YEAR 4

It has been a fabulous year for the Year 4 pupils as they became our trialists for the assessment element of The Sherborne WAY. Our Learning Dispositions of Creativity, Independence, Curiosity, Resilience, Communication and Risk-Taking really have become everyday language for the Year 4 pupils and as a result, the teachers have seen them develop into confident, life-long learners who will leave Sherborne – at whatever stage – with genuine life skills that will support them in any environment. As part of The Sherborne WAY assessment, pupils had to demonstrate their understanding and commitment to each disposition to receive a sticker: pupils had to show that they could genuinely use the disposition on a day-to-day basis. Once they demonstrated their commitment to half of the dispositions, they then received a special certificate and after completing them all, pupils received The Sherborne WAY Bronze Award.

Lola Robey was the first pupil in Year 4 – and indeed, in the history of Sherborne Qatar Prep School – to receive her Bronze Award and so Mr Bray chose Lola to answer some questions looking back at her year in Year 4:

Lola Robey, 4S interview with Mr Bray:

Q: Congratulations on achieving your Bronze award for The Sherborne WAY. What did you have to do to earn it? A: I had to finish all the learning dispositions and show that I could use them. I improved my curiosity, risk-taking and leadership skills mostly.

Q: Year 4 are the first year group to fully use the learning dispositions and measure progress against them. How has it been for you? A: Exciting! Really fun to learn more about the dispositions and it helped me to improve.

Q: What has been the stand-out moment for you in Year 4? A: Writing stories about the BFG in English!

Into the Deep was the first theme that the Year 4 team covered as they dived deep into the forests of the world and learned about the environmental impact of deforestation and plastic pollution. They had a very special guest – Mr Jose – from Doha Environmental Actions Project (the man who organises lots of the beach clean-ups around Qatar). Mr Jose spoke to Year 4 via Zoom about the impact of plastic pollution and what everyone can do to support the future of planet Earth.

During Black History Month, the Year 4 pupils thoroughly enjoyed making a large collage, using teamwork, of Rosa Parks (a very prominent historical figure). Moving into the Spring Term, Year 4 started a topic called I am Warrior and a highlight of the topic was the visit from resident Viking himself, Mr Oakes. Dressed as a Viking, he delivered a passionate speech to all of Year 4 encouraging them to join him in battle to protect the village. Cries of support erupted from the pupils and they then went on to learn about the impact and features of a good quality speech before writing their own.

Bright Spark was the title of the final theme for the year during the Summer Term. The Year 4 classes went across to the Science Lab in the Sherborne Qatar CUBE to experiment with making a successful circuit. The learning dispositions really came to life during this unit as, quite simply, the pupils could not be successful without displaying curiosity, communication, independence and resilience. By the end, all pupils were able to successfully make the light bulb work by creating a successful circuit.