Dear Parents,

We are excited to be welcoming you and your children back to the new school year and trust that you all had an exciting yet restful summer break. This term we are pleased to welcome a number of new students to the Juniors and hope they settle in to our warm and friendly community. The children have some exciting learning to look forward to this term as outlined below.

English

Reading – the students will be taking part in reading activities everyday to strengthen their decoding and comprehension skills. Students will also be expected to practice their reading skills daily at home.

Writing – this term students will focus on extending their understanding of writing narratives (stories). The students will revise the structure of narratives while sharpening their use of punctuation and sentence structure.

Spelling – regular practice of spelling will take place within the classroom based around specific spelling patterns, e.g. ‘sh’ words. Children will have weekly spelling lists and sometimes activities to practice at home to help consolidate classroom activities.

Maths

Year 3 will have a continued focus on the automatic recall of number facts such as times tables, doubles, near doubles and fact families.

Students will be studying numbers to 100 and their place value. This will include skip counting, comparing 3 digit numbers and counting forwards and backwards. Shape, measurement and time will also be covered along with the 4 operations (+, -, x & ÷).

Topic Work (I.P.C and Science)

This term children will learn about the Habitats of all living creatures. Briefly, students will study the different types of habitats and how habitats have been affected by human and natural activities. The unit of work will involve children using their research skills to locate information. Students will also improve their ability to communicate what they have learnt. This topic work will be complimented by an excursion to Colchester Zoo.

Spanish – Mrs Fernandez

This term we will be continuing with our songs, dances, silly stretches and other physical activities, while incorporating a grammar-based approach to give the children the basics they need for effective communication. For example one song focuses on the various forms of ’ser’ (to be), another one on forms of ‘estar’ (the other verb ‘to be’) etc. The children will learn the songs and then practice the language actively in the classroom, the emphasis still being on oral communication skills. Homework will be given periodically, although it will be rather different from usual written work as it will incorporate NLP principles - this basically means that I would ask you to encourage and help your child to use the body as much as possible (instructions will be given of course!)

Nature Studies – Mrs Rigby

While the weather is good, we will be tidying up the allotment and preparing the soil in readiness for next Spring’s planting. We will be looking at wildlife habitats as well as studying the effect of the changing seasons on our surroundings. Please ensure children bring a coat and wellies for this subject area.

Music - Mrs Gold

All children will have a weekly recorder lesson and be expected to do brief daily practice. This is a year-long project by the end of which most should be able to play with an even tone throughout the lower octave, read simple music and experience performing individually and as a group. Jointly with Aegean we will explore musical theatre, listening to and singing examples of the genre and writing a small one of our own.