Google Classroom is the digitial platform the school will be using from autumn term 2020. Each child will have their own log in details.

Please support your child in accessing Google Classroom to see their homework schedule for the week. Homework is updated every Friday. (There is no expectation that homework is required to be undertaken during school holiday periods although we would encourage your child to continue to read as often as possible.) If your child is self-isolating, work from school will also be found here. In some circumstances, hard copies of work may be sent home for children who are self-isolating. 

If children have any difficulty inaccessing Google Classroom, please email either your child's class teacher or the admin office and someone will get back to you. 

Readiwriter is an online tool to support children in learning their spellings and is part of our homework policy.

Readiwriter Step by Step Guide

Readiwriter has a series of different icons with different activities. Your child should work clockwise around the icons when learning their spellings. Below is a step by step guide on how to use Readiwriter effectively. The attachment is a prinatable format of the step by step guide.

Step 1: Prepare

This should be the first icon you click on when your child has a new word list. This is where you and your child can read the learning statement for their current word list.

Step 2: Show

This is the second icon you should click on. Click on this icon to find the icon ‘word facts’. Within this area of Readiwriter, your child can learn the meaning of each word on their word list as well as the word classes (e.g. adjective, verb). Your child will be able to see an example of how each word is used in a sentence as well as its syllable breakdown. Time should be spent going through each word to ensure they understand the definitions and how they could use the word. Your child can always refer back to this area of Readiwriter if they need to.

Step 3: Practise

This is the next icon you should click on. By clicking on this icon, your child will have the opportunity to practise their spellings through the following activities:

• Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check
• Word List Workout
• Syllable Sushi

Your child should work through these activities in the above order.

Step 4:  Explore

By clicking on this icon, your child will have the opportunity to explore their words further. Both Picnic Panic and Finish the Sentence require the children to think about the meaning of the word. Your child will revise the meaning of the words in Picnic Panic and will explore who to use their words in sentences in Finish the Sentence. This will help your child with knowing how they could use their words in their writing and speech.

Step 5: Feedback

 Click on this icon to see your child’s results. This will show how well your child has done on each activity.

In school, we teach children strategies so they may learn their spellings more easily. Spelling is a skill and all skills should be practised to improve. Research suggests that if a child practises a new spelling three times a day, three times a week, they are more inclined to remember. Opportunities for practising spellings in school are enhanced by children practising their spellings at home. 

KS1 strategies:

• Break the word into sounds (w e n t)
• Break the word into syllables (an i mals)
• Break into root words and affixes (a suffix or a prefix) (un happy)
• Use a mnemonic (would- o u lucky duck)
• Use word families (light, might, bright)
• See words within words (friend till the end)
• By movement (write with your finger in the air/ rainbow write)
• By sight - learn the shape of the word

KS2 strategies:

• Break the word into sounds (d i a r y)
• Break the word into syllables (re mem ber) Identify the unstressed syllable
• Break into root words and affixes (a suffix or a prefix) (un necessary
• Use a mnemonic (necessary- it is necessary to have one collar and two sleeves))
• Use word families (would, could, should)
• See words within words (friend till the end, a rat in separate)
• By movement (write with your finger in the air/ rainbow write/ speedwrite/ keyboard)
• By sight - learn the shape of the word/ 'look, cover, write, check'/ tricky part of the word rather than the whole word
• Spelling rules (writing, written - when and why to have double t)
• Use knowledge of root words (two, twelve, twenty)
• Over pronounce (Wed/nes/day) 

As we all look forward to reopening the school in full and welcoming all children and staff back to school on Thursday 3rd September, we thought it might be useful to share some photos of how the classrooms have been set up bearing in mind the guidance schools should follow at this time.

Oak classroom and outdoor areas look quite bare as the resources are always set up differently each day. These photos show the blank canvass. We cannot wait to meet the newest and youngest children in our school!

Beech, Willow and Rowan classrooms have been set up almost identically to each other. We look forward to seeing both familiar faces and a few new ones to these classes too. 

Handwriting and Number Formation

 The Present  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjqiU5FgsYc&feature=youtu.be