Author: Mr Roundtree

Supporting your child’s maths at home

Some top tips to support maths at home – without turning your child off the subject.

This article is a thought-provoking read, and might inspire you to support your child in different ways; in it, Professor Jo Boaler sets out this list of top tips for parents who want to support their child in Maths:

  1. Encourage children to play maths puzzles and games at home. Anything with a dice will help them enjoy maths and develop numeracy and logic skills.
  2. Never tell children they are wrong when they are working on maths problems. There is always some logic to what they are doing. So if your child multiplies three by four and gets seven, try: “Oh I see what you are thinking, you are using what you know about addition to add three and four. When we multiply we have four groups of three…”
  3. Maths is not about speed. In younger years, forcing kids to work fast on maths is the best way to start maths anxiety, especially among girls.
  4. Don’t tell your children you were bad at maths at school. Or that you disliked it. This is especially important if you are a mother.
  5. Encourage number sense*. What separates high and low achievers in primary school is number sense.
  6. Encourage a “growth mindset” – the idea that ability changes as you work more and learn more.
Research shows that children really need to work on ‘number sense’ – the understanding of what a number means and how numbers can be made up.
  • For younger children, the ‘five-ness’ of five and then the ‘ten-ness’ of ten is really important: five fingers, five toes, five displayed on a dice, five split into 4 and one more, five split into three and two…
  • For older children, if they are asked to add up 27 and 16, when they have number sense they can break the numbers apart and use them flexibly – take three from the 16 and add it to 27 to make 30, then add on the remaining 13 to make 43.

Number sense is not something you can get from simply being given an extra worksheet for homework – it develops from play, discussion and observation of number in the world around them.

More homework? No – more encouragement

The majority of parents agree with us: the amount of homework we set is about right.

We had a record number of parents / carers who attended parents’ evenings this week – thank you to all who showed up.

A small number of parents asked for more homework. Please bear in mind we asked your views about homework in the Annual Survey last year, and the findings were quite mixed: some thought there was too much whilst about the same proportion thought there was not enough. The majority agreed with us: the amount of homework we set is about right.

Taken from our Homework Policy, this is our rationale for giving homework:

Educational experience that a school by itself provides is limited; children benefit from wider, complementary experiences out of school. However, some prompts and guidance from school can direct these experiences and develop greater learning. We see homework as an important example of cooperation between teachers and parents / carers. An aim of our teaching is to promote independent learners; homework is one of the ways in which children can acquire the skill of independent learning.

We recognise the importance of quality family time; this policy should help to promote opportunities to be creative rather than labour over frequent worksheets or carry out activities that pupils and / or parents / carers may not understand.

Whilst homework develops children’s learning and independence, quality family time, play and free time are also important. Homework should not prevent children from taking part in wider activities such as those offered by out-of-school clubs and other organisations. Children develop their interests and skills to the full only when parents/carers encourage them to make maximum use of the opportunities available outside school.

Also in our Homework Policy is this statement:

We believe the frequency of homework set out here provides the right balance for pupils and meets the expectations of most parents (whose opinions we sought in the Annual Survey, 2014). Staff may occasionally provide additional homework; this will amount to two or three extra pieces across the year. As an alternative, staff will be happy to suggest to parents other ways they can support their child’s learning at home.

Please do not expect extra homework for you child to be set as a matter of routine. Governors want to protect teachers work / life balance, but – importantly – we believe extra homework would not be helpful for most pupils.

 

 

 

Happy half term

The end of another half term has whizzed around and I just wanted to wish everyone an enjoyable and relaxing half term. There will be no homework or spellings over the holidays but keep up with reading each day, Mathletics and Lexia.

After half term, we’ll be sending times table practice home and there will be a test each Friday alongside spellings.

As our plants are now thriving, each child will be bringing their herb home to keep and take responsibility for watering it every few days. It’d be great to see how you get on with this – particularly if you end up being able to use it in your cooking!

Enjoy the break and we’ll see you in a week.

The Great Fire of London

Today, we took on the role of archaeologists and delved deep underground (our tables) to find clues about the past. We found pictures of Tudor buildings on fire; images of people with buckets of water; the date 1666; and a street sign for Pudding Lane. After a few more clues, we guessed what event might have happened in the past and suggested our ideas using the clues we’d found.

searching underground

 

everyone looking for clues underground

 

We had, of course, uncovered clues to The Great Fire of London, 1666. After watching a short video (another way of understanding what happened in the past) we moved on to maths for more information. We can use data recorded from the past to learn more about what happened.

Block charts

 

Pictograms
Bar charts
Tally charts

Look how much you can find out from these…

Parents’ evening

Some news about changes made to our Learning Updates which you’ll receive next week at Parents’ Evening.

In the Autumn term, at Parents’ Evening, we sent the first Learning Update to you – a document showing where your child’s attainment is. We did this because, in the Annual Surveys, lots of you told us you want more frequent updates about how your child is doing. The second Learning Update will be given to you at Parents’ Evening next week.

You will notice this version looks a bit different. This is because we’re trialling a new assessment system to track pupils’ attainment.

This change is a result of the current government’s decision to withdraw the system of ‘levels’ used to report children’s attainment and progress. Instead, schools are being encouraged to monitor and report whether children are on track to meet end-of-year age-related expectations.

Terms such as ‘Level 4’ or ‘Level 5’ are being phased out. The current Year 2 and Year 6 classes are the last who will be given levels at the end of the year. (A Year 2 child is expected to reach Level 2B or 2A; a child in Year 6 is expected to reach Level 4 and ideally at least a Level 4B.)

There are three important things to note:

  1. The new National Curriculum has much higher expectations. Last term’s Learning Ladder was based on the old National Curriculum whereas this one is on the new, more demanding curriculum. As a result, you may find your child does not appear to have made progress – this is due to the higher expectations.
  2. Schools are being encouraged not to push children too quickly towards learning in older year groups. Instead, children should develop “mastery” and “deep understanding” – this means ensuring children can use and apply their skills and knowledge more independently and in more circumstances. This point is most relevant in Maths.
  3. Your child’s attainment  in spelling, punctuation and grammar (‘SPAG’) will be included in our amended Learning Updates, reflecting increased importance placed by the current government on this aspect of your child’s education.

 

At the moment, like all schools, we’re in a period of change. If you have any questions or concerns, please do speak with me or Mrs Weekes.

Thank you for coming to our class assembly…

…It was great to see a record number of parents at the assembly!

Here are a few of your comments:

  • “Lovely poems. Very impressed with the children’s contribution.”
  • “Fabulous timing – just lovely.”
  • “Fantastic performance from the Reception class. Looking forward to the next one.”
  • “Very enjoyable – great to see all the children contributing.”
  • “Well done! Loved the interactions and the singing.”

Our second open morning

“Thanks for the opportunity – a real eye-opener.”

This morning, we welcomed more parents into school to watch some lessons – thanks to the parents who visited. We hold these open mornings because you tell us in the Annual Survey that you’d like to know more about how you can support your child at home.

Like our last open morning on 13 January, each parent watched the teaching and learning in two classes (30 minutes each), then discussed what they’d seen with Mrs Weekes and me. We’re very happy to receive feedback which was as positive as the last open morning. Here are some of the comments:

  • “I really liked the focus on children’s needs and their abilities in the Year 1 class.”
  • “The English lesson in Year 6 was very dynamic and interesting. The teacher interacted with the children really well. I received good tips from the teacher about how to support my child at home.”
  • “Teaching assistants worked well.”
  • “It was interesting to find out from the Reception teacher how children learn throughout the day.”
  • “The Year 2 teacher was fantastic and the children were very happy and confident in their learning.”
  • “Fantastic and a real eye-opener. Great to see two very different classes and teaching styles in action.”
  • “I picked up some ideas that I will take home to help with my child.”

Parents encouraged us to have more, similar events. Based on this, we’ve planned in three open afternoons where parents can come in up to half an hour earlier than the close of school to look at homework and / or topic learning:

  • Wednesday 04 March (homework review)
  • Wednesday 18 March (Big Topic review)
  • Friday 01 May (setting homework).

Please do try to attend.

Our class assembly

Thanks to all who attended our per-historic class assembly this week, which tied in with our history learning as part of the Time Travel topic.

Here are a few comments:

  • “Very informative.  I was impressed that the children all knew their lines without needing a script.”
  • “Very interesting and entertaining as usual.”
  • “Very educational and very funny.  I learnt a think or two.  Well done!”
  • “Great cavemen!  Lots of information.”

Congratulations from the Minister of State for Schools…

A letter from David Laws, MP

We’re delighted to have received a letter (26 January 2015) from Rt Hon David Laws, Minister of State for Schools, congratulating us on our work with disadvantaged pupils:

It gives me great pleasure to write to you and congratulate your school on your key stage 2 results for disadvantaged pupils since 2012.

Your results show that you are highly effective in educating your disadvantaged pupils.  It is clear that you and your staff have provided your disadvantaged pupils with a good start in life and prepared them well for secondary school.

[The letter then refers to the Pupil Premium Awards.]

I would like to congratulate your staff, governors, parents and pupils for their hard work and success, and thank you for your leadership in making such a difference to the future success of your pupils.  Finally, I would also encourage you to share your achievements with other schools so that they learn from your strengths and experience.

Yours sincerely

David Laws MP