The staff at Bilbrook Middle School strongly believe that every child needs the help, support and encouragement from their parents just as much as they need it from their teachers. Learning is an ongoing process and not just restricted to school. This parental help sheet hopefully will bridge the gap and make the support from parent and teacher stronger and benefit your child's learning. The help sheets for the core National Curriculum subjects are general things that you can do to help your child at home.
Listen to your child read a variety of materials fluently and accurately on a weekly basis. Ask them questions about what they have read, to establish that they have understood what they have read. Encourage your child to discuss their point of view clearly, logically and based on evidence, of their knowledge of what they have read. Get your child to discuss the characters in the book they are currently reading. Look for opportunities for purposeful writing at home, e.g. Notes, shopping lists, telephone messages, greeting cards etc. Try to encourage your child to develop their handwriting so it is clear to read and grammatically correct, e.g. using capital letters and full stops: other punctuation; direct speech and paragraphs. Read your child's draft writing and comment on the things that you liked about it. Encourage your child to try new words, using a dictionary to check the spelling and understand their meaning.
Try to read your child's work with them on a regular basis and ask them what they have been studying. Don't be afraid to get actively involved with their homework, especially research activities. Encourage your child to recognise the need for adding details to their work; making their written work clear and accurate especially when labelling diagrams. Ensure that your child uses the correct units for measurement; e.g. Length - metres (m), centimetres (cm); amount of material - grams (g), kilograms (Kg); force - newtons (N) and temperature - degrees celsius (C). Encourage your child to put their investigation data and results into tables and bar chart graphs / line graphs which are accurately drawn. Support your child to answer questions using relevant scientific terms and information.
