Year 3 Spring Newsletter

Happy New Year one and all! Once again, we find ourselves at the start of a busy, yet exciting Spring Term. Our main theme for this term will be all about The UK. We will be learning lots of new geography skills and developing our map work and will be linking this to our learning across the Curriculum, in particular our English, where we will be developing our descriptive writing. Some subjects will still be taught discretely, where they do not easily dovetail into the overall theme.

As we continue our journey through the Curriculum, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support in the Autumn Term. The children settled in really well into Solent Junior and are embracing lots of new learning opportunities. We look forward to seeing how the children blossom and progress in this new school term.

Home Learning:

Home learning will continue to be set on a Monday, via Teams, and it should be turned into Teams, by the following Monday. This will continue to alternate between English and Maths. Times tables and spellings will continue to be set each week, for a spelling test on Friday. We recommend practising the spellings and timetables little and often, as this is the best way for children to absorb their learning fully. On the home learning tasks, we have provided some useful links that your children may want to use to help learn their times tables. Occasionally, a learning log task may be set in place of Maths or English. This is a creative activity, therefore it will be a 2-week learning task. If there are any problems with home learning, please let your child’s class teacher know as soon as possible.

Reading and Pandora books:

Thank you for your continued support with encouraging your child to read at home. The children will all have a Pandora reading book which is colour banded at their reading level.  It is essential that these books are taken home to read and then returned to school with your child every day.  We use these books for reading in school and as part of our class reading sessions so are grateful for your co-operation with this.

The day the children visit the school library to change their 2 books will remain the same, on a Friday. They can borrow one library book and one Pandora reading book which can be changed only if they need to during our library sessions.

Parents Evening:

Later in the Spring term, we will hold our mid-year parents’ evenings to discuss progress made since the Autumn Term. Keep your eyes peeled for more information about these appointments and for exact dates and timings.

Sandwich Making Day:

In the Spring Term, Year 3 will be taking part in an exciting Design Technology Unit, where they will learn about healthy foods and how to design and make a healthy sandwich. More information will come out about this in the New Year but we thought you’d like to know about this in advance. We anticipate this to be held during the week of the 3^rd February so look out for more information coming soon!

Swimming:

Year 3 also have the exciting opportunity to take part in a 10-week programme of swimming starting in January. This will take place on a Wednesday afternoon for each Year 3 class. There will be a tight turn around for each class, so making sure the children have the correct kit that is all labelled and in school ready each week will be essential. It may be worth practising with your child if they find changing a challenge. Please see the swimming letter sent home for more detailed information about this.

REMINDERS

P.E. - We would like remind you that all Year 3 pupils will need to wear their PE Kits to school on a Wednesday and Friday. For reasons of safety and personal hygiene, it is important that they are appropriately dressed for the P.E. activities.

Additional safety precautions during PE:

• Earrings to be removed or covered with plasters or tape (please bring this in from home).
• Long hair to be tied back. No watches or rings please (Fitbits/pedometers are fine but may need to be removed for some activities).

P.E. Kit: Children are encouraged to wear black shorts and or jogging bottoms; their school hoody; their house-coloured PE t-shirt. Please ensure that your child has appropriate footwear. At this time, all games will be held outdoors, therefore, trainers are essential to ensure your child can take part in all activities safely.

We are sure that we will continue to have a happy and successful year; please remember to contact us with any questions or concerns you may by seeing us at the door at the end of the school day or via email, by the school office:  solentjunior@thesolentschools.org . They will then pass relevant matters on to the class adults.

Here’s to a busy and fun-filled Spring Term!

The Year 3 Teachers

Miss Atkins, Miss Brett, Miss Nicholas and Mr Mason