'Dancers are the athletes of God' - Albert Einstein

We have had another fantastic week in Year 3 ending with the International Day of Dance! The children have yet again blown me away with their wonderful outfits; they all looked amazing. We started our day by learning some country dancing with Mrs Ormerod and then we had a Zumba session with Hazel in the hall. We also had the opportunity to watch a dance show made up of children from KS2 who had a dance to showcase. All of the children in the show were super but I have to give a special mention to Olivia, Darcy, Emilia, Harriet, Lily, Rosie, Lilly, Zahra and Lola Mae from our class who were all so brave and resilient for putting themselves forward to perform. They did a great job and I was a very proud teacher! Thank you to you all for supporting the children and sourcing outfits for the day. Personally, I love dancing and watching people dance. It is a fantastic skill to have and it brings so much joy to others. A big thank you to Mrs Ormerod for organising this special day for us.

On another note, we had a special delivery to class today. As part of our involvement in the Miles of Magic Harry Potter event, a special edition of the book arrived to us today for us to annotate and doodle before sending it on to another one of the 25 schools involved in the event. It has already been to quite a few schools and they have done a great job of making it look amazing. I will upload some pictures of it next week. Very exciting!

Here is our learning for this week…

Maths: we have been comparing multiplication and division statements using the greater than, less than and equal symbols.

English: the children have turned their story maps in to written stories.

R.E: we looked at the signs and symbols of the Mass and what they mean.

PSHE: we looked at our new child friendly anti-bullying policy and discussed what it meant and how we can refer to it if we need to.

History: we learnt about the Roman invasions of Britain and placed these on a timeline.

Our Lady receives prestigious National Award

We are delighted to announce that Our lady of the Assumption has received a prestigious national award for our role in giving young people access to cultural and creative learning as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) Associate Schools Programme (ASP). To find out more please read this letter.

Blackpool Beating Bullying Bronze award

Further to the appointment of 8 new anti-bullying ambassadors in school, we are now working hard to achieve the Bronze award for Blackpool Beating Bullying. In order to achieve the relevant threshold, school needs to carry out surveys on different groups of people in school. There will be 4 surveys/questionnaires aimed at the following groups: 

• children - Year 3’s will complete theirs in class.

• parents - below is a link and we invite you to complete the survey.

• teachers

• governors

All questionnaires are on line and only live for 2 weeks from the 3rd May.

Here is the survey link for parents, we would very much appreciate it if you could complete the survey to enable us to make steps forward to receiving the Bronze award for school. Thank you for your support.

Parents/Carers-

https://forms.gle/TP2A4mnpJwBwmT6R6

Notices:

• PE days this half term are on MONDAYS and THURSDAYS.

• Times tables to be learnt for the test next Friday are the 3, 4 and 8 times tables. I will be testing the children on a mixture of these tables.

• Spellings to be learnt for next Friday are: RECENT, REGULAR, REIGN, REMEMBER, SENTENCE and SEPARATE.

Award winners:

• Golden Award: Olivia S

• Maths Award: Kurt

• Writing Award: Henry & Olivia S

I hope you all have a lovely three day weekend!

Miss Heim-Sarac

We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song!

It was lovely to welcome the children back to school after the Easter break. I hope you all had a great Holy Week with your families. We started the new term with an assembly with Miss Haggerty. This was a special moment as it was the first indoor assembly we have had since before Covid. It felt great to be back together again. Miss Haggerty spoke to the children about Eastertide and the meaning of the Alleluia - he is risen!

The children have come back to school with a fantastic attitude and their learning and behaviour this week have been beautiful. Keep it up Year 3! It is hard to believe that we are in our final term together. I have loved every moment of teaching your children so far and I am going to cherish these final weeks together.

Here is our learning for this week…

Maths: we have spent some time on the 8 times tables as well as problem solving using known multiplication and division facts.

English: the children all took their star reading tests. We also learnt about expanded noun phrases and wrote some menus to describe food.

R.E: we looked at the order of the Mass.

Spanish: the children learnt the names of some classroom objects and have also been introduced to the way that in Spanish objects can be masculine or feminine.

History: we learnt about why the Roman army was so powerful. The children then reenacted a battle between the Roman army and barbarians on the school field using their shields they made before half term.

Notices:

• It’s International Dance Day next Friday 29th April! On this day we invite the children to dress up to represent their favourite dance style or dance icon and bring in a £1 donation.

• PE days this half term are on MONDAYS and THURSDAYS.

• Please take a look at the attached letter about the achievements of the Shakespeare Programme within school and the award we have received! Many congratulations to all those involved. Award Letter

• Times tables to be learnt for the test next Friday are the 8 TIMES TABLES.

Award winners:

• Golden Award: Isaac

• Maths Award: Mia

• Writing Award: Lilly

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, with hopefully lots of sunshine!

Miss Heim-Sarac

‘God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy’ - Pope Francis

I am so proud of the Lenten journey the children have undertaken this year. With Holy Week just around the corner, I have been reflecting on all that we have achieved during this time. From the success of Bits and Bobs to our Walk for Hunger pilgrimage, it is clear the children have truly embraced Lent and all that it symbolises. Each week we take part in a Lenten reflection and it is a time when we consider how far we have come on our journey; and how God has helped us along the way. It really has been a special time in Year 3.

Here is what the children have been learning about this week…

-English: the children have continued their learning on expanded noun phrases and have written a menu.

-Maths: we have continued to learn about our 8 times tables.

-R.E: the children have started a new topic on the Eucharist. We started by learning the story of the last supper and how this as the first Mass.

-Spanish: we learnt phrases to describe what colour an object is.

-P.E: we have continued to learn how to play rounders with a focus on batting.

-History: the children learnt about the Roman army and have started to make their own Roman shields.

Harry Potter reading challenge

As part of our involvement in the Miles of Magic Harry Potter event, we were asked to take part in a Harry Potter reading challenge. This entailed the children completing just under 30 hours of reading in school this term. I am so pleased and excited to say that we have nearly hit that target! By Friday we should be there! I have arranged a Harry Potter themed treat for the children to say well done!

Spellings and times tables tests

As you know, each week the children have a spelling and times tables test on a Friday. Each week I have a fair few children telling me that they haven’t practised due to other commitments and activities. Whilst I understand how busy you all are, it is so important that the children find time to look at their spellings and tables ready for the test each week. I have explained to the children that they are old enough to take responsibility for this themselves and that they don’t necessarily need you to oversee this revision but they may just need some prompting. Thank you for your support on this.

Morning drop-off

It has been brought to my attention that when the children are waiting to come in to school in the morning that some children are running up and down the drive and into the bushes, as well as using the railings by the office door to play on. Please can I ask that you supervise your children closely in the morning and discourage them from doing this. I would hate to see any injuries! We also have cars still coming in to school at that time (myself included!). After Easter, the children will now be entering and leaving school through the side entrance - more info to follow.

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

Reading gives us somewhere to go when we have to stay where we are...

We have had another wonderful week in Year 3 ending with our celebration of World Book Day today. The children all looked fabulous and I am blown away yet again with the effort you have all gone to. Our school community is truly wonderful and I am beyond proud. Reading is my favourite thing to do and I enjoy nothing more than trying to pass that love on to the children. We infuse reading and the skills associated with it in to everything we do and it is so lovely to see the children’s reading and love for reading grow as the year has gone on.

We undertook our ‘Walk for Hunger’ pilgrimage this week to Notarianni’s and back. We walked 5.5 miles in total! The children were brilliant and really embraced the reason behind our walk. From the sponsorship forms I have seen, we have raised over £200 just from Year 3 for Cafod and Brian House. A phenomenal amount! If you haven’t yet sent your child’s sponsorship form back in to school please do so this week.

On the morning of our pilgrimage, we had our class mass over at church. Father Frank spoke to the children in great detail about pilgrimages and even spoke to us about some journeys he has embarked on himself. The children were beautifully behaved and it was the perfect start to our day of thinking about others.

Aside from World Book Day and our pilgrimage, here is what we have been up to in other aspects of our learning…

-English: we have innovated story maps this week ready for writing next week.

-Maths: we have been learning our 8 times tables.

-R.E.: we answered questions on the Act of Contrition.

-History: the children learnt about the growth of the Roman Empire.

-Music: this week the children were given their recorders from Miss Benson. From next week they will be able to bring them home to practise. Please ensure your child’s recorder comes back in to school in time for their Music lesson the following week (we have Music on Wednesdays).

Award Winners

Golden: Oscar

Maths: Elsie

Writing: Zahra

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend!
Miss Heim-Sarac

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

Oh my goodness, where do I start! What a week it has been in Year 3. I am so overwhelmed by the support you have all shown to our ‘Bits and Bobs’ shop. What started as an idea that the children brought to me last week has turned in to something we could never have expected.

in just 5 days we have raised £655!!!! An absolutely staggering amount. At the start of the week, I was hoping we may reach £50/£100. Our school community has pulled together to support an extremely worthy cause, and all funds will be donated to the Ukrainian Humanitarian Fund. By donating to this fund, the government will match our donation pound for pound.

I am hoping that we can reach £700 with some further donations which means with the governments contribution we will be putting £1400 in to the fund.

I will never ever forget this week in school. Above all, the children’s thoughtfulness and commitment have astounded me and I am SO proud of every single one of them.

Thank you again for your support - in particular thank you to Rosie’s Mum for the daily delivery of bracelets and to Darcy’s Mum and Dad for our sign.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy' - Pope Francis

This week, Year 3 have all come home with a sponsorship form. During Lent Our Lady of the Assumption is looking to fundraise for both CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) in its campaign to ‘Walk Against Hunger’ and also our local children’s cancer charity – Brian House. We will make our own ‘Pilgrimage’ during Lent knowing that each little step we take will make a BIG difference. Each class will set its own Lenten walking target and in Year 3 we have chosen to do our walk to Notarianni’s on the 24th March. Whilst we are there, we will be having an ice cream before heading back to school. We are asking parents/families to sponsor their child/children to undertake their special ‘Pilgrimage Walk’. Once we’ve completed our walk, we will add our kilometres to CAFOD’s ‘ Walk Against Hunger Totaliser’. The aim nationally is 40,000 km! This is a massive challenge, but by joining together we can all help stamp out hunger one step at a time. CAFOD is also supporting the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. Thank you for your support!

I was very touched this week when numerous children in Year 3 came to me to ask whether they could raise money for the Ukrainian Humanitarian Appeal. The fact that they had come up with this idea themselves and had even started making things to sell made me the proudest teacher in the world. After a brainstorming session we decided to set up a shop - ‘Bits and Bobs’ - where the children will sell their creations to the rest of the school for the whole of next week. A letter has been sent out to the rest of the school detailing what we will be selling and when. Can I just say a huge thank you to you all for supporting your children with this as I know many of them have been making things with their resources from home.

Last week, we marked the start of Lent with Ash Wednesday. Along with the rest of KS2, we went over to Mass in church and received our ashes. Lent is a season of reflection and preparation before the celebrations of Easter. By observing the 40 days of Lent, or 46 if we count Sundays, we replicate Jesus Christ's sacrifice and withdrawal into the desert for 40 days. It is a time to refocus on Jesus as we look ahead to his death on the Cross at Easter and rejoice over his miraculous return. It is a time for reflecting on what we could do differently or maybe what we could do more of or less of during this time. The children have made their Lenten promises, linked to the three principles of fasting, prayer and almsgiving.

Aside from our Lenten promises, we have also set ourselves a class kindness challenge. We created 40 acts of kindness that we are going to try and complete throughout Lent.

Here is what we have been learning over the past two weeks…

-English: the children have been creating story maps, learning how to use inverted commas and taking part in our Harry Potter reading challenge.

-Maths: we have been learning our 3 and 4 times tables as well as the matching division facts for these tables.

-Science: the children have started a new topic - Light. They have learnt about light and dark and how to keep safe in the sun.

-R.E: we had a focus on Lent last week. This week, we learnt all about the Sacrament of Reconciliation and what happens when we take part in it.

-P.E: Our sessions with Erin from BFC have continued. The children are learning how to bat and how to do an under and over arm throw.

-History: we have started a new topic - the Romans. We started by learning about how Rome was founded and the myth of Romulus and Remus.

-Art: the children have created some beautiful Arctic art and Iron Man art.

Harry Potter reading challenge

As part of our involvement in the Miles of Magic Harry Potter event, we are currently undertaking a reading challenge that we started just after half term. The aim is for us to clock up nearly 20 hours of reading time over this half term (just in class). For every hour we read, we move another step along the chart we have in our classroom. Each step is marked with a different location from the first Harry Potter book. We are now over half way through our challenge. I have promised the children a lovely Harry Potter related treat when we complete it!

World Book Day 2022 - 25th March

Due to other commitments on the official World Book Day date (March 3rd), World Book Day will be celebrated in school on **FRIDAY 25th MARCH**. On that day we ask that the children come to school dressed as their favourite BOOK character. They can even bring the book with them to share in class. (Please ensure that any books brought into school are named). Do not feel you have to spend a lot of money on costumes - the homemade ones are always our favourites!

Much Ado About Nothing - The Grand Theatre - Tuesday 15th March

We would love it if you could support our amazing Year 5 children, who will be performing on stage (along with other Blackpool Schools) in the Shakespeare play ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, at the Grand Theatre. I have attached a link below, which will take you to the booking system so you can get your tickets. Please note that Our Lady’s are only performing in the Tuesday performance and not on the Thursday.

Much Ado About Nothing’ Booking Link

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.' - Samuel Johnson

Thank-you to all those parents who attended the Parent/Teacher Meetings on Monday, it was lovely to catch up with you to discuss your child’s progress since we last spoke in October. The class are all working so hard and enjoying their learning which really shows in their academic progress. We are having such a fantastic year together, and it has been great sharing the children’s achievements with you.

This week we have started our Miles of Magic reading challenge, which is part of the Miles of Magic Harry Potter event that we are taking part in. As a class, we have to accumulate just short of 20 hours of reading to receive a very special Harry Potter themed treat! Even myself and Mrs McCooey are taking part! The children are very excited and have enjoyed choosing their first book for the challenge.

Here is what the children have been learning about this week…

-English: we have been learning about inverted commas and how to use them in our writing. We also used a question matrix to generate questions about the characters in a book.

-Maths: we have been multiplying and dividing by 3.

-R.E: we learnt about the parable of the Lost Son.

-P.E: we are lucky to have Erin from BFC again for one of our PE lessons each week this term. The children will be learning how to play rounders, with a focus on throwing and catching.

-Geography: the children learnt about the different animals that live in the Arctic, as well as learning about the human features that we could see in Arctic towns and cities.

-Science: the children have started their new topic for this term with Mrs Ormerod - Light.

Awards:

-Golden: Lily

-Maths: Alexander

-Writing: Kurt

Well done!

Notices:

• World Book Day will to celebrated in school on FRIDAY 25th MARCH - On this day we ask that the children come to school dressed as their favourite book character. Please do not feel you have to spend a lot of money on costumes - the homemade ones are always our favourites! We look forward to seeing who we have in class that day!

• If your child is interested in playing netball outside of school - please take a look at the attached flyer: Blackpool Netball Club

• ‘Much Ado About Nothing’-Grand Theatre, Tuesday 15th March

  We would love it if you could support our amazing Year 5 children, who will be performing on stage (along with other Blackpool Schools) in the Shakespeare play ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, at the Grand Theatre. I have attached a link below, which will take you to the booking system so you can get your tickets. Please note that Our Lady’s are only performing in the Tuesday performance and not on the Thursday.

  ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ Booking Link

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.' - Harry Potter

We have ended a wonderful term in Year 3 with our much anticipated Harry Potter Day. As you all know, we are one of just 25 classes chosen across the UK to take part in the 25th anniversary Miles of Magic Book Relay in partnership with the Literacy Trust and Bloomsbury. To celebrate this further, I wanted to organise a Harry Potter Day to encourage us all to get in to the magical spirit. Well, what a day we have had! We started by watching the first Harry Potter film followed by some Harry Potter themed PE! We had a handball tournament with the teams being the four Hogwarts houses. Congratulations to Ravenclaw who won! At lunchtime, we were treated to some delicious Harry Potter cake courtesy of our amazing cook Maria. Earlier in the week, we had a competition to design a poster to advertise the cake. Connie and Elsie were our winners. Well done!

After lunch, we began an afternoon of Harry Potter activities. We started by completing some special postcards that were sent to us in our trunk. We had to write down why the Harry Potter books were special to us. These postcards have now been sent to Bloomsbury in London where they will be exhibited. It was at this point that we had a special visitor to school…a photographer from the Gazette! I had contacted them earlier in the week to let them know about our Harry Potter day and they decided to send a photographer to school to capture our special day. So, keep an eye online and in print…you might see some familiar faces soon! I will let you know if/when I hear about the article being published.

We then completed our Harry Potter activity books, again sent to us in our trunk, and decided which Harry Potter house we wanted to be a part of! The children all received a sticker to wear to represent their house. After half term, we are going to take part in a virtual lesson with Jonny Duddle who has illustrated some of the more recent publications in the franchise as well as a virtual lesson with the Harry Potter studios in London. We have lots to look forward to!

The children have also done some Harry Potter colouring, designed their own dragons egg and created a mini Harry Potter character.

It has been the most magical, exciting day. What a way to end our half term! I cannot thank you all enough for the effort you have put in to your children’s costumes. They all look fantastic and I was blown away when I saw them all this morning. I am so appreciative of your continued support. Thank you thank you thank you!

Here are some pictures of our day…

Notices

• World Book Day falls on the 3rd March this year. We will be doing book/reading related activities that day however we are having our dressing up as a book character day on the 25th March. This is due to the amount of events we have happening in school after half term. Please put this date in your diaries.

• Last week, the class voted for their Year 3 school council members. They chose Darcy and Ronnie. A huge well done to these children!

• Our award winners this week are: Golden - Lola Mae, Maths - Emilia and Writing - Grace and Mia.

• I look forward to speaking to you all on the 21st February for our Parent’s Day.

I hope you all have a great half term!

Miss Heim-Sarac

'They spoke a green language which the trees and flowers knew but which we did not' - The Green Children

Last week saw the holy day of Candlemas, or The Presentation of the Lord, on 2nd February. As a class we have discussed this important event in the Church’s calendar as the day when Simeon and Anna ‘saw the salvation’ and the words of the prophets came true. This is a day when candles are blessed in Church and taken home and lit to share the Light of the World within our homes. We have discussed how we can Shine our Light for Jesus.

We had a very busy week, with the highlight being our ‘go green’ day on Thursday to raise money for Cafod. Thank you so much for supporting us on this day, the children looked fantastic and we raised nearly £30 towards our £50 target. On the day I filmed the children reciting a poem called ‘The Green Children’ that we have been learning about in our English work. Very apt! I will try to upload it on to my blog this week for you to see.

Here’s what else we have been up to…

-English: we have been continuing our work on The Green Children. The children wrote some brilliant diary entries as one of the green children.

-Maths: we have been learning how to solve missing number column additions and subtractions.

-Science: the children made a compass with Mrs Ormerod.

-R.E: we learnt about the story of The Lost Sheep and how God is like the shepherd and we are like the lost sheep.

-Spanish: we practised our pronunciation of the Spanish colours.

-Geography: we started a new topic on the Arctic. We learnt about the 7 countries who have towns in the Arctic Circle.

-P.E: we learnt how to dribble the ball during a handball game.

It was a very busy week with lots of hard work from the children:

Awards:

Golden: Henry

Maths: Connie

Writing: Isaac, Yan and Alexander

Notices

• Have you read Miss Haggerty’s post from last week? If you haven’t please follow this link and make sure you read to the end of the blog! https://www.ourladyassumption-sch.co.uk/news/2022/1/28/take-your-candle-and-light-the-world

• We will be holding Parent Teacher Meetings again on MONDAY 21ST FEBRUARY 2022 - these will be held virtually, as they were in October. You will have received an email with the information, informing you of how to can book your 10 minute appointment. During these meetings I will be able to inform you of the progress you child has made since the last time we spoke in October and any specific information relating to your child.

• It is our ‘Harry Potter’ Day this coming Friday. We are all so excited! Just a reminder that the children can dress up as a Harry Potter character or something related to the theme, but please don’t worry if you don’t have a costume. A plain t-shirt with a lightning bolt drawn on it or a witches hat will do!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.' - Albus Dumbledore

It has been lovely to return to school this week. I have missed the children so much and they welcomed me back with open arms. I have heard lots of good things about the children’s behaviour and work whilst I have been off which makes me so proud. The children have done some fantastic learning. Well done Year 3!

Excitingly, I was able to share some special news with the children yesterday. We are one of just 25 classes across the UK to be chosen to take part in an event to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The event, ran by Bloomsbury Publishing and the National Literacy Trust, will entail lots of exciting things such as a nationwide book relay across the 25 schools taking part, a Miles of Magic reading challenge, a virtual lesson with Warner Bros Harry Potter studios in London and much more! I have also arranged a Harry Potter day to celebrate this event. I have sent a letter home with the children today which explains the plans in more detail. We can’t wait to get started!

To kick start the event, a beautiful Harry Potter trunk full of goodies was delivered to us yesterday. We were all so excited to open it and see what was inside…

In other news, this morning we had a visit from Stephen at Coram Life Education who delivered a lesson all about the body, the brain and how to keep ourselves healthy. We even had a visit from Harold the Giraffe! The children were great, answered all the questions they were asked and had a super time with Harold!

Another point to note is that we will be holding Parent Teacher Meetings again on MONDAY 21ST FEBRUARY 2022 - these will be held virtually, as they were in October. You will receive an email with the information shortly, informing you of how to can book your 10 minute appointment. During these meetings I will be able to inform you of the progress your child has made since the last time we spoke in October and any specific information relating to your child. Watch out for the email and book your appointment!

I have also rearranged our ‘go green’ day to raise money for Cafod for the 3rd February. The children can wear green clothing that day in exchange for a £1 donation.

Finally, I haven’t handed out any awards this week - they will start up again next Friday.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

Wise men still seek him!

Welcome back to our spring term and happy new year to you all. I hope you all had a happy and restful break. The children have come back to school with super attitudes and an eagerness to learn. What more could I ask for! We have spent most of our week focusing on two things: firstly, the new year and what we want to achieve in 2022. Secondly, we have spent lots of time learning about the Epiphany and thinking about this special feast day. We attended church on Thursday, along with Year 4, to celebrate. It was a lovely Mass and the children were beautifully behaved. Father was very impressed with the children and their engagement with the service. I was very proud!

We also had a visit from the fire service today, who spoke to the children about fire safety and the importance of having a fire plan in place at home. The children really enjoyed this session, and some even had the chance to dress up as a firefighter! One thing they mentioned that I think is super important is that we should be checking that our fire alarms work once a week. If your fire alarm doesn’t work, you can contact the fire service and they will come and replace the alarm. More details can be found here:

Smoke alarms

Here is what else we have been up to this week…

Maths: we have recapped column addition with exchanging.

English: the children completed a great piece of writing on what they had been up to over the Christmas break.

Science: we have started a new topic for this term on forces and magnets.

R.E: we learnt about the Epiphany and re told what happened on this special day.

P.E.: this term we will be working with Erin from BFC on our teamwork and communication skills. We had our first session today and Erin was very pleased with how well the children listened and behaved.

PSHE: we have spoken a lot this week about the coming year and what we would like to achieve. We came up with 10 things we would like to do this year, and we are going to tick them off as we go along. We spoke about our highlights of 2021, as well as the lows, and we picked 4 of our lows to ‘let go’ of this year. It won’t be surprising to you that most children wrote Covid as one of their lows. Let’s hope 2022 is the year we get on top of the virus and restore more normality in to our lives.

Notices

• Our PE days for this term are Thursday and Friday. Please ensure your child comes in to school in full PE kit on these days.

• School Uniform - Miss Haggerty has asked all of the teachers to talk to their pupils this week about the importance of looking smart and wearing the correct uniform. I must say that Year 3 always look smart, but here are just a few reminders - please see expectations of school uniform, which is in the school prospectus. This is something ALL staff are going to be picking up with the children this week, so this gives you a heads up.

  • No nail varnish can be worn for school

  • Earrings must only be a plain stud

  • Please keep hair accessories small and to school colours - no big head bands with bows

• I have sent home a letter today about the monthly challenges we are starting as a class. For January, we aim to raise £50 for Cafod. Please see the letter for more details.

• Next week, we are hoping to have an archery taster session on Tuesday. Please can I ask that the children wear their PE kit on this day? That will mean they wear their kit on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday next week. Thank you!

Award winners

Maths: Harriet

Writing: Rosie

Golden: Grace

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

Merry Christmas!

We are soon about to enter our final Sunday of Advent, where we will light our last purple candle. This candle symbolises love. When we light this candle we are also reminded of the angels who proclaimed the good news of Jesus’ coming. We too are called to celebrate and share this good news with those we meet through our words and actions. Jesus wants us to always shine our light and live in a way which shows love and kindness towards others. This week we think about how we can show our love as we continue to wait patiently for Jesus. We could help our family, donate a gift to someone in need, talk to a lonely neighbour, try to be more accepting of others or welcome a new person into our lives.

During these difficult times, it is more important than ever to show our love and shine our lights towards others.

We have had a lovely Christmas themed week: watching the Reception Nativity performance, watching a pantomime with popcorn, participating in the Christmas quiz (thank-you to the PTA for these treats) enjoying our Christmas Jumper Day and Christmas Dinner, all finished off with a Christmas party in class today (including a video with Santa himself!).

Year 3 Nativity

Here it is - our Nativity! The children have worked so hard on this, we hope you enjoy it!

Well done

A huge well done to team Jingle Bells who have won the Christmas reading challenge. They read a huge 53 books between them over the 7 weeks that the challenge has been running. I also wanted to say well done to Lily who was the Year 3 winner of the colouring competition.

Thank you!

I would just like to say a huge thank you to my wonderful class for such an amazing first term. They have all worked so hard and I am incredibly proud with the progress made and the achievements of every single one of them! Thank you as well to all of you parents for your continued support this term-I really appreciate this!

Have a Happy & Holy Christmas!

Finally, Mrs McCooey and I would like to wish you all a Happy & Holy Christmas and all the best for the coming year. We look forward to welcoming the children back on Tuesday 4th January 2022 after a well earned rest.

Miss Heim-Sarac

'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths' - Matthew 3:2

Today we embark on our second week of Advent by lighting our second purple candle, the peace candle. During our anticipation and preparation for the coming of Jesus, we think of the ways in which we can be peaceful and how we can help others to be peaceful too. We think about our families and how we can help them at home to bring them peace and how we can do the same in school to support our classmates and teachers.

It’s really feeling like Christmas in Year 3 now and it has really lifted everyone’s spirits. We have our Christmas tree up, twinkly fairy lights are lit and our advent wreath candles and Nativity set are in place. We have started our Christmas crafts, and this coming week we will be super busy with Nativity practice, filming and performing!

Our learning this week…

-English: we have carried on with our work on The Green Children, including thought tracking of the main characters.

-Maths: we have continued with our learning on column addition, and the children are becoming more confident with this concept daily. Well done Year 3!

-Science: the children have completed a Science assessment this week.

-R.E: the children imagined that they were Mary, and in character answered some questions about everything that happened to her during this season. The children did some beautiful writing.

Award winners

Maths: Darcy

Writing: Emilia

Golden: Jana

Notices

• We are now in the season of winter colds/bugs etc. I know you are all aware of the current Covid guidelines, but I just wanted to remind you all about our guidelines regarding sickness and diarrhoea. Your child must stay off school for 48 hours from their last episode of vomiting or diarrhoea. This is exceptionally important as they can still be contagious during this time and could therefore easily pass the bug on to other children and staff. With this in mind, we please ask that you ensure your child’s school water bottle is thoroughly cleaned at home, before they bring it back in each day. The best way to kill the germs is to use boiling water.

• As we are having to keep the classrooms well ventilated, it can get quite cold in the classroom at times. Due to this, the children are welcome to wear extra layers of clothing under their school uniform and/or they can bring in their PE hoodies should they wish to double up on top of their jumpers/cardigans.

• The threat of Covid is still prevalent in our school, with a number of positive cases at present. With this in mind, we also ask that you keep your child at home if they are showing any symptoms and take them for a PCR test. Headaches have been identified as a common symptom with children, as well as coughing, sore throats, high temperature and loss of smell/taste.

• We will be having a Christmas jumper day on the 14th December (which is also going to be our Christmas lunch day). We are asking for a £1 donation for PTA funds. Thank you!

Year 3 Nativity

We are having our Nativity professionally recorded this week which is very exciting. This will be done on Wednesday, and will hopefully be available for you to view by the end of the week. In the final week of term we are going to be performing our Nativity to two classes in school which I know the children are looking forward to. There is no homework or spellings this week, all I ask is that the children keep practicing the songs for our show as they will not have the words in front of them on the day. Thank you!

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'This Christmas, when Christ comes, will He find a warm heart? Mark the season of Advent by loving and serving others with God's own love and concern' - Mother Teresa

This Sunday 28th November is the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of our time of preparation for the coming of Christ. The first candle to be lit this Sunday represents HOPE.

In class we have discussed the importance of Advent and how it signifies a time of prayer, preparation and service. With this in mind, we have all made our own Advent Promises, in the hope they will help to spiritually nourish us, and help to closen our relationship with Christ. We have thought carefully about our promises this year, ensuring they are both challenging and achievable. It was so lovely reading these promises, which ranged from being more prayerful, to being more tolerant and patient with those around us.

Our learning this week…

-English: we have been writing complex sentences this week and using point and evidence to justify our responses to a text.

-Maths: we have started our work on column addition this week. The children have picked this up so quickly - well done Year 3!

-Science: the children have learnt about erosion this week.

-R.E: as well as writing Advent promises, we have also discussed how Jesus was both human and God at the same time, and understanding that this is a mystery to us, and something that we will never understand how it came to be.

-History: we learnt about life in Iron Age hillforts.

Award winners

Maths: Zahra

Writing: Harriet

Golden: Tommy

Notices

• We are now in the season of winter colds/bugs etc. I know you are all aware of the current Covid guidelines, but I just wanted to remind you all about our guidelines regarding sickness and diarrhoea. Your child must stay off school for 48 hours from their last episode of vomiting or diarrhoea. This is exceptionally important as they can still be contagious during this time and could therefore easily pass the bug on to other children and staff. With this in mind, we please ask that you ensure your child’s school water bottle is thoroughly cleaned at home, before they bring it back in each day. The best way to kill the germs is to use boiling water.

• As we are having to keep the classrooms well ventilated, it can get quite cold in the classroom at times. Due to this, the children are welcome to wear extra layers of clothing under their school uniform and/or they can bring in their PE hoodies should they wish to double up on top of their jumpers/cardigans.

• The threat of Covid is still prevalent in our school, with a number of positive cases at present. With this in mind, we also ask that you keep your child at home if they are showing any symptoms and take them for a PCR test. Headaches have been identified as a common symptom with children, as well as coughing, sore throats, high temperature and loss of smell/taste.

• We will be having a Christmas jumper day on the 14th December (which is also going to be our Christmas lunch day). We are asking for a £1 donation for PTA funds. Thank you!

Year 3 Nativity

We are now well underway with preparations for our Year 3 Nativity and have spent lots of time this week practicing. Sadly, we are unable to invite parents in to school to watch the performance, however we are having it professionally recorded for you to view on the school website. The children have brought their song sheets home with them, and their homework for the next couple of weeks is to learn the song lyrics for each song as well as they can. Thank you for your support with this.

Advent book challenge

Please can I ask that each child brings in one of their favourite books from home (not too long please, a shorter book is ideal). Each day, I will choose a book to share with the class. These books will be sent home on the last day of term. Thank you!

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

‘Reading is a passport to countless adventures’

We have had a busy couple of weeks in Year 3. I am so proud of how hard the children are all working, and they are making wonderful progress. I am enjoying every moment of teaching them and watching them develop into such kind and caring young people. This term, the run up to Christmas, is my favourite time of the year and we get to enjoy some lovely activities together. The festive spirit has already reached us in Year 3 with our Christmas reading challenge. The children have all been put in to teams (with matching badges!) with the aim being to read as many books as possible in the run up to Christmas (they also have to pass the matching quiz for the book). The winning team will receive a book each and a festive goody bag! The children have really hit the ground running with this challenge and have been reading lots already. The team currently in the lead is team Jingle Bells!

We have also started practicing for our Year 3 Nativity. The children have all been given their parts and we will start practicing properly next week. There will be more details to come on this, but for now please encourage your child to learn their lines and the words to the songs when I send them home next week. Thank you!

Our learning this week (and last week!)

-English: we have started a new topic called The Green Children. We started by looking at stories that feature gardens and have now moved on to looking at key vocabulary that is used in the books we will be focusing on this term. We have done this in different ways such as using semantic maps and unpicking various spelling rules. We have also created actions to match many words.

-Maths: we have moved on to looking at addition and subtraction of 3 digit numbers.

-Science: the children have started their Rocks topic with Mrs Ormerod, and have looked at different types of rocks and their qualities.

-R.E: we have learnt about the Annunciation and the Visitation. We have also looked at the Hail Mary and what this special prayer means.

-History: the children have learnt about how bronze was made and they have also learnt about Bronze Age grave goods.

-Art: the children created some beautiful Remembrance Day art last week. I will put some pictures on Class Dojo later for you to see.

Award winners

-Maths: Peter

-Writing: Teddy

-Golden: Lilly

Notices

• We are now in the season of winter colds/bugs etc. I know you are all aware of the current Covid guidelines, but I just wanted to remind you all about our guidelines regarding sickness and diarrhoea. Your child must stay off school for 48 hours from their last episode of vomiting or diarrhoea. This is exceptionally important as they can still be contagious during this time and could therefore easily pass the bug on to other children and staff. With this in mind, we please ask that you ensure your child’s school water bottle is thoroughly cleaned at home, before they bring it back in each day. They best was to kill the germs is to use boiling water.

• As we are having to keep the classrooms well ventilated, it can get quite cold in the classroom at times. Due to this, the children are welcome to wear extra layers of clothing under their school uniform and/or they can bring in their PE hoodies should they wish to double up on top of their jumpers/cardigans.

• The threat of Covid is still prevalent in our school, with a number of positive cases at present. With this in mind, we also ask that you keep your child at home if they are showing any symptoms and take them for a PCR test. Headaches have been identified as a common symptom with children, as well as coughing, sore throats, high temperature and loss of smell/taste.

• We will be having a Christmas jumper day on the 14th December (which is also going to be our Christmas lunch day). We are asking for a £1 donation for PTA funds. Thank you!

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'There are the saints of every day, the 'hidden' saints, to which we can all belong' - Pope Francis

November is the month of remembrance and we started our first day back after the October break with the feast of All Saints, which falls on the 1st November each year. This is where we remember all the saints and the wonderful things they did when they were alive. As a class, we discussed how we can all be saints, just like Pope Francis said in the quote I have used for this week’s blog. We spoke about how we can dedicate our lives to helping others and that we must try to live our lives the way Jesus would have lived his. We discussed how we might do this, and the children came up with some lovely ideas. I am very privileged as I get to see daily how the children go out of their way to care for one another and to show kindness to those around them (including me!).

It was lovely to welcome the children back to school this week, I had missed them.

Our learning this week

-English: we have done a variety of writing this week around the theme of remembrance, including a prayer to St Martin De Porres and a comprehension all about All Saints Day. The children also wrote a recount of the Annunciation.

-Maths: we have been recapping representing numbers to 1,000.

-History: the children have started to learn about Stonehenge and it’s mysteries. Next week, we will be building this famous monument out of biscuits!

-R.E: we have started a new topic for this term - Mary our Mother. The children learnt about the Annunciation and created a role play in partners about this special event.

-Art: it was Diwali on Thursday, so we spent some time learning about this festival and then we created our own Rangoli pattern. The children also made a Rangoli window decoration.

-P.E: we started a new dance topic this week based on the traditional country dance. The children learnt some of the signature country moves and have begun to learn how to keep to a beat.

-Spanish: the children have continued their learning on Spanish counting, and have this week learnt how to count to 15.

Award winners:

-Maths: Lilly. I am always so impressed with how hard Lilly works (in all subjects) but particularly when it comes to Maths. She has a great growth mindset.

-Writing: Alexander. This award has gone to Alexander this week for his fantastic independent writing in all subjects.

-Golden: Emilia. What a ray of sunshine Emilia is! She is so positive, kind, helpful and funny. She puts a smile on all of our faces daily.

Notices

• We are now in the season of winter colds/bugs etc. I know you are all aware of the current Covid guidelines, but I just wanted to remind you all about our guidelines regarding sickness and diarrhoea. Your child must stay off school for 48 hours from their last episode of vomiting or diarrhoea. This is exceptionally important as they can still be contagious during this time and could therefore easily pass the bug on to other children and staff. I appreciate your support with this matter.

• It was lovely to meet you all properly at Parent’s Day before the break. Please do not hesitate to contact me either through Class Dojo, the school office or via e-mail (year3@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk) if you ever need to speak to me.

• Poppies are now on sale in school. They are 50p each. If your child would like a poppy they will need to bring their money in next week.

• We still require some more shoe boxes and stationary for our shoe box appeal. We would like to fill as many boxes as possible so please send in some boxes and stationary if you can.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

Happy half-term!

Half-term is now upon us and what a wonderful start to the year the children have made! Thank you all for your support this term, it is much appreciated. It was lovely to meet you all yesterday and discuss your child’s progress so far. I have no doubt that the children are going to have a wonderful year and I am looking forward to the rest of our time together. Our classroom is a lovely, happy environment and it is a privilege to spend each day with your children.

Our learning this week…

-English: we wrote a second set of instructions and the children completed their star reading tests.

-Maths: we have been ordering numbers this week.

-Science: we recapped the eatwell plate and compared two meals to decide which was the most nutritious.

-History: we learnt all about Skara Brae and did some research on this ancient Stone Age dwelling.

Award winners:

-Maths: Olivia S. I am so impressed with how hard Olivia has worked this week in Maths, ordering numbers and finding 100 more or less.

-Writing: Lily. Lily has produced some beautiful writing this term, and her writing is always correctly punctuated.

-Golden: Mia. For being a little bundle of positivity in our classroom. Mia always has a smile on her face!

I hope you all have a wonderful half-term and I will see you soon!

Miss Heim-Sarac

'Don't carry around the hurtful words that others say. Drop them. They are not yours to keep. They belong only to those who said them' - The Proudest Blue

Over the summer holidays I found a beautiful book in my local bookshop called ‘The Proudest Blue’ by Ibtihaj Muhammad who is an Olympic Medallist (Archery). She is also a Muslim and wears a hijab. The story is about two sisters, Faizah and Asiya, and Asiya reaches the age where it is time for her to start wearing hijab. Her little sister, Faizah, is in awe of her sister and how beautiful she looks in her hijab. Sadly, Asiya faces some mean comments at school and Faizah struggles to understand why these comments are made as to her, her sister is her role model and looks amazing in her bright blue hijab. I decided that this would be a wonderful book to introduce the children to the concepts of racism and intolerance. This past week we have immersed ourselves in the book, discussing what racism and intolerance is, and also discussing other people throughout History who have faced discrimination because of the colour of their skin or their beliefs, such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. We also created a lovely collaborative piece of artwork of Asiya in her hijab (see above).

Our learning this week…

As well as being wonderful artists, we also did all of this amazing work too…

-English: we wrote our instruction texts on how to wash a woolly mammoth. The children did a great job and they were a joy to read!

-Maths: we focused on finding 10 and 100 more or less than a number.

-Science: we consolidated our learning on healthy eating and fitness by completing a quiz.

-History: we looked at different sources from the Stone Age and deduced what they could tell us about this period of time.

-R.E: we spoke about Baptismal promises made by our parents and godparents at Baptism and then we created a poster with all the qualities we would look for in the perfect godparent.

-Art: we created our collage of Asiya, as well as designing our own hijabs and doing self-portraits.

-Spanish: we did a number quiz to consolidate our learning on counting 1-10 in Spanish.

Award winners:

-Maths: Rosie. For fantastic work on finding 10 more or less than a number, as well as impressing me with her knowledge of Spanish numbers.

-Writing: James. For beautiful handwriting, great spelling and excellent sentence composition.

-Golden: Darcy. For being a little star in Year 3 who is helpful, kind and hard working. A true role model!

Important letter from Miss Haggerty

Please read this letter from Miss Haggerty regarding the Netflix programme ‘Squid Games’ and the impact it is having in school.

Miss Haggerty’s letter

Support to set up the right controls and privacy settings on networks, gadgets, apps and sites your children may use, can be found at internetmatters.org to give your child a safer online experience. On this site you will be able to download guides for specific devices.

Active Blackpool Sports Camp Offer

This is a message from Mrs Holden about a Blackpool Sports Holiday Club that you may be interested in…

Active Blackpool are providing sport and physical activity sessions for children and young people who have mild to moderate additional needs within the local community. The Active Lives team will be running school holiday camps and a weekend club. Both provisions are free to children and young people aged 5-18 who have mild to moderate additional needs. Both will take place at Blackpool Sports Centre. Booking must be made prior and a consent form should be completed before the participant can attend.

Inclusion Camp Poster Letter Parent Consent Form

Parents’ Meetings - Friday 22nd October

Thank you to you all for booking a time slot for the virtual Parents’ Day on Friday. I am looking forward to meeting with you all to discuss your child’s progress so far and to discuss their targets moving forward.

I hope you have had all had a lovely weekend.

Miss Heim-Sarac

P.S. Just a reminder that we break up on Thursday, normal finishing time.

'Take care of God's creation. But above all, take care of those in need.' - Pope Francis

EYES OF THE WORLD CAMPAIGN

The eyes of the world are on us this year as Britain hosts world leaders for the United Nations' climate change talks in November – COP26. They will make important decisions that will shape the future of our global family. Our Lady’s is joining the campaign to call on the Prime Minister to support the world's poorest communities affected by the climate crisis. In class we have been designing our own ‘Eyes of the World’ art, and we have been thinking about how else we can ‘go green’. As a class, we have decided that from next half term we are going to do an event each term to raise money for CAFOD.

Our learning this week…

The past couple of weeks have flown by! I do apologise for the lack of a weekly blog last week, I was moving house and the weekend was very hectic! I will therefore let you know in this blog what we have been up to over the past two weeks…

-English: we have continued with our work on How to wash a woolly mammoth, by learning about prepositions and imperative verbs. The children have created posters on the features of instruction texts and acted out the text. We are now ready to start our instruction writing next week!

-Maths: we have been comparing two 3 digit numbers and finding 1 more or less than a number.

-R.E: last week we visited church so that I could take the children through a mock Baptism. This week we looked at the signs and symbols of Baptism and explained what they meant.

-Computing: the children have learnt about routers and how we can connect two schools who live far away from one another.

-Art: we have focused on the artist Julian Opie and we have been practicing drawing in his artistic style using black felt tip pens.

-Spanish: we have learnt how to say goodbye and how to count to 10.

-History: we have been learning about cave art and why the Stone Age people did this. We then created our own cave art on clay tiles.

-P.E: we have been continuing learning how to play Handball, as well as developing our teamwork and communication skills. This week we also did some yoga.

Award winners:

The children below are our award winners from this week and last week:

Maths: Grace & Isaac. Both of these children have worked extremely hard on comparing numbers and finding 1 more or less than a number.

Writing: Lola Mae & Olivia W. Both girls have done some beautiful pieces of writing recently - their presentation is always great!

Golden: Elsie & Yan. Elsie received the golden award last week as she is a ray of sunshine in our class, and her smile brightens my day! Yan received the award this week for settling so well in to our school.

PARENTS’ DAY

Parent/Teacher meetings will be held virtually on FRIDAY 22ND OCTOBER 8.30am -4.10pm. Miss Haggerty will be sending out a text regarding this and how you can book your appointment through Teachers2Parents (Please note you must book these, they cannot be booked through the office.) If we have your email you will also receive an email about this too. The appointments last for 10 minutes - and I would like to see the parent/s of every child to discuss how they have settled and the progress they have made since September so please make sure you book a slot! Be warned though - as they are virtual the meeting will cut out after 10 minutes - so if you have any questions please ask these first! On the plus side, this does mean the day will run to time! I look forward to meeting you all properly and having a chance to talk to you about your child.

Here are some photos of our recent learning…

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Heim-Sarac

'Time flies when you are having fun' - Albert Einstein

Yet another great week in Year 3 has come to an end! The children have been working very hard to listen and be good role models this week. That means they had the opportunity to spin the wheel of fortune this morning and have earned themselves a treat for Monday. Well done Year 3! I can’t believe we have now been back to school for 4 weeks - time really does fly when you’re having fun. The children are working so hard and have settled in to life in the juniors much better than I could have ever expected. I am a very proud teacher!

Our learning this week…

-English: we have started a new topic based on the book ‘how to wash a woolly mammoth’. The children will be learning how to write a set of instructions.

-Maths: we have focused on number lines up to 1000.

-Science: the children have been enjoying learning about animals including humans with Mrs Ormerod on a Friday afternoon. They have now officially become personal trainers and have been looking at the diets of their clients.

-R.E.: we sequenced the story of the Paralysed Man and acted this parable out in groups.

-Computing: we learnt about the internet and a website’s journey.

-Art: the children created some leaf rubbings using oil pastels.

-Spanish: we learnt how to ask somebody how they are feeling and what we could say in response.

-History :we became hunter gatherers and explored the school grounds to see what we could find that would either have been an asset or a threat if we would have been alive during the Stone Age.

Award winners:

-Maths: Hallie for excellent work on number lines.

-Writing: Corben for an excellent informal letter and for his focus whilst completing it.

-Golden: Olivia W for being a shining light in Year 3 who always does the right thing.

Well done everybody! It is extremely hard to pick the award winners each week as the children are all working so hard!

Notices:

• PE - will be on Mondays and Thursdays so please send the children into class in their PE kits on those days. No earrings can be worn for PE so please ensure that they are taken out at home.

• Class photographs are on Monday 27th September. Even though this is usually a PE day for us, the children can attend school in their school uniform if you wish.

• Water Bottle - we have provided the children with a school water bottle. The children need to bring their water bottle in daily, already filled with water. They will take their water bottle home at the end of each day to be cleaned.

• Homework - your child has now come home with a homework folder which contains their homework for this week (due in on Tuesday). The folders must come back in to school on Tuesdays where I will then collect them in and mark the children’s work. Homework will be sent home on a Friday.

• Home Learning-if your child is having to isolate for any reason and needs to access home learning, this will be accessible from the Year 3 Home Learning page. On the day we are informed of any child needing to isolate, it may mean that it will not be until the end of the day that a full timetable of home learning will be available on the Home Learning tab.

• If you need to contact me, please send me an e-mail to: year3@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk or contact me via Class Dojo.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac