Class 3 (Y3 and Y4)

Class 3 – Summer term 2025!

I hope you all had a great Easter break, what wonderful weather we had! I am looking forward to another busy and exciting term, including swimming lessons, a beach Sports Day and hopefully a class trip…

I (Mrs Rothery) will continue to teach the class with Mrs Boother teaching on Wednesday morning to cover my management release time. Mrs Brown will be working in the class as a Teaching Assistant too.

Across the Carey Federation, we pride ourselves in the way we: ‘Aim High, Be Resilient and Take Care Of Each Other’ and strive to consider the Carey qualities ‘Be Respectful, Be Resilient, Be Resourceful, Be Reflect and Build Relationships’ in all that we do.

 

Curriculum

We plan the curriculum carefully to capture the interest of the children and build upon prior knowledge. Forging cross curricular links, where possible, helps to provide context and meaning to children’s learning.

In Geography, we will be learning about ‘Rivers’. We will use atlases and maps to locate major rivers focusing on the UK and Europe. We will explore the journey of a river along with features of a river. There will be an exciting fieldwork study linked to this topic where children will get to observe, measure and record human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods.

‘Plants’ will be our Science topic, with opportunities to work scientifically within the content taught. We will identify and describe functions of different parts of flowering plants, explore the requirements of plants for life and growth, investigate how water is transported within plants and explore the part that flowers play in the life cycle of flowering plants.

Our Art work will have a focus on landscapes and link to our Geography. We will learn about the artist David Hockney, develop our understanding of perspective and use sketchbooks to record thoughts and ideas before creating our own mixed media landscape.

We will be practising our construction skills in DT by making kites. The sequence of learning includes researching, designing, making and evaluating products. I wonder how the shape affects how well a kite flies? How will you modify your design to make the lite more stable?

For Computing we will learn about programming, specifically about repetition in shapes (using the app Turtle Academy), followed by repetition in games. (Scratch app). We include lessons on internet safety within each unit.

In Music, each unit adapts an integrated approach where games, elements of music (pulse, rhythm, pitch etc.), singing and playing instruments are all linked. The instrument after half term will be glockenspiels. In addition to this, the children will continue to have Mrs Ackers teaching them the recorder on Tuesday mornings for a few weeks. We also have designated singing time for the whole school each Friday morning.

In our Religion World Views, we continue to follow units within the Devon Agreed Syllabus, using the online resource NATRE. We will explore ‘What does it mean to be a Hindu in Britain today?’ and ‘How and why do people mark the significant events of life?’

Within RSE (relationships and sex education) we will be discussing ‘Being my Best’ and ‘Growing and Changing’.

PE will be delivered by Mr Hayler on Tuesday afternoons and will start with Athletics, followed by Striking and Fielding Games after half term. Pupils will also have swimming lessons for four weeks on Thursday morning, beginning the first week back and Tennis taught on Wednesday morning by Mrs Boother after half term.

Madam Clark will continue to teach the children French on Tuesday afternoons – we are so lucky to have these specialist teachers!

 

Across the term, in Maths, children’s learning will focus largely on Fractions (including Decimals for year 4). We will also be developing our understanding of telling the time, shape work, money and statistics. Fluency in number facts including times tables are a priority. Quick recall of number facts is a crucial skill that supports learning in all areas. Therefore, this is an area we regularly consolidate. Please support your children by regularly practising their times tables, + and – single digits and multiples of 10, pairs to 10, 20, 100 and basic doubles and halves. Of course, this will vary according to year group. Hit The Button is an excellent, free on-line resource and we as a Federation we subscribe to NUMBOTS and Times Tables Rock Stars to support pupil’s home learning. There are lots of games which will help prepare pupils for the Year 4 Multiplication Check. The Multiplication Check will take place in the first two weeks of June.

 

In English, we will begin with exploring the book The Beasties by Jenny Nimmo, resulting in a range of writing opportunities. We will also enjoy the non-fiction text Dare to Care: Pet Drago by Mark Roberton where pupils will write their own advice pages. As the term progresses, we will look further at non-fiction texts linked to our Science topic and poetry/narrative linked to Geography. Inspired by the text A River by Marc Martin. The grammar, punctuation, spelling and handwriting content is taught alongside our writing sequences. We use the resource Spelling Shed to teach spelling rules.

 

Reading is a high priority. Pupils will have daily opportunities to read and develop the skills within the reading curriculum through Whole Class Reading. We use VIPERS (Vocabulary, Inference, Predict, Explain, Retrieve, Summarise) including written comprehension activities. Our novel this term is The Last Bear by Hannah Gold.

Please support your children’s learning by hearing them read, reading to them or discussing what they have read five times a week and initialling in their reading record. Please can records and books be bought into school every day.

 

Class Routines

Homework will be posted on Dojo on Tuesday. This will be:

• Maths challenges through Mathletics usually linked to work covered that week in class. Once the children have completed the tasks set they can then explore all the other exciting games on these very valuable online learning platforms. I will also continue to encourage times tables practise and number facts. By the end of the year, Year 3 pupils are expected to have quick recall of the 3, 4 and 8 times tables. Year 4 pupils are expected to recall all the times tables facts.
• Learning spellings. These will be written into spelling journals each week on a Wednesday based on the common exception words, (spelling rules will be taught and practised in school). The words will be specific to your child according to assessment. The spelling journals are for use at home to practise spellings but it is vital they are bought into school on Wednesday for new spellings to be written in. There will be no formal ‘test’ of spellings each week, we look for evidence within class written work. However, I will carry out spelling checks to see how children are progressing with their year group list. A copy of this assessment will be sent home. The highlighted words are the words the children spelled correctly in the check.
• Reading five times a week with an initial from a parent in reading records. Reading regularly to develop fluency, comprehension and stamina is essential to enable pupils to make progress across the curriculum, not just within reading. The five reads will be counted each week on a Friday. So that we can support those pupils not reading regularly, they will have additional opportunities to read to an adult. This is not seen as a ‘punishment’ – it allows us to ensure all pupils make progress.

 

Children receive House Points as a reward. They may link to our Carey Qualities, it may be for listening well, being independent, great work or home learning, it may be for a lovely smile….the possibilities are endless! Pupils receive a sticker but it is not just an individual reward. They also receive a point for their team (Bells or Owls) which get counted up as a whole school each week, and a counter in our ‘working together’ jar. When the jar is full the whole class receives a treat.

 

In Key Stage 2 we no longer have ‘show and tell’ or a special bear….but we do have ‘Fluffy Friday’!! Where children can bring in one soft toy to join them in class for the day.

 

The children’s well-being is of the utmost importance and I aim to create a happy, kind and healthy environment for all. If you have any worries or questions, please do not hesitate in coming to see me. You can message via Dojo but this is not checked regularly, so if it is something urgent, please email the school office to ensure I receive it straight away.

 

Many thanks,

Mrs A Rothery (Class Teacher)