Welcome to Dosbarth Usk

The Year 3 team

Miss  Kearns (Class Teacher)

Mrs Fergusson (LSA)                                           Mrs Adams (LSA) Monday – Wednesday                                        Thursday and Friday

Communication

Schoop - 17699

Twitter - @StDavidsCiWPrm

Email - year3@stdavidsprm.cardiff.sch.uk 

Google classroom - fz52mbl

If you have any questions or problems please do not hesitate to contact anyone in the year 3 team. We access the email daily to ensure we are easy to contact to solve any concerns.

Overview of the school day 

8:45 – Children arrive and settle in class to complete registration time activities and register.
9:15 – 9:30 – Collective Worship
9:30 – 10:30 – Mathematics and Numeracy
10:30 – 10:45 – Snack/Break time

10:45 – 11:55 – Literacy, Language and Communication
11:55 – 1:00 – Lunch time
1:10 – 1:45 – Phonics/Spelling

1:45 - 2:10 -  Guided Group Reading
2:10 -3:00  – Creative/STEM/RE/MFL sessions
3:00 – 3:15 –Helpwr Heddiw
3:15 – Home time

Key dates for Spring Term 1:

5th January – INSET Day - School Closed to Children

6th January - Epiphany

16th January - Chinese New Year Celebration PS1&2

25th January - St Dwynwen’s Day

26th January - Whole School Islam Celebration Day

26th January - PS3 Visit to Cardiff Bay

2nd - 6th February - National Storytelling Week

6th February - Mid Term Reports sent out to parents
Year 4 Family worship at 9.15am

9th February - Welsh Language Music Day

10th February – Valentine Disco PS1 & 2- 3.30-4.30pm, PS3 4.45-5.45pm

9th-15th February - Children’s Mental Health Awareness week

10th February - Safer Internet Day

13th February – Last day of term
16th – 20th February 2026 – Half Term

 

 

 

 

Classroom Routine

Snack

Please bring a bottle of water to school daily, clearly labelled with your name. Healthy snacks can be purchased from the snack trolley (ordered via ParentPay) or brought in from home. 

PE

Please wear your PE kit to school on Friday. Children should wear black shorts, house colour or white t-shirt and trainers, labelled clearly with their name. They may also wear black jogging bottoms when completing activities outdoors. 

Uniform

Please ensure that all items of clothing are clearly labelled with your child's name.

 

 

 

Current Learning:

Our Topic: "Ysgol "

This term, our topic is Ysgol. We will explore schools of the past and present and imagine what schools might look like in the future. As part of our learning, we will visit St Fagans to experience a lesson as a Victorian schoolchild.

Areas of Focus:

• Language, Literacy, and Communication: Diary writing  
• Humanities: School in the past 
• Maths and Numeracy: Four operations 
• Expressive Arts: kyffin Williams Artwork 
• RVE: People of God 
• STEM: Electricity  
• Pupil Voice: 

What will school be like in the future? 

What was school like in the olden days? 

How did they learn without the internet? 

What technology did they have? 

How did children learn? 

What were their classrooms like? 

Why did they have weird names? 

 

Planning

Coming soon 

 

 

Homework

Daily reading  (20 minutes)

Weekly homework – Numeracy / Literacy alternated each week. Usually based on something we have learnt that week. Set on Friday, due on Wednesday. Please submit via Google Classroom.

Termly homework – Choose at least one activity to complete by the end of each term – to present to the class. 

 

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The Four Purposes   

 

The four purposes are that all children and young people will be:

Ambitious, capable learners who are ready to learn throughout their lives.

Enterprising, creative contributors who are ready to play a full part in life and work.

Ethical, informed citizens who are ready to be citizens of Wales and the world.

Healthy, confident individuals who are ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.

In Dosbarth Usk, we will support ourselves and each other in becoming Ambitious, Capable Learners; Enterprising, Creative Contributors; Ethical, informed citizens and Healthy, Confident Individuals. This will be achieved through collaboration and independent work both inside and outside our classroom.

Christian Value – Courage 

This half-term we will be focusing on Courage as our Christian value. 

Literacy

Read Write Inc is taught Monday-Thursday in PS1 & 2. Children are grouped according to their current ability. In each session, we focus on identifying and learning Read Write Inc sounds; reading green and red words; and spelling green words.

 

Reading

 

Children will read to an adult in school at least once a week.

Guided Group Reading - daily

Importance of reading aloud regularly at home and at school (We recommend at least 20 minutes per day)

Scheme readers – Children will be given an appropriate level book to read. We aim to change this once a week (every Friday). 

Oxford Owl E-Books are free to use - https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk

Mathematics

This term we will be focusing on 

Time, data and graphs.

Greater than and Less than song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4RiCfDvsGc

Times tables songs 

2X tables - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGWMPqh04o4

3X tables - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV0ZL2h8IRg

10X tables - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yxMJUHBslY

Welsh Language

In our Welsh language we will be looking at: 

• Beth wyt ti'n hoffi? (What do you like?)
• Ble wyt ti'n mynd ar gwyliau? (Where do you go on holiday?)

We will be completing daily Helper Heddiw sessions for the children to enhance their oracy, written and reading skills in the Welsh language.

We also have a weekly Welsh phrase of the week. Please see these below to support your child further at home:

Modern Foreign Languages - French

Continuous Language patterns : Je m'appelle (My name is) J'aime (I like)

https://www.languagenut.com/en-gb/

Languagenut is a wonderful online tool where children can access resources to support the development of their new language. Each child will have their own log in details where they can gain points for activities completed. Languagenut will also give you the correct pronunciation of words and phrases.​​​​​​

Internet safety

At St David's we promote the use of 'SMART' rules daily, as we know how important it is to stay safe online.

Please encourage your children to use these 'SMART' rules at home too. 

For more information about supporting your child with using the internet safely, please click on the following link:

https://hwb.gov.wales/zones/online-safety/key-information/primary-learners

Jigsaw and PSHE

What is Jigsaw, the mindful approach to Health and Well-being, and how does it work?

Jigsaw is a whole-school approach and embodies a positive philosophy and creative teaching and learning activities to nurture children’s development as compassionate and well-rounded human beings as well as building their capacity to learn. Jigsaw is a comprehensive and completely original PSE programme for the whole primary school from ages 3–11.  The Jigsaw Programme also delivers Relationships and Sexuality Education. Ensuring it meets the requirements set out in the RSE Code for Phases 1 and 2. Life cycles and human reproduction will be taught in a sensitive manner, age related in all schools in Wales. This means that all learners must receive this education. There is no right to withdraw from RSE in the new curriculum.

Jigsaw has two main aims for all children:

• To build their capacity for learning
• To equip them for life

Jigsaw brings together PSE, Relationships and Sexuality Education, emotional literacy, mindfulness, social skills and spiritual development. It is designed to support a whole school approach, with all year groups working on the same theme (Puzzle) at the same time at their own stage of learning. There are six Puzzles (half-term units of work) and each year group is taught one lesson per week. All lessons are delivered in an age- and stage-appropriate way so that they meet children’s needs.

Healthy Snack

Healthy snacks are provided at £2 per week, which can be paid for half-term via parent pay, or please provide one piece of fresh fruit or vegetable for your child's snack every day. We are a healthy eating school, so only provide a healthy snack, such as an apple, banana, carrot sticks, oranges etc. Please note that grapes need to be sliced longways. Children may bring a bottle of water with their name clearly labelled to school to drink. We are happy to refill their bottles for them during the day. We will provide milk daily to the children who want it.

We also have a weekly competition run by our Healthy Schools pupil voice group, where the children gain points for having a healthy snack and lunchbox. The class that gets the highest amount wins some extra play, so every snack counts!

101 experiences

As a school we have created a list of 101 experiences we believe all children should have the opportunity to explore. These are linked to the 4 purposes of the Curriculum for Wales. Once you have completed an experience, send a photo to Miss Kearns, who will upload the experience to Seesaw. When you collect 5 or more experiences from each purpose, you will be celebrated in our VIP assembly. Happy exploring!

Each time a child achieves 5 experiences from the same category, they will get a sticker which shows the religious character which symbolises the associated purpose from the Four Purposes of the new curriculum.

Active travel
 

As a school, we are working hard to reduce our carbon footprint as part of our Eco schools awards. We record how we travel to school each day and gain badges and awards every month if we have met our target. Help us to travel safer and greener by walking, cycling or scooting to school! You could always park and stride or catch a bus.

Rights Respecting School

Every half-term we focus on different aspects of the UNRC rights of the child. This half-term we will be focusing on Articles 16, 17 and 29.

 

 

Picture news

During our worship time on Mondays, we have been learning about current news, topics and events. When discussing the Picture News, we have been challenging ourselves to use new, ambitious vocabulary to describe our feelings and opinions.

  

After School Clubs

After-school clubs run on a Tuesday afternoon 3:15-4:15.

Our current club for Dosbarth Usk is ICT Games, run by Miss Kearns. 

All clubs will run for a term and will change every term. If your child would like to take part in our after-school club or be added to the waiting list, please send an e-mail to clubs@stdavidsprm.cardiff.sch.uk

Useful links

By clicking below, you can access a range of resources to continue learning at home 

https://hwb.gov.wales - Hwb Collection of online tools provided to all schools in Wales by the Welsh Government

https://www.purplemash.com - award winning cross curricular website for  primary school children. It enables children to explore and enhance their knowledge in a fun and creative way.

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk Use this link to help with Online Reading

Username- year3stdavids

Password - read

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ - Great online games for curriculum areas

https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/levels/zbr9wmn - BBC Bitesize

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2literacy.html - Lots of online games linked to different areas of the curriculum

https://www.learn-welsh.net/welshgames - Online Welsh games

https://corbettmathsprimary.com/5-a-day/ - Corbett Maths - 5-a-day Challenges

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/ - White Rose Maths - Reasoning Challenges