Category: Year 3 – St Peter

Networks of friendships and relationships enable human beings to live together.  When a child’s power to reach out, trust and make friends is diminished, they may suffer the effects for a lifetime.  Both children and adults have to discover their ability to reach out and repair what has been damaged. If human beings are to live together in relationships, there is always need for reconciliation.

REVEAL

Christians believe that, in Jesus Christ, the world has been reconciled to God.  Through and in Christ, every human being is offered the power to reach out in forgiveness and peace, to receive and to offer reconciliation.

Word of God

St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, wrote:

“But now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far apart from us have been brought very close, by the blood of Christ.  For he is the peace between us, and has made the two into one and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, actually destroying in his own person the hostility caused by the rules and decrees of the Law.” Ephesians 2:14-15

Catechism of the Catholic Church

“It is called the Sacrament of Reconciliation, because it imparts to the sinner the love of God who reconciles: ‘Be reconciled to God’.  He who lives by God’s merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord’s call: ‘Go; first be reconciled to your brother’…

Indeed the Sacrament of Reconciliation with God brings about a true ‘spiritual resurrection’, restoration of the dignity and blessings of the life of the children of God, of which the most precious is friendship with God.”  CCC1424, 1468

Prayer and Reflection

I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
I set your ordinances before me.
I cling to your decrees,
O Lord; let me not be put to shame.
I run the way of your commandments,
for you enlarge my understanding.
Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes,
and I will observe it to the end.
Give me understanding that I may keep your law
and observe it with my whole heart.
Amen.
(Psalm 119: 30-34)

What a busy week it has been in Year 3. We enjoyed taking part in the Nationwide Daily Mile this week. At the start of our PE lesson, we all completed eight laps of the field, which is equivalent to a mile. Here are some pictures of us in the action!

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We have also enjoyed starting our new Computing unit, We are Presenters. This week, we analysed sports TV and understood what is needed to present an effective sports report. Next week, we will be using digital cameras to practice our filming skills in preparation for filming our own reports in the coming weeks. 

Please remember that homework is set on Fridays and due in on the following Wednesday. We do expect to see your homework folders each week. Please also ensure that you are prepared for your lessons and have everything you need including pencils, pens and rulers. 

Have a relaxing break over the Bank holiday weekend,

Miss Battams and Ms McCarthy  🙂

Welcome back Year 3 to the Summer term. We hope that you had a relaxing Easter break. What a week it has been, it has been busier than ever!

This week, we started out Relationship and Health Education (RHE) learning. In this week’s sessions, we focused on the story of Jairus and his daughter, whom Jesus was able to bring new life to. We used this story explore how Jesus loves us and how we can show love to others. To read more about our RHE learning this term, have a look at the previous blog post.

We also started our new PE topic, Athletics this week. We enjoyed focusing on sprinting and taking part in different sprinting stations to improve our sprinting starts and agility. Here are some pictures of us in action:

In English, we started our new learning on newspaper reports. We have been examining a range of reports to find the difference between facts and opinions. We are looking forward to becoming journalists next week, writing a report based on the book ‘The True Story of the Three Little Pigs’.

Please don’t forget to check our Google classrooms for this week’s homework, which is due on Wednesday 21st April. Have a restful and fun weekend,

Miss Battams and Ms McCarthy 🙂

Week 1

During the first week, children will hear and experience the Gospel story of Jesus healing Jairus’ daughter. The children will learn that they are created by God out of love and for love: they were designed for this purpose, which should inform how they live. Sessions will also contain teaching and time for spiritual development and emotional learning.

Building from the reflective sessions on the account of the raising of Jairus’ daughter, we will unpack the Sacraments of Baptism and Reconciliation. Children will understand that through prayer, the Sacraments and our friendships and relationships with others, we can have a foretaste of heaven.

Week 2

As part of the second week, we will revisit Jesus’ parable of The Prodigal Son. This parable shows that God loves us, and nothing we can do will stop Him from loving us. Through the story of the two brothers, children will learn about different types of sin, and the importance of forgiveness in relationships.

Week 3

In the third week, we will help children to identify more complex relationships in their lives, including family, friends and other people; they will explore how to relate to people within these different relationships. Children will also discuss what it means to be a good friend, and learn some strategies to use when relationships become difficult.

We will also discuss the nature and consequences of discrimination and teasing, and learn how to recognise bullying and abuse in all its forms. This includes physical bullying and emotional online bullying.

Weeks 4 and 5

Integrating the NSPCC Share Aware programme, introducing the digital world as one that children need to take steps to stay safe in, just like the real world. We will focus on how quickly things can be shared around the world online, including photos, passwords and other personal information. Children will discuss how this can be damaging and dangerous, and will learn steps they can use to keep themselves safe.

We then follow on from the previous internet safety sessions, by moving into the real world and considering what physical contact is appropriate and inappropriate. Children will be introduced to the term ‘abuse’ and discuss different kinds of abuse, including sexual abuse, here referred to as ‘abuse of private parts’. Children will be asked to think of trusted adults that they can talk to about any issues they may face

We then move on to learning some key information and facts about drugs, alcohol and tobacco. The teaching is underpinned with the religious understanding that consuming these substances is harmful to our bodies, and therefore God’s creation.

We will also learn how First Aid, quick reactions and staying calm during an emergency can make the difference between life and death. Pupils will role play some ‘Pride of Britain’ style scenarios in which children save lives,

Week 6

At the heart of this this week’s learning is a short film about Lucy and her family. After the film, children will apply Lucy’s story to their developing understanding of the community aspect of the Trinity and be encouraged to think about what the Trinity means for them and their communities.

We will then briefly discuss marriage and likens the love of a family to the love between the Trinity and about the wider Church and its mission to reflect the Holy Trinity through love for others.

To conclude our RSE learning, we will explore how we can put love into action in the communities we live in. We look at how the Church has grown out of God’s love for us and how it can be an example and a means of loving and caring for others.

This term, we will be focusing on the Pentecost in our RE learning. Each of us, by the way we live our lives, the way we treat others, and by our words and actions, show if we have an attitude of service.

Often, we are especially influenced by those whose actions speak powerfully of a life of service.

Christians believe that the Spirit of God is active in each person and, in a special way, in the community of believers, which is the Church.  It is the work of the Spirit to enable people to hear God’s message and to live Jesus’ way of service.

Word of God

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” 

Luke 4: 18-19

Catechism of the Catholic Church

“Those, who with God’s help, have welcomed Christ’s call and freely responded to it, are urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the Good News everywhere in the world.  This treasure, received from the apostles, has been faithfully guarded by their successors.  All Christ’s faithful are called to hand it on from generation to generation, by professing the faith, by living it in fraternal sharing, and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer.” 

(CCC Prologue 3)

Prayer and Reflection

Father, pour out your Spirit upon your people,
and grant us a new vision of your glory,
a new faithfulness to your Word
and a new consecration to your service, 
that your love may grow among us,
and your kingdom come:
through Christ our Lord. 
Amen.
(Prayer of preparation for Vatican II)

What a half term it has been! We have been so pleased to welcome the children back to school on 8^th March. Since returning to school, our weeks have been jam packed with lots of learning! A big thank you to Ms McCarthy for stepping in whilst Miss Battams was on jury service.

In Maths this week, we have been revising our number bonds and complements to 100. We also made our very own board games in pairs. Today, we shared them with the class and were able to play other pairs’ board games.

In English, we finished our learning about the short film El Caminante and started a short piece of learning based on the book, Mr Bunny’s Chocolate Factory. We enjoyed learning to empathise with the chickens working at the factory and writing a letter to Mr Bunny for better working conditions to lay Easter eggs.

We concluded our RE learning about Lent this week. We look forward to learning about the Pentecost in the new term. We also enjoyed live streaming an Easter mass as a school today too.

Have a very happy Easter and a relaxing break,

Miss Battams and Ms McCarthy 🙂

With our last week of remote learning complete, we are so looking forward to welcoming all the children back into school. We are so proud of all that you achieved remotely, and it is evident that you have worked really hard during these tricky times.

This week, we celebrated World Book Day. It was great to see some the animal bookmarks you created and the unusual places and nooks that you like to read in. We also enjoyed seeing all the other assignments you have completed at home too. 

Don’t forget your PE kit for next week, normal PE lessons (Tuesday and Thursday afternoons) will resume as normal next week. 

Miss Battams and Ms McCarthy 🙂

Life, especially family life, or life in school, is full of opportunities for self-giving.

When children are young, parents have to do everything for them and sacrifice their own needs for those of their children.  The quality of the parents’ loving care lays the foundation for their children to grow into people capable of giving love to others.

When parents are old and infirm, they become dependent on their children to look after them.  So, life is a cycle of being cared for and caring for others, of dependence and independence, of receiving and giving. Self-giving is essential if individuals and relationships are to grow and develop.

REVEAL

Lent is the season when Christians practise both giving and giving-up, to identify with the complete self-offering of Jesus which is remembered in the liturgy of Holy Week and the Easter Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil).

In his Gospel, Matthew makes it clear that in loving and caring for other people we are loving and caring for Jesus.

Word of God

“For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick, and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?  And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?  And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’  And the king will answer them, ‘Truly, I tell you, as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’” 

Matthew 25:35-40

Catechism of the Catholic Church

“Lent: By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.” (CCC540)

“The seasons and days of penance in the course of the Liturgical Year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church’s penitential practice.  These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works).” (CCC1438)

No one was an eyewitness to Christ’s Resurrection and no evangelist describes it.  No one can say how it came about physically.  …although the Resurrection was an historical event that could be verified by the sign of the empty tomb and by the reality of the apostles’ encounters with the risen Christ.  It remains at the very heart of the mystery of faith as something that transcends and surpasses history.” (CCC647)

Prayer and Reflection

Lord, when I am hungry 
give me someone to feed; 
When I am thirsty
give water for their thirst.
When a burden weighs upon me 
lay upon my shoulders
the burden of my fellows. 
Lord, when I stand
greatly in need of tenderness,
give me someone who yearns for love.  May your will be my bread;
Your grace my strength; Your love my resting place.

(Quaker prayers, Peace and Service, The Society of Friends)

What a wonderful week we have had returning from half term! We hope you enjoyed the break and are well rested.

We have had lots of quality learning turned in this week, we are so impressed with your work ethic and resilience. We are so looking forward to welcoming you back to school on 8^th March.

In Science, we have been focusing on animals including humans. Before half term, you created menus for wild animals such as lions, leopards and monkeys. These menus had to encompass a balanced diet as, like humans, animals need a balanced diet to survive. Here are some of the menus you created:

We have also enjoyed reading your police reports as part of your English learning about the book ‘Tuesday’, and seeing your learning on lengths and perimeter. Please keep up the hard work, we really appreciate all your efforts at home and in school.

Miss Battams and Ms McCarthy J

What a wonderful week of learning we have seen to round off a half term of remote learning! We know the past six weeks have not been easy, but we are incredibly proud of all that you have achieved. 

This week we focused on Asia as part of a whole Geography day. In Year 3, we learnt about Sri Lanka. From learning about traditional folk tales in guided reading to coconut cookery in DT, we really embraced all things Sri Lanka. Here are some pictures of the traditional folk masks we made as part of our Art and DT learning this week:

Again, well done everyone for your remote learning efforts. We hope you have a well-deserved break over the half term. 

Miss Battams and Ms McCarthy 🙂