Below is the Homework Guidance for Venus Class.

Spellings are set and tested on Mondays. As for the Homework Challenge Grids, your child may well be able to complete tasks alone but it'll be better if you're involved. Talking about the activities will double their benefit, and we hope you'll enjoy doing them together. We do not expect you to complete them all, but one or two a term would be great! 

If you ever need help please just ask.

Health Warning!

If your child experiences difficulties with a homework assignment, or it seems to be going on too long, please don't worry. Encourage your child to do what he/she can in a reasonable amount of time and then simply leave the rest. We certainly don't mean to cause strife at home.

Reading

Reading is easily the most important thing. If you regularly share books with your child you'll make a big difference to his/her success in school. Children in Year 4 need to strengthen the habit of reading often and you can help make this happen.

If your child is still getting to grips with de-coding skills (e.g. sounding out words and making informed 'guesses') then reading to you will give plenty of practice. But don't let it feel like a test! If your child gets stuck then it's probably best to simply say what the problem word is and move on.

As your child becomes fluent your job is not over! He/she will gain enormously as you continue to read together. Maintain an interest and talk about his/her books... think together about the plot, the characters, the facts (in information books) and swap opinions. You can do this with anything that your child reads - not just his/her 'school reading book'.

And remember, no primary school child is ever too old to enjoy being read to by you. You might read books that are just a bit tricky for your child to read independently, helping to keep him/her interested in the whole business of reading for pleasure.

Above all enjoy books together.

Ten to fifteen minutes a night will be truly valuable and will certainly make a difference to your child's progress in school. But don't restrict the time if your child is keen to do more!

(Recording home reading times in reading diaries is helpful. Thank you.)

Maths

Practising number facts makes them stick for good.

Revise addition and subtraction facts, e.g. pairs of numbers that total 10, 20 or 100. Practise times tables facts. Help your child to see the patterns in the multiplication tables. 2's, 5's and 10's are likely to be secure so work on the 3's, 4's, 9's and 11's and, when these are known, learn the rest (6's, 7's, 8's, 12's). It's best to learn table facts in order to start with ('one three is three, two threes are six...') and then, after that, get good at recalling facts out of order.

From time to time we set specific challenges and investigations to develop problem-solving skills.

Please do check your child's work with him/her if you can. Do this before it's been handed in if you wish. If there are errors by all means consider them together and make corrections: it's better to spot misunderstandings sooner rather than later.

Spelling

Spellings are tested on a Monday. All the children have individual lists of spellings to learn. These are available to practise in their yellow spelling books. There are lots of different ways to practise the spellings... you could write them in different colours, cover up the word to see if you can remember how to spell it or even use your wrong hand!