Home Learning
Introduction
At Summerlea, homework will often be referred to as ‘home learning’ and relates to any task or activity which children are asked to do outside of the normal school day, either on their own or with the support of their parents or carers. Home learning activities will be devised and set by teachers with an aim to contribute positively towards a child’s overall learning and skills development and towards their enjoyment of engaging in the learning process.
Home learning encompasses a whole variety of activities instigated by teachers, parents and carers. One simple example of Home Learning is when parents/carers spend time reading to their children before bedtime.
Homework is not statutory, although at Summerlea we believe it plays an extremely important part in ensuring children’s success in school as a result of engaging parents in their child’s education.
Aim
Through the setting of home learning, we aim to:
- provide opportunities for parents, carers, pupils and the school to work in an effective partnership
- encourage parents, carers and pupils to work together to enjoy learning experiences and to extend school learning
- consolidate and reinforce key skills and understanding, particularly in literacy and numeracy in order to develop automaticity and confidence in learning
- recognise the importance of sharing the wealth of learning experiences that already take place at home and in the wider community
- celebrate a feeling of pride and achievement and recognise that success often comes about as a result of effort and working collaboratively with others
- meet children’s individual needs and cater for their interests by providing choice and therefore a sense of ownership over their learning
- ensure children are well prepared to transition to secondary settings by encouraging them to take increasing responsibility for life-long learning
To achieve these aims we will endeavour to:
- ensure that there is a consistent approach to homework throughout the school
- plan tasks that reinforce and enhance classroom learning and take account of the needs of the individual pupil
- reflect, in the planning of tasks, the need for homework to develop in its purpose and nature as children become older
- celebrate children’s efforts and provide age-appropriate feedback to pupils after completion of tasks
- ensure that parents and carers are made aware of homework expectations so that they can support the children’s learning
- regularly review and evaluate the process and update the policy as necessary
- liaise with local secondary settings to ensure transitions expectations are clearly understood
Informing and Involving Parents and Carers
Through the provision of home learning guidance:
- the school aims to establish close links with all parents and encourage them to work in partnership with the school.
- the Staff and Governors work to provide a range of activities which enable parents to support their children’s academic progress at home.
The school hopes that, in line with Government expectations, parents and carers will:
- support the school by showing the child that they value home learning and by explaining how it can help their progress and skills development
- encourage their child and praise his/her efforts
Children spend more time at home than at school, and we believe that they develop their interests and skills to the full when their parents/carers encourage them to make maximum use of the opportunities available outside of school.
Parents’ views on home learning will be sought regularly and changes made to our home learning programme as necessary. The views of our children (regarding home learning) will also be gained periodically and will assist us in making appropriate changes to our provision.
Personalising the Learning
Teachers in each year group plan jointly for their parallel classes and homework tasks are planned alongside school learning. Homework activities are sent out in line with the expectations of the year group. These can be in the form of retention homework for Key Stage 2 in mathematics, supported by Times Tables Rockstars. In Key Stage 1, the mathematics will involve a hybrid approach of Numbots, and retention homework – dependent on the needs of the individual year group.
Our minimum expectation is that all children should read regularly, ideally every day. In all year groups, reading books are provided for each child and these are matched to the child’s reading ability and/or interest (with children taking increasing responsibility for their own book choices as they mature).
Spelling and mental/oral maths practise is important and homework for these two areas will also be set regularly from Year 1 onwards.
Most homework tasks are ‘low threshold, high ceiling’ to cater for the wide achievement range within a year group.
|
Year Group |
Amount of Reading Time |
|
EYFS |
Daily exposure to books. |
|
Year 1 |
Daily exposure to books. |
|
Year 2 |
Daily exposure to books. |
|
Year 3 |
20 minutes per day |
|
Year 4 |
20 minutes per day |
|
Year 5 |
25 minutes per day |
|
Year 6 |
30 minutes per day |
|
Year Group |
Number of Spellings |
Weekly? |
|
EYFS |
||
|
Year 1 |
5 |
Weekly |
|
Year 2 |
5 |
Weekly |
|
Year 3 |
8 |
Fortnightly |
|
Year 4 |
8 |
Fortnightly |
|
Year 5 |
10 |
Fortnightly |
|
Year 6 |
10 |
Fortnightly |
|
Year Group |
Numbots/TT Rockstars |
Retention Homework |
|
EYFS |
Numbots |
|
|
Year 1 |
||
|
Year 2 |
Hybrid model here with a rotation between Numbots/ TT Rockstars and Retention homework. |
15mins |
|
Year 3 |
20mins |
|
|
Year 4 |
20mins |
|
|
Year 5 |
30mins |
|
|
Year 6 |
30mins |
Reading (All year groups)
At Summerlea we promote reading for pleasure and enjoyment. We want all children to love reading and be able to talk about books they have enjoyed or learned from. We expose children to different types of books, styles and authors. Reading and understanding a full range of text types and authors will not only bring pleasure but can also develop comprehension, spelling and writing skills. We ask parents to encourage their children to share and talk about texts with them, visit your local library, hear them read, read to them and enjoy the time you spend together sharing a love of books.
In EYFS and Key Stage 1, children will be given a phonetically decodable book that is in line with their phonic ability. This is to help children consolidate phonetic learning and develop the skills to be able to read with increasing fluency. Alongside their phonetically decodable book, children will be able to choose a high-quality book. This book may be above the child’s independent reading ability and we encourage adults to share and enjoy these books together. We encourage children to be reading at home in some way every day. This could be your child reading, or reading to your child.
In Key Stage 2, children have access to Accelerated Reader. After an initial assessment, children will be suggested a book level to choose from that will allow them to develop their fluency and comprehension. Children are encouraged to ‘quiz’ in school. Children are then able to work towards an individual target each half term. We encourage children to be reading a minimum of 20 minutes per day by the time they are in KS2. This may be independent, but parents/ carers should still be listening to children read aloud approximately 3 times per week.
Phonics (EYFS)
In the Spring Term EYFS children are given a phonics book for home learning, each week the children are given words which include the sounds they are working on in phonics to practice reading at home. They can create the words with scrabble letters, magnetic letters or written on duplo or lego blocks to build words, you can write the words out on paper and you can play games with the words making the experience active and fun. If the children are ready and wanting to, you could encourage them to write a short sentence using the new words.
Spellings (Key Stage 1)
5 words will be given out every week. The spellings will be from the pattern that is being taught that week. The children will practise these spellings in school and we ask that you also spend some time practising them at home too. We will test the children on this spelling pattern each week. For information, the common exception words for your child’s year group will also be attached to the front of their spelling book.
Spellings Key Stage 2
8-10 words will be given out every week in a spelling book that can be brought home. The spellings will be from the pattern that is being taught that week. The children will practise these spellings in school and we ask that you also spend some time practising them at home too. We will test the children every week on spellings taught previously to support long-term retrieval. For information, the common exception words for your child’s year group will also be attached to the front of their spelling book.
Maths (Key Stage 1 and 2)
In Key Stage 1, children in year one will begin their home learning journey in mathematics in the Spring Term. The theory behind this is that prioritisation of number facts and times tables practice is encouraged, with a gradual movement towards a more written approach to fluency-based homework as the children are more ready for it. In key stage 2, this hybrid model of TT Rockstars and retention homework continues through years 3 and 4, and in year 5 and 6 retention homework happens weekly – with TTRS acting as a supplement to homework with tournaments and challenges set accordingly to recap skills and promote participation.
Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1
As a school, we have invested in the ‘Numbots’, educational, online platform. We would encourage children to use these platforms little and often, with your support where necessary. Numbots is a robot-immersed game, with the aim of developing children’s understanding, recall and fluency in mental addition and subtraction. Children will be sent home with login details and instructions. The programme compliments what your child is learning in school and focuses on securing any gaps in their knowledge before moving them onto the next challenge. The self-pace of the journey improves children’s confidence and means they are fully prepared to tackle each new topic. NumBots is available to play via the website or mobile app so children can learn at home or on the go, whenever it suits your family.
Key Stage 2
As a school, we have invested in the ‘Times Tables Rock Stars’ educational, online platform. We would encourage children to use this platform little and often. Times Tables Rock Stars is a carefully sequenced programme of daily times tables practice. Children are able to practice multiplication tables, and associated division facts, to develop fluency and speed in recalling multiplication facts. This will impact on later maths skills. We would also encourage Key Stage 2 children to access Numbots to consolidate their core maths skills (see above) as appropriate. Children will be sent home with login details and instructions. NumBots and TTRS are available to play via the website or mobile app so children can learn at home or on the go, whenever it suits your family.
Throughout a child’s time at the school, class teachers will always welcome feedback from parents about their child’s ability to complete a task or the level of difficulty it posed for them. This is useful to inform future planning, to enable individual provision to be made for children as necessary, and to maintain an effective home-school partnership.
Homework Help
Home learning books/booklets/folders are sometimes provided for our children and clear instructions accompany all homework activities. A4 large blue squared paper books are to be provided for retention activities. Resources such as paper may be provided should parents/carers request it. Parents/carers are requested to speak to their child’s class teacher if they are having difficulty providing resources in order for home learning to take place, and we will do our best to assist.
Parents/carers can also visit the school website (http://www.summerlea.w-sussex.sch.uk > Learning Zone > How to help) where they can access ideas and suggestions to support key areas of learning as well as links to other websites. Homework activities for each year group can be found by going to: Learning Zone > How to help > Homework and then selecting the relevant year and half term. *this will be updated with our new website address.
We provide our children with home/school reading record books from EYFS up until the end of Year 6 and parents and carers are encouraged to write a comment inside and to sign these when they hear their child read or when they share a book together to help inform teacher assessment.
We believe that home learning should not be onerous for our families. Whilst we believe that home learning is important, we fully acknowledge the important role of play and free time in a child’s growth and development. Home learning should not prevent children from taking part in the activities of various out of school clubs and other activities, which play an important part in the lives of our pupils. Therefore, we strongly encourage parents/carers to speak with their child’s class teacher should they require homework ‘breaks’ when family time requires this.
Feedback
Methods of feedback will depend upon the tasks and the age and understanding of the children. Whenever appropriate discussion with the child takes place, outlining strengths and areas for improvement. Opportunities are often given for children to share their work with others, either in class, on a display or in Class and Year Group Assemblies.
Parent Consultations provide an opportunity for teachers and parents or carers to discuss a child’s approach to home learning and for the teacher to suggest ways in which the parent or carer might help the child further. Parents or carers are of course, welcome to contact the child’s class teacher if at any time, they are concerned about homework. Equally, the teacher may contact the parent or carer if there are concerns from school.
Equal Opportunities
At Summerlea we believe that all children, irrespective of race, gender or ability, should have access to a broad and balanced education, including appropriate and relevant home learning tasks.
When a child has a particular Special Education Need or Disability, which makes a particular aspect of homework difficult, suitable adjustments will be made in consultation with parents and the SENDCo/Inclusion Team.
Where a child is relatively new to learning English, homework expectations will also be made reasonable and manageable.