Year 3 is the first NAPLAN year and the year fractions, times tables and paragraph writing arrive. We tutor to the Victorian Curriculum and prepare for NAPLAN by teaching the skills, not by drilling tests.
Start the free Year 3 Skills Check → 📞 03 9509 3293
Year 3 parents ask us the same two things: is my child where they should be, and what will you do about it? The first is answered by our free Year 3 Skills Check, pitched at the top of the year level. The second is answered below. RHZ Tutoring is a local centre in Truganina, not a franchise, and every tutor is local, holds a valid Working with Children Check and reports to you after every session.
Year 3 is a step up in every subject. The Victorian Curriculum expects a Year 3 child to work with numbers to 10,000, to add and subtract using written algorithms, to recall multiplication facts for 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 and to use them for division, to understand unit fractions and simple equivalence, to tell the time to the minute, to measure length, mass and capacity with formal units, and to collect and read data. In English the year is about comprehension and structure: reading to infer and summarise, writing in paragraphs, planning a narrative and a persuasive piece, using paragraphs, conjunctions and tense correctly, and spelling with rules and word families.
Year 3 is also the first NAPLAN year. In March every Year 3 student sits four online tests: Reading, Writing, Conventions of Language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy. Results come back in the four proficiency levels (Exceeding, Strong, Developing, Needs additional support) and are the first external benchmark most parents see. The test is not the point of Year 3, but it is a useful early warning, and preparing for it properly means teaching the Year 2 and Year 3 skills it draws on, not sitting practice papers.
Start the free Year 3 Skills Check → Book a free consultation Call 03 9509 3293
Year 3 maths is the year multiplicative thinking has to start. The times tables are not a memory exercise; they are how a child sees 24 as four sixes, which is what fractions, area and division need. Our Year 3 sessions build the tables in families (2s, 4s and 8s together; 5s and 10s; 3s, 6s and 9s), use arrays so the child sees why 3 × 4 = 4 × 3, and then apply the facts to division, fractions of a collection and worded problems.
More on the Year 3 maths tutoring page.
Year 3 English moves from learning to read to reading to learn. A Year 3 reader is expected to find information in a text, to infer what is not stated, to work out a word's meaning from context and to summarise. In writing, the Victorian Curriculum expects paragraphs, a beginning-middle-end narrative, a persuasive piece with reasons, and control of tense, conjunctions and punctuation. Our tutors teach comprehension explicitly (find the evidence, then explain it), and a piece of writing is planned, drafted and edited in most sessions.
More on the Year 3 English tutoring page.
Year 3 science covers heat and how it moves, living and non-living things and life cycles, the Earth's rotation and day and night, and solids and liquids. We do not run stand-alone Year 3 science sessions, but a tutor will happily use the class science topic as the week's reading or informative-writing text, which is how Year 3 science is mostly assessed anyway.
These are the topics our Year 3 tutors cover, by year level, drawn from the curriculum-aligned question banks that power the free Skills Check.
Year 3 sessions are an hour, one-to-one or in a small group of up to four at the same level. A typical hour: five minutes of times-tables or number-facts practice, a short reading passage with three or four comprehension questions, a teaching point (this week: apostrophes, or fractions on a number line), guided practice with the tutor watching, then ten minutes of writing or worded problems done alone and checked. You receive a short progress note after each session and a ten-minute home task.
Year 3 is the first year we recommend small groups for most children. Three or four children at the same level, working on the same skill, keep each other going, and the price is lower. One-to-one remains better for a child well behind in reading or anxious about maths. Online works well from Year 3 for both subjects provided the tutor can see the child's page, and many families mix online during the term with in-person sessions before NAPLAN.
For Year 3, small groups (up to four students at the same level) are from $25 an hour and one-to-one is $35 an hour. Across all year levels, small groups are from $25 an hour and one-to-one is $35 to $45 an hour, with VCE at the top of the range. Plans are monthly, you choose how many sessions a week, and you can cancel any time. The Skills Check and the consultation are free. Online and in-person sessions cost the same.
Here is a typical week for a Year 3 student doing two subjects with us. Most families run one session a week per subject; two a week is worth it in the term before NAPLAN, a scholarship or selective test, or the VCE exams.
Before or alongside tutoring, your child can try our free online practice quizzes for Year 3, built from the same curriculum-aligned question banks as the Skills Check. They are short, marked instantly, and a good way to see which topics need work.
Term 4 of Year 2 or the start of Year 3, which gives ten to twelve weeks before the March tests. Starting in February still helps with format and the writing task. Preparation is teaching the underlying skills, not practice tests.
It is the first external benchmark and a useful early warning, but it does not affect the child's future directly. We treat it as a health check: a 'Developing' result tells us which domain to work on, and we do that calmly.
It becomes one. Year 3 fractions, division and problem solving all assume the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 tables. We teach them in families with arrays and then short daily practice until they are automatic.
One prompt, either persuasive or narrative, written on screen in forty minutes. We teach a plan for each genre and mark practice pieces to the NAPLAN criteria so the child knows where the marks are.
For most children, yes. Groups are capped at four and matched by level. One-to-one is better for a child well behind in reading or anxious about maths.
Small groups from $25 an hour; one-to-one $35 an hour. Skills Check and consultation are free, and there is no lock-in.
Start the free Year 3 Skills Check → Book a free consultation Call 03 9509 3293
Year 3 by subject: Year 3 Maths tutoring · Year 3 English tutoring
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RHZ Tutoring · 17/47 Apex Drive, Truganina VIC 3029 · 03 9509 3293 · info@rhztutoring.com.au · Prices