Home Learning at Beaford Community Primary & Nursery School

At Beaford, we believe that home learning plays a crucial role in reinforcing what children have learned in school and helping them develop essential skills for independent study. Our approach to home learning is designed to engage pupils in meaningful, focused tasks that support their progress in key areas of the curriculum.

Aims of Home Learning Our home learning programme is designed to:

• Encourage children to share their school experiences with family members
• Consolidate and reinforce essential reading, spelling, and maths skills
• Foster independent learning habits and enquiry-based thinking

Homework Schedule

• Year 5 and 6 (Owls): 1 hour per week
• Year 3 and 4 (Otters): 45 minutes per week
• Year 1 and 2 (Hedgehogs): 30 minutes per week (phonics-based and some maths)
• Reception (Ladybirds): Small tasks focusing on handwriting, phonics, and key maths facts

Homework is set on Fridays and is expected to be returned by Thursdays.

Focus Areas Home learning at Beaford focuses on developing fluency in core skills such as reading, maths, and spelling. Daily reading is a key expectation across all year groups, as it underpins much of children’s wider learning.

In KS2, we enhance our home learning approach by using CenturyTech, an intelligent learning platform. CenturyTech uses artificial intelligence to tailor activities to each child’s individual needs, offering personalised pathways in reading, maths, and spelling. This adaptive technology identifies areas where a child may need further practice and provides targeted tasks to build understanding. By regularly using CenturyTech as part of their homework, children benefit from real-time feedback and can work at their own pace, strengthening key skills through personalised learning journeys.

For Reception (Ladybirds), the focus is on key areas like reading, phonics, and spelling tricky words, alongside developing an understanding of foundational maths facts. This provides the building blocks for their future learning and growth.

Homework is carefully linked to classroom learning, either consolidating recently covered material or preparing children for what’s to come. We also expect children to regularly practice their reading, spellings, and multiplication tables.