Homework
Homework at Over St John’s
Reading
Reading and sharing books at home, as well as in school, is essential and can make a huge difference to a child’s reading ability and helps to develop an enthusiasm for reading and a life-long love of books. At Over St. John’s, we encourage the daily reading and sharing of books at home and all children are expected to read at least four times a week which should be a priority. We carefully monitor the children’s reading at home and encourage parents to be fully active and engaged with us in this in order to support their child’s ongoing development.
Throughout the school, in each class, children will take the following books home every week:
- 1 x reading book matched to their current reading level
- 1 x library book for reading / sharing for pleasure
Reading can also take on the following forms:
- Independent reading of a school book.
- Sharing a book together.
- Talking about the book together and answering questions about it.
Children may choose to read a book they have read before. This is great. This helps to familiarise themselves with the text and type of book as well as developing fluency and confidence in reading.
Reading that takes place at home should be recorded on our online reading log. Each week, you will receive an email or text from Learning with Parents with a secure weekly reading link to your child’s log. This secure link will take you straight to your child’s reading log home page. You can log your child’s reading by leaving a comment, photograph or audio clip. The class teacher then receives your feedback and photographs so they can see how your child is getting on. Teachers will acknowledge this reading with a tick.
The online reading logs will be checked weekly by an adult in school and reading is rewarded through our school raffle ticket reward system. For each read recorded on the online log, children will receive a raffle ticket.
Mental Maths/Times Tables
Times Table Rockstars - https://play.ttrockstars.com/
Learning our timetables and being able to recall them quickly and fluently is an important part of our Maths curriculum as it supports and helps the children in all areas of their Maths. Children learn their times tables progressively throughout school and aim to build knowledge of patterns and relationships between them. Each week children will undertake timetables practise in Key Stage 2. Times Table Rockstars is an excellent resource in helping children to practise their times tables and this should be accessed regularly at home. Certificates will be given to the children who earn the most coins over a seven-day period. Your child should have come home with their Times Table Rockstar Logins but please do ask if you haven’t received it.
Here is a link to the parent guide for Times Table Rockstars to support you if needed.
https://ttrockstars.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/TTRS-Parent-Guide.pdf
Spelling
In Blakemere, children will be given spelling words from their year group spelling list and rules. These will be tested on a Monday and the date will be provided on the list of spellings your child brings home.
Please spend time each day with your child learning their spellings for the week.