Home Learning
The research shows that parental involvement in children’s learning is a key factor in improving children’s academic attainment and achievements, as well as their overall behaviour and attendance.
With this in mind we have compiled a range of documents and links that will help you support your children’s learning at home. Things we have put here are suggestions that you may find useful; they range from simple hints and tips to school documents on how we teach things to give you a better understanding.
Inspirational quotes:
“The role of parents during a child’s earliest years is the single biggest influence on their development. Good quality home learning contributes more to children’s intellectual and social development than parental occupation, education or income.”
“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” — Emilie Buchwald, children’s author
“Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift.” — Kate DiCamillo, children’s author
“A child educated only in school is an uneducated child” George Santayana, philosopher
For more research see link below:
Research into the benefits of homework
Homelearning at RCFS
Homework – the ongoing debate
Research into the value of homework continues to give mixed results. Research does suggest too much homework can have a little benefit for young children and that for homework to be truly beneficial it has to be highly personalised. Traditional homework assumes that every child has the same maturity, concentration and ability level, when in real life all children vary enormously from one child to the next which is why traditional homework is too much for some children and cause upset, anxiety and conflict with parents and for other children it is simply not challenging enough. Some schools are abandoning homework altogether for these reasons. But at Richard Clarke, we do value homelearning and so have some up with a programme to try and suit all learners (and parents!).
| AUTUMN TERM | SPRING 2ND HALF TERM | SUMMER TERM |
| 1) Daily reading for as long as it’s enjoyable both listening to child read, shared reading and reading to your child.
2) Weekly spelling list to learn- look cover/write/check and word play activities 3) Times table/number facts practise ongoing – children can work through award scheme (Numbots/TTRS) at their own pace 4) Alternate maths / English / topic homelearning weekly – practise of skills learned in class, parents to annotate how children coped with the task and how much help was given, no more than 1 hour per week, see Google classroom for tasks Advantages:
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| SPRING 1ST HALF TERM | ||
| 1) Suggested daily reading for as long as it’s enjoyable both listening to child read, shared reading and reading to your child.
2) Weekly spelling list to learn- look cover/write/check and word play activities 3) Times table/number facts practise ongoing – children can work through award scheme (Numbots/TTRS) at their own pace 4) Ganas project Ganas means: Desire, urge; from the Spanish verb ganar, to win or gain. The term was popularized among English speakers by the LA mathematics teacher Jaime Escalante as played by Edward James Olmos in the movie Stand and Deliver. “You’re going to work harder here than you’ve ever worked anywhere else. And the only thing I ask from you is ganas. Desire… If you don’t have the ganas, I will give it to you, because I’m an expert.” (from Stand and Deliver) These projects will be more chid led. The teacher will provide a list of suggestions for lines of enquiry and suggested activities on the Google classroom. But the project should be the child’s choice and anything goes. The focus of learning may be science, geography or history but the medium for presenting learning may be Technology, English, Art or Design & Technology. The project can then be shared with other children and parents on our ‘Ganas’ days to celebrate our achievements and teachers and children can give feedback on the success of the projects. Advantages:
NB the value of this is in the process and not in the end product, so avoid the temptation to do too much of the work for your children and avoid putting pressure on yourselves to be competitive. All projects are valued equally. |
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Home Learning Policy RCFS 2023
App 1 School Closure learning guidance
App 2 Homelearning Summary Info
If you can’t find the help you are looking for or are struggling in any way please talk to your child’s class teacher or a member of the Senior Leadership team and we will be happy to help in any way we can.
Useful Tips for Reading with your child
Early Reading Workshop PowerPoint Summary
The importance of sleep leaflet