As a parent or carer, you can play a vital role in your child’s education, including homework. Please use the information in this section to support your child to learn more at home.
Reading and Writing
The easiest way to help your child progress in school is to read with them each day.
Children should be encouraged to read aloud and read on their own, but being read to is also very important, so we encourage bedtime stories.
For younger children beginning to learn to read and write, we use a synthetic phonics programme called Letters and Sounds alongside the actions of Jolly Phonics- click to view.
Please read the guides that we supplied at the parent meetings, which outline useful information on how we teach reading and writing, and how you can support your child at home.
If you are unsure of any strategies that we use, then please ask a teacher in school.
Maths
Parents and carers often say they are less confident about supporting their child with Maths. Mental calculations, estimating, measuring and telling the time are important skills we use every day. Beware of saying in front of your child that you were not good at Maths at school as children may perceive this as you saying it is acceptable to have these low expectations.
Instead, please read the guides that we supplied at the parent meetings, which outline useful mental and written techniques that we teach to help the children calculate. Please take care not to confuse your child with methods that are not learnt in school.
If you are unsure of any strategies that we use, then please ask a teacher in school.
Homework
Parents are the first and most important educator, and we value the important role parents have to play in supporting their child and developing a positive attitude to school, learning and homework.
We believe a short time spent completing homework each evening benefits children in a number of ways. It provides parents with an insight into the child’s learning at school and gives opportunities for supported practice of developing skills at home. Parents can help by encouraging, discussing ideas and by ensuring their child has a good working space at home.
The school’s homework policy is in line with Government recommendations. The Government’s guidelines for weekly homework are:
Years Reception, 1 and 2: 1 hour per week
Years 3 and 4: 1 hour 30 minutes per week
Years 5 and 6: 30 minutes per day
Weekly homework is given to the children every Friday and is due in on the following Wednesday.
As well as the weekly homework task, children are expected to learn spellings from a weekly list. Learning the spellings for just a short time each day is more effective than leaving it all to the last minute.
Reading on a daily basis with an adult is important throughout the primary years and we rely on parents to listen to their child read to aid them in their work. Even if a child is a fluent reader, having a discussion about the story (for example, the characters’ personalities and actions, the meaning of the text, the vocabulary used by the author) is a valuable way to develop reading skills.
For children in Year 3 to Year 6, practising times tables is also extremely important. By the end of Year 4, children should have a rapid recall of times tables facts and also be able to recall the related division facts too. ‘Rapid recall’ should be within around five seconds and children should not have to count through tables facts to find the answer.
If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s homework, please contact your child’s class teacher or the headteacher.