West Witney Primary School

‘Inspiring life-long learners with the confidence to achieve their potential’

Year 3 Curriculum Overview (See also *Spelling and *Grammar Booklets for parents)
English ( Lower Key Stage 2)
  • Can maintain attention and participates actively in conversations, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments
  • Uses knowledge of phonics, root words both to read aloud and help to understand meanings of new words
  • Reads, listens and discusses a range of texts with enjoyment and for different purposes
  • Can use dictionaries to check meanings of words
  • Can identify themes and conventions in an increasing range of books
  • Can prepare and perform poetry and play-scripts
  • Is improving understanding of what they have read by discussing their understanding and asking questions
  • Can infer characters’ feeling etc.
  • Can make predictions
  • Can identify main ideas from paragraphs and chapters
  • Can retrieve information
  • Can plan what they are going to write using models
  • Uses simple, compound and some complex sentences showing some grammatical awareness
  • Uses basic punctuation accurately
  • Can organise ideas using paragraphs
  • Can use conventions of story-writing
  • Can assess their own writing
  • Can proofread for spelling and punctuation errors
  • Can use and apply grammar points for Year 3*
  • Spells most common words correctly and makes phonetically plausible attempts at unfamiliar words*
  • Can write legibly and knows where to join letters
/ Mathematics (Year3)
  • Can count in multiples of 4, 8, 50 and 100; find 10 or 100 more or less than a given number
  • Recognise place value of each digit in a 3-digit number
  • Can count, read and write numbers to at least 1000
  • Can add and subtract smaller numbers mentally
  • Can use formal written methods for adding and subtracting 2 and 3 digit numbers
  • Can use inverse to check their calculations
  • Solve problems involving place value, number facts and addition and subtraction
  • Knows and uses multiplication and division facts for the 3, 4 and 8 multiplication tables
  • Can solve problems involving all four operations including missing numbers
  • Knows how to find simple fractions of numbers and objects; compare and order fractions
  • Can add and subtract fractions with same denominator; solve problems involving fractions
  • Can measure, add and subtract length, mass and capacity
  • Can add and subtract money
  • Can tell and write time to nearest minute
  • Can draw and make 2-D and 3-D shapes comparing and classifying by identifying angles
  • Can use right angles to demonstrate turns
  • Can identify horizontal and vertical lines and pairs of perpendicular and parallel lines
  • Can construct and interpret graphs and charts
/ Science (Year 3)
Scientific Enquiry
  • Can ask relevant questions and uses observations to suggest answers
  • Can set up simple enquiry and fair tests using a range of equipment
  • Can make observations and take measurements
  • Can record findings in a variety of ways e.g. diagrams, tables
  • Can identify similarities and differences or changes related to simple ideas and processes
  • Can use results to draw conclusions and make changes

Computing (Key Stage 2)
  • Understands how basic computer networks work
  • Can design and debug simple programs using Roamer or Scratch Junior
  • Can use sequences of instructions to control devices and achieve specific outcomes
  • Can use search engines with support
  • Can select appropriate software to present information
  • Can use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly

‘Learning to be Creative across the Curriculum’ Cycle A

Year 3 Curriculum – Foundation Subjects

What did the Romans do for us? / Titanic / May the Force Be With You
Science – Plants
Can identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants: roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers
Is exploring the requirements of plants for life and growth and how they vary from plant to plant
Can investigate the way water is transported within plants
Is exploring the part that flowers play in the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed formation and seed dispersal.
History – the Roman Empire and its Impact on Britain
Has a developing chronological knowledge and understanding of British history
Can devise historically valid questions and construct informed responses
Can read Roman numerals to XII
Art - Mosaic
Is mastering their techniques, including their control and use of materials
Has an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.
French – Meetings and Greetings
Can listen and show understanding of basic spoken language
RE – Peace in Our World
PSHE - Peace / Science – Electricity and States of Matter
Can identify common appliances that run on electricity
Can construct and name parts in a simple electrical circuit
Can identify whether or not a lamp will light in a circuit
Recognises that a switch opens and closes a circuit Recognises some common conductors and insulators
Can compare and group materials together, according to whether they are solids, liquids or gases
Observes that some materials change state when they are heated or cooled, and measure the temperature in °C
Identify and describe the water cycle
History – a 20th Century Study
Can identify some of the ways in which the past is represented
Understands how our knowledge is constructed from a range of sources
Art and DT – Sketching and Room Design
Is mastering techniques, including control and use of materials
Can create sketch books to record their observations
Can develop, model and communicate their ideas through
discussion, sketches etc. based on research
Can select from and use a range of tools and equipment
French – Transport
Has a developing vocabulary
RE – Beliefs in ActionPSHE - Charity and Selflessness / Science – Rocks and Forces
Can compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance
Describes in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock
Recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter.
Notices that some forces need contact between 2 objects, but magnetic forces can act at a distance
Observes how magnets attract or repel each other and attract some materials and not others and identify some magnetic materials
Can describe magnets as having 2 poles and predict whether 2 magnets will attract or repel each other
History – Britain from Stone Age to Iron Age
Has a developing chronological knowledge and understanding of British history
Understands how our knowledge is constructed from a range of sources
DT – Making Robots
Can develop, model and communicate their ideas through
discussion, sketches etc. based on research
Can select from and use a range of tools and equipment,
materials and components
French -Can explore sounds of language through songs
RE – The Bible Old and New Testament
PSHE - Hope
PE - Football, Team Games,
Can use running, jumping, throwing and catching in isolation and combination
Can play competitive games and has a developing understanding of skills and tactics
Has developing flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance
Can perform dances
Is beginning to evaluate his/her performance
Can swim unaided over a distance of 25 metres
Uses a range of recognised strokes and personal survival skills / Music - Sing Like a Roman, Carol Concert and Sci-Fi Music
Can sing and use his/her voice to create music and compose music on their
own and with others to include use of technology
Is interested in how music is created and produced through different dimensions
Can perform, listen to, review and evaluate a variety of music, in particular composers of variety music
Can use appropriate musical notation

‘Learning to be Creative across the Curriculum’ Cycle A

Year 3 Curriculum – Foundation Subjects

Take One Author / Viva Espana! / Dungeons and Dragons
Science – Animals including Humans
Can identify that animals, including humans, need the right types and amount of nutrition, and that they cannot make their own food; they get nutrition from what they eat
Can identify that humans and other animals have skeletons and muscles for support, protection and movement.
Can describe the simple functions of the basic parts of the digestive system in humans
Can identify the different types of teeth in humans and their simple functions
Humanities dependent upon author chosen
DT – Book Making and Printing
Art – Book Illustration e.g. Quentin Blake
Is improving their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture
Has an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design
Knows about some great artists and designers
French – At School
Has a developing vocabulary
Can write simple phrases from memory
RE – Sacred Texts – Qu ‘ran, Vedas and Torah
PSHE - Unity / Science – Sound
Can identify how sounds are made
Recognises that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the ear
Is finding patterns between the pitch of a sound and volume of a sound and features of the object that produced it
Recognise that sounds get fainter with distance
Geography – Europe
Can locate European countries using maps
concentrating on their environmental regions, key
physical and human characteristics, countries, and
major cities
Can describe the key aspects of Spain’s physical and human geography an compare with an area in the UK
Art – Gaudi
Is improving their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture
Know about great artists and designers
DT – Fiesta Feast
Understands the principles of a healthy and varied diet to prepare dishes
Understands seasonality and knows how ingredients are grown and processed
Spanish – Meeting and Greetings
Can explore patterns /sounds of language through songs
RE – Sacred Places in Spain PSHE - Honesty / Science – Forces (Y5)
Recognises that some mechanisms including levers, pulleys and gears allow a smaller force to have a greater effect
All Living Things
Recognises that living things can be grouped
Is exploring and using classification keys to help group,identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment
Recognises that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.
History and Geography
Can identify some of the ways in which the past is represented
Can ask and answer questions and make observations through handling artefacts
Can use globes and atlases to locate places in the United Kingdom and their key features e.g. rivers, cities etc
Understands key aspects of physical and human geography
DT – Making Castles
Can develop, model and communicate their ideas through
discussion, sketches etc.
Can select from and use a range of tools and equipment, materials and components
RE – Expressing Faith through the Arts
PSHE - Thoughtfulness and Appreciation
PE - Tennis, Rounders, Dance and Sports Day
Can use running, jumping, throwing and catching in isolation and combination
Can play competitive games and has a developing understanding of skills and tactics
Has developing flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance
Can perform dances
Is beginning to evaluate his/her performance
Can swim unaided over a distance of 25 metres
Uses a range of recognised strokes and personal survival skills / Music – British Composers, Spanish and Traditional Songs
Can sing and use his/her voice to create music and compose music on their own
and with others to include use of technology
Is interested in how music is created and produced through different dimensions
Can perform, listen to, review and evaluate a variety of music, in particular composers of variety music
Can use appropriate musical notation