Merry Christmas & Thank you

 

As we come to the end of our first full term together, we would like to take a moment to celebrate just how far the children have come. The Year 3 team has been so impressed by the growth, confidence, and maturity the children have shown as they have settled into life in Key Stage 2.

It is a genuine pleasure to work with such a kind, fun, and enthusiastic group of learners each day. We are incredibly proud of the positive spirit, resilience, and effort they bring to the classroom, and it has been wonderful to see them grow in confidence and independence over the term.

On behalf of all the Year 3 staff, we would also like to extend our heartfelt thanks for your continued support, kind words, and the thoughtful Christmas gifts — they are truly appreciated.

We wish you and your families a joyful, restful, and healthy holiday season, and we look forward to welcoming the children back for an exciting Spring term filled with inspiring learning opportunities.

With our warmest wishes,

The Year 3 Team

 

Our Whispers of Winter exhibition has been a lovely highlight this week. The corridors looked beautiful, but it was the children’s artwork that truly made the space feel special. Thank you for your support, and please feel free to revisit the exhibition in the lead-up to Christmas.

Goldilocks Rehearsals & Costumes
Rehearsals for Goldilocks are going well and the children are very excited to share their performance with you. Please could all costumes be sent into school in a named bag, with your child’s name clearly on each item. We kindly ask that costumes arrive by Friday 12th December, ready for our full dress rehearsal on Monday 15th December. If you have any concerns about costumes please talk to a member of the team as soon as possible. 

Our Christmas performance dates are:
● Tuesday 16th December 2025 – Years 1 & 2 at 9:30 am, Years 3 & 4 at 10:30 am
● Thursday 18th December 2025 – Years 1 & 2 at 9:30 am, Years 3 & 4 at 10:30 am

Home Learning

For the remainder of the term, the children’s homework will be a creative seasonal project. This could be inspired by winter or Christmas, and we would love to display the finished creations in the classroom or share photographs of them. Children will also have the chance to talk about what they have made. Please return creations by Thursday 18th December.

A link to the homework sheet is here and hard copies will come home on Monday.  

The children's spellings are already live via Edshed and the links to the spellings sheets are listed below and hard copies will also come home on Monday. 

Here are the homework sheets for group 1. 

Here are the homework sheets for group 2.

Reading Updates
Reading assessments will take place this week. As a reminder, AR tests are carried out half-termly, but please do come and speak to us at any point in the year if you ever have concerns about your child’s reading level — we are always happy to discuss this. Families are also warmly encouraged to visit the school library before or after school to change reading books together. 

Wishing you a joyful couple of weeks as we finish the term and celebrate the festive season ahead. Thank you for your continued support — we’re looking forward to sharing these final weeks with your children!  

Kind regards,

The Year 3 Team

Characters and costumes for Goldilocks performance

 

Whispers of Winter

Tomorrow (Friday), Mrs March has a wonderful day of art and exhibition preparation planned for the children. This year, in an exciting first for the Prince of Wales School, the children will be directly involved in creating our winter display in the school entrance. Year 3’s artwork has been inspired by the Lady of the Lake — a figure from medieval literature and mythology associated with the legend of King Arthur. The children have sculpted ice skaters enjoying the Lady’s frozen lake in winter. Our winter displays are always awe-inspiring, but I cannot wait to see the children’s joy and pride when they spot their own artwork on display on Monday morning. A huge thank-you goes to Mrs March and the Year 3 team for guiding the children through their wonderful sculpting sessions each Friday, and to Ms Evans for coordinating the project.

Goldilocks
This week, the children received their roles for our Goldilocks performances in December. Scripts will be coming home next week. All speaking roles in Year 3 will have an understudy, just in case a child is unwell on the day of the performance. Understudies will still take part on stage with their own non-speaking role and costume.

Children who were not given a speaking part were invited to choose a fairy-tale or animal character they would like to be. I encouraged them to think carefully about costumes or coloured clothing they already have at home. For example, if your child would like to be a mouse, they might wear grey or brown joggers with a matching top.

If your child hasn't told you their character yet, this will be written on this week's home learning sheet. I do not want families to feel pressured to buy anything new. If your child has chosen a character but you have clothing at home that would suit a different role, please just let me know. My aim is for this to be as stress-free and low-cost experience for everyone as possible.

Home learning

This week's home learning can be found here.

Group 1 spellings

Group 2 spellings

I have listed some upcoming dates below but Mr Spracklen's newsletter lists all the dates and notices for this term. If you have any questions or concerns about anything this term please email me or talk to a member of the team at drop off or pick up.

Kind regards,

Ms Browne & the Year 3 Team

Upcoming dates

FRIDAY (28/11/25) - Non-School Uniform Day - (Suggested Donation for Christmas Fayre Prize)

FRIDAY (28/11/25) - #InspiredToLearn Whispers of Winter Day

MONDAY (01/12/25) - #InspiredToLearn Whispers of Winter Exhibition Opens

MONDAY (08/12/25) - Year 3 excursion. See information shared by Mr Spracklen

THURSDAY (11/12/25) - NSPCC Christmas Jumper Day

MONDAY (15/12/25) - AM - KS1 and KS2 Shows (Dress Rehearsals)

TUESDAY (16/12/25) - AM - KS1 and KS2 Shows

WEDNESDAY (17/12/25) - Visiting Professional Panto (Courtesy of POWSA)

WEDNESDAY (17/12/25) - Christmas Dinner Day (Local Food Links)

THURSDAY (18/12/25) - AM - KS1 and KS2 Shows

This week's home learning

 Hello everyone,

Home Learning 

In parent's evening, many of you spoke about wanting to get your child reading more at home so for this week's home learning I have set a reading activity. There are no specific questions for the children to answer about the text but it would be great if they could read this with an adult. You may want to discuss words the children are unfamiliar with, or discuss the formal language and formatting choices of newspapers. 

Project with Remi

Practice with Reggie

For our winter performance, we will be performing Goldilocks and next week we will be writing newspaper articles.  For this week’s home learning,  we would like you to read the attached newspaper article with an adult.   It is fine if an adult reads it all or you might read some sections with them. It would be great if you chatted to your adult about what you have read and talked about any words or phrases that you are unsure of.

Times Tables or Numbots  15 minutes reading a day Spellings

I be sending a paper copy of a newspaper article home with every child, a link to this can be found here. 

Some children may like an extra challenge and you may enjoy the opportunity to talk about this example text which has some potentially new and more challenging vocabulary. 

The ed shed spellings will go live on Friday but links to the spelling sheets can be found below:

Group 1 - spelling sheet

Group 2 - spelling sheet 

Y3 history topic so far

 Hello Y3 families

We are incredibly fortunate to be working with Castle Hill Heritage Skills CIC this half term, who have been helping us bring our History topic—Stone Age to Iron Age—to life in the most unforgettable way. The children have already enjoyed three fantastic weeks of hands-on learning, and they have absorbed SO much new knowledge and experience!

Week 1 – The Palaeolithic Period (Early Stone Age)

Our journey began deep in the Palaeolithic era. The children were amazed to discover how early humans created fire, produced paint from natural materials, and even boiled water without the use of modern tools. This week really captured their curiosity and set the tone for the adventures ahead.

Week 2 – The Mesolithic Period (Middle Stone Age)

In week two, we stepped into the Mesolithic period. The children explored the lives of hunter-gatherers and learned how people sourced food from their environment. They practised string-making techniques and created Stone Age-inspired artwork, developing real appreciation for the resourcefulness of early humans.

Week 3 – The Neolithic Period (New Stone Age)

Week three brought us into the Neolithic era, where farming began to shape communities. The children got hands-on experience with early farming processes, including making butter, grinding flour, and weaving. These activities helped them understand how life began to change as people settled and developed new skills.

The children are absolutely loving this immersive historical experience, and we can’t wait to see what the rest of the half term brings!

 

Year 3's wintertime performance

 

Hello everyone,

I wanted to let you all know that I’ve shared our KS2 Wintertime performance with the children: Roald Dahl’s Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It is a wonderful play, and Miss White and I are very excited to stage it again. We last produced it in 2019—when I was teaching the then–Year 3s and Miss White was teaching Year 4—so it feels lovely to be returning to it with this cohort.

In Roald Dahl’s version, Goldilocks finds herself on trial for her crimes against the three bears, which makes for a very humorous and imaginative courtroom setting.

Year 3 Roles
Year 3 will be taking on the parts of Goldilocks, the Three Bears, and the Judge. I will be holding simple auditions for the children who have told me they would like to be considered for these roles. Year 3 will also make up the jury, public gallery, police officers, and court officials.

Because the play is set in a fairy tale/animal world, many of the jury and gallery roles will be familiar fairy tale or woodland characters. If your child is not cast as one of the main characters, they will be one of the following:

• Little Miss Muffet

• Red Riding Hood

• Cinderella

• Snow White

• The Muffin Man

• Robin Hood

• Bear

• Bird

• Squirrel

• Fox

• Badger

• Mouse

• Police Officer

• Three Little Pigs

• Billy Goats Gruff

• March Hare

• Gingerbread Man

If your child did not wish to audition for Goldilocks, one of the Three Bears, or the Judge—and you already have a costume for any of the characters listed above—please do let me know. I’m very happy to cast children according to costumes you already have at home.

More information about costumes and scripts will be sent home shortly. In the meantime, please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

Kind regards,
Ms Browne

         

Updates and this week's home learning

 

Hello everyone,

The children have been have settled back into Autumn term 2 well. This class, like most children enjoy opportunities to learn practically and have been very engaged over the past fortnight with our Inspired to Learn curriculum and activities. I'm sure the children have spoken to you about their History lessons with the Castle Hill Heritage Skills CIC, which they have been loving. I have shared some photographs at the end of this blog of history and our science lessons on forces. 

In maths so far the children have been learning column addition and subtraction. This can be a tricky skill to master at first but we will do lots of practice of this during our early bird work so that hopefully by year 4 it is something they have mastered. 

In English we are reading a new book that will look at lots of imagery and figurative language like similes and metaphors and I can't wait to hear the children's creative ideas. 

In science, we have been learning about forces. This is always a great topic but we are particularly lucky to have so many great resources which Mrs Thorpe was able to get funded for us through her work with the Ogden Trust - Thank you Mrs Thorpe the resources are amazing and give the children such important hands on experiences.   

In PSHE, the children have been learning about how families come in different sizes and combinations and we were very grateful to one child in the class who shared their family story with us.

In art, the children are working hard with Mrs March to create winter inspired sculptures and I can't wait for us to see the final pieces. 

Home Learning:

For this week's home learning, I would like the children to imagine their dream days and to record what time they would like to do each activity. This home learning is intended to inspire creativity whilst also thinking about how to record times on an analogue clock face. Many of the children may need help with recording the time, especially if they choose a time that isn't half past or o'clock. 

Hard copies of the home learning are coming home today but the link is here

Spellings

The children's online spellings will now be live on edshed and this is a great program for them to practice their spellings. 

A spelling sheet is also coming home today and links to these can be found below:

Spellings for group 1 here
Spellings for group 2 here 

As ever if you have any questions or comments, please get in touch with a member of the year 3 team.