Early Years Homework

Nursery

In Nursery, homework would simply involve supporting us by promoting independence at home (e.g. encouraging/teaching your child to take off and put on their own shoes and coat and eating by themselves, etc).

Parents can involve themselves and their child at home in the topics being learnt in school. This helps to reinforce what is being taught and students can get a fuller learning experience.

Reception

In Reception, parents should reinforce letter sounds, blending and listen to their child read. Initially phonetic word lists to be ‘sounded out’ with children will be sent home. Later, ‘Tricky Words’ will be introduced and exposure to these words at home will really help children to feel confident when reading.

It is always good to get children to make predictions about the story, answer open-ended questions and even write about what they enjoyed about the book.

Counting objects, identifying shapes, using mathematical language (e.g. more, less, rectangle, add, subtract) and learning number bonds by heart to 10 (e.g. 7+3=10, 8+2=10, 5+5=10) will all help your child in class.

General homework for EYFS students:

• encourage independence
• share books together and discuss them
• use their fine motor skills (building up the muscles in the fingers by writing, colouring, cutting, squeezing and threading etc.) Please ensure the correct finger/scissor grip is reinforced at home
• ask a lot of questions (get students thinking)
• get children physically active and playing alongside others
• do jigsaw puzzles and encourage them to solve their own problems

As homework in EYFS is not as structured as with older students, it can often be considered less important. However, please remember that these are the foundation years on which everything else is built and, therefore, the most important.