Helping your child at home

 

Homework Procedures

Children will be set 5 homework tasks on a Friday, one for each night of the school week. Having homework a week in advance supports parents as they can choose when homework is completed. Although there are daily tasks, more than 1 task can be completed at a time to fit around family activities. The variety of tasks given for homework should not require teaching by parents. Tasks consist of practicing skills that have already been taught in school, research to prepare for future lessons and children talking about their learning. In addition to the tasks, children are expected to read every evening. Tasks will be sent out on a sheet and children can complete any written tasks in their homework notebook.

Types of homework for ALL children in school

Nursery

  • parents are encouraged to follow up school library visits
  • staff will share learning activities with parents
  • books will be available to take home to encourage a love of reading

Reception

  • key vocabulary of topics
  • reading books are sent home twice a week, with the expectation of parents reading with their children for ten minutes every day
  • basic skills activities (e.g. counting, getting dressed independently, reading or spelling key words)

KS1&KS2

  • daily reading for 10-20 minutes

Five activities to last the week are given to the children, may consist of:

  • problem solving
  • reading comprehension activities
  • topic discussion/research
  • handwriting
  • phonics
  • times tables
  • spelling
  • topic-based projects are given for holidays or long periods of absence (excluding Christmas)

Year 6

  • additional homework in preparation for SATs (e.g. reading comprehensions, revision tasks, numeracy)

Amount of homework

We increase the amount of homework that we give the children as they move through the school. We expect Key Stage 1 children to spend 10 – 15 minutes reading at home every day and also to complete other daily homework tasks for approximately 10 minutes per night.

Helping My Child

Encourage your child to tell you what they have done at school today. The earlier you can get into this habit the better. Children in Nursery, Reception and Year 1 will have been learning songs and actions that they can show you and you can join in with. Or you could try learning some songs and nursery rhymes at home together. Sharing songs and rhymes is something that you can easily do when you are busy with something else e.g. cooking, cleaning, driving in the car.

There are many websites with phonics games that you can play with your child. Here are just a few;

http://www.ictgames.com/literacy.html

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/5-7-years/letters-and-sounds

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play/

http://www.letterjoin.co.uk/ – please see the class teacher for login details.

One of the greatest gifts that you can give you child is a love of reading. Research has shown that one of the biggest indicators of success in a child’s life is whether or not they have books in the home. Aim to read with your child every day, even if only for ten minutes, and try to focus on making reading as fun and enjoyable as possible.