Homework

We do expect homework from all year groups to practise and consolidate the learning taking place in school.
You will also receive a Knowledge Organiser for each new topic in your class. It is important that you spend time learning the information on the Knowledge Organiser.

Reception – Phonics, reading and number practice daily

Years 1 and 2 – Phonics/Spelling Shed, reading, and number bonds or times tables (including Numbots) daily. Year 2 only: Sight words and fluency phrases booklets. 

Years 3 and 4 – Spelling Shed, reading and TTRockStars daily

Years 5 and 6 – Spelling Shed, reading, TTRockStars daily and one additional piece of Maths or English

Staying Safe Online

The internet is an amazing tool – where would we be without it? However it can create a whole host of problems, especially for young people who are not entirely familiar with potential risks.

At Becket Primary School we take matters of e-safety very seriously and aim to ensure that all staff and pupils have the skills to use the internet safely. We have a dedicated e-safety committee with pupils, staff and governors represented.

If you have any concerns about something that you have seen on-line, or the on-line safety of a child, please use the links below to report your worries.

https://www.ceop.police.uk/Safety-Centre/

https://cybermentors.org.uk/

If you have any worries, concerns or have experienced something upsetting on the internet, on your phone, whilst gaming or watching TV you can use the CEOP report button.

If you would like an adult to speak to you about your concerns you can speak to them directly, or leave your name on the form. If you would prefer not to tell the adult your name, that is fine too.

Please make sure that you speak to a trusted adult or friend if you need urgent help! Your report does not have to be something that has happened to you, it could be something that a friend is upset about too.

Reading

Reading is a life skill and is essential for children to thrive across the curriculum. We read daily in school and staff also read aloud to the children every day. We ask that you read a minimum of 4 times a week with your child to support them to become confident, independent readers.

Reading comprehension for Foundation Stage & Key Stage One

We want to make sure that children understand what they are reading, so remember to ask some questions as you read with your child. Asking children questions about what they have read is really important because it helps them to understand the text and really get the most from their reading. It can sometimes be tricky to think of questions to ask so here are some useful suggestions.

Questions for storybooks

· What do you think will happen in this book?

· What has happened in the story so far?

· What will happen next?

· What do you think a specific character is thinking?

· How do you think a particular character is feeling? Why do they feel that way?

· Why did a character act the way they did?

· What was the problem in this story?

· How was the problem solved?

· What happened in the end of the story?

· Did you like the story? Why did you like it? Why did you not like it?

Questions for non-fiction books

· What facts did you learn?

· What did you find most interesting?

· Was there anything you didn’t understand?

· What would you like to find out more about?

As you ask more questions when you and your child read together, you will find that it becomes a natural part of sharing a book and that you think of excellent questions of your own.

There are also some questions at the back of the Shared Reader and your child should be able to read these, but they might need some help answering the questions. It is important that children always go back to the text to find the answer and don’t just guess. This routine will help them as they need to answer more difficult questions.

Building Reading Fluency

As your child progresses with their reading they should begin to read with fluency. Fluency is where the reader can read each word smoothly and accurately, perhaps even with some expression. At first, your child may need to sound out almost every word. Don’t worry, this is normal. As words are read over and over again, they will come to recognise and say them without needing to sound them out. This is the beginning of fluency.

Children sometimes think that we want them to sound out each word because this strategy is modelled for them so often. If they don’t recognise a word, then this is the right approach. As they begin to recognise words, they should start to simply say them and they may need you to reassure them that this is what we want. They will get more pleasure from reading when their reading is more fluent as it is easier to understand what they are reading when they do not need to sound out most words.

An excellent way to work on fluency is to choose a page of the Shared Reader and ask your child to read it aloud several times. Each time they read it they will become a little more confident and will read it better. You might choose to ask them to practise reading the same passage on two or three occasions. If you do this each week, your child will gradually start to become more fluent.

You might also like to show your child how you would read a passage, using punctuation to show where to stop and take a breath. Once they can read quite smoothly you could introduce some expression, reading more loudly or softly for example, if that fits the text. You can also use the recordings of all of the readers being read out loud to help develop fluency by letting your child follow the text alongside the recording, you can even pause and practise any sections of the text as required. This is a really useful activity that will help them to improve a wide range of reading skills.

Remember, that your child will continue to need to stop and sound out new words throughout the Unlocking Letters and Sounds Phonics Programme and beyond. This is a life-long strategy we need them to use every time they read an unfamiliar word.

What to do if your child doesn’t want to read at home?

Every year we find the children who read at home daily make the best progress. Investing this time into your child’s education is essential. However, we know children are sometimes not keen to read at home. Here are some useful tips from other parents and some simple ways you can encourage them.

· Find the best time of day for you and them. It might be straight after they arrive home from school, after they have eaten, before bed, or even first thing in the morning. It may be different for every child.

· It doesn’t need to be a serious session, have fun! Look at the pictures and talk about what has happened in the story.

· You can even take turns reading words or pages. Try to make it a session that they look forward to and enjoy.

· If your child has a club in the evening. Reading one page that night is better than not reading at all