| What learning at home beyond the school curriculum can we encourage? |
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Research taster
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 Panjabi at a local Gudwara helped her with strategies for memorising Panjabi letters  .
Your evidence
You could gain more information on the types of knowledge your children are picking up and discussing at home by asking them to complete the following grid. If you teach bilingual children you could include the third column. Discuss with your pupils what sorts of things they can put in the grid before they start.
(Adapted from reflective activity 4-1d)
Moving forward 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? Find out more about the TLRP Home-school knowledge exchange project at: http://www.tlrp.org/project%20sites/HomeSchool/index.htm Find out more about effective home-school liaisons at: http://www.gtce.org.uk/policyandresearch/research/ROMtopics/parentalrom/ or http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/research/themes/parents/ |
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