HOME LEARNING

Many of you will have established routines that work for your child. We understand that homework isn't the most enjoyable task for some and we hope these ideas can assist you.

Learning is not just done at school or achieved through doing homework, it is often done on the field, on holidays with the family and to and from school. Please take time to play with your children and build their memories.

The key to our students successfully learning is being able to relate to those real life experiences and link them to the work in the classroom. For example if your child is learning to write, get them to write out the shopping list for you. This shows them that their writing is helpful and useful and is a tremendous extension exercise to do at home.

Homework is an insight into what your son or daughter is learning about at school. This homework time can expand and can encourage good learning habits such as time management and focus.

The following is a recommended amount of time to spend on homework: 

Year One and Two 10-20 minutes each night.

Year Three and Four: 10-20 minutes 

Year Five and Six: 20-30 minutes 

Year Seven and Eight:    30-40 minutes 

These will all include a 10-15 minute reading and talking about their book

10-15 minutes on practising the next steps on the maths knowledge cards.

Spelling is the other compulsory homework.

Additional homework is offered/requested. This ‘additional’ is not compulsory and should only be completed if children are motivated and families have time to support.

Year 7&8 students have increased expectations based around projects such as science fair, speech writing etc.

Signing your child’s homework will help our teachers know that you have seen it. This is a good way to communicate to our teachers if you feel that your child is struggling with any part of his or her homework. Please feel free to write a note in their book so the teacher knows and can address your concerns.

Reading at Home: 

Reading time at home should be a pleasurable and memorable time for you and your child. It can be a time for your child to show you what they can do or has been learning in class independently.

Reading is an important time to:

• Share, discuss and learn about common interests

• Explore imaginary worlds or events; having a fun time guessing what could happen next or what it would be like to live in that world

• Learn new information about topics they have been learning about or something that has got them wondering

• Have fun together instilling a love of reading

• Do this by:

  • Reading books to your child

  • Visit the local library together

  • Talk about books that you read as a child

  • Enjoying regular reading times before they go to sleep at night.

Once your child has learned to read, you can help my child improve their comprehension

Helping your child to comprehend is an important skill to master.

It only needs to take 5 -10 minutes of talking with your child about what they are reading and listening to them. As you are talking you are checking that they can confidently understand the story plot, key information, and vocabulary in the text they are reading.

You can help your child by asking them to:

• Retell the chapter or story they have just read in their own words; while encouraging them not to tell you the story word for word.

• Talk about the characters, settings, and plot. Can they compare them to any other books they have read. What do they think about the story or style of writing?

• Look at the book and find any tricky words they may have read and ask them to explain what they mean.

• Ask your child to put themselves in the role of the different characters...How would you feel if...? What would it be like to live in...?

• Non-fiction texts—Share your own personal knowledge about the subject, ask questions about the topic they are learning about or go online to extend their learning further.

Maths at Home:

We are not born ‘good’ or ‘bad’ at Maths. Maths is learned and it is important for children to understand that being good at Maths is more than getting things right and knowing the answer immediately.  It is important to build children’s confidence and ability to strive, explore, work in different ways, reason and seek solutions. We encourage you to praise your child not just for the right answer but for asking questions, making mistakes, taking risks and investigating real life problems. 

At home you can reinforce these dispositions as you explore maths together.

How You Can Help At Home:

The basis of Maths is number. Have fun with numbers - as you go for a walk read the numbers on the letterboxes; predict which number comes next; notice and talk about odd and even numbers. A fundamental understanding of how our numbers fit together is essential for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Read about other number systems; Roman numerals for example and challenge your child to create their own number system that mimics our place value system.

Play board and other counting games; encouraging counting on and counting in chunks. My counter is on 6 and I have thrown a 4 so I jump to 10. Dice, cards and dominoes are fantastic tools to use.

Play car cricket; white car is worth 2, blue car 6 and red car means you are out. Who scores the most runs? 

Learn to read and tell the time; have a clock in their bedroom; have a timetable showing the weekly events. Create a TV guide for family viewing.

Involve them when shopping at the supermarket or online. Which is the cheapest; how much cheaper. Use real money to purchase and receive change. Play shops at home using empty containers from the house; toothpaste box, empty egg cartoon, empty bottle etc

Involve your child in cooking; this is an ideal time to learn about fractions, temperature, weight and capacity.

Explore patterns in nature, in architecture, in books. Be curious; try repeating them, making your own.

Name shapes, make pictures from shapes. Draw treasure maps then write directions to find the treasure. Play Battleships and learn about coordinates.

Sound basic fact knowledge enables children to problem solve. First we learn our facts to 5; 5 and facts, numbers to make 10 before moving on to hard facts such as numbers that make 20, 100 and so on. Teachers will teach the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and use these to solve problems however you can help by practising these regularly.

By the time a child is in Year 6 they should know their multiplication facts instantly and be learning their division facts students. Five minutes a night will make the world of difference. Keep it fun, encourage your children and they will be progress.