Topics & Curriculum

This term our topic is:

‘The Rainforest and Maya Civilisation’

The children will be learning all about the rainforest, as well as the Maya Civilisation, with a lot of their learning being linked to these topics, across the curriculum.

A Learning Journey giving an overview of what the Year 3 children will be covering this term together with a Topic Tree will be published on Friday.

In PSHEE this half term, the children will develop their knowledge and understanding of ‘Safety and the Changing Body’: first aid, being kind online, cyberbullying, fake emails, influences and making choices. After half term, the children will be learning about ‘Citizenship’: rights of the child (rights and responsibilities), recycling, local community groups, charity, local democracy and rules.

Homework

Please find the Homework Timetable for the term here.

Spellings and times tables books will continue to be sent home weekly to be used at home for practice.

SpellingShed is our online spelling resource for spelling homework; it helps reinforce spellings through games. We expect a minimum of 5 games spread out across the week to aid the children in learning and retaining their spellings. Children are also encouraged to practise writing their spellings in their book to further support their retention.

The children will continue to come home with weekly times table quizzes that they have achieved in school; this will help them practise the ones they need to for the following week. Please do encourage your child to keep revisiting all their tables as they are easily forgotten at this age.

DoodleMaths is our online Maths resource. We expect a minimum of 5 lots of their daily games, spread out across the week.

Trips

The Year 3 children will be visiting Legoland on Friday 7 March as part of our learning about Maya Civilisation this term.

We’re so excited to be able to offer the children some real-world experience of what they are learning in school. Trips are a brilliant way of making learning more tangible and memorable, as they enable the children to engage with the material in a more active and immersive way than can often be possible in the classroom. They are a powerful tool for broadening the children’s horizons, and also a lot of fun; we cannot wait to enjoy this day out!

More information will follow nearer to the date.

Health & Wellbeing

For all absences, please complete the absence request form via the Parent Portal. Please see the guide here on how to request an absence for your child.

Please ensure your child is well enough to attend school each day. If they’ve required Calpol in the morning, they aren’t well enough for school, so please don’t send them in. If in any doubt, please contact Matron to discuss your concerns.

If your child will need any prescribed or over-the-counter medication administered during the school day, please complete the following form here. No medication can be administered without this form.

Children are to bring their water bottles to school and take them home daily. It is very important that the children drink water throughout the day, and using bottles in the classrooms helps to prevent spillages! If you do forget a bottle, just let us know and we can ensure that children have a cup to drink out of.

Year 3 Routine

Drop off is at 8:15am on the Terrace or in the Drop off zone, for registration at 8:20am. Children arriving earlier should be booked in for breakfast from 7:30am or join our Early Birds in the Sports Hall or Courts from 8:00am. Children shouldn’t enter the Clock Block earlier than 8:15am.

Pick Up is at 4:00pm at the front of school. Please ensure that your child blobs out with a teacher before they leave the school site.

If you’d like your child to join us for breakfast, or stay beyond 4:00pm for hobbies or after school supervision/supper club, please contact extendedday@pennthorpe.com to arrange this.

Dates for your Diary

As well as your pocket-sized diary, parents can also view the Spring Term calendar via the website and Parent Portal.

Please do have a look through and pop important dates in your diary.  Of course, sometimes plans need to be updated, and so any changes will be updated on our electronic calendar and communicated to you as soon as possible.

The key events for our Year 3 parents can also be found in Mr Murray’s Start of Spring Term Letter here.

FoP events

Our brilliant Friends of Pennthorpe, as always, will be doing lots to support our school and community this term. Key things for you to watch out for include:

  • The Spring Term Friends of Pennthorpe meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 14 January at 8:30am. Everyone is welcome to attend to help develop upcoming FoP plans.
  • Bags of Support Collections on Thursday 30 January and Friday 28 March.
  • Pop Up Treat Shop on Friday 14 February from 3:00pm
  • Friends of Pennthorpe Second Hand Uniform Shop & Blueblood Sports Pop Up Shop on Tuesday 11 March.
  • ‘A Night in Bloom’ Ball on Saturday 22 March 2025. For further information and to book your tickets click here.
  • The Friends of Pennthorpe Mother’s Day Shop will open its doors on Tuesday 25 March.

Uniform

With the continuing cold weather, please can you ensure your child has a named Pennthorpe hat, scarf and gloves in school each day.

Please make sure your child’s uniform is labelled with their name, as it does make it a lot easier to reunite lost items with their owners.

Children are expected to wear smart uniform each day:

  • All children should wear their blazers coming to and from school.
  • Clean black school shoes (if a child needs to wear trainers, for example where their school shoes have been misplaced, please make the form teacher aware)
  • Shirts need to be long enough to tuck in.
  • Earrings – one plain stud only. No hoops. The child needs to be able to take the earrings out independently for PE and Games lessons.
  • No necklaces.
  • Plain wristwatch, no smartwatches to be worn.
  • All shoulder length hair tied up with a plain hairband or small school coloured scrunchie or headband.

The Year 3 Team will be conducting a complete kit check at the beginning of term.  This will include wellies, waterproof trousers, school play coat, water bottle and sports kit (see below). Do talk to your children about the importance of looking after and organising their own property, as we gently begin to encourage their independence and development of organisational skills.

Uniform is available to order online, for further information please click here.

Sports Kit

From Year 3, all PE and Games kit should be brought in to school on a Monday morning and should be taken home for washing at the end of each week. All children require a mouthguard for hockey and rugby lessons, as well as competitive matches. They will not be allowed to participate in lessons or matches without one, as this poses significant risk to the children.

For the first half of the Spring Term, boys will be continuing with rugby and the girls with netball. A full kit list is available here, and all branded items can be ordered through Blueblood

Girls (netball):

  • Games kit
  • All jewellery must be removed
  • Base layers (recommended)

Boys (rugby):

  • Games kit
  • Shin pads
  • Mouthguard
  • Base layers (recommended)
  • Separate bag (such as a bin bag) in games kit bag so muddy sports kit can be kept away from clean PE kit/uniform
  • Named towel to wipe excess mud off after rugby sessions.

After half-term the boys will be switching to hockey and girls to football.

Girls (football):

  • Games kit
  • Shin Pads
  • Football Boots (optional)

Boys (hockey):

  • Games kit
  • Shin pads
  • Mouthguard

Car park

Please do not park in the drop-off lanes at the front of school if you are coming past the gates to drop your child into school, or collect them from one of the school buildings. These lanes are intended for dropping-off only!

Instead, please park up in the car park, or find a safe place to park on the neighbouring roads (being considerate of our neighbours, especially with regards parking near to junctions or driveways).