Helping Your Child
The below booklet may be useful in helping you as a parent/carer to find out more about how your child is learning and developing during their early years.
Numbots & Times Tables
Learning times table facts can have a huge impact on a child’s ability in many areas of the maths curriculum. When the new curriculum was introduced in 2014, the government set out the following expectations for times table knowledge:
- By the end of Year 1, children should be fluent in adding one more or less to a given number. Please use Numbots website to help your child become fluent in adding and subtracting number bonds to 10 and above.
- By the end of Year 2, children should know by heart all multiplication and division facts for their 10, 5 and 2 times tables (up to 12 x 10, 12 x 5 and 12 x 2)
How you can help at home
The best way for children to learn number bonds or times tables is through regular practice. Number facts need to be learnt so that they can quickly give the correct answer without needing to count up. There are some excellent games that your child can play on the internet which are good fun and encourage your child to keep coming back to improve their scores. We would particularly recommend the following websites:
Phonics
- Talk, talk, talk!
As a parent, you are the model of good speaking and listening. Regularly introduce new words (vocabulary). For example, for the word big you could also introduce large, huge, or enormous. Encourage them to say the word too. This is not about reading the words but about your child hearing and saying them.
- Read to and with your child
This models good reading skills and promotes reading enjoyment. Have a special book box or bag where your child can keep the stories and any other texts, such as comics or non-fiction books, you’ve read together recently. Re-read these so that over time your child builds up their stock of stories and texts they know well.
Ebooks are another lovely way to share a story or non-fiction book together. Just make sure eBook reading is balanced with reading hard copy books so your child experiences all the different skills required for reading from a page and reading from a screen.
- Sing!
Teach nursery rhymes and songs and make lots of opportunities to sing and recite them.
- Pronounce words and sounds clearly
In all games and activities make sure you pronounce the speech sounds clearly and as short as possible. Do not make them too long. For example, the letter ‘m’ has a short /m/ sound not a continuous /mmmmmmm/ sound. Try not to add an extra sound onto the speech sound too. For example, the sound is /m/ NOT /m-uh/.
Times Tables
Learning times table facts can have a huge impact on a child’s ability in many areas of the maths curriculum. When the new curriculum was introduced in 2014, the government set out the following expectations for times table knowledge:
- By the end of Year 2, children should know by heart all multiplication and division facts for their 10, 5 and 2 times tables (up to 12 x 10, 12 x 5 and 12 x 2)
- By the end of Year 3, they should also know by heart all multiplication and division facts for their 3, 4 and 8 times tables
- By the end of Year 4, children should know the multiplication and division facts for all times tables up to 12 x 12
- It is important that children in Y5/6 continue to work on multiplication and division facts to 12 x 12 and beyond to support them within all aspects of the KS2 SATs.
How you can help at home
The best way for children to learn times tables is through regular practice. Times table facts need to be learnt so that they can quickly give the correct answer without needing to count up. There are some excellent games that your child can play on the internet which are good fun and encourage your child to keep coming back to improve their scores. We would particularly recommend the following websites:
- https://ttrockstars.com/
- http://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
- http://www.transum.org/Tables/Times_Tables.asp
The Department For Education test the Year 4 children with an on-screen times table check in July every year.
Reading at Home
Children in Key Stage 2 will all be at very different stages of development, but even for the most fluent readers there is a need for parental support.
Most parents or carers are able to create quality time to share a book individually with one child. This is the time when children can develop a much deeper understanding of the books that they are reading. Rather than reading at home being ‘reading practice’, it should extend and enrich the reading experiences of school. One of the most powerful ways in which parents can do this is to show real enthusiasm themselves. Your sense of excitement about books and stories, your anticipation about what will happen next in a story and a discussion about your own likes and dislikes, will greatly influence your child.
Asking questions that go beyond the literal meaning of the book will help your child to think more deeply about what they are reading. Encourage your child to use the school and local libraries.
We request the parents read with their child for at least 30 minutes each week.
