We know parents/carers have a vital role in a child’s learning and development throughout their lives. They provide the cornerstones that allow their child to grow and develop through everyday stimulating activities such as games, rhymes and language, which help their child to learn.
‘Learning at home’ is the learning which happens in the home, outdoors or in the community. It can take place through everyday activities that families already do and can overlap with aspects of active learning undertaken with parents, family members or peers. Scottish Parental Involvement Officers Network, 2018
At St Andrew’s we want Home Learning to be enjoyable and believe learning at home should happen through a range of events including play, leisure activities, fun events, sports, trips, cultural or volunteering experiences. It can also happen through curriculum related activities such as reading and sharing books.
Being actively involved in other fun learning activities such as gardening, baking, cooking and outdoor learning can motivate your child’s desire to learn as well as promote their curiosity. The role of parents in helping their child to learn at home will change as they get older and become increasingly more independent. Learning at home activities can help raise a child’s attainment. Some suggested learning at home activities might be:
- encouraging your child to play with letters or numbers
- drawing your child’s attention to sounds and letters
- teaching your child nursery rhymes or songs
- having toys available
- reading with your child
- visiting libraries, museums, galleries
- encouraging and helping your child to cook a meal and/or set the table
- allowing your child to help you with DIY jobs around the house
- researching a topic of interest on the internet, in a library or from other sources
- helping your child to learn about political parties
- working together with your child on different activities (gardening, baking etc.)
- showing your child how to play a musical instrument
General tips for learning at home
- Listen, talk, and encourage – this can have a big influence on children’s learning
- Encourage your child to talk to you about their learning, what learning is happening at school and do what you can at home to build on that
- Talk to your child about their strengths and interests and how they are progressing
- Encourage your child to talk to you about their next steps in learning and find out how you can work with the school to support this
- Ask for help if you think your child needs it for any reason.
- Praise your child if he/she is working hard at something or has achieved something within or out of school.
- Encourage any reading
- Look for opportunities at home to develop literacy and numeracy skills: money, number problems, time, measuring, matching, size, reading, writing, understanding instructions, questioning information.
- Encourage your child to take part in activities, for example hobbies or clubs which will provide opportunities to develop a range of skills.
- Help them work on tasks on their own and then talk about it with you afterwards.
- Do things together where appropriate – learn together, for example if your child has a project or task to do, take an interest and discuss with them what they are doing or offer support if this is needed.
- Help prepare for change, particularly at key transitions – talk about the change together.
- Talk to your child about how they are feeling.
- Work together with the school by taking part in discussions about your child’s learning and progress
Find out more by clicking here.
How will this look at St Andrew’s?
Each class publishes Home Learning tasks to their class MS365 page. All tasks are due for the Monday of the following week (other than reading books- see below)- we know how busy family life can be and this gives families the flexibility to structure home learning in a way that works for individual circumstances!
Most of our home learning tasks are ‘pencil and paper free’ however if you would like us to send home some scrap paper and a mini stationery set just let us know via the school office.
Each week you can choose to complete Mild, Medium or Hot tasks with your child. Again, this approach offers flexibility to meet the competing demands of family life! We would advise all families to engage in the Mild Tasks as we believe doing so will have a positive and lasting impact upon your child. If however you would like to opt out of home learning, please let the school know.
Mild Tasks
Will usually include the following items:
- explore the Wednesday Word (this is a worksheet that you can discuss and print out if you wish to)
- discuss the Weekly Intended Learning (the intended learning for your child’s class will be published weekly on MS365)
- engage in reading (pages/ chapters will be set in class each week)
Medium Tasks
- all Mild Tasks
- learn and remember spelling words
- complete maths challenge
After February, Primary 7 learners may benefit from additional tasks/ a different approach to support their transition to high school.
Hot Tasks
- all Mild Tasks
- all Medium Tasks
- Head Teacher Challenge (will be set by Mrs Favier and although a fun task, will really stretch our learners to think creatively!)
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