Helping your Child at Home


It might seem that children spend all of their waking hours in school but, when you factor in evenings, weekends and school holidays, by the time a child turns 18, they will have spent under 15% of their waking life in a classroom. Much of the rest is spent at home so we are very aware of the vitally important role that parents and carers have in their child’s life and want to work in partnership with our parents and carers.

Ready for school


Starting school is a huge milestone for both children and their parents/carers.  Some children make the transition easily but, for others, it can be a slower process. Much of the learning in Reception focuses on teaching children Respect, Resilience and Responsibility, including giving children the fundamental skill of independence, which they will need throughout their lives. 

As parents and carers, you set the foundations for these skills at home. We have put together a ‘Ready for School’ booklet packed with tips and suggestions for how to support your child leading up to them starting at school and in their first few weeks. This can be found by clicking on the link above or the photo to the right. 

Reading


Reading is a vitally important life skill and one of the most important things you can do as a parent at home is read to your child. Loving stories is important because children who love stories want to read stories for themselves. Children who read a lot, become better readers.

Here are some top tips for story time:

  • Make it a treat – introduce each new book with excitement
  • Make it a special quiet time – cuddle up!
  • Show curiosity in what you’re going to read
  • Read the story once without stopping so they can enjoy the whole story. If you think your child might not understand something, say something like ‘Oh I think what’s happening here is that…”
  • Chat about the story e.g. I wonder why he did that? Oh no, I hope she’s not going to…
  • Avoid asking questions to check what they remember
  • Link to other stories and experiences you have shared e.g. this reminds me of…
  • Read favourite stories over and over again – encourage your child to join with the bits they know. Avoid saying ‘not that story again!’
  • Use different voices – be enthusiastic!
  • Love the book – read with enjoyment

Storytime is most effective when it is done in person but, if it not possible to read a story on some days, try CBeebies Bedtime Stories – these are fabulous and available for free on iPlayer. 

Parents and carers also have an important role to play in embedding their children’s phonics knowledge. Each child has a storybook, matched to the sounds and words they know – a decodable book – which they bring home with them to read and which are changed weekly. Children love reading the same book again and again as their reading becomes speedier and they understand what they are reading.

Top Tips for reading at home include:

  • Making reading a positive experience – snuggling down together and giving lots of praise
  • Sharing your enjoyment of the story when they read it again and again – even if you would prefer to read something else!
  • Encouraging children to sound out words (Fred Talk) when they are still learning their sounds
  • Encouraging older children to read words using ‘Fred in your head’ and identifying Red Words
  • Showing children how to read the story in a storyteller voice
  • Reading more difficult texts and stories to promote a love of reading
  • Being proud of the progress they are making with their reading and letting them know how proud of them you are

We hope that you enjoy reading with your child and unlocking a world of imagination and possibility with them. 

Home Learning


Home Learning at Gossops Green focuses on learning key maths and spelling skills which the children do not have time to embed in school. We use Purple Mash for spellings homework and Timestables Rockstars for maths. It is really important that children complete their homework. It should take far less than an hour a week and, not only will it help them in school, it is an important routine to get into for Secondary School.

Top Tips for homework include:

  • Try and factor in set homework times during the week – maybe immediately after school
  • Allocate 3-4 shorter periods of homework, 10-15 minutes at a time, rather than one longer session
  • Provide a quiet space
  • Try not to leave homework until the night before – this can be a problem if there is a connection issue
  • If your child is stressed by the timer on TT Rockstars – turn it off
  • If your child is finding homework particularly difficult, write a note in their Home-School Diary or speak to their class teacher at Parent Evening