Home Learning & Holiday projects

At Bangabandhu we call homework ‘home learning’.

As a parent or carer you play a vital role in your child’s education, including their home learning.

Learning at home is an essential part of a good education. Regular home learning is important as it gives pupils the opportunity to practise at home the tasks done in class and helps the children work towards improving important skills.

It also encourages children to become confident and independent in their learning, which will help throughout their time at school and later, in adult life. Home learning activities are an important part of our home/school partnership. All children are expected to take part in the variety of home learning tasks set.

This is how home learning works at Bangabandhu.

Daily/Weekly Home Learning Tasks

Reading on a daily basis is expected - All Year Groups

We expect children to read every day. Reading is vital to becoming a good learner.

From Nursery onward children bring books home to share with parents. When children are in Reception, they will start to bring home a ’reading book’ (a Read, Write, Inc book), short books with a few words and they will work through the different stages of these reading books as their reading skills develop. This continues throughout the school. In addition to this the children also bring home a book that is beyond their reading skills so that parents can read to them and share these quality books.

As children continue to get older they should read for at least 20 minutes each night. Reading aloud with an adult is important throughout the primary years. Even if your child is a fluent reader, having a discussion about the story (for example, the characters’ personalities and actions, the ‘wow words’ used by the author) is a valuable way to develop reading skills.

Number Facts

For children in Year 1 to Year 6, learning their addition facts to 20 and practising times tables is extremely important. By the end of Year 4, children should have a rapid recall of times tables facts up to the 12 times tables.

They must be able to say the division facts too e.g. 7×8=56 and therefore also 56÷7=8. ‘Rapid recall’ should be within around five seconds. They should not have to count through the tables facts to get there or use their fingers! At Bangabandhu we call these facts ‘learn its’ because you just have to learn them!

Weekly Assessments - CLIC and Beat That

Pupils take home their weekly assessments (CLIC and Beat That), Talking through quesitons with your child can help them to reflect on their strengths and skills that they need more practise with.

For example:

They are struggling with number 8 + 7= 'What do you know that could help you solve this question?'

8 + 7 = 15

80 + 70 = 150

800 + 700 = 1500

8000 + 7000 = 15 000

Maths Home Learning - Healthy Minds Policy and Changes to Home Learning - Y1 to Y6

From September 2024, as part of our Healthy Minds policy, we removed all screen based maths home learning as we are concerned about the amount of time children are spending online and the impact this is having on their mental health, physical health, social skills and language development.

We did a parent survey to gather thoughts and opinions. We listened to and valued parental thoughts and ideas and have used them to design our revised home learning system. The outcomes were:

• A high percentage of parents still wanted their child to do maths home learning.

• Most parents wanted paper home learning to complete.

• Most parents wanted to play mathematical games with their children.

• A high percentage of parents wanted some practical ideas to develop their child's maths skills outside of school.

Therefore we designed a 'menu' of maths home learning.

• This is a mixture of paper-based activities, interactive games and practical ideas to complete at home.

• None of the paper-based tasks will be marked by the teacher but we provide answer sheets for the children to self-mark or for parents to do it with them.

• None of the home learning is compulsory but is an optional task for children to complete at home.

• Parents can choose which options they would like for their children.

Paper Worksheets

• These are based on the learning that the children are doing in class.

• For each year group there is a half termly pack of activities to practise skills which the children are learning in class. It consolidates learning.

• Example – Year 1 -Number bonds to 10 - Counting to 20 - Counting in 5s - Counting in 2s - Counting in 10s

The tasks are for the half term to work through as you go. They are not designed to all be completed all at once. Answers will be provided so that parents mark/older children can mark their own work.

Playing Games to Develop Mathematical Skills - Reception to Year 6

Each half term there is a new game option for maths home leanring.

Years 1 and 2 will have two games per half term
Years 3 and 4 will have two games per half term •
Year 5 and 6 will have two games per half term

The games need a minimum of 2 players. They will progressively build in complexity as the children go through the school.

You can buy a pack of resources from us for £1, The pack will include dice, counters, cubes and the laminated game.

If you lose your pack – you can request and pay for a new one.

If you have board games at home we encourage you to play with your child. Some games you may have, Uno dominoes, Ludo, Monopoly.

Playing mathematics games encourages strategic thinking, problem solving and develops fluency. They give the chance for students to apply their learning in a different context and the opportunity to explain and discuss the mathematics involved with their peers - often without fear of failure. They involve social interaction and develop language and communication skills and importantly, they are fun.

Children learn to subitise in reception (recognise amounts without counting) and using a dice is a great tool to develop this skill.

Spellings - Y1 to Y6

From Year 1 onward children are given a set of words to learn to spell each week. Learning the spellings for just a short time each day is more effective than leaving it all to the last minute.

These are words which the children have been learning in spelling lessons during the previous week. Spending time on these at home will ensure that children know them really well. The children do a spelling test each week so that we can keep check on their progress.