Dear Parents
Welcome to Year 3! We are very pleased to welcome you and your children to Year 3. We are looking forward to what will undoubtedly be an exciting and rewarding year for us all.
Parent Meetings
We would like to invite you to our meet the teacher morning at 8:45 am or 9:30 am on Monday the 19th of August. This is a chance for us to go over important information concerning Year 3 such as homework, uniform and drop offs and pickups.
We will also have optional parent teacher conferences during the week beginning Monday the 26th of August. These discussions are ten minute slots designed to be opportunities for you to tell us anything about your child that you consider useful for us to be aware of. You will be sent an online link where you can view your child’s class teacher’s availability and be able to sign up if you wish.
Homework
Reading
We ask that the children read Monday to Thursday for a minimum of 15 minutes. Levelled class readers will be sent out on Monday for the children to read at home. On other days children can read a book of their choice from home or the school library. Each read should be entered into your child’s diary and we encourage the children to write this themselves. Please note that when we refer to a ‘read’, we are referring to a 15 minute block of reading time. This could be from the same book like when your child is reading a chapter book or when they read for an extended period of time. Diaries will be checked and iReads will be updated every morning.
In Year 3 we are very aware that many of the children are strong technical readers who need their comprehension skills further developed before moving onto a higher reading level. If you are concerned about the level of books that your child is bringing home then please do not hesitate to come and see us. For more information on how to help at home please see the ‘Guided Reading Questions’ page at the front of your child’s diary.
Maths
On Monday 1-3 activities will be set on Mangahigh or Times Tables Rockstars. This is to be completed by the end of the week. The website and password for these sites will be sent home in the children’s diaries. We will go through how to log on in class so they will be confident in logging on at home.
Spelling
Your child will be set a new spelling list on Spelling Shed every 1-2 weeks depending on their ability. On Mondays the new lists will be set and students will be expected to log on at home and practise their words. We are aware that this is an online platform but please note that the children will have plenty of opportunities to write their spelling words within spelling lessons. Children will also be tested on their spelling lists on Fridays before moving on.
Discovery
Your child will also have optional homework associated with their current discovery unit. This will usually be an open ended task that will run over a few weeks or the whole unit. Children will be able to choose which task and how many tasks they want to complete over the course of the unit. Please check the Google Classroom for task details and due date.
Thank you in advance for your support with your child’s homework. Ideally the set tasks should only take 15-20 minutes and be able to be completed independently but by all means please join in and support your child when and if you can. Homework will commence on Monday the 26th of August.
Timetable and Uniform
Timetables will be placed in your child’s diary this week to enable parents to help their children prepare for class each day. Please make sure your child comes to school wearing their PE kit on days they have PE. On days your child has swimming they should also wear their PE kit to school. The PE teachers will take the students to change in the Globe before their lesson and then change back into their PE kit after the lesson. If your child’s swimming lesson is in the morning, they can come to school wearing their swimming costumes but must wear their PE kit over the top, including their sports shoes. Flip flops and crocs may only be worn walking to and from the changing rooms. We also encourage girls to wear their hair tied back to school and kindly remind everyone that bracelets, oversized hair bows/headbands and necklaces are not to be worn to school for safety reasons. We have a strict ‘No Hat, No Play’ policy at school so please ensure your child has their school uniform hat everyday.
Drop Offs and Pick Ups
Year 3 students should be accompanied by an adult to and from school and should be supervised until the bell goes in the morning and from 3:10 in the afternoons. Students should not be on the campus before 8:15 unless they have an ECA in the morning. If your child is not going to be picked up by an adult on any particular day you need to inform your child’s class teacher. As you can imagine the Year 3 balcony can become extremely congested at certain times of the day. To help ease this, we kindly ask that from the week commencing Monday 19th of August, that parents and helpers refrain from coming upstairs at the start and end of each day. Of course if you need to have a quick chat with your child’s teacher you are most welcome. As well as making the balcony safer for all students we hope it will help to develop a sense of independence. Children can be dropped off and met in the covered area by the sand pit.
Nut Allergies
Please be forewarned that we have children with nut allergies in school. It is for this reason that we kindly request that no nuts or products containing nuts are brought to school.
Kind regards
Courtney Harris    Elle White    Jonny Haines   Charlie Ko