Cumbria County Council s2

CUMBRIA COUNTY COUNCIL BOLTONS

Church of England Primary School Headteacher: Mrs A. Pitcher Bolton Low Houses Telephone: (016973) 42217 Wigton, Cumbria Fax: (016973) 49452 CA7 8PA Email: [email protected]

Date: 16th September 2015

Dear Parents,

The summer holidays seem just a distant memory for us all and we are now fully back into the normal school routines. As you will already know Mrs Pitcher and I are sharing the year three class this year. I work every morning – covering maths, English and science and also the Friday afternoons – this enables me to teach art and design and technology to all the juniors. Mrs Pitcher will teach the majority of the rest of the subjects. Before I outline what is going to be taught this term may I remind you that PE kit needs to be kept in school all the time. Sometimes it is required for dance/music as well as normal PE lessons and clubs. This year homework will usually given out on a Friday and is to be returned the following Wednesday. Spellings are set weekly and are stuck into the children’s spelling books. These too go home on a Friday and there will be a test the following Thursday. Please can you ensure that spellings are learnt as one of our whole school targets is to improve the children’s spelling. Also I can’t over emphasise the importance of hearing your child read as often as possible and also help them learn their tables.

This term we will be covering the following: English In English we have just started to learn how to write exciting adventure stories. We have been looking at how to build tension and how to use a greater range of vocabulary. Within our writing we will be improving our grammar, spelling and punctuation. We shall specifically be looking at using a/an correctly; using commas in subordinate clauses when adding detail into a sentence; using speech marks/inverted commas correctly and improving the range of connectives and openers that are used. Our phonics and speech work will continue and the children will be picked up on any grammatical inconsistencies in the way they speak – your help in this at home is appreciated too so if for instance they said ‘We was ...’ please correct them to ‘We were’. In spelling we are starting by recapping some of the year 2 spelling rules and will then progress to the year 3 rules and spellings. I have enclosed a copy of the spellings that the National Curriculum requires us to teach –as you can see they are quite difficult so learning spellings is of great importance. We will continue to hear your child read as often as possible and have two dedicated reading skills lessons every week. Please encourage your child to read as widely as possible – both books that they enjoy and those that they may find more challenging. In addition to adventure stories we will be looking at poetry and, after half term, non chronological reports.

Maths We have already made a good start in maths with the children beginning to understand the place value of numbers up to 1000. In year 3 the children have to really secure their basic calculation skills, so a lot of time will be spent making sure that they are able to use column addition and subtraction with numbers up to 1000. They need to know their 2,3,4,5,8 and 10 times tables and the associated division facts by the end of year 3 and will have been using these facts to progress on to written methods for multiplication and division. This term we will be focusing on all four number operations and once they are secure with the methods applying these, at their level, through problem solving. We will also be covering some work on angles and using language like parallel, vertical and horizontal. Fractions knowledge will be consolidated and then the children will learn how to find fractions of amounts using fractions with small denominators. Before Christmas we will be learning about measurements (mm, cm, m / g, kg / ml, l) and linking these to place value and fractions.

Science Our topics in science this term are ‘Ourselves’ and ‘Rocks’. We have already begun the first topic by looking at different food groups and what constitutes a healthy diet. We are now moving on to teeth – the different types and how to look after them and then we will be learning about the skeleton – its function and learning the names of some of the major bones and muscles. We will also be learning briefly about the digestive system. After half term we will be learning about the formation of different rocks; how they are used; how fossils are formed and why they are important. In science we aim to keep our lessons as practical as possible and encourage the children to ask lots of questions. Writing up experiments enables them to demonstrate some of the skills that they have learnt in English.

Computing This term we are looking at how to use technology to create a piece of animation using different types of software. We will be investigating what makes a good animation and learning how to make things move using basic programming commands. This will link to our history topic and will allow pupils to also use their literacy skills to develop a story about a Stone Age character.

PE The children will receive tennis sessions with Mr McGlasson and will learn and develop skills in tag rugby with me, up until October half term and then after that will work on gymnastic skills.

History Our history topic is called From Stone Age to Iron Age and we will be finding out about life during this period, through research, workshop activities and visits to local sites. The children will have opportunities to find about how people lived and survived during this time and we will discuss the significance of developments in weapons and housing over the years.

French This term we are learning some basic French phrases and commands that will be useful during lessons and are also learning phrases to use when greeting people. We are also going to learn vocabulary to describe ourselves, our home and our hobbies. As part of this subject we will learn a little bit about the cultures, food and lifestyles of France too.

RE This term Mrs Jennison will be teaching the children about baptism. Nearer Christmas she will teach the children about the significance and symbolism of light.

Art, Design and Technology. In art this term we have begun our topic of ‘Animals in Art’ by looking at different representations of animals through art. We have asked ‘What is art?’ and we will now look at using a range of different media in our work. The children will be encouraged to really look closely at what they are observing and to improve their sketching skills. After half term we will be doing Design and technology and we will be linking our work to the Stone Age topic.

Please feel free to ask me if you have any queries or concerns. Yours sincerely, Julia Garner