In Primary we like to help the students as much as possible with their studies, this includes the work they do at home with you.

For the younger students learning how to read in English is the most important thing you can help them with. This allows them to access other areas of the curriculum including Mathematics.

To help them read at home there are a number of things you can do.

Please read regularly, a ten minute daily session is ideal, try to build it into your daily routine, say straight after their evening meal.

Encourage them to read each book or page three times: once to decode the print, the second time to gain the meaning of the text and the third time to read aloud in their “actor’s voice” this helps with sentence structure and their own writing.

Boys generally prefer to read smaller boxes of information text or lists. This is fine because reading is the important issue but try to encourage them to read stories too.

Make sure your home is a reading home, your child needs to see all adults in the home read for pleasure or information.

Make the reading time a pleasurable one, cuddle up on the sofa, turn away all distractions and let the reading flow. If they are too tired one night, it is fine for you to read to them- just make a note for the teacher please.

You cannot praise your child enough for their efforts in reading.

As well as reading your child will need to learn how to spell words correctly with you at home. How you help them depends on their learning style.

Some children prefer to learn visually- they need to see the spelling written down and they need to write it themselves to check it is correct.

Other children may need to hear the word spelt out like they do for spelling bees, they are the auditory learners.

Finally some children may need to move about and write the words in the air or model them out of play-doh, they are the kinesthetic learners.

Which ever style your child prefers they will need to work on all the learning styles at school to encourage their brain development. However at home with you, try and keep it fun for them.

They will be expected to be proactive and research around their school work independently. Work with us to encourage your child to become a “learner for life”

They need to learn to question what they learn; not everything on the Internet is correct information. They need to know that cutting and pasting information in chunks is not going to help their learning and is unacceptable to our teachers.

They also need your support in following their own lines of learning, to gain knowledge that absorbs them and feeds their interests.

You never know, you may get the learning bug too as you learn alongside them.

We encourage our students in the upper primary to work together on their homework, if their busy social schedules allow. Again you can help by arranging friends over for homework sessions (as well as fun times) Research has shown that when students talk about their learning together they achieve better results.

Just by taking an interest in what your child is doing at school will help them achieve more. Remember, as for reading, you cannot praise your child enough for their hard work and effort.