Year 3

Welcome to Year 3!

Hello and welcome to Year 3 where your child is taught to work hard, have fun and try their best in everything that they do. It is going to be a really exciting year with the transition into Key Stage 2 bringing lots of new experiences, fascinating discoveries and new relationships too.

Mrs. Baldock and all support staff are here to support you and your child. Within the classroom, both students and parents are cared about, so please let us know if you have any concerns, however big or small via Seesaw messages. Each day your child is required to bring to school a coat, book bag, water bottle, and snack (unless they order toast) and their reading record.

 

Messages between school and home

Seesaw will continue to be our main method of communication this academic year. Please try where possible to send any message (no matter how small the worry or query!) through the inbox tool on the Parent Seesaw App, and we will always get an answer for you as promptly as possible.

Learning Behaviours

We are developing children's ability to discuss their learning and helping them develop a language to talk about their own learning. The children in school today are going to be facing huge challenges in the wider world and we are working with them to develop skills and attitudes that will help them be successful in the wider world.The whole school follows three rules: be kind, be ready and be safe. All children are encouraged to follow these rules.

Daresbury’s Learning Behaviours are: Collaborating, Active Listening, Showing Curiosity, Being Independent and Reflecting. 

 

House Points

Children can gain house points for a variety of things from following our learning behaviours to completing their homework. Their teacher and other members of staff can award house points throughout the school day or on Seesaw. If a child has been awarded a certificate in the assembly on a Friday, they will also receive house points:

Special Mention = 3 pom poms

Wall of Success = 1 pom pom

Mathematician of the week = 1 pom pom

Reader of the week = 1 pom pom

In addition to recognising achievements and positively reinforcing our school rules, we have systems in place for when our school rules, behaviour expectations and learning behaviours are not followed.

Step 1: a reminder of the rule that they have broken.

Step 2: children will receive a verbal warning (this will be done 1:1 and not in front of others).

Step 3: a 2-minute reflection time with an adult.

Step 4: a 15-minute reflection with an adult. Parents will be informed, and the incident will be logged onto the school monitoring system.

Step 5: Follow up- repair and restore. Class teacher to discuss the behaviour with child/children and consider collaboratively how to best repair the problem/behaviour. For example, this could be completing work missed in their own time like at break times.

 

Homework

Homework will be uploaded onto Seesaw and will be live to complete on a Friday after school and is due to be completed by the following Wednesday.  The homework will alternate between Maths or a reading-based task. The homework that is set for your child will be something that they can access independently at home and will be a consolidation of the learning that has happened in class that week.

Please note that homework is not supposed to be a stressful time for you as parents or for your children at home. In year 4, 30-60 minutes is the recommend time to complete homework as independently as possible. If support is needed, please let Mrs Baldock know when the homework is uploaded onto Seesaw: this way, we can all work together to reach the best outcome for your child.

Additionally, we would like your child to spend a minimum of ten minutes a day on Times tables Rock Stars and five minutes a day practising the spellings uploaded to Seesaw.

Throughout the year, Mrs Baldock may assign additional short tasks to a child if she feels they need more support on a particular area of the curriculum.  A private message will be sent via Seesaw to you to let you know and give further details of how to best support your child at home.  Additionally, Mrs Baldock will also assign short challenges to encourage your child to share what they have learned in class and further demonstrate their understanding.  These challenges are not compulsory but hopefully provide a great way to celebrate your child’s learning and any challenge completed will be shared in class with their peers.

 

 

Reading

In KS2, reading records will be captured on Seesaw. You are expected to provide comments on the Reading Record at least three times a week (remember it doesn't just have to be about a school book). This allows the child a chance to discuss the book, author, illustrator, its themes, features, and language, all of which are important for your child's comprehension and literacy skills. 

As we encourage KS2 children to develop their independence, Year 3 children are welcome to change their reading books on any day.

Mrs. Baldock will have a tracker in class to monitor reading records throughout the year.

 

Reading Progress

Each half-term, you will receive reading comments based on your child’s progress and new targets via Seesaw.

 

 

Reading VIPERS

Year 3 will be using our 'Reading VIPERS' during their reading whole class lessons.  (Vocabulary, Infer, Predict, Explain, Retrieve, Summarise). The Reading VIPERS have had a massive impact on developing language, comprehension, and inference skills. Attached to the website are key questions that can be asked of the children whilst they are reading at home. This will give you a chance to see the type of questions that they are asked during lessons and assessment periods. On here, you will find a link to the Reading VIPERS strands with example questions that we encourage you to ask your child at home during reading sessions.

 

P.E

Year 3 children will have two sessions of PE a week. This year, PE lessons will take place on Monday with Mrs Baldock and Thursday with Coach Craig. Your child needs to come to school ready for PE on both days. We politely ask that your child wear a school PE kit with a logo or a plain white t-shirt with plain black shorts/bottoms and white or black trainers.

Seesaw

As you all know, Seesaw is very much part of Daresbury life and is an interactive learning journal where Mrs Baldock and your child will share their work. It will continue to be used in all subjects from problem-solving in Maths to Dance during 2024/5. As always, you will be able to ‘like’ and comment on your child’s work, which will add to the great sense of achievement that the children feel when using the app. Homework will be allocated to your child’s activities in their home-learning app every Friday at 3:15. 

Any questions about Seesaw and how it works please feel free to ask Mrs Baldock. This is the best way to communicate with school staff. You can send a private message via the inbox. Staff will reply to these messages but please be aware that they may not be seen during the school day whilst staff are teaching. Please ring the school if you have an urgent message.

Birthdays and Treats

Each day, children have the choice of ordering a hot school meal or bringing in a packed lunch from home.  Each new term, the school dinner menu is sent to all parents via Seesaw messages. Please ensure you discuss the meal choices available with your child. Unfortunately, the kitchen is unable to provide any alternatives (dietary requirements will be catered for), for this reason, Mrs Baldock would like to request that, on the days your child does not like the meal choices, a packed lunch be provided from home.

How to help your child

Here are some websites that you may find useful to support your child's learning.

Maths

http://www.ictgames.com: Fun and exciting maths and literacy games available.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/site/numeracy.shtml   A BBC website with all maths topics covered.

http://www.mad4maths.com/ Fun maths games for children and advice section for parents

http://www.mathszone.co.uk/ Lots and lots of games and tools to help your child with maths at home.

http://www.teachingtables.co.uk/ Fun games to support the learning of times tables.  Table Mountain is recommended and can be played in demo mode.

https://www.myminimaths.co.uk Lots of arithmetic practice for all areas of Maths

https://www.mathsframe.co.uk Maths games and

English

https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf

Reading VIPERS guidance.

https://www.pobble365.co.uk a picture a day that your child can talk or write about to let their imaginations soar.

https://www.spellingframe.co.uk Spelling rules practice for each year group.

Please always ask in school if you want anything to support your child at home.