Nightshade, Daffodil and Buttercup 2.10.26

Happy Friday everybody! 

Amazingly we have arrived in October! We have been learning all about Roman soldiers in History and learning to perform with instruments to Mama Mia in Music. Well done to our Year 3/4 Boys who represented the school in the Wickford Town Football Tournament on Thursday.

HARVEST FESTIVAL

Over the weekend, we would like the children to create a poster to support our Harvest Festival. Details were shared in Thursday’s assembly.

TTRS Year 4 MTC

Next week, the Year 4 children will be taking part in a TTRS mock times table check which will be very similar to the Year 4 MTC assessment that takes place at the end of Year 4. The children will be given time each day to practise this as well as a lunchtime club which take place on Tuesdays. To improve your child's confidence, it would be great if you could also practise their times tables at home as much as possible. 

Year 3 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Conjunctions with main clauses (page 20-21)

Maths - Mental addition & Subtraction (page 22-23)

Year 4 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Conjunctions (page 22-23)

Maths - Roman Numerals (page 15) 

Spelling

                     Year 3                                                                                                 Year 4

 

FREE-WRITE FRIDAY

Every other Friday, the children will be completing an independent piece of writing based around a different text type that will be decided via a spinning wheel. To aid the children, they should complete a simple plan with ideas for their writing. This week's text will be:

INFORMATION TEXT

The children will be writing an information texted based on topic of their choice. This can be anything such as their favourite game, a person they admire etc If they could collect some vocabulary to use for their writing e.g. adjectives or ideas around this topic. THEY DO NOT NEED TO WRITE THEIR INFORMATION TEXT AT HOME.

ADDITIONAL TASKS

• Reading: Remember 15-20 minutes reading to an adult every day is the optimum. Please also encourage your child to read by themselves and then discuss the text afterwards, sharing opinions, their favourite part or questioning what happened so as to ensure that your child is understanding the text as well as reading it.

• Times table practise - next week we are looking at 5’s.
• TTRS/Sumdog - lots of practise on these amazing programmes that complement what we learn at school.

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

The 3/4 Team :)

Nightshade, Daffodil and Buttercup 25.9.26

 Happy Friday everyone!!

The children have worked very hard this week and finished their own Stone Age Boy stories this week. They worked very hard on them and we are proud of them for completing their first independent writing of the year!

Forest School

The children have Forest School next week. They will need to come to school in clothes and shoes you do not mind getting mucky. Please bring a change of clothing and footwear for the wetter months. See below for a reminder of which day the classes take part in Forest School.

Buttercup- Tuesday

Daffodil- Wednesday

Nightshade- Friday

Year 3 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Sentence Practice (page 44-45)

Maths - Ordering and Comparing Numbers (page 10-11)

Year 4 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Sentence Practice (page 40-41)

Maths - Ordering and Comparing Numbers (page 10-11)

Spellings

Year 3

Year 4

ADDITIONAL TASKS

• Reading: Remember 15-20 minutes reading to an adult every day is the optimum. Please also encourage your child to read by themselves and then discuss the text afterwards, sharing opinions, their favourite part or questioning what happened so as to ensure that your child is understanding the text as well as reading it.

• Times table practise - next week we are looking at 2’s.
• TTRS/Sumdog - lots of practise on these amazing programmes that complement what we learn at school.

A gentle reminder to label ALL of your child's belongings. We are not able to locate missing items if they are not labelled!

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

The 3/4 Team :)

Buttercup, Nightshade and Daffodil 18.9.26

 Happy Friday everyone!!

The children have had another great week at school and enjoyed their first forest school session of the year!

Year 3 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Adverbs (page 10)

Maths - Numbers on scales (page 14-15)

Year 4 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Adverbs (page 7)

Maths - 100 More or Less (page 9)

Spellings

Year 3

Year 4

FREE-WRITE FRIDAY

Every other Friday, the children will be completing an independent piece of writing based around a different text type that will be decided via a spinning wheel. To aid the children, they should complete a simple plan with ideas for their writing. This week's text will be:

ADVENTURE STORY

The children will be writing a story based on topic of their choice. This can be anything such as a favoUrite from today, a school with no Teachers! If they could collect some vocabulary to use for their writing e.g. adjectives or ideas around this topic. THEY DO NOT NEED TO WRITE THEIR STORY AT HOME.

ADDITIONAL TASKS

• Reading: Remember 15-20 minutes reading to an adult every day is the optimum. Please also encourage your child to read by themselves and then discuss the text afterwards, sharing opinions, their favourite part or questioning what happened so as to ensure that your child is understanding the text as well as reading it.

• Times table practise - next week we are looking at 9’s.
• TTRS/Sumdog - lots of practise on these amazing programmes that complement what we learn at school.

A gentle reminder to label ALL of your child's belongings. We are not able to locate missing items if they are not labelled!

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

The 3/4 Team :)

Daffodil, Nightshade and Buttercup Friday 11th September 2026

Happy Friday everybody! The children have had a fantastic first full week back at school, we are very proud at how they have settled into the new year! 

Roald Dahl Day - Monday 14th September

Monday is Roald Dahl Day and children may come to school dressed up as a character from a Roald Dahl book if they wish to! They may instead bring in a prop representing a character or a favourite Roald Dahl book if they prefer this to dressing up. We look forward to seeing all your gloriumptious ideas!

Forest School - please find dates below (children will need to come to school in clothes and shoes you do not mind getting mucky, please bring a change of clothing and footwear for the wetter months)

Nightshade -

Friday (18th Sept, 2nd Oct, 16th Oct, 6th Nov, 20th Nov, 4th Dec)

Daffodil-

Wednesday (16th Sept, 30th Sept, 14th Oct, 4th Nov, 18th Nov, 2nd Dec, 16th Dec)

Buttercup - 

Tuesday (15th Sept, 29th Sept, 13th Oct, 3rd Nov, 17th Nov, 1st Dec, 15th Dec)

Year 3 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Adjectives (page 5)

Maths - Partitioning (page 12)

Year 4 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Adjectives (page 5)

Maths - Counting in multiples (page 6)

Spelling Homework 

Below are a list of Year 3 and 4 spellings that we will be going through with the children next week. Please encourage your children to practice the spellings throughout the week. 

Year 3

Year 4

Accelerated Reader

All Children will have bought home an accelerated reader book. Once the children have read their book they use the iPad to complete a comprehension quiz, once they have completed 3 quizzes and achieved 80% they will move onto the next level. There are opportunities for children to quiz in school daily. Please encourage children to read for 5-10 minutes daily, we are encouraging the children to quiz weekly. 

A note to say Mr Greenfield will be having an operation next week, so the lovely Mrs Yuille will be in covering Nightshade until he returns. 

Have a lovely weekend, 

The 3/4 Team :) 

Year 3/4 Blog - Friday 4th September 2026

 Dear Parents,

A huge welcome to you if you are joining us here in Year 3/4 and a big hello if you were with us last year! The children have had a very busy week and have all settled in well to their new classes. It is so great to see the children smiling when they are coming into school each day. 

Our weekly blog is the best way to receive communication from us. We will also use the Class Dojo from time to time when needed. If you have not received your child's log in please ask their teacher.

ROUTINES

• Messages to staff on the gate in the morning.

• Please ensure that children come on to the school grounds on their own.

• Please send in a note or email the office if collection arrangements are different to normal.

• Please call the office if collection arrangements change during the day.

• Please label all clothing including their tie.

• Ring the office if your child is off sick – must be clear for 48hrs before returning to school. 

• Please notify the office of any changes to mobile numbers or email addresses.

• Our PE day will be on Tuesdays.

• Snacks - Please provide fruit or vegetables for your child’s snack in a named, reusable container.

• Homework is set every Friday and will need to be handed in by the following Wednesday.

SCHOOL COUNCIL ELECTIONS

Next week in class we will be electing our class representatives for the School Council. If your child would like to stand for election, they may wish to use this weekend to write a speech, create a poster or think about the qualities they have to make a great class councillor. Results will be announced in next week's Celebration Assembly.

YEAR 3/4 HOMEWORK TASKS

CGP BOOKS

Your child will have brought home 2 homework books today - a Maths and a Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling book. Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

MATHS

Year 3 Pg 6 (Place Value)

Year 4 Pg 8 (Place Value)

ENGLISH

Year 3 Pg 38 (Capital Letters and Full Stops)

Year 4 Pg 36 (Capital Letters and Full Stops)

The spellings for this week have been posted on ClassDojo. Please make sure that your child is looking at the spellings for their year group. The children will be tested on these spellings next Friday.

FREE-WRITE FRIDAY

Every Friday, the children will be completing an independent piece of writing based around a different text type that will be decided via a spinning wheel. To aid the children, they should complete a simple plan with ideas for their writing. This week's text will be:

Poetry

The children will be writing a poem on a topic of their choice. This can be anything such as reading, football or even cake! If they could collect some vocabulary to use for their writing e.g. adjectives or ideas around this topic. THEY DO NOT NEED TO WRITE THEIR POEM AT HOME. We will share some examples via Dojo that the children can use as inspiration.

ADDITIONAL TASKS

• Reading: Remember 15-20 minutes reading to an adult every day is the optimum. Please also encourage your child to read by themselves and then discuss the text afterwards, sharing opinions, their favourite part or questioning what happened so as to ensure that your child is understanding the text as well as reading it.

• Times table practise - next week we are looking at 3’s.
• TTRS/Sumdog - lots of practise on these amazing programmes that complement what we learn at school.

Have a great weekend!

Mr Greenfield, Miss Langley & Miss Smith

Tulip, Blossom & Sunflower Blog - Thursday 16th July 2026

 Happy Friday Thursday, everybody! It seems incredible that we are already at the end of the year - it has flown by! We have all absolutely loved working with all your children this year and it has been a joy to watch them grow and become more confident in their learning as the year has progressed. We are all sure that they will continue to be just as fabulous as they move on to being Year 4's and 5's!

We would also like to give a massive thank you and good luck to Mrs Witherall, Mrs Devlin and Mrs O'Connor who are leaving us. They have all been amazing members of our staff team here at Down Hall and will be greatly missed. Good luck out there!

Don't forget that we are celebrating the end of the term with a picnic on the field with parents and carers tomorrow. Much like the Sports Day arrangements, parents can collect their children from classes at 12:00pm to take them on to the field. At 1:00pm, the children will line up to return to class to collect their things and then will go home straight away. If there are any changes to who is picking up your child, please Dojo your class teacher.

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER HOLIDAY!!!

We will be available on ClassDojo up until lunchtime on Friday 17th July and then again from Tuesday 1st September.

Remember: children return to school on Wednesday 2nd September.

All that remains is to say a personal thank you and goodbye. I wrote my first blog back in March 2020 telling people what to do if the school were to close due to Covid. Fast forward some 200-odd blogs and here we are. Thank you for all the kind words and support - I wish you all an amazing summer and all the best for the future!

Much love

Mr Jude

Tulip, Blossom & Sunflower Blog - Friday 10th July 2026

 Happy Friday everybody! We hope you had an amazing week - 1 more week left!

Forest Schools Session

Forest schools will return in September - please look at the newsletter after the summer holidays where new days for your class' session will be announced.

End of Term

On Friday 17th July we will be having our end of term picnic. This will work much like Sport's Day. You can collect your child from class as normal at 12:00 to have a picnic on the field. The children must come back into school when the whistle goes at 1:00 to collect their belongings and be registered before they go home. If there are any changes to normal pick up, please Dojo your child's teacher.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mr Jude, Mrs Witherall & Miss Langley