Homework AT LEH 

Dear Parents and Carers

As we are now settled back into life in school, we thought it would be a good opportunity to communicate how we are arranging homework for the children at LEH. One of the silver linings that has come from remote learning is how we can use various online learning platforms to support the learning that is taking place in school. We are also keen to reduce the amount of items that are passed backwards and forwards between school due to Covid-19.

At LEH we use homework to support the learning that takes place in school by giving children opportunities to practise and consolidate key skills and knowledge.

The homework given to the different year groups will differ according to the content of the curriculum within those year groups. Teachers may also adapt homework tasks to take account of Special Educational Needs or to reflect the current levels of attainment of some individuals.

There are key areas that homework tasks aim to develop for all children.

Reading

Daily reading is an important part of homework for all children at LEH. The standards achieved in reading are good and the way parents and carers support and encourage reading through regular reading at home has contributed greatly to this.

All children have a reading book that is appropriate to their current standards in reading. For younger children, books will reflect the current standard they are working at in phonics, allowing them opportunities to apply their learning from phonics lessons. For older children, books are selected to allow them to further develop fluency in their reading as well as providing a broad diet of reading books.

We ask that children spend 15 to 20 minutes practising reading five times per week. All children have a reading record. For younger children it is appropriate for an adult to record comments in the reading records; by the time that children are in Years 5 and 6, we aim for the children to be making regular comments on their reading to allow them to reflect on the texts they read. For the older children, these comments may be a one-sentence summary of a chapter, noting some new vocabulary that they have encountered or reflections on the actions and motives of characters in a story.

Spelling

We use an interactive website call spelling frame to allow the children to practise spellings. Spelling lists are assigned to the pupils each week by the class teachers and are accessed via the spelling frame website. https://spellingframe.co.uk/ Each child has login details. Contact your child's teacher via the

school office if there are any problems accessing into spelling frame. For a short video of how to use the spelling frame website, click here.

We have decided that this resource is suitable for children in Year 1 to Year 6. Children in reception are provided with other phonics based tasks.

One of the great features of spelling frame is that it has a class and a who school leader board which is reset each week. It provides a really good motivation for children to compete against their classmates and this works the same way regardless of the lists of spellings that the children are given to work on each week.

Children will still be given a spelling test each week in school.

Mathematics

As with spellings, we now keep all our maths homework online. All children have access to Mathletics. Teachers assign work each week for the children to complete. Once they have completed these tasks, there are a huge number of interactive activities and challenges that children can complete, including Mathletics Live, which allows them to compete against other children from around the world using the mathematics knowledge and understanding.

Children in Year 2 to Year 6 also have access to Times Table Rock Stars. Children use the games and activities on the website to improve and practise their recall of times table and division facts up to 12 x 12. Children will have particular times tables allocated to them via the website according to their age and knowledge of times tables. The National Curriculum states that children should have recall of all times table and division facts up to 12 x 12 by the end of Year 4.

Each child has login details for both of these websites. Contact your child's teacher via the school office if there are any problems accessing into either of them.

From time to time, teachers may ask the children to complete other homework tasks that are relevant to a particular topic they are learning about in school.

We are very much aware of that using online resources increases screen time for children but we recommend that the children access these resources little an often. Guidelines for the total amount of time that children might be asked to spend on homework each day are as follows:

Year 1 and 2 10 to 15 minutes per night

Year 3 and 4 20 minutes per night

Year 5 and 6 30 minutes per night

We understand that some children enjoy the traditional ‘pencil and paper’ approach such as writing out spellings that they have been asked to learn. We are more than happy for the children to do this but hope

that the interactive nature and instant feedback that mathletics, spelling frame and TT Rockstars provides would also provide some appeal.

If you have any questions about homework, please get in touch with your child’s teacher via the school office: secretary@thorparch-leh.co.uk

Thank you for your support