Year 3 making a splash this week

 

This Thursday morning, I will be hosting the Year 3 Parent Information Session. During the session, I will be sharing what’s coming up in the Spring term and talking through reading, spellings, and ways you can support your child with their maths learning at home. It would be lovely to see you there. If you’re unable to attend but have any questions, please feel free to email me and I will do my best to address them during the session.

This Thursday also marks the start of Year 3 swimming lessons for the term. Swimming will take place every Thursday until the Easter holidays. Children should bring a bag containing a towel, a one-piece swimming costume, goggles, and a swimming hat. Please also ensure your child has a suitable coat, as we have a long-standing POW superstition that it always rains on swimming days… and it does seem to come true!

New spellings will come home on Friday. Home Learning was also sent home last Friday, and the link to this week’s tasks can be found here

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch 

Kind regards,

The Year 3 Team. x 

Happy New Year

 

Hello everyone,

We hope you had a happy and restful break. We are really looking forward to welcoming your child back to Year 3 for Spring Term 1.

This term, the children will have PE with the Mini Ballers team on Monday afternoons, so please ensure your child brings their PE kit into school on Monday morning. This week, they will also have an additional PE lesson on Tuesday afternoon. From Week 2 until the Easter holidays, the class will have swimming as their second PE lesson on Thursday afternoons.

This Monday afternoon, the children will also take part in a SoundBeam workshop. 'SoundBeam is a multi award-winning, touch-free assistive music technology that turns physical movements into sounds and music'. This will be a brand-new experience for POW children, and one we hope they will really enjoy. 

There will be a Parent Information Session on Thursday 15th January at 9am. In the meantime, here is a brief overview of what the children will be learning during Spring 1:

In Maths, the children will be studying multiplication and division. In English, they will continue to develop their sentence construction skills, designing adverts, writing a persuasive letter, and creating a story with a dilemma. Our Science topic will be Animals Including Humans, where they will learn about balanced diets, the skeletal system, and muscles. In DT, the children will be constructing model castles. In Computing, they will focus on online safety and touch typing. In French, they will learn numbers and playground games, and in Geography, they will be exploring rainforests.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to email me directly or speak to me or a member of the Year 3 team at drop-off or pick-up.

We are looking forward to the term ahead. 

Thank you, as always, for your continued support,

Ms Browne & the Year 3 Team

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!