Oak Class (Year 3)
Welcome to Oak Class 2025/26
Hello to all of our Year 3 Oak class pupils and their families!
We have a dedicated staff team in Year 3.
Teachers:
Miss Dickinson & Mrs Cirillo
Teaching Partner:
Miss Lockyear
Class representatives:
School Council - Remy and Rosie
Eco Team - Edward and Freya
Spring Term
Oak Class Spring Optional Homework
Spring 2 - Easter church service
This half term the children carried out their Easter service at St Peter’s Church. They took it in turns to retell the Easter story and spoke about how Christians might celebrate Easter. This included decorating eggs, making an Easter garden and eating a special dinner with family and friends. In class we made our own Easter pop up cards and ate some hot cross buns, which we discussed reminds Christians of the crucifixion of Jesus. A reading from the Gospel Luke was read by the children which tells how Mary Magdalene, finds the tomb of Jesus empty. She is sad until Jesus, who has risen from the dead, speaks to her in the garden.
During our RE lessons we looked at crosses which are central to the Easter story and carry a deep meaning. Learning about this helped children understand that while the story includes suffering, it also leads to hope and new beginnings. Oak class showed their understanding of this part of the story during the church service when they sang ‘New Life has begun’ which is about new life in Spring and about how Jesus came to life again.
Spring 1 - Writing persuasive speeches
In English this half term the children wrote persuasive speeches which related to some environmental issues across the school. They generated ideas in groups at the beginning, and together we looked at what language choices the writer used in the book ‘Stella and the Seagull’.
Drafting speeches based on real-life issues that impact the children themselves meant they were supported in the writing process because they could more easily suggest what changes need to happen or what should be reinforced further across the school. The children not only developed their language and communication skills but also a deeper sense of responsibility towards the school environment.
As a class we watched the Greta Thunberg speech at the COP24 conference and discussed how second person was used to address the audience. The children planned actions for their speech by text marking in the margin and this supported them to perform their speeches confidently to an audience.
Autumn Term
Oak Class Autumn Optional Homework
Autumn 2 – Investigating Magnets
This half term the children have been learning about forces and magnets. They’ve undertaken practical investigations and looked at secondary sources to explore different scientific enquiry questions.
The children explored how to identify magnetic and non-magnetic materials by observing whether they are attracted to a magnet. We addressed the misconception in this learning that non-magnetic materials are not repelled by magnets, instead they are just not attracted. The class identified the variables for the investigation and worked in pairs to create a clear, step-by-step method which they would follow. They made predictions, tested a range of materials using a bar magnet and sorted them into magnetic and non-magnetic groups.
In another lesson, to answer the question ‘do magnets of different sizes and shapes have different strengths?’ the children watched a video of an experiment which involved paperclips being placed on a variety of magnets. Before watching, the children made predictions about which magnets they thought would hold the most and least amount paperclips. The results were recorded in a table then drawn on a bar chart. It was important the children labelled the y and x axis correctly and drew the bars accurately so they could make easy comparisons afterwards.
Autumn 1 – Designing and Sewing an Egyptian Collar
Last half term, Year 3 explored cross stitch and applique in Design and Technology. The children used cross-stitch as a decorative feature or to join two pieces of fabric together along with adding detail through appliqué based on their own design. The children loved welcoming some of their 'special grown ups' to join us for our last lesson and help with their final design. They were so proud of their finished collars which was lovely to see!
