Home learning
Chapter 3
Guidance for Parents and Carers
Home Learning is designed to enable the partnership between you, the parents and carers, and our school by providing good opportunities for you to be involved in your child’s learning. It consists of supported or independent tasks or experiences undertaken outside of curriculum time which reinforce, extend or enrich the educational provision in school. Home Learning enables children to practise and consolidate skills and aims to enable them to take responsibility for their own learning, to become independent learners and to develop perseverance.
This guidance will provide you with an overview of what Home Learning looks like for your child in chapter 3 and links with our Teaching and Learning policy which is available here. Ask your child’s class teacher for more ideas or support with home learning.
Home learning is an essential part of your child’s progress and attainment. Done well, home learning can provide your child with opportunities to help them to become more confident learners in and out of school.
Your child will be expected to complete these tasks each week
Reading at home every day with an adult as much as possible
In Chapter 3, one of our main aims is to inspire children to become lifelong readers and to enjoy reading for pleasure, both in school and at home. In order to achieve this we would like them to:
1. Read every day for a sustained period of time. In Chapter 3, a ‘sustained period of time’ is a minimum of 20 minutes per day.
2. Read with an adult as often as possible.
3. Complete their accelerated reader quizzes once they have finished their book.
4. They should also be encouraged to write a review of their book and pass it on to their class teacher.
Please can you make sure that your child brings their reading book into school each day so it can be used during the school day.
Multiplication practice on and offline
Knowledge of times tables is essential for your child’s understanding in maths. They should be aiming to do at least 10 minutes per day on their TT Rockstars login. Information for parents and carers for TTRockstars.
Times tables practise can also be done easily without the use of a computer.
Oxford owl provides some useful information about times tables here.
Mathletics tasks set by the class teacher
Each child has a Mathletics account for home and school learning. They may be set homework by their teacher or activities for their age group and ability will be available for the children to complete. This should be done on a weekly basis. Please see your child’s class teacher for more information or if you have any questions.
Complete accelerated reader quizzes after completing a book
Accelerated reader is a reading programme that helps teachers manage and monitor children's independent reading practice. Your child picks a book at their own level and reads it at their own pace. When finished, your child takes a short quiz on the computer - passing the quiz is an indication that your child has understood what has been read.
More information can be found in this parent guide.
Complete 'flipped learning' tasks on google classroom
To increase your child’s learning power and ability to lead their own learning we provide them tasks to complete at home which will support them in school. The aim is to equip children with knowledge that will enhance their learning experience in school and to dive deeper into their thinking and learning. Teachers set ‘Flipped learning tasks’ to complete at home with the aim to ‘pre-load’ children with knowledge to support more in depth exploration of concepts taught in class.
Your child will be enrolled in a google classroom. They can use their google account to access this. If you have any questions or technical issues, please speak to your child's class teacher.
Spelling practice, oracy and vocabulary development
Spelling
This document can be used to identify the key words all children should learn in year 3 and 4 (page 16) and years 5 and 6 (page 23). These words will be taught in school but it is essential for the children to review them regularly.
Vocabulary development
Children love to learn new words that they can use in their spoken language and written work. Oxford Owl provides some useful tips on how to help your child with their vocabulary development.
Oracy
Along with reading, oral language development is fundamental to your child's lifelong outcomes. Use the TRUST model as an aid to develop oral language.
Range of other Home Learning Activities
A variety of additional tasks and experiences are used to meet planned objectives and can include:
Undertaking additional fact finding and research about what is being taught in school
Speaking and listening activities
Reading and word investigations
Reading comprehension
Practical maths investigations
Collecting items linked to a theme
Skills practice across a range of areas
Taking up a new skills (e.g. crocheting, model making, photography, woodwork etc)
Playing board games together