In grade four the day stops being one teacher and becomes several, and it is the biggest change in a child's school life until grade nine.
What we watch for. A child whose reading has not become fluent will begin, in these two grades, to look like a child who is bad at mathematics, or science, or who is not trying. They are almost always a child who cannot read the question. We test reading again at the start of grade four for exactly this reason, and children who need it go to the learning support room for four periods a week, which is not a punishment and is explained to the child in those words.
What is taught: Dhivehi, English, mathematics, science, Islam, social studies, and the practical and physical periods.
Written work begins to be marked properly here rather than ticked, and homework is set three nights a week and kept short. Twenty minutes is about right at this age, and a child who is spending an hour and a half on it is telling you something.
The first full term examinations are in grade four. The timetable goes up three weeks before, and the report at the end of term is two pages of sentences rather than a column of marks, because a number tells a parent nothing about what to do next.