Here be dragons

 

What a wonderfully dragon-filled inspired writing week we have had at the Prince of Wales School!

The children were absolutely delighted by a visit from Teach Rex, who brought Luna the dragon along for us to meet. After some inspiring storytelling from the TeachRex team, the children returned to class brimming with ideas and enthusiasm, ready to design their own unique dragons.

This provided a fantastic opportunity for oracy, with the children talking about, exploring, and justifying the different features, powers, and skills their dragons might have. The children then went on to write about their individual dragons, developing their ideas in more detail. We also made links to our DT learning, where the children designed and created castles that could be used to defend their occupants from dragons.

This week’s home learning will be for children to create a comic strip involving a dragon. Hard copies of the template will be coming home on Friday.

There will be no new spellings sent home this week. Instead, we invite children to access their personal spelling lists on EdShed and practise these where possible.

On Monday, we will be saying goodbye to our trainee teacher, Ms Baker, who has been with us since September. It has been a pleasure working with her, and we would like to thank her for her hard work and contribution to the class. We wish her all the very best at her new placement school.

Finally, a reminder that the last day of term is Friday 13th February. After half term, there will be an INSET day on Monday 23rd February, and all children will return to school on Tuesday 24th February.

 

Hello everyone,

I’m really looking forward to seeing many of you at this week’s parents’ evenings. If you are unable to attend these dates but would still like to catch up, please do get in touch and I will see if I can arrange an alternative time to meet with you.

During parents’ evening appointments, I usually ask whether there is anything specific you would like to discuss first, or whether you would prefer me to share the main headlines of how your child is getting on. As each appointment is limited to 10 minutes, I would warmly encourage you to raise any concerns or questions early in the meeting so that we have time to address them together.

I do my best to keep appointments running on time so that families with later slots are not affected. Please understand that, on occasion, I may suggest arranging a separate appointment if a conversation needs a little more time.

Home Learning and Spellings 

This week’s home learning focuses on researching the skeletal and muscular systems. A sheet has been sent home today which includes a diagram of the main bones in the human body, alongside some shared reading about muscles. You may also wish to explore books or videos linked to these systems.

Purple Mash now has a library of DK fact books, and I have shared one with the children as a 2Do which you may enjoy looking at together. There is no hand-in date for this task, and no proof of learning is required.

The link for Group 1’s spellings can be found here.

The link for Group 2’s spellings can be found here.

As always, thank you for your continued support. I look forward to catching up with many of you over the coming days.

Kind regards,

Ms Browne & the Year 3 Team

  

  

AR number slip up

 

Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you to the parents who got in touch to seek clarification about the AR information sent home on Friday. We have since realised that the figures shared were based on your child’s September assessment.

We apologise for any confusion this may have caused and are currently working to ensure the correct information is shared with you as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding while this is being resolved.

Kind regards,
The Year 3 Team

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