Homework
All of our pupils from Reception to Year 6 take a reading book home each day. Whilst your child is learning phonics, they will be given a decodable reading book which contains the sounds that they are learning. Once your child is reading all of their phonics sounds automatically and fluently, they will be able to choose their own book from our Accelerated Reader libraries.
At every stage, your child’s book is matched to their current reading ability and must be read at home daily. This regular reading practice is incredibly important for children’s reading development and also their wider learning.
We recommend that children spend a minimum of 20 minutes reading their home reader each school day. This excellent daily habit means that children read an incredible amount across each school year.
Extensive educational research evidence tells us that children who read for 20 minutes at home each day are much more likely to meet and even exceed their age related targets across all of their academic subjects. This is why we say that this dedicated reading time is incredibly important for your child.
In Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 we also send home weekly read to me books alongside children’s own decodable home reading books. Whilst the decodable reading books are for children to read to you, the read to me books are for you to read to your child whilst they listen carefully. You can help your child even further by discussing what is happening in the read to me book and perhaps asking them some simple questions to check that they understand what you are reading. Again, we know from extensive educational research that sharing books in this way is incredibly beneficial to your child’s learning in all of their academic subjects.
Our weekly after school story time club is available to sign your child up to if you would like to ensure even more opportunities for them to share stories with an adult in school.
An ebook version of your child’s current reading practice book is available to share at home.
This book has been carefully matched to your child’s current reading level. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it’s too easy – your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading. Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise – celebrate their success! If they can’t read a word, read it to them. After they have finished, talk about the book together.
Once children have completed their learning in phonics and can read all of their sounds automatically and fluently (end of phase 5), they will start to receive weekly spellings to practise at home (Year 2 – Year 6). Discussing the meaning of each spelling at home is really important to support the development of children’s vocabulary as well as their spelling skills.
Extended Learning
All of our subjects have a wide range of extended learning opportunities identified on our individual curriculum subject website pages.
All tasks are linked to the units that children study across the year and children are encouraged to complete as many as they can. Please take a look at these extended learning opportunities and support your child in accessing as many of these tasks as possible each year.
Subject Pages
Talk Boxes
Talking about learning really helps your child’s educational development. Why not sit down together tonight and try one of our talking homework boxes? Just choose a box based on your child’s age and interests and then sign it out on the clipboard at the office hatch. Have fun!
Your child’s class teacher will be very interested to hear about or see any work completed and your child can earn house points and stickers for efforts.
Our school also has subscriptions to several particularly useful websites which provide further home learning opportunities in reading, writing, maths and science. All children in Reception to Year 6 have access to our core learning platforms below. The learning on these websites is pitched to your child’s current ability and gets progressively more challenging as they work through the learning modules.
Please click the links below to go to these websites:
Mathseeds/Mathletics – extensive range of activities for all elements of your child’s maths curriculum (Mathseeds for Reception, Mathletics for Year 1 – Year 6). Supportive online lessons for any areas they are finding tricky. – https://login.mathletics.com/ – Mathseeds Login
Developing Experts – lessons and quizzes for all of the science topics that your child is learning this year and from previous years. Children’s usernames and passwords for these websites are sent out to parents/carers at the beginning of each school year. If you need a password reminder, this can be arranged easily. Please contact the class teacher or our school office and they will be able to get this information to you. – https://www.developingexperts.com/
TTRockstars – Fast paced games and challenges to support Year 2 – Year 6 in developing their times tables knowledge. https://ttrockstars.com/
