Home Learning

West Hampstead Primary School's Google Classroom

It is vital that children feel secure and happy about their learning at Nursery as these are the roots of their academic life.  You can help your child at home by:

• Establishing a routine at home which provides plenty of sleep (10 hours a night), nutritious food and quality time with you. 
• Talk talk talk!  Current research into brain development suggests that 'high talk' (lots of talk)  in one to one coversations helps children to learn language more quickly and increase their vocabulary.  This should be in the language you speak and use most fluently at home - which may not be English.  Making time to listen to your child, encouraging them to share their ideas and valuing their responses will raise their self-esteem, foster independent thinking and advance language development.
• Play play play! Staying active is vital for young children to develop their gross and fine motor skills - the precursory skills to drawing and writing.  It is helpful to know what physical skills your child should be developing by 3 or 4 years old.  Next time you are playing with you child, you may like to note if they can do the following:
  • walk with agility, a steady gait and good balance
  • run at a comfortable speed in one direction and around obstables 
  • aim, bounce, kick, throw and catch a large ball 
  • hop several times on each foot 
  • walk along and jump over a low object 
  • pedal and steer a tricycle 
  • brush teeth and comb hair independently 
  • get dressed with a little help 
  • skilfully feed themself using cutlery 
  • cut along a line using scissors 
  • pick up small items such as paperclips, small pebbles or buttons 
  • complete a simple jigsaw puzzle 
  • copy a simple shape and print some letters of the alphabet
  • stack large and small objects so they don't fall.
• You can help your child by:
  • providing plenty of opportunities to exercise - time at the playground, swimming, cycling, rambling, using a scooter, gardening, cooking, extra-curriculuar sport or team games etc
  • providing toys or activities which are designed to improve gross and fine motor control such as jigsaws, cutting and sticking, playdough, skipping ropes, footballs, building blocks, duplo/lego, drawing, painting etc
  • resisting the temptation to do things for your child such a feeding and dressing them - allow them to build resilience and independence by trying to do these things on their own with your encouragement.
• Read read read!  Yes, here we are banging on about Reading yet again - but there is a reason why!  Research shows again and again that reading for pleasure makes a significant difference to children's educational performance. Children who read for pleasure every day not only perform better at school, but have a wider vocabulary and increased general knowledge.  You can help by:
  • Making time to share a book with your child every day.
  • Reading aloud to your child, talk about words and pictures and share ideas about the book.
  • Reading yourself - children who see their role models (that's you) reading, and enjoying it, are more likely to want to read themselves.
  • Surrounding your child with books - you don't need hundreds of books at home, visit the West Hampstead library or a bookshop regularly, browse, spend time together and make choices.  In this way, reading becomes a habit.
• If you have any concerns, questions or anxieties about how to help your child or their development -please see a member of staff. We are here to help!