Home learning will be given out weekly, usually on a Monday to be handed in on a Thursday. Therefore, allowing class teachers to mark and feedback to their pupils. The amount they will get will depend on their age, but as we prepare the children to be secondary ready this will increase naturally.
The purpose of home learning is to secure understanding further of conceptions taught in class. Therefore, allowing the class teacher to have secure assessment knowledge of whether the children have understood their learning.
Year 1 & 2 : 60 minutes per week
Year 3 & 4 : 90 minutes per week
Year 5 & 6 : 30 minutes per day
This includes spelling, multiplication rehearsal and daily reading of at least 10 minutes per day.
‘A typical child from the age of 4-16 spends only 15% of their life in school and overwhelming research by professor Charles Deforges (2010) found that if children do not read at home by the age of 5 they know 1500 words less than children who read daily for 15 minutes. This gap increases as children move through the year groups because they are always catching up with their peers. Furthermore, if you read to a child three days a week; vocabulary development will lead to an actual increase of +12 months. For example, if you read to your child in Year 3 for 3 days a week for 15 minutes a day, by the end of Year 3 they will have the vocabulary and reading skills of a typical child who is at the end of Year 4. This knowledge is then transferred to writing.
Professor Deforges also found that if you engage and support your child’s writing and mathematics home learning they can increase their end of year outcomes by 15% per year. Consequently, over a typical child’s education in primary school (7 years) you could have an impact of your child having increased outcomes of over 95% above typical age related expectations.
As educationalists we have known the impact that you have is vital in improving your child’s education and ultimately life chances. We all value the partnership between parents and school, hence why we have open afternoons to share what we are learning and a leading parent partnership group to consult on school matters.
Please ensure that your child reads daily and that you sign their diary and that as a minimum you ensure your child completes their home learning. It would be even better, if you could read to your child 3 times a week and support and challenge them with their home learning leading to better outcomes for your child.
As partners in education and having the children for only 15% of their time we need you to continue to support the teaching and learning that goes on behind the school doors’.