Supporting your child at home and at school.

The Power of Reading - A fun and exciting way to teach Literacy, through the use of whole books rather than short extracts. We use quality texts that will engage the children's interest and introduce them to authors that they might not otherwise read. Approaches used include, for example, visualisation, drama, art and writing in many different genres. E.g. letters, diary entries, newspaper reports, play scripts. We encourage the children to use a writing journal to record their feelings about what they have read, their personal responses and notes to help them to remember facts. They also record interesting words that they have heard so that they can try to use them in their own writing. If your child has not yet brought in a journal, they have been given one today. If they wish, they may bring in some colourful paper eg wrapping paper, to cover the book to make it more individual and special.

The Big Write The Big Write gives an opportunity for the children to show off the skills that they have learnt in literacy and to write uninterrupted for 40 minutes. The Big Write talk topics are sent home regularly, as the children look forward to a Big Write once a fortnight. It is essential that the children have some input from home to rehearse and talk through the topic as this involves you closely with their writing progression. Imagine what it would be like if you were asked to write for 40 minutes on a topic that you had not had the chance to discuss. YOU can give your child more time than we possibly can. We are divided by 3o!

Supporting your child with reading at home. Newspapers Join a library – read fiction and non fiction Comprehension – weekly homework – use tips like these questions to quiz your children about the books that they are reading at home. Listen to your child read but also try to make sure that there is a quiet and focused time for them to read.

Experiences – trips out and about Museums, swimming, the seaside, cooking and shopping (change, weight, capacity). This year your children will be experiencing all of these with school – we will charge as little as possible but please try to help them to experience these with you too. Road safety. Keeping active.

Pupil Premium The government funds schools to support our ‘pupil premium’ children. We aim to be transparent in how we use this funding and work with senior team, teachers and the governing body to decide how to use this funding ensuring the best impact to raising children’s levels of achievement. Following national studies on effective support and feedback, we have decided to spend the majority of the money this year on extra teacher allocation and therefore smaller classes and groups in each year group. We would be happy to have some anonymous suggestions as to other ways to support ‘PP’ children. We have in the past also spent money on stationery, study guides, trips, sports clubs, booster classes and various other ideas. We take into account the needs of each family although cannot always fund requests as we feel that extra teachers are the most effective use of this funding

Homework – we appreciate your support. Reading and the reading comprehension Various homework topics covering a range of curriculum areas. Mental maths tests to go through with your child Spellings THIS IS IN PREPARATION FOR YEAR 6 WHEN THE CHILDREN WILL BE EXPECTED TO DO AT LEAST TWICE THE AMOUNT. If you wish to help your child they should also be doing additional homework, especially writing.

Useful web sites BBC bitesize ; don’t be scared of looking up the topics that we are studying in science too.. Try KS2 first then GCSE Woodlands Juniors – fantastic and great for links to other sites Sam Learning Crickweb

Future workshops Health and relationships education – an essential part of the curriculum and a national requirement. Understanding the nature of relationships is proven to help children to make the right decisions in the future. It is essential that our children understand, and are not scared, once their bodies begin to change and they have to come to terms with the emotional aspects of growing up. DUE TO TIME RESTRAINTS WE WILL REVISIT THIS TOPIC NEXT MEETING.