Years 3/4 Pixies, Unicorns & Centaurs Centaurs Class Teacher: Mr De-Keyzer (Phase Leader) Teaching Assistant: Mrs Hill (Tues-Fri) Unicorns Class Teacher: Mrs Felton Teaching Assistants: Mrs Healey (Wed-Fri) and Mrs Hill (Mon) Pixies Class Teacher: Miss Broad Teaching Assistants: Mrs Payne-Cook & Mrs Gaskin

Topics Term 1 & 2– ‘The Victorians’ and‘Light and electricity’. Term 3 & 4 – ‘World in Danger’, ‘Animals including humans’ and ‘States of matter’. Term 5 & 6 – ‘Prehistoric Britain: stone age and iron ages’, ‘How the Roman Empire began’, and ‘Rocks’. Where possible we link English in with our Topics.

Timetable English, Phonics/Spelling, Guided Reading and Maths lessons are in the morning. Topic work is in the afternoon as well as PE, Computing, Art & Design Technology.

Homework Approximately 90 minutes per week (including reading & times tables practice) Homework is set on a Friday & needs to be returned by Wednesday of the following week. Unless stated otherwise (e.g. poster, PowerPoint presentation etc) homework should be completed in the green book provided. Homework will be either Maths, English or Topic. Occasionally over two weeks as some parents requested longer time to allow for children to complete the research.

Reading & Guided Reading Children will be reading every day independently in class before school starts & after lunch. Guided reading will happen three times a week with a carousel of reading activities so each child will read with an adult once a week in guided reading. Library books can be changed as frequently as children want to, but we encourage them to stick with a book that at first may seem ‘boring’ as it could improve! Year 3 children are expected to read at least 3 times a week. Year 4 are expected to read at least 4 times. House points are awarded for the number of entries over 3/4. If they do not read the correct number of times in that week, they will have to miss 5 minutes of reward time on a Friday and read during that time instead.

Phonics/Spelling/SPAG Specific spelling lessons will take place four times a week with another spelling activity during guided reading. Spellings will also be identified in the book with (sp) and children will practice writing these daily. Spellings will also be on the homework for children to practice which will be linked to the spelling lessons during the week. SPAG (Spelling, Punctuation & Grammar) lessons, as well as English, will take place once a week, with a follow up during guided reading.

Before and After school routines Lunch boxes are to be put on the lunch box trolleys. Lunch box monitors will be in charge of moving these to the correct place. Children are now dismissed from the classroom onto the playground at the end of the day. Their teacher will wait in the classroom or by the classroom door. They are told to come back if they can’t find their parent. Children are encouraged to take home their own letters and remember to give replies to their teacher and are responsible for handing their own lunch money into their teacher before registration. Their teacher will not be checking their book bags as it is now their responsibility. We do not use contact books for communication so please write a quick note on paper if you want to let us know something.

Clubs Children will make their own way to their club from their classroom. They are responsible for taking with them everything that they need. They will be taken by the club adult to the playground at the end of their club and dismissed to their parent. They are told to remain with the adult doing the club until they see their parent.

Writing Journals A purple book for expressing feelings, drawing pictures to accompany writing. Can go home to finish work but are used daily so need to be returned. These are private books for the children. Adults and other children will not see them unless the child has asked for them to see it. These are not marked by teachers. Our first homework (Fri 8th Sept) will be decorating the front & back covers of their journal.

How you can help your child at home. Read as frequently as possible. Ask them questions about what they are reading to develop their inference and deduction skills. This will also develop fluency & expression. Practice times tables for weekly test (usually on a Thursday). All Year 3s will start on Jade 2x (please see website for a breakdown of levels). Year 4 will begin where they got to at the end of last year. Play mental maths games to develop faster addition, subtraction, multiplication & division.

What to do if you have a concern or problem First, speak to the class teacher. They are often available after school. The office can always arrange an appointment if they aren’t available. (It is always helpful to let the office know why you want to speak with the teacher so they can pass this on in advance of your meeting). You can meet with the phase leader if you feel the matter has not been resolved. If you still feel the matter has not been resolved, you can make an appointment to meet with a senior member of staff. We now ask all parents when making an appointment to see a senior member of staff to provide the following information prior to the appointment. The reason Any other staff already spoken to about the issue If the matter remains unresolved (which we hope is very unlikely) then you should write your concerns down and send the letter to Ms Beckett and/or Mrs May and an appointment will be made to see them.   e

Other events PE – Centaurs – Tuesday and Friday Pixies – Monday and Tuesday Unicorns – Tuesday and Thursday Reminder for correct PE kits for lessons Parent’s Evening: Early November Keep your eye on the website for all the latest news, homework, more detailed information and dates for your diary.