Welcome to Year 3! 

Our Newsletters

Our curriculum newsletters provide parents with an overview of the half term’s teaching and learning in Year 3.

Autumn 1 

Autumn 2 

Spring 1 

Spring 2 

Summer 1

Summer 2 

Year 3 is the first year in Key Stage Two of the curriculum. We aim to make the transition from Year 2 as easy and smooth as possible. We spend a lot of time in the Summer Term visiting our new classes and teachers to familiarise ourselves with the new areas we visit and the new staff. We use a balance of focussed teaching activities, group work and active learning to access the Year 3 curriculum.

Reading

Reading is an important part of the Year 3 curriculum. We find that it is a big transition period between ‘learning to read’ and ‘reading to learn.’ We follow our reading scheme for books to bring home, which is broad and balanced between fiction, non-fiction, poetry, classics and myths and legends. We use Big Cat, Treetops and Read Write Inc schemes.

We have lovely reading areas for children to enjoy free reading books and magazines from popular authors. We also have a class novel each term which we read altogether in class. 

For those children who still need support with their phonic learning, we access the Read Write Inc scheme in small groups. 

We use the Reading VIPERS to help support our comprehension skills. Questions based on VOCABULARY, INFERENCE, PREDICTION, EXPLANATION, RETRIEVAL and SUMMARISING help us explore texts in detail and begin to form comprehensive written answers as well.

Writing

We write for lots of different purposes for writing in Year 3 and for different audiences. We use our reading, current theme or topic as a stimulus. Once we have picked out the common features of the text, we often plan our own pieces of work. In Year 3, we widen our use of different punctuation marks to include commas, apostrophes and speech marks. The expectation is that handwriting is neatly formed and joined up. Grammar is taught weekly and reviewed daily.

Maths

We follow the White Rose Scheme for Maths. We have daily Maths lessons which incorporate 10-15 minutes of mental maths, reviewing our KIRFs and preparing us for the main part of the lesson. Where possible, we try to make some of the lessons active and like taking our maths lessons outside! We include a balance of fluency, reasoning and problem solving in each lesson and will include at least one investigation in each unit. Children often ‘self select’ which level of work they would like to do to promote self challenge and confidence.

We also complete ‘Early Bird Maths’ every day when we come into the classroom in the morning.

other subjects

We cover amazing units in Year 3! We look at our local area of Knaresborough, with a particular focus on castles, Remembrance, Through the Ages (Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age), Rocks, Relics and Rumbles (Rocks, fossils, volcanoes and earthquakes) and the Roman Empire. These are a combination of Whole School and Year Group topics.

• We use Purple Mash for computing which can be accessed at home for all subjects
•  We use Charanga to teach music this can be accessed at home
• We use Jigsaw to teach PSHE including RSE

Year 3 is also an exciting time when the children begin to learn French and have the opportunity to develop their curiosity about languages. We use the North Yorkshire Primary French Scheme and children develop their skills through a range of games, songs, rhymes, raps and stories. We also have access to the fantastic online Early Start French resource which allows the children to listen to real French speakers and practise and perfect their own French pronunciation.

Year 4 Multiplication Check

In Year 4, children have to complete a statutory Multiplication Check in June. This requires children to have quick recall of all times tables up to 12 x 12. Year 3 children therefore need to be well on the road with their tables knowledge by the end of the year. Ideally, they need to have fast recall of x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x8 and x10 by July.

Homework

We set weekly spelling lists on a Monday to practise for a Friday Check and weekly KIRFs. There will also be a piece of written work with a Maths or English focus. A ‘Talking Homework’ is set weekly to provide children with the opportunity to talk about an aspect of their learning relating to that week. Children are also given a log-in to access Times Tables Rockstars and Sumdog to practise their arithmetic skills and really improve their recall of times tables.