Dear Parents & Carers

Homework

If you’ve been wondering what’s happening about homework then here’s the answer. I have been listening carefully to staff, children and parents about all the issues relating to homework. As a result, we are now ready to begin putting in place a whole school approach to homework that will hopefully address the issues and allow us to work together to develop it over time.

All children will be expected to do the following homework every week:

1. Learn spellings each week for a test every Friday.
2. Read every night to an adult (a ‘Reading Record Book’ will be sent home each day for comments)
3. Complete a set piece of homework (which will be marked) each week for either English or Maths.

Every child will have an A4 Homework Book which needs to be covered at home with either wrapping paper or wall-paper. We will then provide printed labels to go on the front of each book. These books will be given out next Thursday, 2nd October. The completed homework should be returned to the class teacher the following Tuesday 7th October. This gives every child plenty of time to complete the homework and also gives parents the Friday and Monday to speak to the teacher about any ‘challenges’ with the homework.

The Reading Record Books will also be given out next Thursday, 2nd October and these should be completed each night by the adult that listens to the child read. It then needs to be returned to school each day. Helpful ideas for comments are in the book.

A List of Spellings for the Autumn Term will be given out and must be stuck on the inside cover of the Homework Books. Children should practise every night. A good method to use is Look/Cover/Write – They should ‘Look’ carefully at each work and try to remember the spelling, then ‘Cover’ the word so it can’t be seen, then they should ‘Write’ it out. Once this has been done a few times they should be able to remember how the word is spelt. Please ask them what each word means and help them to understand it in a context that makes sense to them.

As the maths or English homework will be linked to what they have been learning each week, we would normally expect your child to be able to complete it without too much help. However, an important part of learning is being able to explain it to another person, so please ask your child to explain what the homework is about and how they worked out what to do. Please do not do the homework for them !!!

The next stage is to begin to make full use of online learning but in a safe and purposeful way. The school website will soon have an ‘Activity Zone’ with appropriate content. We will also be making full use of an excellent “Virtual Learning Environment” at www.educationcity.com – feel free to have a look but there’s no need to register or pay anything as the school has covered all the costs and will provide a username and password for every child…

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