Supporting Learning at Home

In Sparrowhawk Class, we want to learn at home, rather than do homework.

Below, are a number of ways in which you can support your child at home

Talk to them about their day! 

This may seem like an obvious one but explaining what they have done in class to you can really help your child to embed their learning.

Phonics (Year 1)

Our phonics programme is called 'Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS). You can find guidance for how you can support at home here:

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/essential-letters-and-sounds/

In school, during the Autumn Term, Year 1 children will spend time reviewing the Phase 5 sounds that they have been introduced to in Kestrel class to ensure that these are really embedded. They will then begin to explore additonal sounds.

Reading 

Reading is so, so important! Please try to read with your child as often as possible. Just 10 minutes a day will really make a difference to their confidence and ability in reading!

Please ensure that your child brings their reading folder into school every day.

For Year 1 children, an Oxford Owl e-book will be allocated each Friday to practise and embed our phonics learning from each week. As these books match our current phonics learning, they are intended to be instructional, meaning that children should read them with you rather than independently. It’s really helpful if you can mark the books as ‘read’ each week so that we can see which children have completed which books. However, please note that the books will disappear once marked as read so we advise waiting until the end of the week to do this! Login details can be found on the front of your child's yellow reading diary.

Children in both Year 1 and 2 will receive physical books each week, matched to their own personal reading level. Books will be changed on a Monday and sent home on Tuesday, providing that the previous books have been read. Please remember to sign your child's yellow reading diary so we know that they have read all of their books and that you require new ones! Any comments about your child’s reading (both e-books and physical books) can be made in their yellow reading diary.

Word Reading and Spelling

In school, Year 1 children learn word reading and spelling through daily phonics sessions.

Year 2 children will practise word reading during Guided Reading sessions and will be taught spelling 3 times per week with Mrs Howe as a whole cohort.

Each half term, we will have a list of 'common exception words' in our classroom that the children will be practising reading and spelling accurately. These are words that children are expected to be able to read by sight and spell correctly within their independent writing.  It would be wonderful if you could support your child with reading and spelling these words at home over the course of each half term! There will be no weekly spelling tests but I will be looking out for these words in your child's writing!

Year 2 parents! There will be additional spellings for Year 2 to learn at home. These will be sent out weekly on a Tuesday by Mrs Howe and will tested the following Monday! 

Anything else that takes your fancy! 

Each term, there will be a topic overview provided. These can be found on the relevant term tab on our class page and will give a brief overview of learning across the different subject areas. Please feel free to extend this learning at home through independent research, art and craft projects, cooking (as long as we get a taster), map skills etc. 

Thank you as always for your continued support!