With the introduction of the new curriculum, the end of year age related expectations have risen considerably for all children. As such, key skills in mathematics, reading and writing are of greater importance and are fundamental to enabling children to achieve end of year expectations.
Our summer learning resources include mathematics, reading and writing activities. We expect each child to complete a number of activities during the summer break to the standard we explain in their year group page. To help your child achieve this, we have provided a range of resources to help make learning key skills engaging and exciting. We hope that you will use these with your children throughout the summer to maintain their learning.
Maths
Mental arithmetic is fundamental to enable children to access the mathematics curriculum, to achieve the aims of fluency, reasoning and problem solving.
Times tables are vitally important for all children as they are the foundation for learning a range of different mathematics skills, including division, fractions and algebra. If children are not secure with their times tables, then they can struggle with other written methods and skills taught in class. They are also used throughout everyday life and so it is important that children are able to recall and apply these facts.
Mental arithmetic and times table knowledge has been of greater emphasis this year; we operate twenty five minutes of daily mental mathematics sessions, in addition to the daily hour mathematics lesson to support children with the transition period from the old to new curriculum. During these sessions, children have been learning their times tables and number facts through a range of activities including singing, chanting, looking at patterns and the understanding behind the times tables and mental facts. These sessions will continue next year and the recall and understanding behind these facts will be embedded throughout the heart of the curriculum, with mathematics connections made across all areas of learning.
It is important that children can recall their times tables facts as soon as possible so that children do not struggle in mathematics lessons or lose enjoyment in the subject. Therefore, we are seeking your continued support with enabling children to rote learn and randomly mentally recall their times tables facts at home as part of their weekly mental mathematics and during the summer holidays so that they can fully access the new curriculum.
By the end of Year 4, the national expectation is that all children will be able to randomly recall their times tables up to 12x12 and begin to apply these facts into a range of different contexts. The expectation for children at the end of Year 5 and entering Year 6 in our transition period is that children can recall all of their times tables up to 12x12. Children will be tested on these number facts at the start of the Autumn term and will then continue to develop the ability to apply these facts into different contexts and problems.
Over the summer holidays, singing and chanting times table facts will support your child in entering their new school year.
English
In the new curriculum, spelling is of greater importance and is fundamental to enabling children to achieve end of year expectations. By the end of each year, there is now a statutory spelling list that all children accessing the programme of study for their year group, are expected to know.
Most people read words more accurately than they spell them. The younger children are, the truer this is. By the end of each year, children should be able to read a large number of different words containing the grapheme (spelling) and phoneme (sound) correspondences (sounds and how they appear on the page) that they have learnt, whether or not they have seen these words before. Spelling, however, is very different. Once children have learnt more than one way of spelling particular sounds, choosing the right letter or letters depends on their either having made a conscious effort to learn the words , spelling patterns and rules or having absorbed them less consciously through their reading. Younger pupils have not had enough time to learn or absorb the accurate spelling of all the words that they may want to write.
The teaching of spelling has already been of greater emphasis this year, with additional sessions being taught for all children. During these sessions, children have been taught different ways of learning spellings. From September, children will be explicitly taught ten strategies and encouraged to use as many of these as they wish when learning their spellings. These strategies are explained in our ‘Top Ten Ways To Learn A Spelling’ sheet to help support learning at home. These sessions will continue next year alongside 5 hours of English and an additional hour to support grammar, punctuation and handwriting. These strategies will be embedded in all areas of the curriculum so that spelling becomes purposeful within different contexts.
Spelling lists for the appropriate year group can be found in in our year group specific summer learning pages (in the menu to the left) and these spellings are statutory in the new curriculum. The lists are a mixture of words pupils frequently use in their writing and those which they often misspell. The expectations have risen, and these are reflected in the expectations for the end of each year. Please note that the expectation for the Y6 lists will continue into secondary school.
These spellings will form part of your child’s spelling tests next year, alongside the current system, which examine more closely word rules and patterns. More detailed information is included in the National Curriculum documentation
It is important that children can spell the words within their year group list as soon as possible so that children do not struggle in lessons and are able to apply the spellings in a range of contexts, which is vital if children are to make progress in their writing. Therefore, we are seeking your continued support with enabling children to learn and apply their spellings at home as part of their weekly home learning and during the summer holidays so that they can fully access the new curriculum and be prepared for September.
Children will be tested on these word lists at the start of the Autumn term and through regular teaching they will have the opportunity to apply these in all lessons. We will continue to test and teach these throughout the year.
Over the summer holidays, practicing some of these new spellings using any of the ‘top ten ways to learn a spelling’ will greatly support your child accessing the new curriculum.
Should you require any support or if you have any questions, please contact your child’s class teacher.