Inspired by: Meerkat Mail - Curriculum Objectives

The curriculum objectives for Year 4 pupils include a comprehensive approach to enhancing their literacy skills, particularly through the exploration of the book "Meerkat Mail" by Emily Gravett. The educational goals encompass a broad spectrum of reading and writing proficiencies. Students are encouraged to apply their knowledge of root words, prefixes, and suffixes to improve both their reading fluency and comprehension of unfamiliar words. They are also expected to tackle more complex exception words, understanding the peculiarities of spelling and sound correlations. In fostering a positive attitude towards reading, pupils are exposed to a wide variety of literature, including fiction, poetry, plays, and non-fiction, with the aim of discussing, understanding, and deriving pleasure from these texts. They are taught to utilise dictionaries, identify themes within stories, and appreciate the nuances of different forms of poetry. Furthermore, students are guided to develop their critical thinking by making inferences from texts, summarising key ideas, and engaging in discussions about their readings.

In terms of writing, the curriculum objectives guide pupils to plan, draft, evaluate, and edit their work. They learn to structure their writing by emulating the grammar and vocabulary of similar texts and organising paragraphs around a theme. In narrative writing, they create settings, characters, and plots, while in non-narrative writing, they use organisational devices like headings. The editing process involves self-assessment and the improvement of grammar and vocabulary. Pupils also focus on enhancing their handwriting, ensuring legibility and consistency. Grammar education is advanced through the use of a wider range of conjunctions, perfect verb forms, and appropriate noun and pronoun selection to avoid ambiguity. They are also introduced to grammatical features such as commas for fronted adverbials and accurate punctuation for direct speech. The curriculum ensures that pupils understand and can apply grammatical terminology in their writing and reading discussions.