Spring Term 2026

English

Children will continue to develop their reading, writing, phonics, grammar and spelling skills using a range of high-quality texts to inspire writing across different genres. We will begin the term by reading The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, using the text to write character and setting descriptions as well as to explore performance poetry. This text will also be used in our guided reading sessions. As part of our topic on rainforests, children will develop their descriptive writing skills and learn to write from different viewpoints using The Great Kapok Tree. They will write about rainforest environments, using The Great Kapok Tree as a starting point and The Vanishing Rainforest to explore the importance of conservation. Throughout the term, children will produce a variety of writing outcomes, including information texts, narratives, persuasive letters and poetry (kennings). Independent writing tasks will be closely linked to our rainforest topic.

Grammar

This term Year 3 children will be recognising and using grammatical terms to revise the components of a sentence, for example, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, collective nouns and common nouns, as well as capital letters and full stops. They will explore prefixes and suffixes and how they affect the meaning of a word. They will also identify and write sentences which include subordinating and co-ordinating conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions, as well as finding out about how to make sentences more interesting, using subordinate clauses and expanded noun phrases. Spellings will relate closely to texts and the aims of spelling and grammar in line with the curriculum.

Maths

The children will be introduced to the inverse relationship between multiplication and division and begin to understand relevant written methods and how they can check their answers using the inverse operation. They will also be exploring metric measurements and learn how to convert units of measure to solve problems. This will include adding and subtracting lengths, finding equivalent lengths and calculating perimeter. The children will find out about fractions of shape and number. They will continue to develop their arithmetic and fluency skills, particularly focusing on learning their times tables and related division facts, in readiness for the national times tables test in Year 4.

Science

In the first half term, we will be exploring Forces and Magnets. We will be having lots of fun as this topic is very practical. The children will start by exploring forces and how they work. They will be comparing how things move on different surfaces, which we will do around the school, and then how objects need contact between them. They will then focus on magnetism and that magnetic forces can act at a distance. There will be many opportunities for the children to play with magnets and to see what materials are magnetic.

In the second half term we will be enjoying exploring plants. The children will go on a nature walk around the school grounds to observe plants in real life. They will identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants such as the roots, stem, leaves, flowers and fruit. They will learn about seed dispersal and how plants reproduce. They will investigate the best conditions to grow plants, by setting up a fair test and watching how they develop and change as they grow and what favourable conditions look like. Our Science work will link really well with our Rainforest Geography topic and also Literacy, as there are many precious plants that can only be found in the rainforest and are used by scientists to discover new medicines, which help human beings.

Geography

In Geography, we will focus on rainforests. Children will use atlases to explore the countries, continents, and climate where the world’s rainforests are located. They will study the rainforest habitat, including its animals, plants, layers, and the people who live there, and how they are all connected. They will explore how human activity is damaging the rainforests and the effects this has on the animals, people, and the world. Children will look at the rate of destruction and discuss how and why rainforests should be preserved.

History

We will learn about the lives and achievements of five significant British historical figures and explore the significance and impact they have had on our modern world. We will discuss the brave acts of people including William Wilberforce, Mary Seacole, Emmeline Pankhurst, Lord Shaftesbury and Winston Churchill. The children will be encouraged to review evidence surrounding these figures and give their own opinions of these people and their work. They will develop their historical enquiry, debate and analytical skills through a range of activities throughout the term.

PE

We recognise the importance of PE in the curriculum and are committed to providing all children with opportunities to engage in Physical Education. Sessions aim to develop basic physical skills, build confidence, and lay the foundation for a lifelong love of sport and a healthy lifestyle. PE lessons encourage children to compete against themselves and others, improving their physical, social, emotional, and thinking skills. This term, with the help of specialised sports coaches, children will cover Ball Skills, Netball, Handball, and Dance.

RE

The children will explore the significance of religious texts for people of faith. They will begin by considering why certain books are special and whether they are meant to educate, entertain, or explain. They will discuss how sacred texts are respected across different religions, including The Bible, The Qur'an, The Guru Granth Sahib Ji and The Torah. They will also compare the scriptures they have studied. We will also explore creation stories from different religions, focusing on what the holy books of Jews, Christians, and Muslims say about the world’s creation and how to care for it. They will reflect on how these beliefs make us feel and consider their own views on caring for the world.

PSHE

This term in PSHE, the children will explore the difference between borrowing and stealing, learning about responsibility and how their actions affect others. They will identify emotions linked to losing special possessions and develop empathy for those around them.

The children will also learn about grief, recognising the different feelings we may experience when we lose someone or something important, and exploring ways to cope with these emotions. In online safety, they will learn how to protect themselves when using the internet, recognise potential risks when interacting with strangers online, and know when and how to seek help from a trusted adult.

Computing

After revisiting the importance of E-Safety and staying safe online (see links with PSHE), our first topic is Desktop publishing. Children will develop graphic and presentation skills, consider careful choices of font size, colour and type to edit and improve documents. They add text and images to create their own pieces of work, using publishing software. The children will look at a range of page layouts, thinking carefully about the purpose of these and evaluate how and why publishing is used in the real world.

Later in the term the children will develop their understanding of branching databases and how to create them. They will use yes/no questions to gain an understanding of how to sort groups of objects. The children will create physical and on-screen branching databases and use an identification tool. They will also consider real-world applications for branching databases

DT

This term the children will design and sew a purse made from binca. First, they will investigate purses and money containers, then design one, decorating it with simple stitches such as running stitch, back stitch and cross stitch. They will think about how they could fasten their purses, then evaluate their designs, saying what they liked about them and how they could make them better if they made them again.

Music

This term year 3 will look at music from Africa. They will learn an African song and look at the instruments that are native to the people of different tribes. Through listening, the context and use of the music will be looked at, and different terminology will be learnt. As a result, students will perform, as a class, a piece of drumming based on African rhythms, before trying to compose their own rhythms. 

Art

As artists, we will be linking our work with our Rainforest topic. The children will begin by mixing their own range of green paints and learn how to create shades and tints which will then be used later in the term. They will be exploring the work of a variety of artists including Henri Matisse, Henri Rousseau, Dean Russo, Oenone Hammersley and Julie Hamilton and using some of their styles and ideas to create their own rainforest inspired artwork.