Home Learning

At Ladysmith, we believe that home learning is an opportunity for parents and carers to become active partners in supporting learning.

Home learning can help promote a positive attitude to learning at home and show children that home and school are working together in partnership. It provides an opportunity to practise learning that has taken place in school, supporting children to know and remember more.

Reading
We recommend that all children read at home for 10-15 minutes per day. This may be reading alone, to an adult or being read to by an adult. A balanced approach supports children to develop their vocabularly, reading fluency and understanding of texts. Regular reading is one of the most powerful ways in which you can support your child's future academic attainment.

We ask children to complete their reading journal every day to record their reading. This can be done at home independently, with or by an adult or it can be completed in school at the start of each day. Reading records are checked weekly by teachers to enable them to support childrens' reading choices.

Children use a programme called accelerated reader in school to support them in developing reading comprehension. Your child has access to this at home via this link. If they wish to quiz on a book after completing it they can do so.

The Reader Teacher website is an excellent resource for book recommendations. The school also has it's own reading recommendation padlet where children can add their own book recomendations and find out what their friends would recommend. Our padlet can be accessed by clicking the link here or by scanning the QR code below.

Times Tables
Multiplication tables are a key piece of foundational knowledge and developing automaticity with them enables children to access the wider maths curriculum with increased confidence. To support fluency in this area we recommend that children practise their multiplication tables using Times Tables Rock Stars for 21 minutes per week. This equates to 3 minutes per day and this little and often approach is proven to be the most effective way for children to learn and then retain this fundamental aspect of mathematics.

Atom Learning
In Years 5 and 6 children are also set additional home learning activities through the Atom Learning platform. This enables teachers to set bespoke learning to suit the individual needs of your child in order to further strengthen their learning in school.

11+ Preparation
If you are considering entering your child for the 11+ click here for useful information from our partners at Atom Learning on how to support your child to prepare.