Home Learning at Little Stoke
At Little Stoke we believe that homework is not just about formal written work but that learning at home comes from a broad range of activities which parents encourage children to be involved in. Little Stoke Primary seeks to encourage and celebrate participation in extracurricular activities which will contribute to cultural capital.
For example:
- Family outings and visits
- After school clubs
- Visiting the library
- Sports activities
- E-learning via the computer
- Talking to parents about what they have learnt at school
- Practising basic maths and English skills using the world around them
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Maths and English home learning
The Education Endowment Foundation studies have found that homework can have a positive impact on a child’s development, but that the quantity and type of homework needs to be carefully considered.
Additionally, the DfE publication: “Research evidence on reading for pleasure” (May 2012) points to the many benefits reading will bring to the ability to access the full curriculum but also as having a huge impact as the children reach adulthood.
Therefore for English we have chosen to focus explicitly on supporting reading to enable children to better access the curriculum and be able to read fluently and therefore read for pleasure more often. For maths we will use Numbots and Timetables Rock to provide regular consolidation/retrieval of number facts in order to improve mathematical fluency in calculation in school. A short reading or times tables practice each day is much better than one long session a week.
Reading expectations:
In order for children to develop fluency in their reading we know that they must read as often as possible. As children develop early reading, phonemes will be shared for the children to practise at home.
For early readers, a reading book for fluency will be sent home as well as book which can be shared for pleasure. The book for fluency will be in line with the child’s phonetic stage and will need to be read at least three times in order to support the development of fluency. Because regular reading is the most effective approach to developing reading fluency, there is a minimum expectation of reading three times per week.
We will encourage and celebrate reading in school. Children will receive a celebratory certificate for meeting set amounts of reading, such as 20 reads, 50 reads. This will be presented in celebration assembly.
Maths expectations:
Timetables Rockstars (TTRS) and Numbots have an adaptive algorithm which adapts questions based on the children’s answers. This means that the more the children engage with the package the better adapted the questions will be to support retrieval and consolidation. In addition to this, in TTRS teachers have the ability to ‘turn on/off’ timetables if there is a need within a class or for an individual to practice a particular area more. Similarly with Numbots, teachers can adapt the level at which the children are accessing the package to match their particular attainment. We will encourage and celebrate participation in both Numbots and TTRS through:
A whole school TTRS display in the school hall which is updated regularly.
Within TTRS, Certificates are awarded in our celebration assembly each Friday celebrating those children who have achieved Rock Star, Rock Legend and Rock Hero status. In addition to this there will be weekly certificates to encourage and celebrate engagement in TTRS.
Within Numbots, we award certificates to those children who achieve bronze, silver, gold, platinum and diamond status. As with TTRS, there will also be weekly certificate to encourage and celebrate engagement.
Click on the images below to take you to the sign in pages.
