Homework

Why is homework valuable?

At St. Bede’s homework is valued as an opportunity for children, parents and teachers to build a shared responsibility for learning.

We believe that homework can:

• Enable children to consolidate and reinforce their skills and understanding, particularly in English and Maths.
• Encourage children to develop the independence, resilience and self-discipline needed to study on their own.
• Build an effective partnership between home and school.
• Enable parents to be involved in their child’s education.
• Prepare older children for secondary school.

How can we help your child?

Parents and carers have an important part to play in ensuring that homework supports their child’s learning and development. By supporting their child with homework parents can have a significant impact on progress.

We ask parents and carers to:

• Make sure they are aware when homework has been set and help ensure it is returned on time.
• Make sure that children have the necessary time to do their homework and a quiet space to work.
• Encourage their child and praise them when homework has been completed.
• Be actively involved in joint homework activities.
• Let the class teacher know if their child experiences difficulties.
• Be aware of how much time children are spending on completing homework.

Reading

Children are expected to read on a daily basis as an essential part of their homework. We ask parents to hear their child read regularly, even when their child has become an independent reader. Young children also benefit from having stories read to them that they cannot read themselves.

English

Children will have English homework weekly. It may be a piece of writing linked to the topic work, for example, or it may be writing sentences containing spellings learned that week.

Please help your child prepare for spelling tests by testing your child in advance.

Times tables

We use Timestable Rockstars website to improve times tables. Your child has login and password to access the website.

Mymaths

Your child might be set an area of Mymaths for homework. They can also visit the website and chose other areas to work on. Please encourage them to access the different areas of the programme which can make a huge difference to a child’s abilities and confidence.

Topic related activities

Your child’s class teacher may set a variety of other activities for homework that link with their topic work.

Please read the weekly homework letter, which informs parents when the homework is due back.

If you have any queries about homework please see your child’s teacher who would be happy to answer your questions.