Year Three Team News

Hello Year Three families,   

What a great start to the year we have had with our 2024 Year 3 Willy Kids! They have bounced into their classrooms and settled into the routines in true Willy Kid style. We would like to welcome a new Willy Kid to Year 3:     3W – Ollie S

Important Dates

• Meet the Teacher afternoon will be on Wednesday 14th February from 1pm to 7pm in the classrooms. They will be 10 minutes each and will give parents the opportunity to inform the teacher about their child. You are now able to book a time via Compass. We look forward to meeting you then.
• Cold Water Swimming Dates: 3W – Thursday 29th February, 3B & 3M – Thursday 22nd February

Due to Williamstown’s proximity to the beach, it is important that students of Williamstown Primary are well educated in water safety and awareness. As part of the curriculum, students in grades 3-6 will participate in a single day water safety and awareness program at the Williamstown Surf Life Saving Club. The program aims to enhance students’ understanding of different open water environments. The course covers:- Personal Safety and Environmental Awareness- Survival Skills- Rescue Skills/ Emergency Response- Open water swimming skills.The program will run from 10:00am - 2:30pm. Students are to arrive at school at the normal time and will walk to the Life Saving Club with their teacher. At the conclusion of the program, students will walk back to school with their teacher and will be dismissed from school at normal time.

Please consent to your child attending this event on Compass if you haven’t already done so.

*Expressions of interest - We will require a parent to walk with us from school at 9am to Williamstown Beach and to walk back to school at 2.30pm. You will not be required to stay all day. Please email or speak to the class teacher if you are available. You will require a working with children’s check.

Reminders

• Please return the ICT agreement forms so we can begin using iPads in the classroom. Thank you for those that have done so already. If you have misplaced your form, please contact your classroom teacher to obtain another. 
• Make sure your child has a drink bottle with fresh water daily, a named hat and sunscreen.
• Please send along a box of tissues to share. 

Lunches

As a school, we are continuing to try to reduce the amount of waste that we produce. In doing so, we hope to maintain our clean and safe indoor and outdoor environments. To support this goal, we encourage our students to bring a ‘nude food’ lunchbox. This means that there are no rubbish or wrappers. Examples of items to include in a nude food lunchbox are:

• Snacks in reusable containers
• Drinks in reusable bottles
• Reusable utensils when needed.
• A reusable lunchbox or backpack

As part of our whole school effort to reduce waste, all wrappers or food scraps (e.g. banana peels) that are brought to school in your child’s lunchbox will stay in your child’s lunchbox to be disposed of at home.

Anaphylaxis & food allergies

Williamstown Primary School adopts broad strategies to protect our students with anaphylaxis and any food allergies. Some of the preventions strategies that are implemented by the school to assist anaphylaxis management include:

• Strictly NO sharing food
• Supervised eating time
• Providing professional development for all staff including the identification and response to anaphylaxis and the proper use of an EpiPen®/Anapen®
• Identifying susceptible children and knowing their allergens 
• Sitting down to eat lunch from an individual lunch box
• Avoiding (as much as possible) key trigger foods such as: nuts and kiwi fruit should be avoided where possible.
• Informing the community about anaphylaxis via the newsletter and letters sent home. 

Again, we emphasise our strict protocols around training and documentation, the NO SHARING FOOD policy and the Grade 3 teachers are aware of all allergies, and specifics about each child’s case. 

Fortnightly Curriculum Focus

Reading: Choosing ‘Just Right’ books. Establishing Independent Reading procedures. Setting up reading groups and our Reader’s Notebook. Looking at features of fiction books.

Writing: Writing a holiday recount and a narrative. Setting up our Writer’s Notebooks. Working on our writing stamina.

Numeracy: Place Value. Recognise, model, represent and order numbers to at least 10,000.

Inquiry: Willy Learners. Students will establish classroom rules and expectations and determine class routines and behaviours with their peers. They will focus on understanding what sort of learner they are and consider what makes a good student, teacher, and classroom. By participating in a variety of team building activities, students will get to know one another, build relationships, and discover their preferred learning styles. Students will continue to develop a growth mindset, whilst discovering what learning tools they can use, and they will see how they can show when something is really learned.

Warm regards, 

The Year 3 team – Katja Morris (3M), Carmel Byrne (3D), Rochelle White and Mary Colangelo (3W).