Home learning

last updated:September 2010

What learning at home beyond the school curriculum can we encourage?

Research evidence

Children exchange all sorts of additional information and knowledge at home, which are not a part of the school curriculum, but which are still important and advantageous for their overall development. One important area is learning languages from parents or grandparents. One study, for instance, describes how the grandfather of one child who was learning Punjabi at a local Gurdwara (Sikh temple) helped her with strategies for memorising Punjabi letters.
 
Your evidence

You might like to gain more information on the types of knowledge your children are picking up and discussing at home by asking them to answer the following questions. (include the third questiuon if f you teach bilingual children). You might find it helpful to discuss with your pupils what sorts of answers they can give before they start.

• Who do you talk with?
• What do you talk about?
• What language do you use?

 
Next steps

Having found out more about how your pupils interact with their family and friends, are there ways this could inform the way you organise teaching and learning? Would it be valuable to identify pupil experts in certain areas, such as a foreign country, or a sport, or their parent’s profession, so that other pupils could consult them when they are doing project work, for example? How could children’s language knowledge be incorporated in the classroom? Are there opportunities, such as greeting the class, where you could use community languages?