Supporting Learning at Home & at School

Children can achieve well at school when their family and friends take an interest in their school and schoolwork. Getting involved in your child’s education, even in the simplest way, shows that you care about their school life. Often, the more supported a child feels at home, the more effectively she or he will learn at school. Whatever your lifestyle, or family situation, it is never too soon (or too late) to start helping a child develop a positive attitude towards learning.

Reading

At Whitehill, we highly value the importance of children’s skills in Reading. Reading underpins all areas of learning as the development of language comprehension is vital to this process. Throughout the school, good quality reading texts are explored and underpin all English learning. Texts progress in complexity, and outcomes increase as the children move up through the key stages. We also recognise the importance of non-fiction texts. Our book corners are set up in a way that ensures reading enjoyment and accessibility to all.

In the Early Years and Key Stage 1 we use Jolly Phonics to systematically and rigorously develop phonemic awareness and reading skills. Children’s skills, knowledge and understanding are developed sequentially to then assist them with the reading process.

Children enjoying reading for pleasure, whilst choosing challenging texts, is vital for their growth not only in academic learning but also in overall personal development. Whitehill uses a range of strategies to promote reading. We are very fortunate to have 2 libraries, one in each of the main key stage buildings. These rooms house an extensive selection of reading material for children to enjoy in school but also at home. We have initiatives such as author polls and reading competitions to encourage children to enjoy their reading. Last year we were also involved with nationwide events such as World Book Day, Roald Dahl Day and the BBC 500 word competition. This helped the children to understand their role within a global reading community.

Reading at Home

Supporting your child at home with his/her reading is invaluable. It should be an enjoyable experience for all involved, so please give your child lots of praise and encouragement.

The following guidelines should help your child’s reading skill:

Find a quiet comfortable place to sit together (with the television switched off).
Look at the cover. Discuss the picture. What does your child think the story will be about?
Read the title to your child pointing to each word with your finger.
Read the story to your child.
Re-read the story (either immediately or at a later time whichever is appropriate) discussing the pictures and pointing to each word so that your child becomes aware of the voice print match (i.e. spoken word = written word).
Ask your child questions about the story.
Ask your child to read the story to you. It does not matter if they guess the sentence, use the pictures as clues, or have learnt the sentence off by heart.
Pick out a single word, can your child find it elsewhere in the book?
How many words are on a page?
Does your child know the initial sounds? If so, can they blend the sounds to read a word?
Write out words on individual pieces of paper and ask your child to match them to the words in the book.
Play hide and seek. Hide the words around the room – your child has to find and read them.

You do not have to follow every step every time. Reading should be fun.

We use Renaissance’s Accelerated Reader to provide children with a progressive framework for their independent reading choices. Children are assessed (quizzed) to determine their underlying reading attainment and then signposted to appropriate quality texts; encompassing enjoyment and challenge. Renaissance’s Accelerated Reader Programme thus enables students to select appropriately levelled books to read and enjoy at school and at home.

If you need to quiz on your accelerated reader book, please use this link.

Writing at Home & at School

Provide your child with opportunities to use pencils and pens. Encourage your child to ‘mark make’ and develop good pencil control. Encourage your child to use writing in their play – ‘emergent writing’ (squiggles, lines, shapes and possibly some letters) for example, if they are playing shops get them to write a shopping list.

At meal times ask them to take food orders from the family. If your child is keen to learn how to write their name please help us by teaching them that the first letter of their name is a capital letter and the rest are lower case letters. Please use the letter formations below to help your child learn how to write the lower case letters correctly.

Mathematics - Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs)

Please click on the relevant tabs below to access Key Instant Recall Facts information and resources:

Key Instant Recall Facts Whole School Overview

Key Instant Recall Facts Video Presentation for Parents

Whitehill Primary School & Nursery

Whitehill Primary
School & Nursery

Supporting Learning at Home & at School

Reading

Reading at Home

Writing at Home & at School

Mathematics - Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs)

Key Instant Recall Maths for Reception

Key Instant Recall Maths for Year 1

Key Instant Recall Maths for Year 2

Key Instant Recall Maths for Year 3

Key Instant Recall Facts for Year 4

Key Instant Recall Facts for Year 5

Key Instant Recall Facts for Year 6