Homework
in the
Raleigh Federation
Why should children do homework?
• It is a government requirement that schools issue
homework.
• Children benefit from regular opportunities to
consolidate their learning. Particularly through daily
reading and playing with number facts.
• Children learn best when they are supported by an
adult who cares about them and whom they trust.
Family members are therefore ideally placed to
support them in their learning.
• The home offers the opportunity for further 1:1 time
with an adult.
Recommended Time Allocation
Homework should never be too onerous nor should it
ever create stress within the pupil’s family. If
parents have any concerns they should not hesitate
to contact the school. Normally, more than one day
will be allowed for the completion of a homework
task, except where daily practice is to be encouraged
e.g. reading, spelling and times tables.
Government Recommendations as
appropriate time allocations for homework
activities.
Years 1 and 2 - 1 hour per week
Years 3 and 4 - 1.5 hours per week
Years 5 and 6 - 30 minutes per day
The Role of Parents and Carers.
How can you support your child?
• Provide a suitable place and time for your
child to carry out their homework where
they can concentrate and be supported.
• Make it clear that you value homework and
support the school by explaining how it can
help their learning.
• To become actively involved and support
your child with homework activities.
• Encourage and praise your child when they
have completed their homework.
How can you support your child?
Find the best times and places to do homework. It
doesn’t all have to be done in one go. Popular times for
reading are just after the evening meal, before
bathtime, 15 minutes in the morning before you leave
for school. In the park after a run around. Whatever
works best for you and your child.
Talk to your class teacher (or write a note) if you are
having difficulties.
Why is it important to hear your child read daily?
Children need regular opportunities to read and learn
sight words and apply their phonic knowledge in order
to build fluency when decoding.
They need regular opportunities to discuss the books
they are reading to build comprehension skills and
enjoyment of their reading.
Little and often builds reading muscles and in turn
builds self esteem. The support and interest of a
loving family member helps to model good reading
techniques and skills.
Confident readers are able to access the curriculum
more independently and this encourages a thirst for
learning.
What does good homework look like in years 2 and
3?
• We would like children to read daily to an adult.
• To practice number facts such as number bonds,
times tables and to use maths in practical contexts
such as cooking or making things.
• To write for a meaning. That is to be motivated
to want to write for a real purpose. This might be
to explain something they have tried out, to record
information they have researched or to share
original and creative writing.
• To practice spellings.
Building number knowledge
Number is all around us and you can help by encouraging
children to use their numeracy skills in practical contexts.
They might help work out your change at the shops,
measure ingredients when cooking, use measuring tapes
and rulers accurately when making things or work out how
long it is until their friends arrive to play.
You can also practice learning number facts off by heart
eg 17 + 3 = 20, help them to see the connections between
that and 7 + 3 = 10 or 70 + 30 = 100. Times tables are
often learnt by rote but you can also write individual
tricky ones around the house.
Playing board games reinforces number confidence.
The answer is….
This week I would like you to practise making
different numbers in as many different ways as
you can.
The answer is 7, how could you make this?
1+6, 2+5, 3+4, 10-3, 12-5, 1x7, 14÷2, 35÷5 etc.
Try this with as many different numbers as you
can, but stick to numbers below 20.
The Big Challenge – try numbers bigger than 20.
Remember, my challenge is a two minute a day
challenge!
Counting
We need to practise counting in 3’s, 4’s, 6’s and 8’s.
We can use fingers to support our counting and as a
means to calculate how many 4’s in 32, how many 8’s in
40 etc. How quickly can you count forwards to 10 times
3, 4, 6 or 8?
The Big Challenge – can you count backwards? Year 3
had fun this week with half the children counting
forwards in 4’s whilst the other half counted
backwards!
Remember, my challenge is a two minute a day
challenge!
Telling the time
We need to be able to use an analogue clock – one with
hands – to tell the time. Most children can tell the time
to o’clock, half past and quarter to and quarter past.
We can all count around the clock in 5 minutes. Try to
look at a clock and say what the time is at any point in
the day.
The Big Challenge – what time would it be if the clock
you look at is 10 minutes fast or slow?
Remember, my challenge is a two minute a day challenge!
Learning spellings and writing
We all learn best when we are actively engaged. There are lots of
different ways to learn things. You can help your child best if you let
them try a range of different ways and if one of them works
particularly well remind them to use it.
A fun activity to help to visualise spellings is to create the word using
small objects such as lego, pasta, drawing the word in sand, flour or
even something more gloopy like custard and jam!
Writing the word several times helps to build muscle memory which will
aid the children to write the words fluently.
Breaking the word down to look at the phonic patterns may also help.
Spell the word out orally or make up a little rap or a dance movement to
remember the letters.
Use a mnemonic such as the famous ‘big elephants can’t always use small
exits’ to spell because.
Topic or curriculum connections
We may also set some homework which is related to
our topic. This may be pre-learning where we ask
children to go away and find out about something
such as ‘dinosaurs’ or to write down questions they
have about a topic. This gives them time to think
about it more deeply and also to share their
interests with family members.
If you have something to contribute such as you
have a historical story or artefact or are an expert
in a particular field and could come in and talk to
the children please let us know. This is very
powerful for the child to bring in knowledge or
people from home.
Teacher’s Role
• We will set homework which is appropriate and relevant to the
child.
• We will share the homework with the children in class before it
goes home. Ensuring that they understand the task.
• We will try to make it manageable and flexible enough to fit in with
the demands of family life. If you need specific resources we will
provide them or give you more time to complete.
•
We will give prompt and timely feedback to the children either
directly when the bring it in (if enthusiasm demands it) or more
usually through written feedback in their books.
• We will understand if a busy family weekend makes it difficult to
complete on occasions.
• We will support you if your child is resistant to doing homework by
rewarding them in class for efforts made.
And finally but most importantly ….
The goal is to support the children in their learning and
help to build a positive independent approach to learning.
Talk to us if you find yourself in a battle.
Do enjoy the opportunity for extra quality time with your
child.
Our goal is happy, independent, enthusiastic learners and
happy stress free families!