In Year 6, children are expected to be responsible for completing and bringing in their home learning each week. One piece of English (including spellings) and one of maths is set each Friday and children will be expected to bring the completed work back into school by the following Wednesday. With this expectation, we are also preparing the pupils for the transition to secondary school, where a lot more homework will be set.
Practising their times tables on Times Tables Rockstars is also expected.
If your child is finding the home learning challenging and would like support then please ask them to speak to an adult at school before the home learning is due in.
We expect each child in year 6 to read at least 4 times a week and have their reading record signed by an adult. Please support your child in their reading development by hearing them read and asking questions as often as you can.
In adult life we read a range of different texts for different purposes and, in doing so, build up knowledge of the ways in which each of them works. We use this knowledge every time we are faced with something to read and it is a major factor in our ability to comprehend what we are reading.
In year 6, we will be looking at the skills of retrieval, interpreting and commenting when reading during guided reading lessons. This strategy is called the RIC or Finger Head Heart strategy.
RETRIEVAL: Understand, summarise, retrieve and record information from texts. FINGER
INTERPRET: Deduce, infer or predict information, events or ideas from text, justifying using the text. HEAD
COMMENT: Explain and comment on writers’ use of language, structure and presentation, and the overall impact on the reader. HEART
Retrieve: Where is John? What colour hat did Peter have?
Interpret: Why did John leave the park? Why did Peter put his umbrella up?
Comment: Why did the author use an ellipsis after John left the park? What is the effect of the word choice used by the author (e.g. Peter dashed anxiously towards the house).
We expect the children to do six reading entries a week in their reading records. One should be in the format of the RIC strategy and one entry from the reflective activity list. The other four should be signed by parents and please encourage your child to read aloud to you for these.
RIC – 3,2,1
Based on the book that they are reading, your child should:
(R x 3) Write and answer 3 retrieval questions based on the book they are reading.
(I x 2) Write and answer 2 interpret questions.
(C x 1) Write and answer one question that comments on the choice of language used by the author.
Please support your child in their reading development by hearing them read and asking questions as often as you can.