Homework is always an interesting topic of debate. Some parents would like more of it, many would like us to have none at all. Professor John Hattie (a world renowned educational professor and educator) has completed a lot of research in this area and has found that, “homework in primary schools has an effect of around zero. In high schools it is larger…….Five to ten minutes has the same effect as one to two hours. The worst thing you can do with homework is give children projects. The best thing you can do is to reinforce something they have already learnt.”
We believe that some home learning is useful in helping to support reading and to practise learning that is relevant to the classroom.
We will provide your child with texts to support their reading and/or access to our school library where they can take books out at their own pace. The library is open at lunchtime for your child to change books if they do not want to wait for their weekly class library visit. Reading every day will support your child. Research shows that learning spelling words by rote is not always the best way to learn. One of the ways children learn about vocabulary and spelling rules is when they read. Mileage is important.
We have also bought two online programmes that will help reinforce your child’s classroom learning, Mathletics and Reading Eggs. The school is funding half of the cost of these programmes and is asking parents to pay the other half to support learning at home and at school. Thank you to those parents who have paid already!!
Mathletics
The Mathletics Programme is developed directly from the NZ Curriculum. The skills and strategies in this programme have been developed to help support your child’s learning. The teacher sets work based on the current classroom programmes and individual abilities. They are also able to take part in Live Mathletics at their level, challenging others from around the world. Click on the link for further information and support.
Reading Eggs
This learning resource supports your child’s reading with carefully designed online reading games and activities that are easy to follow, self-paced, and highly engaging for young learners. They are levelled by the teacher to support learning in the classroom.
We encourage you to follow your child’s class blog. This will help you to know about the learning that is taking place at school and may provide further links to support home learning.
We also encourage you to support maths, language and social skills by playing board games, baking and cooking with your child, watching or reading about current affairs and talking to your child about anything and everything. These will be more fun and beneficial than a homework sheet!
The following are suggestions for Home Learning for your child to spend time on each week. Suitable times for spending on Home Learning will vary for each child and family.
Year 5 / Year 6
Reading - a minimum of 20 minutes per day is ideal
Mathletics
Reading Eggs or Reading Eggspress
- The English skills button on Reading Eggspress home page has work related to spelling rules
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