Supporting Your Children at Home

Helping your child with homework

Children are set homework on a weekly basis, which includes practising spellings for a weekly test in school, maths work and reading at home.

Spelling

Every week, your child is given a list of words to practice which will usually be linked to a particular spelling rule. They need to practice these every day – ‘little and often’ works best.

Think of putting the word into a sentence and encouraging your child to write the sentence, as this helps them understand the word in context.

Maths

Maths homework will vary week to week. At school, we have a clear calculation policy that is followed to help the children develop their calculation skills in a sequential and developmental way as they move up throug each year group. It is important to support your children by using the same approaches to addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, wherever possible.

There are two general ways that you can support your child with their maths work:

Times Tables

• Begin learning times table by rote – in sequence, and starting with ‘0 x ? =…’
• As your child gains confidence, encourage them to give you answers in a random order – ‘7 x ? =…’
• Finally – to help ensure that these times table facts are really established, ask your child the inverse – ‘how many 7s are there in 56?’

Everyday Maths

• Make the most of the ‘maths opportunities’ found in everyday situations – shopping, cooking, ordering, measuring, etc.
• Involve your children in the maths you are using on a daily basis – ‘money’, ‘time’, ‘ingredients’ and ‘reading timetables’ are all excellent opportunities – ‘This recipe says 2 eggs and 150g of sugar, so how much sugar do we need if we use 4 eggs?’

Reading with your child is vital! Again, 10 – 15 minutes reading everyday is much more effective than long periods once or twice a week. Talk to your child about the book – ‘tell me what has happened in the story so far’…’what do you think might happen next?’…’how do you think that made her feel?’

Take it in turns to read with your child – they love sharing their stories with you! Look out for key words, and talk about them – ‘what does that word mean?’…’can you tell me another word that means the same?’…’what would the opposite word to that be?’ This type of discussion really helps your child to develop their comprehension skills.

Encourage your child to put expression into their reading – they will naturally imitate your example if you are reading sections of the story yourself.