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Spotlight on: Year 3

Spotlight on: Year 3

Mrs Fiona McWilliam and Mrs Carolyn Johnson share stories from Year 3

Moving up from the cosy Pre-prep environment of the Coach House, and the thrill of being the oldest Pre-prep girls, can sometimes be a bit daunting, but the Year 3 girls have taken to their new home, here in Acton House, like ducks to water. Everyone has settled quickly and September seems a long time ago. We have been getting to work on covering the essentials in the curriculum and each day is busy with activities and exciting new experiences – you can read some of the highlights so far below.

One main focus this term has been to encourage the girls to be more independent. We have been thrilled with their organisation and desire to try things for themselves, which will provide them with a great grounding for the future.

Everyone has embraced our Science and humanities themes with such enthusiasm and we, as teachers, have been equally excited. We have welcomed a real pilot – Captain Faux – into school and have seen for ourselves, at the Duxford Imperial War Museum, some of the amazing aeroplanes and helicopters that have flown in the past, and continue to fly to this day. The girls enjoyed incorporating History and elements of Physics into our lessons on this topic.

In Year 3 experiences have been broadened beyond the classroom, and from the buzz of designing and flying paper planes, to experimenting with light, shadows and teddy bears, it all helps to embed the girls’ learning. This is a wonderful age where children are testing their knowledge and beginning to assess for themselves elements of life around them.

The Butterfly Lion, by Michael Morpurgo, is our book study and focus. Morpurgo introduces lots of challenging vocabulary and concepts, so the girls are taking each chapter slowly and really reliving the experiences of Bertie and his tales from Africa. It has provided scope for discussion, stimulus for creative writing, inspiration for poetry and, amongst other things, the concept of what life would have been like long ago without fancy toys, computer games, the Internet and other such gadgets.

Year 3 brings greater expectations from the girls’ teachers, and increased independent working. Our challenges are real, but the girls love challenges: from new practices and game play in netball, to the introduction of ink pens in handwriting, their confidence increases.

In Mathematics this year the girls continue to work though the Abacus scheme that is introduced from Reception upwards. They are gaining confidence and love building on concepts that they are already familiar with, and it is a wonderful tool with great interactive work and fast-paced exercises. Pictured, the girls are responding to a ‘quick fire’ session using their white boards to show their calculation answers. We have been learning about doubling and halving, and the connection with multiplication and division, and now we are linking this to fraction work – it’s all great fun and very logical!

This is of course just a snap shot of experiences of school life for our Year 3 girls, and other features of the day include Computer Science learning, which is a new thrill, and playtime, Music, and many other subjects and topics. The ‘finding out’ continues and, as we begin the run up to Christmas, we will be focusing on rivers and forces, in our humanities and Science lessons.