Monksmead School

Welcome to Year 3

Teacher: Mrs Moynihan

TAs: Mrs Waller and Mrs Kumar

I hope that all of the children and families had a fantastic summer and are excited to return to school. I am very happy to get a second opportunity to work with such a wonderful class and look forward to being the teacher that started their KS1 and now KS2 journey. I am confident that we have a fantastic year of learning ahead of us. Hopefully, the information below will answer some of the questions you might have regarding changes now that the children have moved into Key Stage Two.

Transition

The main aim for the start of the academic year is to ensure a smooth transition from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2. There is a jump into KS2, but the differences are not vast, and I believe that the children are ready for this next challenge.

I have listed some of the main changes below:

*School lunch

Universal free school meals no longer applies, now that your child is in Key Stage 2, so if you want your child to have a school meal, instead of a packed lunch, these will now need to be paid for. If you are in receipt of certain benefits you may be entitled to free school meals, please see the school office for advice on this.

*Fruit snack no longer provided

The children will no longer have access to fruit at break time, that is only provided for children in EYFS and KS1. If your child would like a snack at break time they can bring in some fruit from home. Please make sure that only fruit is provided as a snack, no other snacks are permitted at break time.

*Change of playground

The class will now be joining Years 4-6 on the Key Stage 2 playground, which will give them access to the gym equipment area and the trim trail. With four year groups using the playground, there will be a playground rota that shares the activity time fairly. I will explain the rota to the children and there will be a copy of this rota displayed in the classroom.

*Spanish lessons

Now that the children are in KS2 they will be have the opportunity to learn Spanish. This year, we are extremely lucky to have a teacher from Haberdashers’ Askes’ school coming in on a Monday afternoon to teach the class Spanish.

*Stationery/Equipment

The school will provide all stationery/equipment that the children will need in lessons, such as pencils and rubbers, however, in KS2 they are allowed to bring in their own equipment to use. This has in the past caused difficulties with children becoming upset if their equipment is lost or with children being distracted by their pencil cases. To avoid this, I will ask that the children put their pencil cases in their trays first thing in the morning, and not get them out until it is required for learning. Please make sure that you label your child’s stationery, as it is inevitable that more than one child will have the same resources.

Reading

Please continue to listen to your children read every day or as often as possible. It really helps if you record that your child has read in their reading record. In school, each child will read individually, with an adult, once a week, as well as taking part in a daily Guided Reading session, following the Vipers scheme.

Curriculum

To see what the children will be learning in all the subjects over the year, please see the curriculum document on the website.

PE lessons will take place every Monday and Friday afternoon. On Monday, PE will take place in the hall, whilst on Fridays our lessons will take place outside, weather permitting. Please make sure that your child has the appropriate labelled school PE kit and footwear.

Homework

Homework will be given out on a Wednesday and is due back in on a Monday morning. It will be related to work covered in class and is meant as a chance for the children to consolidate their learning. Most weeks the work will be English and maths based, but on some occasions I may set work from other curriculum areas. This work is set in addition to regular reading at home. It is important that we encourage children to take pride in the presentation of their work at school and at home, and I appreciate your support with this. That being said, please remind your children to only use pencil and colour pencil to complete their homework, and not pen or felt-tip, as there will be times that homework will be stuck into their class books or put up on display. Please also make sure that your child’s school bag is big enough to accommodate an A4 sized homework folder so that their work does not get crumpled.

Adult Support

I am very lucky to have the most amazing adults working alongside me, supporting the children in their Year 3 journey. Mrs Waller is the class teaching assistant and there will be a number of volunteers helping me, including Mrs Jevon, who the children are all familiar with from Year 1. We are also lucky to have Mrs Phillips working with us, as she taught the children in Year 1 and 2, and she will be teaching Art, DT, RE and Music during my management and PPA time. Together, the whole team, children and parents form the now ‘Year 3 family.’

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, it is ever so important that we work together to provide your child with the very best experience at school.

Thank you,

Mrs Moynihan

Year 3 Autumn Timetable 2023

Reading in KS2

In KS2 children have daily whole-class reading lessons. At Monksmead, we use VIPERS from Literacy Shed Comprehension Plus to help structure the learning and ensure that all key skills are being learnt.

VIPERS is an acronym to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the UK’s reading curriculum. They are the key areas which we feel children need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts. The 6 domains focus on the comprehension aspect of reading and not the mechanics: decoding, fluency, prosody etc. As such, VIPERS is not a reading scheme but rather a method of ensuring that teachers ask, and students are familiar with, a range of questions. They allow the teacher to track the type of questions asked and the children’s responses to these which allows for targeted questioning afterwards.

To support the children in accurately answering comprehension questions, we use A.P.E. This stands for 'Answer', ' Prove it' and 'Explain it'.