lines tailored to the hope for the future of each Broadford child were learnt and rapped to an instrumental called ' I Can' followed by dancing with Soul Train inspiration to 'Aint no stopping us now' by McFadden and Whitehead.

The children and class videographers (the teachers) have outdone themselves. Enjoy!

Year 4 Literacy

 

This week, Year 4 have been fully immersed in the magical world of storytelling! Through exciting role play, hot seating, and drama activities, the children brought the characters to life and explored their thoughts, feelings, and actions.

They focused closely on one key character and, using everything they had learned, wrote fantastic diary entries from her perspective. Along the way, they discovered the features of a great diary – including writing in the first person, using past tense, expressing emotions, and adding personal thoughts. Well done Year 4!

"We were taught the book the Bogey men and the Trolls next door. We also learned about diary entries." Moyo - Elm 

" I hope I can remember all the features of diary entries." Jace - Maple 

"What I have learned in Literacy this week is how to write a diary entry." Onyeka - Willow 

Year 4 Writing Our Own Chapter!

 

Before we bring this term's novel, The Boy in the Girl's bathroom, to a close, we have enjoyed sharpening our narrative writing skills by creating our own version of the next chapter.

We used our plan to ensure our ideas were focused on conveying the character's thoughts and feelings whilst describing our setting. We had to exercise the ability to be succinct in our plan by using bullet points that we would later be able to expand on.

The next chapter was infused with threads from the novel written by Louis Sachar, however, each one of our chapters had their unique outcome.

We spent some time sharing and loving each other's work and building our orating skills as some of us shared our chapter with the class.

"I loved Haileigh's interesting similes in her writing!" - Aariz, Elm

"I loved the fronted adverbials, and how Scarlett had show not tell." - George, Willow 

Finally we spent some time highlighting the key skills that we had achieved in our piece of writing.

Next week, we will be independently writing a short chapter based on another event in the story.

We hope to be able to further display our descriptive writing skills.

Year 4 - Drama In Literacy - New Text Alert !

 This half-term has started off with a bang! The children have been captivated by the our new text 'The Boy in the Girl's Bathroom' by Louis Sachar which explores the journey of a school bully whose behaviour improves through intervention.

This week our Year 4's immersed ourselves into the story by engaging in hot-seating in the role of Bradley, the main character.

'Bradley feels embarrassed because he plays with his toys.' - Andreea - Elm

The children also dramatised a scene from Chapter 3 to further develop their understanding of the character's thoughts and feelings.

'Don't you dare talk to your mother like that!' Sultan , in role of Bradley's Dad . - Elm

"I Really felt sorry for Bradley, then I didn't and now I do again!" - Elsie, Willow 

Perfect Planning

 

Over the last week, Year 3 have been planning a local route, which forms part of the children's learning experiences whilst at Broadford Primary School.

The children have linked their learning to their Literacy lessons, using their reflectiveness skills to revise ideas and discuss what they know. They have demonstrated great reciprocity skills whilst working collaboratively and listening to others to check their walking routes.

Over the last two weeks,  the children have had the opportunity to walk the routes that they planned when they visit Harold Hill Library.

‘There were so many books, I wish I could take them all home!’ - Onyeka

"I liked how quiet it was at he library and so many books to chose from" - Hayden 

"We got to borrow a book from the library." - Edie

Year 3 Literacy

In Literacy this half term year 3 have been working incredibly hard. We have been linking our learning to the book 'How To Live Forever'. We began the half term by writing our own diary entries, from the perspectives of Peter and the Ancient Child. 

This week, we have been working towards our goal of creating our own balanced arguments. To support in this, we have learned the different features of a balanced argument, created our own arguments for and against and even debated our arguments against other pupils in the class! 

As we move forward, year 3 will prepare for their independent balanced arguments by working in teams to cerate arguments for and against Peter reading the book of immortality. The pupils have worked really well together so far, demonstrating their fantastic reciprocity skills. The staff look forward to hearing the children's opinions as we move towards writing our final piece.

I liked that we could argue for and against  - Danni-Ella

It was really fun to learn about how to debate a balanced argument - Edie

We got to choose different topics that we could debate - Alfie

Christmas Cards for the Community

As part of the children's experiences at Broadford, we have had a busy afternoon in Year 3, designing and creating Christmas cards for the community. This year, we have chosen to send the Christmas cards to the lovely residents of a local care home, who will be receiving them early next week.

The children were very excited to make their cards and send them to the care home, they have used their resourcefulness skills to ensure that they have included colourful, cheerful designs and they worked exceptionally hard on their handwriting and spellings. They also spent time creating beautiful designs on the envelopes to add an extra sparkle for the recipients!

'I wrote a message to Alice because we have the same name!' - Alice

'I hope that it makes the people smile at Christmas.' - Mavis

I drew lots of colourful decorations on my card.' - Mohib

Year 3 Literacy

In our Year 3 Literacy topic this half term, the children have embarked on an exciting journey with their new novel, 'The King Who Banned the Dark.' The children approached this new topic with great interest and enthusiasm, eager to explore the wonders of the story.

To start our Literacy journey, we began by closely examining an illustration from our class novel. Working collaboratively in groups, the children utilised their reciprocity skills, engaging in thoughtful discussions and providing detailed answers to a range of questions. One such question was the setting of the story, which led to insightful responses from our perceptive learners. 

Additionally, using their reflectiveness skills, the children then used the illustration as a springboard for generating their own questions about the novel. They demonstrated their understanding of punctuation by ensuring their questions were accurately punctuated.

It was amazing to witness the children's active engagement and their ability to form and communicate their thoughts effectively. As we venture further into 'The King Who Banned the Dark,' the children will be given a multitude of literary experiences to help develop their reading comprehension and writing skills. Beginning this week, with the children planning and writing a persuasive speech in the role of the king.

'Why does a king have a rocking horse? Does he have a real horse?' - Olaf, Ash Class

'It would be difficult to sleep if it was light all the time' - Alesha, Cedar Class

'If he is scared of the dark, why does he sleep alone?' - Duke , Cherry Class

Year 3 Stay and Learn

 

Year 3 will be having their first Stay and Learn session at 2.15pm on Monday 14th October (in classrooms). 

The session will be on Reading, focusing specifically on ways to help your child achieve in Year 3.

Please come to the grey doors to the left of the main office where a member of staff will be waiting to let you in.

The Year 3 Team look forward to seeing you all there.

Year 3 Literacy

 

This week in Year 3, the children have been busy using their resourcefulness and reciprocity skills to design, discuss and modify their robots. 

We have been continuing with our story, A Tale of Two Robots by Roy Apps, to engage the children's imagination and get them thinking about becoming inventors!

The children have worked super hard to write adjectives to describe their robots before moving on to put all of their ideas into paragraphs to describe their robots and the super powers that they have.

Yesterday, the children learnt all about inverted commas and explored how to include them in a dialogue that their robot had with another character.

All of the children have demonstrated great resilience with their writing and the Year 3 team could not be prouder of the efforts they have put into their learning this week.

What a wonderful week of Literacy, well done Year 3!

Literacy in Year 3

 

In Literacy this half term year 3 have worked incredibly hard. We have spent the half term focusing on the book 'How To Live Forever'. We started the half term by writing our own diary entries, from the perspectives of Peter and the Ancient Child. 

For the last 3 weeks, we have been working towards our goal of creating our own balanced arguments. To support in this, we have learned the different features of a balanced argument, created our own arguments for and against and even debated our arguments against other pupils in the class! 

On Monday, year 3 prepared for their independent balanced arguments by working in teams to cerate arguments for and against Peter reading the book of immortality. The pupils worked really together and showed fantastic reciprocity skills. 

"I love that we get to think of arguments for and against and argue both sides." - Ivan , Cherry Class 

             "I like learning about balanced arguments." Amaira, Cedar Class

     "I love that I can make lots of arguments on both sides." - Ryan, Ash Class 

Perfect Planning!

 

Over the last week, Year 3 have been planning a local route, which is part of the children's learning experiences whilst at Broadford Primary School.

The children linked their learning to their Literacy lessons, using their reflectiveness skills to revise ideas and discuss what they have been learning. They demonstrated great reciprocity skills when working collaboratively and listening to others to check their routes.

Throughout the week, the children have had the opportunity to walk the routes that they planned when they visited Harold Hill Library. Luckily, the children planned their routes perfectly and we all arrived safely at our destination!

Well done Year 3.

I know when we need to turn left - Jessica

I enjoyed looking at the maps to find our school and library - Lucas

We had to plan the route carefully so that we didn't get lost! - Tesha