Hi and welcome to Year 3!

The class teacher is Miss Taylor

Spring Term 2026

English

We are starting the term with Maia Walczak’s 'The Black Hat'. The children will focus on descriptive writing in this unit of work, learning how to appropriately use adjectives, adverbs and similes. We will then move onto Lynne Cherry’s ‘The Great Kapok Tree’, in which children will write a dilemma story linking to our Geography topic of ‘rainforests’. We will then learn how to write instructional texts as part of our non-fiction genre. 

After half term, we will explore non-chronological reports linking to our history topic ‘Roman Britain’.

VIPERS guided reading and phonics

Each morning Year 3 take part in either Read Write Inc. phonics lessons, to help the children learn their sounds, or whole-class guided reading sessions, where they learn the skills of comprehending a text. Our current book in guided reading is 'Fantastic Mr Fox’ by Roald Dahl. We will soon be starting Ted Hughes ‘Iron Man’. In these sessions we learn to explore:

Vocabulary

Inference

Prediction

Explanation

Retrieval

Summarising

The children answer questions based on these reading skills about the given text.

Our Friday morning VIPERS lessons are now dedicated to completing Accelerated Reader quizzes after your child has finished their reading book.  

Maths

We teach and learn maths through the 'White Rose' programme. This term we will focus on multiplication and division, before recapping addition and subtraction through the context of perimeter and area. We will be using practical resources such as counters and number lines to support learning. You can support your child by regularly testing them on their Year 2 times tables (2s, 5s, 10s), and helping them to learn their new Year 3 times tables (3s, 4s, 8s). 

Science

We are learning about 'Forces and Magnets'. In this topic, children will learn about:

Pushes, pulls and twists

The relationship between friction and surface roughness

Naming and describing forces

Identifying magnetic materials and comparing their strengths 

Geography

For this half term, Year 3 will be learning about rainforests. We will be looking at where rainforests are located, in relation to the equator and use chromebooks to research rainforests around the world. We will then explore the weather conditions of rainforests, the animals that live there and how we can look after them.

History

In the second spring half term, our topic will be Roman Britain, wherein we will use images to imagine what Britain used to look like. We will be learning about the Romans, exploring their daily life, culture and impact on Britain, including key events, famous figures and legacies that shaped the world. 

Swimming

Swimming forms Year 3's second PE session of the week - this takes place on a Tuesday afternoon at Wentworth Leisure Centre with Year 4. Please ensure your child always brings a costume/ trunks, a towel and goggles for their swimming lessons. Swimming kits can be taken home to be washed after each session. Children can be collected from the swimming pool at 3pm, or from the school as usual.

Homework

Children will receive a homework wallet to keep their homework in. Homework is given out on Fridays and due back the following Thursday. Children will take home maths homework and spelling homework, which will help with their spelling test. Children will also be given an overview of weekly spelling words. Please encourage your child to complete their homework as it helps a great deal to reinforce recent learning and new skills. 

Please do ask if you have any questions or queries about ways to support your child. 

Miss Taylor

Class teacher

Reading at home

It is very important that each child is reading 3 or more times a week at home with a grown-up in addition to the times they read at school with a member of staff. Frequent reading will improve reading fluency, build your child's confidence in reading aloud in a 'story-teller's' voice and deepen the comprehension of what they are reading. Please record any reading at home in your child’s ‘reading record’. 

TT Rockstars

Times Tables Rock Stars (ttrockstars.com)

The times tables that the children are required to know by the end of Year 3 are:

2x, 5x, 10x, 3x, 4x, 8x. 

To log in to TT Rockstars at home, simply type it into Google and click on the link. Go to Login (4th option along the top) and click on School pupils. It will then prompt you for the school name, then it will ask you for username and you need to select pin (not password) and enter pin. The children have this information inside their reading records.