Remote Learning Strategy
During periods of school closure, government guidance confirms that effective remote education plans should be in place. These should ensure that procedures are in place for the school to continue to deliver it's planned curriculum.
During this academic year, we recognise that there may be times when schools will need to operate beyond their normal working boundaries. We are committed to providing our children with the breadth of curriculum and learning opportunities whether they are present in school or having to learn from a home environment.
Using an online learning platform will allow us to continue to deliver our planned curriculum during any period of closure to children. It will enable our staff and children to communicate with each other on a daily basis, provide challenge and work that would have been given in class and give feedback to children about their progress and learning.
Our strategy is designed to not overwhelm children or parents and provide a meaningful way for families to continue to engage with their children’s education. In all communications, we will prioritise the wellbeing of our children. For further information please click on the link below to access a copy of our Remote Learning Strategy.
General Information for Parents & Carers
During the period of time away from school, it is important that progress in learning doesn’t just stop. Given the exceptional circumstances that we are currently facing, it is important that there are learning routines in place for your children during their period at home. We appreciate this will depend on your family circumstances and your children, however, please find suggestions below which may help during these unchartered times.
At Glen Park Primary, teaching staff have agreed that there will be a common expectation across all year groups of what home learning activities will be set daily by class teachers remotely. This will be:
- Daily reading
- Times tables and spelling practice
- A piece of daily Maths and English revision
Depending upon the length of closure, which at this point is still uncertain, the school may also set work linked to other subjects or a project to work on at home. This will be accessed via the school website. When setting any project, staff will be very mindful of what resources children will have access to at home.
Below is further information about some of the home learning resources that we currently use at Glen Park Primary and that you can access from home for your child.
When it comes to times tables, speed AND accuracy are important – the more facts your child remembers, the easier it is for them to do harder calculations.
Times Table Rock Stars is a fun and challenging programme designed to help children master the times tables. To be a Times Table Rock Star you need to answer any multiplication fact up to 12×12 in less than 3 seconds!
How to get the most out of it (Year 2 - Year 6)
World famous rock musicians are the best at what they do because they've spent hours practising guitar chords, writing music or playing on the drums. It's just the same with times tables – all Times Table Rock Stars need to practise and practise and practise. It's essential that your child does a little bit of times table practice every day. Short bursts of daily practise are more effective than spending hours once a week.
And this is where you come in. For your child to be fully motivated and for them to get the best out of the practice, they need your help. Without your praise and your reminders, without you sitting down next to them or checking their work, practising times tables will not feel important to your child.
In this guide, we have set out a plan for you to follow. Over the course of the next few weeks and months, your child WILL get faster and more accurate with the times tables. All your hard work and theirs WILL make them a Times Table Rock Star!
Practice Plan
Each day, your child should follow this plan in the order presented below:
Read the times tables out loud (3 minutes) –you will find a link to download all the times tables written out from the 3s up to the 12s. Together with your child, read the times tables that we are focusing on that week. Do it a second time round but this time your child should be trying to say them without reading them from the page. It is more important that they say them correctly than say them quickly at this stage.
Scatter tables (up to 5 minutes) – you will find a link to download Scatter Tables at the end of this document. To use them, you call out a question from the times table you are focusing on and your child should point to the answer on the page. For example, if you are concentrating on the 5 times table, then find the Scatter Table for the 5s and call out questions like, “9 times 5” (your child points to 45), “6 times 5” (your child points to 30) or “5 times 12” (your child points to 60). Your child should be trying to get them correct each time and not worrying about the speed.
Write tables on a piece of paper (up to 5 minutes) – Your child should write down the times tables being focused on that week. Any piece of paper will do.
Play online – Every child in Years 2-6 has a login for ttrockstars.com from their class teacher. These will be sent out to parents via email in the event of a school closure. Daily practice will help to support their recall.
Click on the links below to download the support materials:
To help engage and excite children about spelling, we have purchased Spelling Shed, an online spelling program that helps children to practise spelling via a simple game. The game gives four different degrees of support in the form of difficulty modes; Easy, Medium, Hard and Extreme. Higher levels allow a higher score to be achieved, but children can practise as much as they like on lower levels before trying to gain high scores. The scores achieved give a league position and each class has its own league position within a school league and our world league.
Spelling Shed also allows for homework and whole-class “Hive” games as a more interactive form of spelling test. Your child’s teacher will set lists of words that your child should practise and will monitor their progress.
To access a parent guide, please click here.
Children can login to the account through visiting https://play.edshed.com
Accelerated Reader is a computerised programme that has not only been
At Glen Park Primary, we want pupils to appreciate how valuable and rewarding reading can be and dedicated time is built into our curriculum for independent reading. Regular reading time at home will continue to develop their love of reading.
Children are still able to do a quiz on reading books at home between the hours 8.45am - 3.15pm, through visiting the website https://ukhosted49.renlearn.co.uk/2236567/
Their log in is first name, initial of surname and year of entry. e.g. Fred Clause in Year 5 would be fredc14 (year of entry was 2014), password is class name, all lower case with no s. e.g. kittiwake
To check if a book from home is on AR they would need to go to AR bookfinder and type the name of the book.https://www.arbookfind.co.uk/
Oxford Owl provide a range of free ebooks for children aged 3-11 which can accessed via their website at https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/ There is also access to range of free maths and times tables games to support your child's learning.
