Welcome Back Y3!

Dear Parents and Carers,

The children have returned to school beautifully
after the half-term break, full of energy and enthusiasm! It has been wonderful
to see everyone refreshed, eager to learn, and ready for the term ahead.

This week, we concluded our Iron Man unit with a fantastic piece of
writing! The children became engineers and inventors, creating detailed sets of
instructions on how to build an effective trap to capture the Iron Man once and
for all.

We focused on using subheadings to organise
our ideas into clear sections, helping our writing stay structured and easy to
follow. The children also applied their writer’s knowledge excellently — using expanded
noun phrases, conjunctions, prepositions and adverbs to add clarity and detail.

The finished pieces were imaginative, logical,
and full of personality — we were very impressed by the creative traps the
children designed!

In Maths, we have been using our knowledge of number bonds to help us scale up
and down by 10 and 100. For example, if we know that 2 + 8 = 10, we can
use this understanding to calculate that 20 + 80 = 100 and 200 + 800
= 1000.

We began by revisiting number bonds to 10, 20
and 100 to strengthen our foundations. Then, using place value counters and a tens
frame, we explored how digits change in value when scaled by 10 or 100. The
children showed fantastic reasoning skills as they spotted number patterns and
made links between different place value relationships.

This week, we began our new unit: “What does it mean to be called by God?”

We discussed what it means to be “called” and related this idea to everyday
situations — such as being asked to help at home or in school. We talked about willing
calls and reluctant calls, and how these make us feel.

We then explored how Christians believe that
God calls people to carry out important tasks or share special messages. The
children listened to the story of Samuel’s calling by God and reflected
thoughtfully on how they might respond if they were in his place.

Our Forest School session linked wonderfully to both our Romans topic and our Art
unit on colour and shape. We learned about how Romans used mosaics to show
their wealth and status. The children collected an array of autumnal leaves in
different shades and colours, which they then cut into small pieces to create their
own natural mosaics. The results were stunning — and we had so much fun making
them.

In DT, we brought our construction unit to a
close by evaluating our castle models. The children assessed their structures
against our success criteria, discussing what worked well and what they might
improve next time.

They also gave each other peer feedback,
showing maturity, kindness and great reflection as they shared their thoughts.

We started our new sport this week — hockey!

The children learnt how to hold the hockey stick correctly, practised push and tap
dribbles, and began developing control while moving with the ball.

We ended the session with a lively game
involving “trolls” and “billy goats”, where players had to cross the “bridge”
(the field) without being tackled by the trolls. It was a brilliant combination
of skill, strategy and teamwork.

In our final lesson on the topic of smoking, we explored laws surrounding
smoking and discussed how the government is working towards creating a smoke-free
generation.

To finish the unit, the children wrote
thoughtful letters to our Prime Minister, Mr Starmer, explaining which laws
they believe should be introduced to support this goal. Their ideas were
considered, persuasive and full of social awareness — well done, Year 3!

This week, we began learning about time zones. The children explored how the
world is divided into different zones and located the International Date Line
on a map.

Using live webcams, we compared the current
times in London, Rome and Sydney, which helped us visualise just how time
differs around the world. It was a fascinating way to link geography to our
real lives!

In our first music lesson of the half-term, we discussed our social question: What
stories does music tell us about the past?

The children shared their favourite genres and artists — some were inspired by
music their parents listen to, while others connected songs to personal
memories.

We talked about how music can evoke emotions
and tell stories, and how it links to both personal and collective history. We
listened to our first song of the unit, Love What We Do, and agreed that
its key message was simple but powerful: just be yourself.

It has been a wonderful first week back, well
done team!

Have a great weekend,

Mrs Roney.