Home learning at MPA
At Minerva Primary Academy we believe that homework is an opportunity to develop to consolidate their learning and to develop the study skills necessary for Secondary school and Further Education.
Throughout their time at Minerva, children will have homework which will be appropriate for their age and stage of learning. Through completing tasks and meeting deadlines, children will develop their accountability and organisation skills. This is developing their ‘Self Agency’ ELLI skill like the Owl. Homework will also provide opportunities to recall knowledge and practise skills to refine and develop fluency. This is developing their ‘Making meaning’ ELLI skill like the Spider.
Expectations for quantity and content
Research shows that short and regular tasks are most effective for having an impact on learning in school. The tasks provided should be completed independently by the child but parents can support by encouraging their child to explain the learning. Each task should take a short amount of time to complete and will be familiar to the child. There will be an optional suggestion for how each task could be extended.
Daily reading practice is essential to help develop fluency. When a child is able to decode and blend independently they will be assigned books via Bug club and physically so that they can practice with an adult at home. The books assigned will allow them to become fluent and therefore should not be a struggle for them. The child will have the same book for the week so it can be read several time to develop fluency and understanding so they can retell the story or key facts. If a child is not yet able to decode and blend independently, regardless of age and year group, they will be provided with a high quality text that they can share with an adult at home.
For Year 2 upwards, homework tasks will be set via Assignments on Teams. This is to support the children in preparation for their transition to Secondary school. This will also support the children to develop independence with their computing skills. Therefore there will only be paper copies for children who do not have access to IT at home. Tasks will provide children with an opportunity to recall and revisit prior learning. This might be learning from that week, term, school year or key stage.
| Quantity | Examples of the type of task | |
| Pre school | 1. Daily reading | An adult to share a book with a child daily. |
| Reception | 1. Daily reading | · Establish the habit of reading practice every day for 5 – 10 minutes. This may include: sharing a book with an adult and discussing the content, practising sight reading of key words, the child reading to an adult, the adult sharing new vocabulary. |
| Year 1 | 1. Daily reading 2. 1×10 min task per week | · Daily reading practice where your child reads to you. · Spelling or vocabulary practice. · Maths task to develop fluency. · Recall of knowledge based on Knowledge Organiser. |
| Year 2 | 1. Daily reading 2. 1×10 min task per week | · Daily reading practice. · Spelling, vocabulary or comprehension practice. · Maths task to develop fluency. · Recall of knowledge based on Knowledge Organiser. |
| Year 3 | 1. Daily reading 2. 2×10 mins task per week | · Daily reading practice using Bug club or levelled reading book. · Spelling, vocabulary or comprehension practice. · Maths task to develop fluency – focus on times tables. · Recall of knowledge based on Knowledge Organiser. |
| Year 4 | 1. Daily reading 2. 2×10 mins task per week | · Daily reading practice. · Spelling, vocabulary or comprehension practice. · Maths task to develop fluency – focus on times tables. · Recall of knowledge based on Knowledge Organiser. |
| Year 5 | Daily reading 2×15 min tasks per week | · Daily reading practice. · Handwriting, spelling, vocabulary or comprehension practice. · Maths task to develop fluency – focus on written calculations · Recall of knowledge based on Knowledge Organiser. |
| Year 6 | Daily reading 2×15 min tasks per week | · Daily reading practice. · Handwriting, spelling, vocabulary or comprehension practice. · Maths task to develop fluency – focus on written calculations · Recall of knowledge based on Knowledge Organiser. |
Timescale
All tasks will be given out on a Thursday and they should be returned to school by the following Wednesday. This will give 6 days to complete any piece of home learning. If the timing is different this will be indicated on the task. There is the expectation that homework is completed. By handing out on a Thursday it allows Friday for any questions from children or parents to be followed up.
Feedback
Teachers will review Reading Records (EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2) and Bug club (whole school) on a regular basis to monitor how often children are practising their reading at home. For Year 1 children, their one weekly written task will be provided on paper and this will be returned to school and glued in to the relevant exercise book e.g. if it was phonics practice it will go in the Authors book, if it is maths then it will go in the Maths exercise book. For children in Year 2 upwards, teachers will monitor the homework by looking at the assignments that have been submitted. The teacher will not give individual feedback but they will use the submitted homework to inform the teaching and learning in school and future homework tasks.
Communication with Parents and Carers about learning
Each year groups’ 39-week plan will be on the website and parents will be directed to look there to understand what is taught over the year. Children will be given a paper copy of the Knowledge Organiser at the start of each new unit as these will be needed to support the completion of homework assignments and so that parents and carers know what is being taught and can support their child. Knowledge organisers will also be saved in a folder on the file part of Teams so that they can be accessed throughout the school year.
Knowledge Organisers
At MPA we use Knowledge Organisers to share the key concepts and key knowledge (facts, vocabulary, images) with the children. They have a copy in their books and together as a class they create a large Knowledge Organiser on a display board as they learn through a unit. When a Year Group starts a new unit, we send home a paper copy of the knowledge organiser so that you can discuss the learning with your child and so they can use it to support their homework. This is an example of a Year 3 Knowledge Organiser:
You may want to glue these in to the Orange Home Learning books that were sent home at the start of the school year so you can refer back to prior learning. At the end of each day, we use the time to review and recap learning, so the children are familiar with revisiting a knowledge organiser from a previous unit to help them to remember the key concepts and make links between their learning (Spider – ELLI).
