Homework and Spelling
At Barnehurst we have a range of resources and activities to support our children in learning at home. These are chosen as a means of practising and solidifying concepts already taught in school giving children an opportunity to retrieve and deepen prior learning.
Please see below information regarding each of the homework programmes we offer. All online logins are found at the back of your child’s reading record.
HOMEWORK @ BARNEHURST
English
- Reading Reading Reading
- Reading Eggs (EYFS and Year 1)
- Spelling Practise ( Year 2 up weekly pages )
Maths
- Timestable Rockstars ( Year 2 – Year 6)
- Numbots ( Rec – Year 2)
- MyMaths ( Year 2 –Year 6 )
READING
Learning to read takes lots of practise. Your child will cover the sounds and spellings at school but the time you spend reading with them is worth every minute.
- Start with your child’s reading scheme book. These books will improve reading skills at the just the right level to give challenge and practise. Moving up through the colours or levels can be very important to children and this will help them progress
- Follow your child’s natural interest such as researching their favourite trends and characters online. They won’t notice that they are practising their reading. They will also be practising vital retrieval and research skills
- Some children just prefer non-fiction. Reading non-fiction is a great way to improve vocabulary, learn how to tackle new words, improve knowledge and develop a love for reading. Joke books, fact books, top ten books are all just as good for learning to read as reading fiction
- Many children love graphic novels or comics. These are great for developing imagination. Children also learn how stories are presented in different ways and understand how pictures and text work together.
- Read signs and information boards as you are out and about. These often contain new vocabulary to discuss. Recipes or instructions for craft projects are also great for this and also encourage us to read with accuracy
- Try to encourage your child to tackle a longer fiction story. Reading a longer story for pleasure has many benefits. It develops imagination and empathy; it builds reading stamina and introduces new vocabulary and sentence styles
- Although they don’t practise phonics, listening to audiobooks does practise comprehension skills and might even encourage your child to read other books for themselves. Listening to books develops imagination, teaches new vocabulary, and allows your child to experience books above their reading age.
Please record all reading in your child reading record. Each week their teacher will give them a prompt so support discussion at home and this must be recorded in reading record too.
For more information about reading @ Barnehurst please see the curriculum tab.
READING EGGS
Reading Eggs is an online programme offered to children at Barnehurst between Nursery and Year 2. Reading Eggs supports each child’s learning by offering individual, one-on-one lessons. These online lessons allow your child to progress at their own rate, building their reading confidence and rewarding them at every step of the way. 
Reading Eggs is a kidSAFE certified website, so you can feel confident knowing that your child is spending time learning in a safe and fun online environment – free from advertising and distractions. Reading Eggs is based on solid scientific research and focuses around the five essential keys to reading success – phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency.
SPELLING
Spelling is a life skill all children develop at different speeds. Learning to spell is more than just the task of memorising lists of words. Instead, it needs to be a technically accurate approach that gives children the understanding and meaning of the smallest units of sounds that make up the alphabetical code.
Spelling at Barnehurst is taught using CUSP spelling a programme to support teachers and children in not only learning spelling concepts but also applying these concepts within writing sessions.
Spelling is taught over a 2 week cycle with a range of activities completed in these sessions.
Examples of activities include
- Word study
- Word sorts
- Speed spell
- Dictations
- Zoom in tasks (tricky parts)
- Dictionary tasks
- Spotlight on spelling within writing
A part of the programme is completed at home with a weekly home learning activity. These are handed out on a Friday and must be returned to school by the Wednesday of the following week.
NUMBOTS
Numbots focuses on number sense leading to mental addition and subtraction. It also supports in mastering children’s number bonds. These are vital skills, which we need our children to be confident in, fluent with, so time spent on these activities will be invaluable, and your child will enjoy them. In order to get the best out of NumBots children should regularly play for short intervals and the recommended time is 5 minutes a day 4-5 times a week.
TIMES TABLES ROCK STARS
Times Table Rockstars is the ‘sister’ app of Numbots and is used to support in learning multiplication and division facts whilst developing fluency and confidence. This is played often for short intervals and we recommend the time of 5 minutes a day 4-5 times a week.
MY MATHS
We offer My Maths from years 2 to 6 Children should complete a weekly piece of maths homework 
the website which is usually set on a Friday to be completed by the following Friday. Homework could be an activity to strengthen knowledge/practise skills they have been learning in school that week or it could an activity, which is not linked so children revisit and retrieve prior learning.
