At St Luke's home learning opportunities are provided in a number of different ways with directed homework assignments and opportunities to use online platforms at home.

Topic

In the last week of each term, teachers will introduce the new topic for the following term in class and set a Holiday Project. This holiday project can be chosen from a range of examples and the focus is very much on the discussion that takes place while the work is being done at home.

Projects are brought into school at the start of the new term and form the basis for the topic display which is then referred to and developed over the course of the topic.

In addition to this there are resources that we provide for each unit:

• Book List

Books that link to the topic and that the children might enjoy. If you are visiting the library consider having a look for a copy or reserve it online. This reading will add extra flavour to the topic and your child will learn new things that can be linked to leaning in school.

• Fun Fact

Did you know? The lists of facts is intended to get children interested in the topic and debunk some common myths. Using this for the holiday project will help with research.

• Home Learning Ideas

What will you choose to do? Ideas for the holiday project mentioned above if you are struggling for any of your own - you don't have to do anything on the list. The important aspects of the project is the talk and learning that you do together. We don't expect parents to spend more than an hour on this so please use the other resources to help you.

• Knowledge Organiser

Through the course of the topic this is the key information that will be covered. You can use this as your research if you don't have time to find anything else!

• Glossary & Word Mat

A list of key words and vocabulary with definitions. These words will be used in class on a regular basis so talk about them at home and see if there are any that can be added into the holiday project.

• Useful Stuff

Links to other website that have extra information, videos and picture about the project. This will help with research and give you something to talk about with your children.

Reading

Reading allows us to be transported from our own world to another. Between the pages of a book, we can become immersed in the lives of fictional characters and learn about a culture entirely different from our own. We can also learn new words and phrases, experience a range of emotions, and acquire skills and knowledge.

Because of the learning potential, the effects of reading on child development are vast and multiple studies have highlighted its benefits. As such, teachers and parents are in a great position to ensure reading is a key part of children’s daily routine.

Spelling

The focus of our programme is on the teaching of spelling, which embraces knowledge of spelling conventions – patterns and rules; and integrates into this teaching an opportunity to including statutory words, common exceptions and personal spellings.

Learning needs to happen in school and at home. There is little evidence, though, that the traditional practice of learning spellings (usually 10) at home and being tested on them (usually on a Friday) is effective. However, there is a high expectation within the new National Curriculum that pupils will learn many increasingly complex words. Within the school sessions a range of strategies for learning spellings are introduced and practised. This enables pupils to choose the strategies they find most effective for learning different words.

Learning at home needs to be an extension of the practice in school and assessing spellings needs to be done in context, for example: learning spellings in a given sentence, generating sentences for each word, assessing through unseen dictated sentences. The learning strategies in the document below are introduced incrementally throughout the year and can then be used to support learning spellings at home.

Write To The Top (WTTT) Homework

Write to the Top is a weekly opportunity for the children to write at length and apply the skills that they are continually learning in school. Regular practise has been shown, time and time again, as the way to make learning ‘sticky’ and allow the children to retain knowledge and skills in their long-term memory. Alongside this, memory is helped drastically by opportunities to talk about past, present and future learning which is why a key aspect of WTTT is the opportunity to talk about the piece of writing both in school and at home...

Mathletics & Mathseeds

At St Luke's we use the platforms Mathseeds (EYFS & Y1) and Mathletics (Y2-Y6) to give the children opportunities to practise the maths that they have been learning in school. Teachers will set specific exercises that will need to be completed using these platforms but the children can also use them to play maths games and revisit exercise.

Weekly set Homework can be found on the following Phase Pages: