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 a brand-new Geography unit, all about the United Kingdom. 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 beautifully back into school-life, 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. Alongside the home learning, your children will also be set spellings or times tables, which they should practise ready for their test the following week. 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 Records:

Thank you for your support with keeping Reading Records up-to-date. If you could please continue to encourage your child to read regularly and return their Reading Record every Monday for checking so that we can continue to celebrate the children’s commitment to their wider reading.

We have taken on board that lots of children prefer to read ‘real books’, with a reduction in screen time also being beneficial. We no longer hold subscriptions to online reading materials with Big Cats and Oxford Owl. We therefore encourage the children to regularly exchange a book in our school library on a Friday and, if at all possible, sign up to a local library and make use of the fantastic resources they have there.

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 on Friday 3^rd February so look out for more information coming soon!

Holi Festival:

Year 3 will also be learning about Holi as part of their RE learning and will be taking part in our own, very special Holi festival in March! This is such an exciting time for the children to come together and celebrate, as well as having the chance to learn about different religions and cultures from around the world. More information about what this involves will be coming out in the Spring Term but the anticipated date for this event is the 8^th March.

Swimming:

Year 3 also have the exciting opportunity to take part in a six-week programme of swimming starting in January. This will take place on a Wednesday afternoon for each Year 3 class. This means there will be a tight turn around for each class, so making sure the children have their kit ready each week will be essential. Please see the swimming letter sent home for more detailed information about this.

REMINDERS

There is still the expectation that winter uniform should be worn, which consists of a shirt and a tie, so please could we ask that you make sure your child comes in with one (named). 

P.E. - We would like remind you that all Year 3 pupils will need to wear their PE Kits to school every Monday 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 (to be supplied 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/jumper; 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. For gym sessions on a Monday, and whilst the weather remains cold, children will need to wear shorts for the session but please wear these underneath tracksuit bottoms to keep them warm over the course of the day.

UP-COMING DATES

Tuesday 10^th January 2023 Curriculum Evening (6-7pm)

Thursday 19^th January 2023 Inset Day

Monday 6^th February 2023 (3:20 – 6:00pm) Parents’ Evening Appointments

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 have via a phone call or the office email:   solentjunior@thesolentschools.org

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

The Year 3 Teachers

Miss Hill, Miss Nicholas, Miss Gall and Mrs Atkins