Welcome to Year 3

3EN - Beatrix Potter class

Why Beatrix Potter?

We chose Beatrix as she was famous worldwide for her children’s stories and illustrations, helping to conserve the Lake District, being a natural scientist and winning farming awards for her Herdwick sheep flock.

3NA - Amelia Earhart class

Why Amelia Earhart?

Amelia Earhart is famous for being the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. We chose her as our role model because she was fearless and determined, and a trailblazer who continues to be an inspiration to this day.

Ms Ackerman

I have been at Hillcrest for quite a while. My favourite thing about teaching at Hillcrest is the enthusiasm that all the children bring to their learning and being part of such a wonderful community.

Miss North

I have been at Hillcrest for three years and am eager to be teaching Year 3 and helping the children transition from KS1 to the heady heights of KS2.

We’re very lucky to have the support of our two fantastic Teaching Assistants, Miss Pemberton and Miss Reilly. They’re both really looking forward to getting to know you all and helping you with all your learning.

Here's to a great year!

The Yr 3 Team

Term 4 Letter

Welcome back to Term 4! We’re very lucky to have a new student teacher with us this term, Miss Bardsley. She will be with us until end of June. We’ve got lots to tell you about what we’ll all be doing this term, which we’re really looking forward to exploring with your lovely children.

We have two History Enquiries planned for this term:

The first is ‘What was Britain like in the Iron Age?’ where we will be Historians and Authors. We’ll be following on from our learning about the Stone Age and the Bronze Age and including all our historical knowledge into writing a Legend where our Celtic main characters will defeat a mythical beast.

Our second Enquiry is ‘What did the Romans do for us?’ where we’ll be learning about the differences between Roman and Celtic culture and way of life, as well as investigating all the changes that the Roman invasion of AD43 brought to Celtic Britain. We’ll be channelling all our historical knowledge into a new narrative, which will be a warning story involving Celtic or Roman main characters.

As Authors, we will be building upon what the children have learned in Year 2, starting with precision sentence structure, focussing on meeting the Hillcrest Standard for writing expectations, and developing effective and coherent pieces of writing.

Our daily SPaG lessons will include specific grammar work, as well as giving children the opportunity to work on their ‘Hillcrest Spelling Saga’ spellings.  We will also be incorporating regular phonics revision to help children become more fluent in their spelling.

We will be using shared texts, each day, during our Enquiry/Authors lessons to develop DERIC – Decoding, Explanation, Retrieval, Inference and (Authorial) Choice.

The children will have the opportunity to change their independent reading books regularly, and we encourage parents to read at home four times a week with their child (feel free to do more!). Raffle tickets will be awarded each week (one ticket for reading four times a week, two tickets for more.) At the end of each term, one lucky member of each class will win a Waterstones book voucher! Please comment and sign in the children’s reading records each time they read.

As Mathematicians, our focus will be on mastering mathematical concepts and exploring mathematical thinking. Our starting point will always be the children’s current knowledge and understanding of the concepts being taught.

In Term 4, we will be learning about money. We’ll be representing mixed pounds and pence amounts, using coins and bank notes, as well as adding/subtracting money amounts and giving change.

We’ll also be learning about length and perimeter, using cm and m to measure and calculate. 

We’ll also be continuing our twice weekly ‘Times Tables Challenge’ where the children will practice their times tables facts in a quick, low-stakes, individual quiz.

This term, we will be Athletes on Mondays and Fridays. Please ensure the children are prepared for indoor and outdoor PE on these days, making sure names are on all pieces of clothing.

This term, the children will have PE with Mr Roberts and Art with Miss Sharples every Friday morning. We will also be continuing our learning as Linguists on Thursday mornings, in our fortnightly Latin lessons with Miss Wilson.

Dates for your diary:

Rescheduled Parent’s Evening:

3EN – Tuesday 22^nd March

3NA – Ms Ackerman will update you ASAP.

Keep checking the website for more information and further updates.

We’re delighted to be able to speak to you all face-to-face at drop-off and pick-up times this term about any quick reminders or useful information. We’re also available for a longer chat, if needed – just drop us an email and we’ll get back to you to arrange a phone call or a quick meeting.

Here’s to a great term!

Kind Regards

The Year 3 team

(Ms Ackerman, Miss North, Miss Pemberton and Miss Reilly)