At John Henry Newman Academy, we believe that learning at home is an essential part of a child’s education. It offers a unique opportunity for children to explore new ideas, practise important skills, and showcase the fantastic learning they do at school in the comfort and safety of their own home. By working as a team—parents, children, and teachers together—we can highlight the value of learning and help children develop a love for it that lasts a lifetime.

We do not issue weekly homework but instead focus on building fluency at home. Reading is at the heart of this approach. We encourage you to read with your child every day, whether that’s sharing a bedtime story, exploring books sent home from school, or even reading real-world materials like recipes or instructions.

As children progress through the school, they will begin to learn spelling rules and techniques that require weekly practice. To support this, we provide short clips available on our website and social media to guide you through fun and effective ways to help your child.

Maths skills are equally important, and we use Timestables Rockstars and Numbots to make practising number bonds and multiplication tables engaging and fun. These online tools help children build confidence in their arithmetic and problem-solving abilities through independent play and should be completed weekly.

Each term, children will also complete a few activities as part of their ‘Mini Duke of Edinburgh’ programme. These tasks, shared on Tapestry and the class pages, are designed to encourage creativity, independence, and teamwork. Families can upload their progress to Tapestry, and these achievements will be recorded in the children’s Mini Duke of Edinburgh booklets. An after-school club is also available to support children in completing these exciting challenges.

For more resources, activity ideas, and helpful guides to make home learning easier and more enjoyable, please explore the links provided on this page. Together, we can create a supportive and inspiring environment where every child can thrive.

Spelling Shed

We will update this page when the Spelling shed is open for JHN. Each child will get a username and login so that they can then learn about their weekly spellings and spellig rules through games and actviites. In the meantime check out the website to learn more about our fantastic scheme, you can even sign up for a free trial. Click here.

Timestables Rockstars

Times Tables Rock Stars is an award-winning maths learning platform where children can practise their times tables like a rock star!

Suitable for all learners aged 6 years and up, our question-based games automatically adapt to each child’s unique learning needs, helping them to recall their times tables in record speed. Accessible on any device, via the app or browser, children can play anytime, anywhere. Plus, the engaging gamification and motivating rewards mean it is never difficult to entice children to play. Result!

Times Tables Rock Stars boosts maths confidence and incresaes fluency and recall in multiplication and division, delivering better maths outcomes. It adapts to each user’s unique learing needs and allows us to track their individual progress. Kids love earning virtual coins to personliase their rock avatars and move up the rock leaderboard from “New Artist” to “Hero”.

Please speak to your child’s calss teacher if you do not know your child’s login details.

Please click this link to go to the Timestables Rock Stars website.

FFT Phonics

At JHN we are very lucky to work with FFT to help with our early reading, phonics and Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar for chidlren across the school. FFT also have a very helpful Parent Portal which provides information on:

• Phonics and Writing phases
• Tips for reading and home with your child
• Parent Carer Guide about the scheme, how you can help and what your child is doing in each of these lessons at school
• Helpful videos to show how the pronuncion of the graphemes using the pictures and clues the children have at school
• Shared Readers to look at home with your child

Our JHN Passcode is: FFTJHN

 

Oxford Reading Buddy

Dear Parents/Carers,

We are really excited to provide every child with a login for Oxford Reading Buddy. It is accessible on any device to develop children’s reading development at home as well as at school.

 

Oxford Reading Buddy contains hundreds of digital books and book-quizzes all matched to each child’s reading ability. Children can earn badges for good reading behaviours, be coached in their understanding by their personal ‘Reading Buddy’, take quizzes and record all the reading they do. Everything is captured so that your child’s teacher can see how they’re getting on.

Please log in with your child when your child brings home their sign-in card and have a look around. (Or speak to the office or your child’s class teacher if you need it again). Do encourage your child to use it regularly and discuss what they are reading with them. You might be interested in watching them reading one or two of the Coaching eBooks because Reading Buddy is a good model of how to support and encourage children’s comprehension skills as they read.

Children will be encouraged to access Oxford Reading Buddy at school with regular incentives to continue to motivate their reading.

Please click this link to go to the Oxford reading buddy website.