Welcome to Telford Junior School

 'New Starter Packs' are sent out to families in the Summer Term. These packs include:

• Explanatory letter (including information about Medical Forms and School Meals)
• Telford Junior School Admission Form.
• Consent Forms

School Prospectus and Parent & Carer Guide

The School Prospectus and the Parent & Carer Guide can be viewed by clicking on the link below. You will find these helpful in explaining the school's aims, the structure of the school day, uniform expectations and other key information about life in Telford Junior School. 

If you have any specific questions, please contact the school office:

Tel: 01926 424664        Email: admin2315@welearn365.com

I hope that you find this information helpful and the staff and I look forward to you joining our school community.

Best wishes,

Richard Siviter

Head Teacher

Parent Partnership Policy

The Parent Partnership Policy (below) sets out how the school aims to work in partnership with families, to support the children's education. It includes the Home-School Agreement, which the Department for Education expects all schools to draw up and share with parents/carers.

Year 3 Curriculum

The School Curriculum page of this website explains how the school curriculum is organised and provides an overview of the the Year 3 curriculum content. The icon below provides a link to this page.

Finding Out More About Year 3 ...

You might also want to look at the Year 3 page of this website (click on the icon below). The Padlet links found on this page show the remote learning children in Year 3 have undertaken and also home learning activities set within the year group (Year 3 Padlet Page).

Current Year 3 Teaching Arrangements

Y3 Ash

Taught by Mrs. Martin-Sweet on Tuesday - Friday and Mrs. Spedding on Monday.  

Y3 Beech

Taught by Miss Evans on Monday - Wednesday and Mrs. Mackay on Thursday - Friday.  

Y3 Chestnut

Taught by Mrs. Shields on Monday - Thursday and by Mrs. Spedding on Friday.  

Helping Your Child at School

Families joining Telford Junior School often ask staff how they can help support their child's education during these formative years. It is worth remembering the important habits nurtured during children's early years in education:

• Maintaining good sleep patterns (children between the ages of 4 and 11 are recommended to have 10 hours sleep every night).
• Attending school regularly, so that your child gets the most from their education.
• Eating healthily: a balanced diet including plenty of fruit, vegetables and starchy foods, so that your child has the nutrients they need to stay healthy.
• Eating breakfast before they come to school; children who eat breakfast have more energy, do better at school and eat healthier through the day. 

Nurturing a Positive Attitude

Many commentators believe that what children bring to the classroom is as important as what they are taught in school. The belief is that your child's potential can be developed from simple, everyday attitudes and examples; that nature can be nurtured:

• Build resilience - teach your child to accept that they can improve on their first effort, to have another go and to practise their skills (initial 'failure' is a stepping-stone to success) - praise and encourage, but don't over-praise (the praise is more genuine and the child learns to appreciate that while their efforts are valued, they will not always achieve better than their peers).
• Make learning something your child enjoys doing - it is proven that 'good mood' makes children more engaged, more creative and more willing to persist with a difficult task (a positive mindset means a child is pre-programmed to succeed). 
• Allow your child to follow their passion - there is a tendency to worry about things a child is less good at, rather than sharing their enthusiasm for what they enjoy doing (spending time with your child as they connect and enjoy a subject will also give you an insight into ways you can help transfer that joy to a less loved topic). 
• Make academic subjects feel relevant to your child - it can be hard for a child to focus on something they cannot see as relevant to their life, or see as helpful to them in the future (find ways to demonstrate a subject's relevance, perhaps explaining how a subject such as Maths has been useful to you in your job, or involving your child in a practical application; following a map on a journey, finding words in Google Translate, or measuring quantities during a cooking activity).
• Involve games in learning to make it more fun (Albert Einstein: "Play is the highest form of research.").
• Motivate children by consequence rather than punishment - rather than threatening to take something a way, teach your child that outcomes are determined by their actions (e.g. achieving goals is rewarded - make sure those rewards are proportionate!). This approach can nurture a strong sense of motivation, which children can take with them into adult life. (N.B. Helps children to learn self-control, builds child's self-esteem and is a good example of effective ways to solve problems, nurturing a sense of cause and effect). 
• Improving your child's depth of processing - show your child how to organise learning in different ways to help them process the learning and ensure it becomes lodged in their memory (e.g. learning spellings or multiplication facts in manageable 'groups', applying learning rather than simply learning by rote). 
• Quality 'down-time' - plan for quality time for your child to relax and play.
• Safe and purposeful access to the internet - think about where the access takes place in the house (for younger children better for this to be in a living area, rather than isolated in their bedroom), install suitable protective tools and model the constructive applications of the internet (both for learning and for social interaction).
• Space to learn empathy - children with greater empathy tend to relate and do better in the world. Allow time for unstructured play (empathy is often learnt while 'authority' is removed, with children making decisions for themselves; children learn to consider others' opinions and learn to negotiate. Playing with different age groups is also considered helpful and something less likely to happen in today's society. 

Helping with Home Learning

The school's Home Learning Policy (see below) emphasises the importance of parents/carers being directly involved in supporting home learning in the primary age group. Children naturally seek the attention of adults, and particularly that of their parents/carers. By sharing an activity with your child, you receive the goodwill derived from that need for attention and, therefore are well placed to encourage, to motivate and to guide their learning. The Home Learning Policy sets out the range of activities that teachers may set for home learning activities. It explains how these are shared with families through the year group Padlet pages. For examples of the kind of activities set, you can look at the the current year group Padlet pages via the year group pages, under the 'Curriculum' tab on the school website.

Reading

The school uses a reading scheme by Collins called the Big Cat scheme. This does not have a long history at Telford, as it was only introduced 3 years ago in response to requests from parents and teachers for a more structured approach to reading. The books are carefully levelled for even the most able readers to ensure coverage of all text types and genres that they are likely to encounter in SATs tests and in school life (including progression to Year 7). 

When children read with free choice, they have a tendency to stick to similar text types (particularly fiction) and, therefore narrow their exposure to different genres, styles and authors. As the children progress through to Year 6, the focus for more able readers is no longer on reading fluency, so the children should be able to read almost all of the words within the text without difficulty. The point of the reading scheme books for these more able children is the discussion with an adult regarding the meaning of any unusual vocabulary in context, understanding why authors have used particular words or structure, delving in to the features of the text type, etc. This will support all pupils in developing a deeper understanding of how to analyze a text in preparation for the requirements of KS3 English. Below you can see an example of the kind of analysis the scheme allows older children to engage with. Similar, age appropriate comprehension activities are matched to the reading scheme books at all levels.

We also feel very strongly that children’s love of reading should be nurtured and, therefore, we have reduced the number of times that they should read from the reading scheme to three a week, to allow them plenty of time to read for pleasure as well. We are careful to ensure that pupils learning is not “capped” by the scheme,  so children in the younger years can progress through the book levels at a rate that suits their ability (i.e. if a child in Year 4 is reading at Year 5 level, then they can move on to these texts). 

Mathletics

The school has invested in Mathletics, an online Maths programme used by pupils worldwide. It engages children through interactive activities, games and challenges, which are fun and rewarding. Children are able to take some responsibility for their own learning, nurturing independence and the ability to problem-solve. Mathletics is designed by experienced Mathematicians, to support children's classroom learning. The activities match the curriculum skills and knowledge the children are being taught through the school's curriculum. The activities provide the appropriate level of challenge and are accompanied by guidance and prompts. By observing how your child is progressing through the activities, you will be able to see the areas which your child has mastered and those where they need further practice or explanation. Weekly parent-friendly reports can add to this insight. Talking through the prompts and guidance can also enable parents/carers to have a better understanding of how best to help your child. 

Overview of School Developments

Following the school's Ofsted inspection in July 2019, we recognised the need to move quickly in addressing the action points identified in the report. We have been working with a school improvement officer and a Local Authority Task Group, to ensure that the quality of teaching and learning is consistently good across the school and that this is monitored and evaluated rigorously by school leaders. While the inspection report identified areas for improvement, which we believe we have addressed, significant strengths were also highlighted: 

• Outcomes are good.
• Pupils develop a love of reading.
• The curriculum is rich, broad and balanced.
• Work to support pupils' personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils' behaviour is good.
• Pupils say the school is a friendly and a safe place to be.
• Pupils enjoy coming to school.

During a challenging few years since our last inspection, we have worked hard as a team to further develop our curriculum, achieving encouraging end of Key Stage 2 outcomes for the children, in spite of the challenges presented by the pandemic. We have provided the social and emotional supports and the rich variety of learning opportunities to ensure that our pupils are as well prepared as possible to move on to the next stage in their education. Other key areas we have worked on include:

• Refining our school development planning and the systems for monitoring and evaluating the school development work we undertake.
• Supporting teachers in the delivery of our planned curriculum through professional development work.
• Refining our learning intentions, checking that teachng and learning supports and challenges all our learners effectively.
• Developing the problem solving and reasoning activities in Maths lessons, providing challenge and nurturing the mathematical knowledge of all pupils - embedding their understanding and addressing gaps that emerged during the pandemic.

We have also worked hard to ensure parents/carers are well informed, understand the school's ethos and are able to be involved in the life of the school and their children's education.