Years 3/4

Welcome to Cheltenham Primary School's Middle School for the 2025 school year! A heartfelt welcome to our new families and those who have recently become part of our Middle School community. We are thrilled for the year ahead, which promises to be filled with exciting events and enriching learning experiences. We can’t wait to embark on this journey together!

What we are learning - a 'snapshot' of Term One.

In the first couple of weeks, we have focused on building connections, establishing routines, and setting behaviour expectations. This sets the stage for creating a positive learning environment and laying the foundation for your child to thrive as an active and engaged learner. We look forward to the collaborative efforts of teachers, students, and parents to make this school year memorable and successful. Together, we aim to foster an environment that nurtures curiosity, encourages growth, and supports the holistic development of each student.

Mathematics

Year 3/4 students will spend Term 1 consolidating and then extending fundamental mathematical concepts, while nurturing critical thinking and problem-solving skills. They will focus on mastering the place value system up to 10,000, identifying odd and even numbers, and advancing their understanding of addition and subtraction. Students will explore practical applications for temperature by developing proficiency in interpreting scale through thermometers. They will also tackle time-related skills, reading analogue and digital clocks, and calculating elapsed time. 

Literacy - Reader’s Workshop

The use of the Reader's Notebook model has highly effective outcomes and improved engagement for our literacy lessons. This approach guides students in selecting books that align with their reading comprehension, commonly referred to as their ‘Best Fit Books”, and dedicating substantial time for independent reading. A crucial element of this strategy involves providing students with the opportunity to engage in authentic discussions and “wonderings” about their chosen books, creating a supportive atmosphere for learning. Recognising the significance of student engagement, the freedom to select their own books is encouraged, aiming to instil a lifelong love for reading. With the guidance and enthusiasm of our passionate Middle School teaching team, students can acquire the skills to choose their “Best Fit Books” and uncover the 

immense joy associated with reading.

Literacy - Writer’s Workshop

The Writer's Workshop serves as a unique space for students to compile and nurture their

thoughts, emotion and ideas to act as a springboard for inspirational writing. To develop this creative process, we encourage students to bring in visual representations, such as: pictures, magazine clippings, photos, movie/concert/plane tickets etc. These items should reflect their interests, passions, hobbies, connections with family and friends, or simply aspects of their individuality. We will use these ideas to help write a variety of writing structures for different audiences. If there are specific photos or keepsakes that you prefer not to be permanently affixed in their notebooks, please inform us. 

Ultimately, Writer's Workshop focuses on the process of writing and helps students develop as writers through regular opportunities to write, read, and share their work. Our Year 3/4s can explore their ideas, receive feedback, and develop their writing skills through a series of mini-lessons, independent writing time, and peer and teacher conferencing.

Inquiry 

Our Inquiry topic for Term 1 is a Health focused unit 'Inside Out' - Healthy Minds and Bodies. Students will investigate:

• What it means to have a growth mindset, explore strategies to manage physical, social and emotional change.

• Describe and apply strategies that can be used in situations that make them feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
• Identify and practise strategies to promote health, safety and wellbeing.
• Explore and identify the 5 food groups as well as healthy eating practises

NAPLAN

NAPLAN is in March 12 - 24 this year. This means results will be available earlier in the year to inform and support us to evaluate our teaching and learning programs to support students and ensure they are gaining important literacy and numeracy skills.

Leading into NAPLAN, we aim to prepare our students by making sure that they are familiar with the format of these tests and the structure of the questions. What is most important is that our students don’t fear NAPLAN. It is a way to celebrate educational growth and set goals for future achievement.

Homework

For take home books, students can read their library books (from main or classroom library) at home for 10-20 minutes, 3-4 times a week. Some students may also come home with decodable texts to read as a take home reader. In Year 3/4, it is expected that parents have sighted their child reading at home and have signed their diaries by Thursday each week. That way when students come to school on a Friday, teachers can check diaries and provide dojo points/house points for students who are reading at home. 

This term, Year 3/4 students can also practice their multiplication facts at home at least once a week. It is important that students have a deeper understanding of multiplication as opposed to rote learning the times tables facts. Here are some of the multiplication strategies that you can practice at home instead of rote learning the facts (see poster).

Notes/reminders 

• Students must wear a hat outside, including leaving school, until May 1st.
• If you would like to help to improve our Class Libraries, please could you donate children’s reading books to class teachers.
• Continue to sign reading logs in student diaries.
• Please contact your child’s class teacher if you are interested in being the Parent Class Representative.

Term 1 Important Dates:

• Tuesday 4th & Wednesday 5th of March Parent/Teacher Meet 'n' Greets  (booking via Compass 15:50 - 17:30)
• 10 March Labour Day Public Holiday
• 12-24th March NAPLAN
• 25 March School Photograph Day
• 4 April Last Day of Term 1, 2025. Dismissal at 2:30 pm

All further updates throughout the term will also be in the School Newsletter and through the Compass app. 

If you have any questions, or need to contact your child's teacher, please don't hesitate. Here's to a wonderful 2025.

Kind Regards,

The Middle School Team

Rhiannon Dalman, Catie Mytton, Michael Neal, Kim Ng & Tom Perkin.