Welcome to Sycamore Class 2025-2026

Curriculum Share Letter

Year 3 and 4

   Autumn Term 2025

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome back to a new school year! It is a privilege to be teaching Year three and four this school year and I am excited to get to know all of you and your children! I hope you all had a good break and were able to relax during the summer. I hope the children are ready for an actioned packed, activity-filled term ahead and ready for lots of fun learning!

In history lessons pupils will learn about how and where the ancient Egyptians lived, what was important to the daily lives of ancient Egyptians, who Tutankhamun was and how mummies were made. The children will also learn about how Egyptian people used hieroglyphs to communicate and compare the powers of different gods.

In science children will learn how to observe, compare, and group objects and living things based on their similarities and differences. They will practice sorting materials, such as animals, plants, and everyday objects, into categories and describing the reasons for their choices. This helps them develop early scientific thinking skills, like noticing patterns, making predictions, and understanding how scientists organize the world around us.

In geography, Year 3 and 4 pupils will be learning to compare the United Kingdom with another European country, developing their place knowledge and understanding of both physical and human geography. They will explore maps and atlases to locate countries and major cities, identified key features such as climate, landmarks, and land use, and discussed how these shape people’s lives. Through this topic, pupils will learn to describe similarities and differences between the UK and their chosen European country, using appropriate geographical vocabulary to explain their ideas clearly and confidently.

SMART LEARNING

Children are rewarded (house points, and privileges) for getting involved in their learning and following up their schoolwork at home.

We believe in every child really knowing what their talent or area of strength is by the time they leave in Y6. Amazing opportunities are there for every child so that they can identify what they really love and/or are great at. It could be sport, maths, singing, acting, playing the piano, creative writing or showing care and kindness and interpersonal skills. Please support your child to be SMART and take responsibility for their own personal growth and education. I have attached to this letter a grid of possible home learning activities for year 3 &4 children to try. They could highlight them through the term. I cannot wait to see their fantastic work and share it with the rest of the class. It is not compulsory, but I strongly recommend and encourage children to be a SMART LEARNER and try to do as many activities as they can.

READING

Children are encouraged to be SMART and read daily. All reading is valuable, particularly investigating new vocabulary and answering questions about the text. Please could all reading be recorded in their reading record book? I do check every Friday to reward regular readers and encourage good habits. I set up a cinema ticket prize for the reader who will improve the most in his/her reading through the term. Please read with your child regularly and sign the record book, even if your child is a fluent reader. Feel free to write positive comments or new words that have been discussed. Children can change their reading books every morning if needed and during snack time.

SPELLINGS are set and tested on Wednesday. The children each week will come home with a list of spellings that are individually tailored. Their spelling list will comprise of 5 statutory spellings that they don’t yet know (taken from their spelling assessment) as well as a group of spellings from the weekly spelling pattern that they are learning in class. There will be a maximum of 10 spellings a week and the expectation is that they learn these spellings at home as well as in school. Spelling assessments for the statutory words are carried out every half term and you will be kept informed of your child’s progress.

Times tables

Key stage one usually focuses on the 2, 5 and 10 times tables. Typically, during Year 3, pupils recall and use the multiplication and division facts for the 3, 4 and 8 multiplication tables and year 4 – recall and use multiplication and division facts for multiplication tables up to 12 x 12. However, this will depend on the knowledge of recall facts for each individual child and whether they have achieved the expectations from key stage one. All children have an opportunity to practise Mathletics each week but daily practise at home is recommended! In Maths lesson, several times per week I will set a Times Tables Mental Maths challenge for those who want to practise and challenge themselves. This is highly recommended as there will be mandatory times table tests (online) as part on their end of key stage 2 maths tests.

PE

Autumn 1:

Wednesday (KAS)- Football

Thursday - Basketball

Autumn 2:

Wednesday (KAS) - Rugby

Thursday - Netball

Homework

From Year 2 to Year 6, homework will typically include the following:

1. daily reading (ten minutes daily during the school week)
2. weekly spellings to practise at home
3. Mathletics tasks on IXL platform (50 minutes - the equivalent of ten minutes daily during the school week)

If you have any questions or need any help with anything, please feel free to ask and I will try my best to support you and your child.

Thank you all for your support.

Best regards,

Miss Alina Gabenyte, Mrs Sue Warwick, Nicola Roe, Marisol Noble and Jodie Fletcher.