Leatherhead Trinity School and Children's Centre

In Year 6, children are expected to be responsible for completing and bringing in their home learning each week. One piece of written English and one of maths is set each Friday and children will be expected to bring the completed work back into school by the following Wednesday. With this expectation, we are also preparing the pupils for the transition to secondary school, where a lot more homework will be set.

Practising their times tables and related skills for the weekly Platinum Club challenge is also strongly encouraged.

Reading Records

In adult life we read a range of different texts for different purposes and, in doing so, build up knowledge of the ways in which each of them works. We use this knowledge every time we are faced with something to read and it is a major factor in our ability to comprehend what we are reading.

We build up literary competence through reading. Children who read widely will be developing their knowledge with every text. Each novel a child reads helps that child read the next novel – without necessarily any explicit realisation of what has been learned.

The reading record is a flexible method of recording individual reading development. Over time, patterns of development become evident and milestones and competencies can be readily perceived and recorded. A reading record provides a record of your child’s reading at home. You can become fully involved in your child’s development in reading and useful dialogues can take place between you, your child and your teacher.

In Year 6 we will be looking at the skills of retrieval, interpreting and commenting on what we read. This strategy is called the RIC or Finger Head Heart strategy.

RETRIEVAL: Understand, summarise, retrieve and record information from texts. FINGER

INTERPRET: Deduce, infer or predict information, events or ideas from text, justifying using the text. HEAD

COMMENT: Explain and comment on writers’ use of language, structure and presentation, and the overall impact on the reader. HEART

Example:

Retrieve: Where is John? What colour hat did Peter have?

Interpret: Why did John leave the park? Why did Peter put his umbrella up?

Comment: Why did the author use an ellipsis after John left the park? What is the effect of the word choice used by the author (e.g. Peter dashed anxiously towards the house).

We expect the children to do six reading entries a week in their reading records. One should be in the format of the RIC strategy and one entry from the reflective activity list. The other four should be signed by parents and please encourage your child to read aloud to you for these.

RIC – 3,2,1

Based on the book that they are reading, your child should:

(R x 3) Write and answer 3 retrieval questions based on the book they are reading.

(I x 2) Write and answer 2 interpret questions.

(C x 1) Write and answer one question that comments on the choice of language used by the author.

Please support your child in their reading development by hearing them read as often as you can.

Spelling Lists