Welcome to the Autumn issue of the Year 3 Newsletter. We hope that you have enjoyed becoming part of our super Solent Junior Community, and you are looking forward to a wide variety of events and activities throughout the coming year! The children are now fully settled into the Junior School and are embracing lots of new challenges.

We will continue to structure the majority of our learning around our learning themes, but some subjects will still be taught discreetly where they do not easily unite into the overall theme. Our first topic of the year, is all about the Stone Age to Iron Age, where we explore what life was like, as a child in the Stone Age, and we will be taking on the role of an historian as we travel in time to the Iron Age! To gain a better understanding of this era, we will link our history learning across the curriculum, to our Guided Reading, Science and Art to fully bring the topic to life!

Later in the term, we will begin our exciting Science theme all about Animals; ‘Walk on the Wild Side’. In this topic, the children will discover different animal species, different classification groups and learn about animal and human skeletons. We will link our Animals learning to our English, Guided Reading and Art to enhance the children’s understanding and so they can make lots of learning links across the curriculum.

Home Learning will be set every Monday, via Teams. There is no expectation to print off the homework, as all homework has been designed to be completed on paper at home. Homework should be completed and submitted by the following Monday morning, and it will alternate between Maths and English each week. As well as this, we will also set weekly spellings and times tables. The children will be tested on their spellings/ timetables every Friday.

More information relating to homework expectations has been uploaded to Teams. However, we would love to see the children actively seeking out ways to improve their multiplication skills. This will also prepare them for the Multiplication tests in Year 4, so the sooner we can develop the pupils’ confidence, the better. Please see the links below to access some of these fun games. These will also be included on every home learning document each week:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/daily10

https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check

https://www.themathsfactor.com/times-tables-check/pinpoint/#/

Periodically, the children will be set a creative task to complete, which is called a Learning Log. The logs will be discussed and evaluated by the children, celebrating both creativity and effort.

READING RECORDS:

We are continuing to send home Reading Record books. We would encourage all pupils to continue to read at home daily, where possible, even for 5 minutes before bed or even in the car! We have shown the children how to fill out their reading records, and these will need to be returned to school every Monday.

Our library day will be every Tuesday. The children will have the opportunity to visit our school library every Tuesday, where they can borrow two books at any one time. Please can children bring their library books into school every Tuesday, so they can either renew or return these.

Just a reminder, that all children continue to have logins to ‘Big Cats’. This is a fantastic service, where the children can read a range of books at their leisure. We would really encourage you to explore this wonderful service, as it is something that will benefit the children’s reading. Their logins remain the same as those they had at the infants.

Christmas Carol Concert: 

We are aware that this is an incredibly talented cohort of pupils, and we will soon be thinking about the organisation of our annual Christmas Carol Concert. Watch this space for more information later this term!

Parents Evening:

This year, our parents’ evenings will be held in person. These will take place on: Monday 16^th October 2023 3:20 – 6:00 and Thursday 19^th October 2023 3:20 – 6:00. Keep your eyes peeled for more information about these appointments, and for exact dates and timings. This will be an opportunity to discuss this initial ‘settling in’ period with your child’s class teacher, and to discuss progress made during the Autumn Term.  

Future Events for this Year:

• Year 3 Christmas Carol Concert
• Swimming
• Sandwich Making
• Egyptian Exhibition

Reminders: 

P.E. - We would like all Year 3 pupils to wear their PE Kits to school every Thursday and Friday. Pupils will have two P.E. lessons each week, one indoor and one outdoor. For reasons of safety and personal hygiene, it is important that they are appropriately dressed for the P.E, see below.

Additional safety precautions during PE: Earrings need to be removed or covered with plasters or tape (to be supplied from home) and long hair needs to be tied back. No watches or rings or other items of jewellery please.

P.E. Kit: Children are encouraged to wear black shorts and/or jogging bottoms, a jumper and 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 some indoor sessions, shorts are required, so on colder days the children will be advised to wear their shorts underneath their jogging bottoms.  

Years 3 and 4 are not permitted to have MOBILE PHONES in school. 

We are sure that we will have a happy and successful year; please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have via the office email:   solentjunior@thesolentschools.org

Yours Sincerely,

The Year 3 Teachers

Miss Nicholas, Miss Smith, Miss Atkins and Miss Saunders