Year 3 Team

Mrs Lowe ^{(Mon, Tues & Weds)}

Mrs Turner ^{(Thurs & Fri)}

Miss Carroll ^{(Teaching Assistant)}

Expectations of a Year 3 Child

Year 3 is an important year as it begins your child’s KS2 journey. The move to Key Stage 2 allows your child to engage in a broad and balanced curriculum, developing and building upon their knowledge of the core subjects of RE, English and Maths as well as History, Geography, Science and other subjects, including learning a new language, French. 

It is such an exciting year for our children as they embark on continuing their Sacramental journey beginning with Reconciliation during Lent and culminating in the fabulous celebration of First Holy Communion in June.

As well as these, it is the year where children begin to develop their own personal opinions, ideas and interests. They are growing as members of the school community and as individuals, they will be expected to step up, taking on more responsibility for themselves, their actions and the consequences of these both positive and negative.

We want to work as a team with parents to teach children how to reflect on situations, rather than react to them. This sometimes means, listening to what your child has to say and then take some time for your child and yourself to calm and reflect, before deciding what to do. Many classroom squabbles and incidents, that have upset a child one day, are quickly forgotten once they return the next day. If an incident has occurred which has caused your child to continue to be distressed even after a time of reflection, please speak to a member of the team and we will work with you to try and solve it.

Sacramental Preparation

As a school, we follow the Archdiocese of Birmingham’s Curriculum Strategy for Religious Education in Catholic Schools called “Learning and Growing as People of God” and RE is allocated 10% of curriculum time in line with the expectations of the Archdiocese. The strategy is spilt into units which are covered throughout the year.

In Year 3 we use two exercise books, one for Sacramental Preparation and the other which focuses on other areas of the RE curriculum. It is essential that your child attends mass to help them fully prepare for confirming their faith. Father Stefan will be providing the children with a Mass Card which will be signed at the end of weekend Masses to confirm your child's regular attendance. It is ultimately, Father Stefan's decision about whether a child is fully committed to receiving the Sacraments.

Meetings will be scheduled throughout the school year providing you with important information about the Sacraments of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion. More information about the meetings, including dates and times, will be given in due course.

Homework

This year, we will still be asking children to conduct research at home. It is really important that this research is completed to ensure that children are equipped to complete the classwork. 

Every week, your child will be given maths and English homework and spellings to learn. Again, they have a week to complete this and will have to do it at lunch/break if not complete.

If your child loses a sheet, it is their responsibility to come and ask for a new one so that their work can still be completed. Homework is marked weekly as a class.

Homework is an essential part of the curriculum as it not only reinforces the skills and knowledge learnt in the classroom, it is a huge preparation tool for high school where homework in an integral part of school life.

As reading is an essential skill needed in all areas of the curriculum, please try and listen to your child read as often as possible (at least once a week). Please see the VIPERS guidance in your child's reading record and ask them questions about the text they are reading using this guidance.

Rewards and Sanctions

Again this year in school, we will be using Class Dojo to reward children for a range of different things, from showing gospel virtues to contribution and teamwork.

As before, we will be using 'minutes' as a sanction- these will be taken off Golden Time at the end of a week.

As always, parental involvement is key and we will work with you to give praise or tackle any issues.

PE and Forest School

We will be going to swimming every Monday so children can wear their PE kits and bring their swimming kit with them.  We will be having PE on a Wednesday so every child will come to school dressed in their PE kit.

This should be their indoor kits (shorts/t-shirt) with black or navy joggers on top and outdoor trainers. Any hoodies worn should be either school branded or plain navy/black. Please ensure your kit is labelled to avoid any mix-ups or lost items!

If your child has pierced ears they must be able to remove their earrings themselves or on PE/swimming days, come to school without their earrings in. If they are unable to do this, parents will be expected to collect their child for the duration of the lesson and return them to school afterwards. For more information please read the uniform policy.

We will have forest school on a rota basis- you will be notified in advance but please have a kit ready including wellies/trainers, clothes you don't mind getting muddy and a waterproof jacket.

We all look forward to working with you this year to make year 3 a special year for your child!

Mrs Turner, Mrs Lowe and Miss Carroll