A big change is coming for our current year 3 pupils as they prepare themselves to make an exciting move up into a new stage of their academic life next year. Reaching year 4 is a big step because it involves new topics, new teachers and a whole new set of classmates to work, learn and play with. With this in mind, our year 3 teachers arranged a day of exciting and engaging activities as part of the year 3 pupils’ familiarisation process, in order to make that transition as smooth and seamless as possible for them. “Today we’ve been trying to forge more of a cross-year connection between the year 3 pupils. When they move into year 4 they will all get mixed into different classes, so today is an introduction to that process: the pupils get used to the other children in their year and the teachers have a chance to spot promising social connections and smooth over any potential friction points or personality clashes.” – Mr Polatajko Organised by Mr Polatajko, the day’s four events were rollerblading, tee-ball, zorb-ball and a team building exercise where pupils had to use all manner of items to cross an imaginary river of lava without touching the ground. Tee-ball (similar to rounders but played off a giant tee rather than bowling the ball) and zorb-ball (imagine playing football but with each player inside a giant plastic ball like a hamster!) were chosen as fun and light-hearted ways to let the pupils play team games with different people, rather than just their original classmates. The purpose of rollerblading was to get the year 3 pupils used to taking risks and pushing themselves outside their comfort zone. Finally, the team building exercise showed them that through cooperation and original thinking they can achieve things that they might not have managed on their own. “This is a significant step for these pupils so we aim to show that it’s something to be embraced and enjoyed, rather than worried over. The activities that have been chosen are a fun way for the pupils to work together with new people, take risks, try new things and hopefully take that positive attitude back with them to the classroom.” – Mrs Palmer Building new skills, making new friends Even though there was a small amount of nervous apprehension about being assigned to different groups, for the most part this seemed to be a minor worry that was quickly overcome, which bodes well for year 4 and the new learning environment it represents: “At first we were a little nervous about being mixed up with lots of different people, but then we got to know them better and we quickly made new friends.”– Jaclyn Once settled into their new groups, each of the pupils quickly discovered their own favourites from the activities on offer throughout the day. Some particularly enjoyed the lateral thinking of the team building exercise, whereas other preferred whizzing around on rollerblades in a fun but safe environment. The key was for everyone to give each activity their best effort, even it wasn’t something they would normally try: “For the team building we used lots of different materials like sponges and long cloth sheets in order to get across the lava. We would lay down a part of a bridge and then move along it before passing more things up to form the next part. I really enjoyed it because I’m looking forward to doing lots more topics in year 4 where you get to build things and make art.” – Anton Looking forward to year 4 At the end of the day, the pupils had a chance to reflect on the new activities they had learned, the beginnings of new friendships that they had made and finally all of the great new topics they will be learning about during the following academic year: “I want to learn new topics even though I really enjoyed the ones we did this year. I never wanted the chocolate topic to end!” – Linnea “Tee-ball and zorb-ball were really good fun. Year 4 is going to be great because we get to learn lots of cool new things like we did this year. My favourite topic was inventions, because we got to bring in junk and make wacky stuff out of it.” – Xander As this academic year comes to an end, it’s clear that everyone in year 3 is a little less anxious about what year 4 will bring, because they’ve already had a positive experience working with others in their year group, while being exposed to just a few of the exciting things that the new year will offer.