Welcome to Year 3!

We look forward to continuing your child’s learning journey from Key Stage One to Key Stage Two and work closely with Year Two staff to ensure the transition is as smooth and well-informed as it possibly can be.

Year Three is a pivotal year for your child where they will develop and embed important learning behaviours to support their progress through Key Stage Two and beyond. Your child will begin a new journey of independence, creativity and engagement with the fresh challenges of the next phase of their schooling.

In the Autumn Term, the children will be learning through our topic: ‘Savages to Settlers’. This is an exciting theme that explores life in Pre-Roman Britain. They begin their learning by ‘getting to know’ the life of a Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer and then journey through time to focus on the early farmers who lived during the Iron Age. We read the beautiful picture book, ‘Stone Age Boy’ by Satoshi Kitamura and use this as a source of inspiration for our writing.

Your child will study early settlements such as the wonderful Skara Brae in Scotland; spend time investigating the history and beauty of cave art – paying special attention to the Lascaux network of caves in France – and consider the importance of Stone Henge!

During the Spring Term, our topic of ‘Time Travellers’ sees us continue our historic journey by studying the Ancient Greeks and Romans and your child will begin to understand the enormous impact these civilisations have had on modern day life. We study the routes of democracy and how this has formed modern day voting and governmental systems and also investigate how the expansion of the Roman Empire significantly altered our local areas – focusing particularly on the Roman city of Verulamium (modern day St Albans).

We read the beautifully illustrated book, ‘Escape from Pompeii’ by Christina Balit and create an exciting newscast from that fateful day in 79AD when Mount Vesuvius engulfed the town in lava and ash!

In the Summer Term, we enter the rainforest with our topic of ‘Into the Jungle!’. Through this fascinating study of tropical and temperate rainforests around the world, your child will locate continents, countries and a variety of physical geographical features that help them further understand the beauty and diversity of God’s world. Studying and then recreating the art of the brilliant Henri Rousseau enables the children to showcase their learning in a wonderfully creative way.

Please click on the attachments below for further information.