Home Learning – Greytown School

Rationale

To ensure that home learning is meaningful and purposeful to the needs of the child.
To ensure there are consistent expectations and understanding of home learning for parents/caregivers, children and teachers.

Implementation

Parents/Caregivers will be provided with clear information outlining the expectations for their child in relation to home learning from each syndicate/ their teacher, and if required additional support and information in order to assist their child at home.
Each Syndicate will have consistent expectations for children ie: Reading, Spelling, Basic Facts and Other Curriculum. Note: Teachers may vary home learning content for a specific short term class focus.
Home learning will take into consideration the different needs and abilities of children eg: academic, social, pastoral care etc
Home learning will be set, monitored and marked by teachers regularly.
Teachers will support parents in making home learning achievable and not “onerous” for all involved.

Information given to parents – School wide

There are many different ways in which you, as first educators of your children, can spend time with your children. This time can include invaluable opportunities to teach and support your child to learn in a daily way without it being “onerous” for you or for your child. Some of these could include.

Talking with them about everyday activities, your family background, culture, values, family adventures, news (on TV and in the paper) etc…
Visiting other people
Working alongside them eg: teaching them how to count money, build together, clean the car, garden, feeding the animals etc…
Play inside games eg: build tents, play cards and board games
Play ball games, sports and be outside with them
Give them time to read, build, play, imagine etc….
Read stories together
Read non-fiction books and discuss these
Cook, sew, make things with them
Take them to different places in our community eg: town library, marae, supermarket, sports grounds, cafe, movie theatre, swimming pools, the park, museum etc

In our busy world, your time and attention is the most important things that you can give to your children. Sharing and making the most of your families daily activities help to teach children a variety of skills and attitudes that we take for granted eg: Manners, Compassion, Empathy, fair play, sharing, holding a reciprocal conversation, financial management, collaboration, problem solving, planning, life skills (tying their shoes, cooking tea, crossing the road safely etc)….the list goes on.

However in saying this we do recognise that children do need additional time to reinforce the learning that has occurred at school, work on a special project or to ensure they finish work that they did not complete in class for various reasons.

The focus of home learning is to reinforce the class learning that your child is currently undertaking or for a special event (eg: Science Fair, Speeches). Therefore, the purpose of home learning is predominately to reinforce, practice a skill your children have learnt or to gather additional information.

As the children move through the school the delivery of home learning changes along with the focus of their learning.

The time taken to complete home learning will vary from child to child due to age, ability, confidence, time management etc. However as a school our aim is no homework is to be no longer than 15 – 20 minutes each day (which includes reading). Please note that the times below are approximate. Some children who are tired or busy will do less, while others who are keen (eg: avid readers, working on a special project) may choose to go longer.

Below we have outlined the expectations for children as follows:

KŌWHAI SYNDICATE (NEW ENTRANT to YEAR 2)

Reading (5 minutes)

Each child will come home with a book or poem that they have been reading with their teacher. If a child does struggle or is too tired then please either take turns reading pages or read to them.

Vocabulary Building (5-10 minutes)

This can come in different formats.

At the New Entrant level, this will involve their alphabet card. Parents are asked to practice this quickly with their child focusing on the sounds and names of letters.
Reading/Spelling Rockets – this is a group of words that are in most of their reading books and used within their writing. By practising how to read/spell these words it will help children read books more confidently and encourage them to use them in their everyday writing.

Maths (5 minutes)

This may include developing number knowledge, basic facts or other maths i.e. time, measurement etc.

Optional eLearning tools

These may be websites that your child has used at school and wants to use at home too. You can also check the class blog and/or Seesaw so you can always read this over with your child and then together add a comment. (This can be the way the above skills are practised).

KAWAKA & KAHIKATEA SYNDICATES YEARS 3-6

Reading (5-10 minutes)

Reading can depend on the needs and level of your child. For some children, they will take class books home that they are reading with their teacher, while others may not require this, so will instead be encouraged to record their own recreational reading ie: All children go to the school library each week to choose a book of their choice.

Please note at this age a big focus for reading is comprehension (understanding what they have read). Even if your child reads independently ask them questions about the main idea, characters, their favourite part, any words they got stuck on etc..This discussion time with your child also counts towards the overall time.

Encourage children to understand that there are many different ways to read and types of texts to read e.g.: newspaper, a comic, a recipe, instructions for kit sets, audiobooks, Kindle, manuals etc.!

Numeracy/Basic Facts (5-10 minutes)

Basic Facts is the foundation to successfully working with numbers. It involves addition, subtraction, multiplication tables, the family of facts etc….Children will be sent home the information at the start of each year of how the system works and then each week will be given a specific focus within it to work on.

Spelling (5 minutes)

Spelling lists are compiled from our programme called “The Code” where children are learning about common sounds and spelling rules.

Please note practising your spelling can happen in the car or spot checking throughout the day… it does not have to be sitting down rote learning it.

Other Curriculum Areas (Will depend on a specific project)

Occasionally, a short term “project” may be sent home to support learning activities in the classroom or for a special focus. At this time, the project becomes the focus over the other areas e.g.: Big Concept Term Foci, Wearable Arts, Science Fair.

KAURI SYNDICATE YEARS 7 to 8

(Timing will depend on your child’s time management)

In Year 7 & 8 our children are encouraged to take increasing responsibility for their home learning by beginning to plan and undertake their work in a timely and organised manner to ensure they are finishing work by the due dates set.

Children and parents can check the current learning foci and what teachers have set at any time on a child’s Google Classroom. If unsure they can email their teacher or talk to their teacher in person or online leaving comments at the side of their work.

Literacy and Numeracy

Each week children will be required to undertake reading, spelling and numeracy tasks.

Numeracy may involve completing set tasks on a variety of online apps.
Literacy may involve recreational reading, carrying out preparation reading for their Literacy Circle happening the next day, doing further research into the Big Concept the class is learning about, Reading the newspaper or watching the news ready to come back and talk about current events etc….
Spelling for some students may mean learning regular words from an essential spelling list while for others it will be completing tasks on sites such as Study Ladder to focus on spelling and grammar.

Other Curriculum Areas –

Throughout the year, short term “projects” may be sent home. At this time, the project becomes the focus over the other areas ie.:

Big Concept research project of their choice (set each term)
Speech Competition (once a year).
Photography Competition (once a year)
Science Fair (biannual – information is sent out to parents and children by teachers in advance)

SPECIALIST PROGRAMMES HOME LEARNING

Your child may receive a specialised programme during their school life (e.g.: Sounds Fun, Early Words, Reading Recovery, Spring into Maths etc…). As part of these programmes, they may require additional practice at home.

Before your child takes part in these programmes you will be contacted by your child’s class teacher about how they are run, the purposes behind them and given support on how you can assist your child at home. Your child’s teacher will also explain how this fits in/replaces other homework learning children are expected to do in class, to ensure your child does not get overwhelmed.