Welcome to Emerald Class

SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD WITH READING

Although your child will be taught to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their journey to becoming a fluent reader by continuing their practice at home.  

Every day, your child will bring home a reading for pleasure book that they have chosen from the class library. This book is colour-banded and has been carefully matched to your child’s current reading level. The expectation is that your child will continue to read this book on a daily basis, as ‘little and often’ practice helps to develop their reading fluency and comprehension, and a life-long love of books and reading.

After each read of their colour-banded book (whether independently or with an adult), you should record this in your child's reading record. In order to encourage this and the children's independence, those children who successfully record five reads in a week will be rewarded with a raffle ticket. At the end of each term, two raffle tickets will be drawn and each child with a winning ticket will receive a book-related prize!  

Please remember that you shouldn’t always expect your child to read alone. Read to or with them.  When listening to your child read, remember to give them lots of praise – celebrate their success!  If they can’t read a word, read it to them. After they have finished, talk about the book together. Discuss the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction text.  You are welcome to make comments about what you have talked about in your child's reading record. Your child’s reading for pleasure book (book-banded) and their reading record need to be brought back into school every day.

In order to encourage your child to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure. We encourage children to read a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction materials and from a wide range of sources outside of school.

HOME LEARNING

• Regular reading (at least five times a week with an adult acknowledging this in the reading record);  
• Spellings – using the ‘No Nonsense Spelling’ scheme, children will be encouraged to learn and practise words to consolidate in-class learning. These will be made accessible through Google Classroom;  
• Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs) are posted onto Google Classroom each term. Children are encouraged to undertake weekly Maths activities based on the KIRFs - these activities will also be posted onto Google Classroom.  

In line with our Home Learning Policy, there will be homework projects which can be accessed through Google Classroom. These will be posted in Term 1, Term 3 and Term 5. For each home learning project, children will choose a number of tasks from a selection in order to complete the project, which will then be presented and evaluated in class. These projects support children’s learning in several ways; they enable children to research and to work creatively to present their learning. They are also able to present their work to an audience in order to develop their confidence. 

Please help us to encourage your child to complete their homework to the best of his or her ability and hand it in on time as this will support their learning and also develop their independence as they prepare for transition to secondary school. If you find that homework is a struggle for your child then please inform us immediately and together we will find ways of overcoming this. 

If you have any questions or information to share with us relating to their class work or friendships then please email us at emerald@alfriston.e-sussex.sch.uk. The emails are checked after school every day. If there is an urgent matter, please phone the school office.