Home learning guidance for parents
We recognise that learning does not take place exclusively in school and that opportunities for home learning can vary. Sometimes teachers will set specific learning challenges: sometimes children will want to research and develop their own ideas and sometimes children show a genuine interest in independently practising skills they have started at school. In each of these cases, quality parental involvement enhances the learning opportunities.
The Cornerstones topics the children study at school also come with home learning opportunities which we will send home with your parent information sheet. Each topic comes with different home learning opportunities so the amount available is different each time. All home learning opportunities are optional. Some families love home learning, some hate it and so we do not, as policy, force any child to do any school directed learning at home. If your child is keen to engage with any home learning please help them. If they aren’t, please don’t feel under pressure to force them as this can put them off learning which is counterproductive.
The only exception to this is reading! Please, please read to and with your child, especially if they are young and learning to decode. This has a very positive impact on their skill set and it only needs to be 5 or 10 minutes each time. Children in Key Stage 2 (years 3,4,5 and 6) will be given set pieces to read which will be studied in class so please encourage your child to keep up to date with this. Thank you.
The White Rose home learning website (details below) is excellent for helping your child's development of maths mastery. It's also great for adults as it models the very different ways maths is now taught which will help you support your child at home.
Policy aims
Our home learning aims:
• To provide opportunities for direct involvement of parents in their childʼs learning
• To make children aware that school is not the only place for learning
• To increase childrenʼs motivation to learn
• To develop independence and self sufficiency in working and learning
• To support and follow up learning which has taken place in the classroom
• To provide children with opportunities to practice and develop skills
• To assist childrenʼs progress and enhance achievement and attainment
Home learning activities in addition to the Cornerstones home learning:
EYFS
- Reading and topic research.
Key Stage One
* Reading, spelling practise, maths games and topic research
Key Stage Two
- Reading, times tables, spelling practise, maths challenges and self directed topic research
We also encourage children to initiate their own home learning and practise skills or carry out research they are interested in themselves. This helps them further their knowledge and/or skills and shows they are motivated and keen to learn.
The following websites also support home learning:
mathematicshed.com
independentthinking.co.uk/thunks/
https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/
Reviewed September 2019, June 2021
Next review: September 2023