The school will be closed from 3.20pm on Friday 20th March until further notice. Naturally, our first concern is that all children and their families stay safe and well. We would however like to limit the impact the school closure will have on your child’s education and there are many things your child can do at home to continue with their learning until they are back in school.
We wish to avoid overloading parents with too much at this stressful time. We therefore ask that children focus on the basics i.e. reading, spelling and times tables. We will not be sending home-learning packs at this time as we wish children to focus these, as detailed below. Nursery children, as they do not have B-Link Books etc. please see the Nursery page of the website.
Occasionally, individual teachers may send their class extra pieces of work. KS2 children are encouraged to check their emails regularly as well as J2Homework on J2E. Year 2 will also be set work through Google Classroom.
Free speech and language advice, resources and activities are now available for parents on the Speech Link website
Reading
Keeping up with reading is vitally important for children who are away from school for a period of time. If children aren’t in school, they are expected to read daily for at least 15 minutes. All children from Reception to Year 6 will have their own individual reading book from our school’s Bug Club reading scheme. Children also have a username and password to log into Bug Club online which enables them to access more books online from a computer, tablet or mobile device. Older children are encouraged to answer questions based on what they have read to check their understanding. In addition to their Bug Club book, pupils are encouraged to read books they have at home for pleasure (e.g. Roald Dahl, Julia Donaldson, David Walliams).
Spelling
All children from Reception to Year 6 have a B-Link book containing a list of high frequency words. Please help your child learn to spell these important words. There are many different ways you can make spelling fun:
- Use items such as Play-Doh to spell out words
- Use felt pens, bubble writing etc. to make practising writing the words more interesting
- There are many apps such as Spellosaur you can install on mobile devices which allow parents to input spelling words and games are then generated to make learning to spell these words more engaging
In addition to high frequency words in their B-Link Books, KS2 children should also learn how to spell the words contained in the following lists:
Maths
Times Tables
All children will benefit greatly from using this time to practise their times tables. In addition to reciting their tables, children have access to online games such as J2Blast and TT Rockstars to play exciting games. As a minimum, children in the following year groups should be able to recite and rapidly recall facts from the following times tables:
Year 2 – 2x, 5x and 10x tables
Year 3 – 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x and 10x tables
Year 4 – 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x and 10x tables
Year 5 – 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x, 8x and 10x tables
Year 6 – All up to 12×12
All pupils have access to J2Blast through their HWB accounts. Here they can play SATS Blast (KS1 or KS2) to practise a wide variety of maths skills. There are also websites such as www.topmarks.co.uk which have a variety of maths games.
Telling the Time
Telling the time is also an essential maths skill that children can practise easily at home. As a minimum, children should be able to do the following:
Nursery – sing/chant the days of the week
Reception – sing/chant the days of the week, months of the year and seasons
Year 1 – Read “o’clock” times on both analogue and digital clocks
Year 2 – Read “half past” “quarter past” and “quarter to” on an analogue clock
Year 3 – Read to the nearest five minutes on an analogue clock and calculate how long until the next hour; Read hours and minutes on a digital clock using am/pm conventions
Year 4 – Tell the time to the nearest minute on an analogue clock; Read hours and minutes on a 24 hour digital clock
Year 5 – Calculate start and finish times and durations using hours and minutes (e.g. a film starts at 3.20pm and lasts for two hours 55 minutes, what time does it finish?)
Year 6 – Use and interpret timetables and schedules to plan events and activities (e.g. look at this bus timetable, what is the latest bus I can catch to arrive at the cinema by 7.15pm?)
HWB
All children from Reception to Year 6 have their own HWB username and password. All younger children access J2E which has a variety of different programs such as JIT and J2Office which allow your child to write, draw and create graphs online. Older pupils are familiar with programs such as Microsoft Office and Google Classroom where they can create PowerPoints, spreadsheets and Word documents.
J2E also has a “J2Blast” program which provides games for children to practise spelling and maths skills. An award is given every Tuesday for the child with the highest score on these programs. Staff are able to log-in and view pupils’ scores in these games.
HWB also provides free Microsoft Office 365 and Minecraft (Education Edition) to pupils. For further details, please visit https://hwb.gov.wales/microsoft#how-to-get-minecraft:-education-edition-at-home
National Tests
National tests are usually taken in May by all children in Years 2 – 6. Children sit three tests altogether – a reading test, a procedural test (maths) and a reasoning test (maths – problem solving). A selection of past papers are available on our website: https://blaenbaglan-primary-school.j2bloggy.com/national-test/
Online Resources
Many paid-for resources which teachers subscribe to have been made free for a limited time. We have included a list of resources parents may find useful:
Twinkl
Twinkl is a resource site containing thousands of resources for pupils on a wide variety of topics. In order to access these resources free of charge, please visit www.twinkl.co.uk/offer and enter the code UKTWINKLHELPS
Navigating this site can be a minefield due to the vast array of resources available however there is a “Parents Hub” with links to the most useful resources: https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/parents
First News
As a school, we subscribe to the children’s newspaper First News. It provides well-written, up-to-date articles about current world events and it is very well liked by pupils in the school. Parents are currently able to sign up for free at https://subscribe.firstnews.co.uk/free-downloadable-issue/
TTS
TTS has put together downloadable “Learning at Home” packs for Early Years (ages 3-5), KS1 (ages 5-7) and KS2 (ages 7-11). They include a wide variety of activities covering all areas of the curriculum, some written and some practical. Visit https://www.tts-group.co.uk/home+learning+activities.html for more details.
Phonics Play
Phonics Play contains lots of games children can play to practise their phonics. There are games from phases 1 to 6. A rough guide to the phases is:
Nursery – Phase 1
Reception – Phases 1, 2 and 3
Year 1 – Phases 4 and 5
Year 2 – Phases 5 and 6
Visit https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ and enter the username: March20 and password: home
Easter Holidays
The Easter holidays are due to run from Monday 6th April to Friday 17th April. An Easter Holidays Booklet has been created full of fun tasks to do over this period. It is aimed at KS2 children however younger children are of course free to do what they wish from it too! Please upload photos to j2e and/or tweet your teacher to show us all the lovely things you’re getting up to. We would however still ask that children continue with their daily reading and times tables during this time, just as they would through normal holidays.