Home Learning: Expectations and Guidance

We regard Home Learning as an important aspect in every child's learning journey, and one that we would ask you to facilitate at home by ensuring, where possible, a quiet space for your child to work, and by engaging in the conversational learning that is a component part of Maths Facts and Vocabulary.  When children engage in written home learning - spelling sentences, vocabulary etc, we would ask that the child work as independently as possible.  They are given work that they are able to access, albeit challenging for some.  Please allow your child to struggle.  It is within the struggle that real learning takes place.  If a parent has a concern the home learning books can be used for communication.  

It is appropriate for some home learning to be adapted to meet the needs of individual children.  This will be after consultation with the SENDco and class teacher and shared with the parent via a Personal Learning Plan (PLP). 

Below are the Home Learning expectations for year groups 1 - 6.  However, each year group will have slightly different expectations for the amount of time spent on each subject and the support we ask you to give, so please check this with the class teacher or look at the class webpage. 

It is vital that your child sees that you, their parent, view Home Learning as a valuable consolidation of the learning that has taken place in school.   If a child can see that their parent values education, they will too.  For this reason, there are consequences if a child does not complete their year group's home learning expectations.  The age and stage of the child, and the regularity with which a child does not complete their home learning, will determine the consequence.  Sometimes it might be for a few minutes during break or lunch time, and sometimes it might be until the work is completed.  

We fully understand that there might be days when it has been impossible for your child to complete their home learning due to illness or unexpected family circumstances, and all we ask in this case is that you write in your child's reading log or a home learning book that this was the case.  However, we expect this to be the exception not the rule, and you will be helping to develop your child's resilience by supporting the school in this matter.  

There are also rewards for home learning completed: reading and maths facts certificates and children are entered into a raffle where they have to chance to win a bronze, silver or gold reward. 

Many thanks

KEY STAGE 1 READING 

The expectation is that children in year 1 and year 2 should be reading for at least 10 minutes every evening.  This is our expectation and that of the Little Wandle reading Scheme.   When a child progresses beyond the reading scheme, and no longer brings home a Little Wandle reading book, they will bring home a book from the library and the same reading expectation will apply.  

Each child has a reading log, which will be checked each day in class.  Please sign your child's reading log daily and at least twice a week write a comment about  decoding, fluency and comprehension.  

KEY STAGE 2 READING 

Children in year 3 and year 4 should be reading for at least 20 minutes every evening.

Children in year 5 and year 6 should be reading for at least 30 minutes every evening.  

Each child has a reading log, and the expectation is that they write in it after each read (the class teacher will demonstrate) and we ask that the parent sign weekly.  

All of the latest research clearly shows that children who read every evening at home, and have the opportunity to discuss what they read with an interested adult, have a considerably richer vocabulary and understanding of the world.  In a recent Ofsted document: Research Review Series: English, it indicates that "...the gap between those who are word-rich and those who are word-poor correlates with lasting socio-economic and health inequalities.  Children with a language deficit at the age of 5 are 4 times more likely to have reading difficulties when they are adults.  Spoken language proficiency also has a positive effect on later economic well-being, and on happiness and mental health."

Vocabulary:

In year 1, children are given 5 words each week to talk about at home with their parent.  

In year 2, on alternate weeks, children are given either a vocabulary task or an inference task where the focus in the autumn term is solely on discussion.  For the vocabulary task, a small group of words is given for the child to learn how to use in context.  Child and parent can discuss these words at home and use them in conversation thereby supporting the child's understanding about how to use these words in spoken sentences and ultimately in their written sentences.  In the inference task, a picture stimulus will be provided with example questions that a parent can ask of their child to illicit deeper understanding.  

In KS2 (years 3 - 6), children have vocabulary Home Learning to complete across the week.  Children are given a small group of words to learn how to use in context. 

For example: a child might be given a group of synonyms (words that have the same or very similar meaning) - thin/slim/narrow/lean/slender - and will be asked to discuss these with their parent at home so they begin to understand that they are used in slightly different contexts and that they are not always interchangeable (this is a misconception often noticed when children begin to use a thesaurus).  The child might be asked to write up to 3 sentences using these words in the correct context or, as they get older and more proficient, a paragraph including them all.  

Spelling: 

In year 1, children will be given 5 spellings a week to practise daily and learn.  As the year progresses, and using professional judgement, the child will be required to start putting the words into sentences.  

In year 2, children will be given 5 spellings a week to practise and learn. The expectation is that children write these spellings out daily (look/cover/write/check) and then write a sentence for each word.  The expectation is that the child will correct spelling errors, be that High frequency Words (HfW) or the spelling they were meant to be learning.   The children will be tested on the spellings weekly. 

In KS2 (years 3 - 6), children are given 10 spellings to learn throughout the week.  Spellings could be commonly misspelled words, homophones (words which sound the same but are spelt differently - here/hear), patterns, rules, prefixes and suffixes.  Almost always, spellings are given to the children in sentences to demonstrate how the words are used in context.  This helps the child's understanding.  

At the front of their spelling book there are examples of the type of sentence structure we would expect the children to be using.  We ask that the children practise these spellings throughout the week and write 10 spelling sentences which need to be handed in to be marked 6 days from receiving them.  For example: a child receives new spellings on a Wednesday, so the sentences need to be handed in the following Tuesday to be marked.  If a child misspells a spelling word in a sentence, they will be expected to correct it.  If a sentence doesn't make sense, the children will be expected to correct it. The children all have a dictionary and thesaurus in front of them in class, so they are able to use them to support their home learning, and they also know they can ask an adult in the room who will help them in their understanding.  We know that you will support them with this as well.  

The children will be tested on their spellings a week after receiving them.  For example: a child receives new spellings on a Wednesday and will be tested on them on the following Wednesday.  

MATHS HOME LEARNING:

All year groups have maths facts they need to learn to support the work they do in class and to help them become more confident with all aspects of arithmetic and other aspects of mathematics learning.  

At the very least, children should be spending 10 minutes a day learning these maths facts.  It could be learning multiplication facts for 5 minutes on the way to and from school, it could be beginning to understand measures when baking at home, it could be discussing time etc.  The more it can be linked to real-life concepts the better.  If the parent and child have had a discussion about the maths home learning and there is nothing written in the maths home learning book, then we ask that the parent sign for each day this happens.  Alternatively, a child might be given a piece of maths home learning where it would be sensible for them to work independently and they will write something in their books.  In this case because the written evidence is there, a parent does not have to sign the book.  As the child moves through the school, they might be given an opportunity to apply their new learning to a problem and this might be given as well as learning their maths facts.  

PROJECT HOME LEARNING

Children in KS1 and KS2 are given project home learning to complete during a half term.  This is linked to their topic and we encourage parents to support their child in this - especially parents of KS1 children.  

When the children bring in their project, they give a short presentation to the class about what they have learned, or how they completed it.