1. ‘Excellence with Care’

2.  Aims  Expectations for the year  Keeping you informed  Curriculum content and key changes  Homework and Project Homework  Extra-Curricular Opportunities and Clubs  How can you help?  Any questions?

3. Parent Responsibilities  We expect all parents and home adults to work in partnership with school staff to promote a happy and successful school life.  Working Together  Trust us, Engage with us, Confide in us.  Support Learning  Talk to us, Quality Learning, Practise skills, be on time.  Encourage the Best  Get involved, Support us.  Encourage Independence Page 139

4. 1. Home / School Agreement 2. Newsletters & other school letters. (go out on Tues, Weds, Thurs) 3. Termly Year Group Newsletter 4. School website. 5. Reporting Progress - Progress Meetings Autumn Progress meeting dates- Tuesday 20 th October 3.30 – 7.00pm Thursday 22 nd October 3.30 – 7.00pm

5. 1. Class Teacher. 2. Leader of Learning. 3. Mrs Westhead – Deputy Head 4. Mr Howard – Head Teacher Requests to see the teachers – telephone the school office or send a note to the teacher. Please let us know what you would like to speak to us about. Page 133/134

6.  At Velmead we celebrate our values and incorporate them into our everyday life.  They are:  NURTURE  TRUST  RESPECT  ACHIEVEMENT  ENJOYMENT  INCLUSION  LOYALTY Page 32

7.  Independence  Organisation  Listening  Getting started  Respecting other children  Having a go, developing resilience Page 40

8.  School Councillor  Eco Rep  Trailblazer  Ambassador Pages 21 - 24

9. 1) Respect and Care for each other 2) Adults are here to help you 3) Always use good manners and be polite to other children and adults 4) Care for all of our learning spaces and equipment Pages 101/102

10. 1. Rewards (Golden Points) Gold Certificates are awarded when pupils gain 40 golden points. 2. A warning (Amber) is usually given before a Red Point. Each session is a fresh start. 3. Consequences (Red Points) for rule breaking and making wrong choices. Children then have time to reflect on how to get it right next time. Pages 103/104

12. Year 3 Autumn Stone Age to the Iron Age, Light and Shadows Spring Let’s Rock- Plants, Rocks and Soils Summer The Romans and Violent Volcanoes Fantastic Forces A project overview will be glued into planners at the start of each term.

14.  History: Stone Age to Iron Age  Science: Skeleton in animals and humans Light and shadows.  Literacy: Information texts, stories, poetry, explanation texts.  Maths: Place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, times tables, measures, data handling, shape, fractions, problem solving.  ICT: E safety, Scratch, Email, Inspiration note-taking  Art/DT: Sketching, painting, levers, puppets  PE: Dance, football, netball

15.  A year 3 guide for parents is attached to our school website. KEY CHANGES  Higher pitch and expectations  Literacy: Greater attention on spelling and grammar. Joined handwriting and use of adverbials and conjunctions. In reading use of inference skills.  Maths: Greater emphasis on arithmetic and mathematical reasoning. Refer to our calculation policy on school website.  Science: Greater emphasis on thinking scientifically.

16.  The new National Curriculum has been written to give age related expectations rather than levels.  We track achievement of objectives from within ‘Band 3’ (The band that year 3 work on) and will report to you at the end of the year and update you at Parent's Evening.  Working below band 3  Working within  Working within upper  Working above  The ‘pitch-up’ means that some children will be working below age related expectations.

17. Weekly basic skills homework tasks are set to give your child the opportunity to PRACTISE and APPLY independently the skills they have been taught at school.  Read at least 5 times a week for 20 minutes. Reading diaries will be checked weekly on a Monday.  Fortnightly spellings to learn or an activity to reinforce spellings. (Testing once a week)  Weekly learning of times tables (Testing once a week)  On alternating weeks there will be either a maths task or Literacy task for 20 minutes.  Homework is handed out on a Monday and is due in the following Monday. Page 147

18.  Please encourage your child to complete the evaluation so we know how they found the task.  You are welcome to jot a note if you wish. DATETASK

19. Book bags/Plastic wallet : Useful for protection of books, planners, homework and somewhere to put letters. (No food or drink inside!) Reading diary –  Yr 3 children should spend time at home developing skills and discussing what they are reading.  New reading book: child to write in date, title.  Each night (or at least 5 times a week) read for 20 minutes, record the date, number of pages read.  Parent’s comment and signature at least once a week.  Comment on progress, discussion, further practice needed on same book or a specific problem.  Reading Comprehension and general understanding.  Reading diaries will be checked every Monday.

20. Spelling – Fortnightly spelling word list. Practise little and often and keep previous word lists ‘simmering’. Please help your child practise the pattern and to recognise any other words with that pattern. Try to make learning spellings fun. Use a range of ways to learn and retain words and patterns. http://www.spellzone.com/word_lists/list_search.cf m?words=Y3+%26+Y4+non-statutory+words Some children will need to reinforce the following: High Frequency and Medium Frequency words

21.  Reinforcing reading or writing skills.  Reading  Reading comprehensions to develop information retrieval, inference and deductions skills.  Writing  Sentence level work to reinforce grammar or spelling rules.  Sentence level work to reinforce and develop topic work.

22.  Reinforcing Calculation Methods - Velmead Calculation Policy- copy on the website.  Use of number lines initially before moving on to more formal methods. We will include an example on homework.  Order of learning tables is outlined in the Bronze stage of the planner.  Make children aware of numbers and maths in real life situations. (money, measures – cookery etc.)  Help your child learn to tell the time.

23. My Maths  Computer based learning.  Your child will be given login details that they can use at home and at school.  Homework set will reinforce learning objectives taught at school.  Your child can have more than one attempt at a question.  Teachers can check your child’s progress.

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25.  The children will complete 5 projects in Year 3.  3 projects will be set by the teachers, one each term.  2 projects will be selected by the children from a selection of ideas in the planner.  Projects are an opportunity to work with your children to develop their learning. They also give your child the flexibility to present their ideas in a range of ways. Page 181

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27. Encourage your child to take an active part in school life Clubs See newsletter, website, children’s table under notice board and listen out in assemblies Instrument Tuition Please speak to the office about information relating to lessons to learn other musical instruments.

28. Get involved by helping : -  in the classrooms as a regular helper  in the school library as a regular volunteer  hearing readers first thing in the morning  on school trips  on occasional one-off activities  by sharing your knowledge, skills or hobbies  by standing as a governor when the opportunity arises  by joining the Velmead Parents’ Association (VPA), or volunteering to help with their events