Year 1 Phonics Screening Check

Children in Year 1 in Primary School could soon be tested on their reading skills using a new Phonics Screening Check.  
This is to make sure schools are using the Governments preferred method of teaching reading i.e. using a systematic method of teaching phonics – Letters and Sounds.  300 schools completed the test with six-year olds last summer, Government stats show that only 32% passed the test.  This means that two-thirds of the primary school children tested failed! So does this mean that primary schools are failing our children and teachers are not teaching children properly?

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Why Reading To Your Child At Home Is Of Benefit

Reading to your primary school child everyday is one of the most valuable things parents can do for their children.

Many parents read to their children for pleasure. The benefits of reading to your child everyday include language development and other important skills, primary school teachers can identify a difference between children who have been read to at home, compared to those children that are not.

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Key Stage 2 SATs 2013 are changing for Year 6 children in Primary School.  The maths tests will remain the same, however the English SAT's tests will change so that there is a focus on Grammar, punctuation and spelling.  This has been done so that children leaving Primary School are more confident in these areas.

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Division in many Primary Schools is taught using repeated subtraction. The 'chunking' method in Maths, uses repeated subtraction to find answers to division problems that use larger numbers, e.g numbers to 100 and/or over 100. It also helps children find remainders when dividing. A good, sound knowledge of  times tables facts in Maths, will help children use and understand the 'chunking' method, therefore regular time tables practice is essential.

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What Can I Do To Make My Children Happy?

How can we define a happy child? Happy children are confident, content, social, fun-loving, imaginative…

As much as we would all like to have happy children, UNICEF statistics suggest children in the UK are amongst the most unhappy children in the developed nations.

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