What do Cafés at Drake look like?

Cafés usually take place in the school hall a year-group at a time, approximately once each term throughout the school year. Dates and times for these are shared with parents in advance via the Parent Hub app; they are typically held in the mornings and tend to last around 1-1.5 hours.

Once you are seated in the hall, the teachers or pupils introduce the learning focus for the session – this could include sharing a book, a video or a presentation. They will then introduce the activities for the session and model these if needed, before you have time to complete the activities with your child. We try to choose activities which are easily replicable in a home environment and give you ideas for how to learn with your child outside of school. In the past, we have run successful Cafés on painting David Hockney style landscapes, making Christmas decorations, online safety and exploring Science experiments.

There are always drinks and biscuits provided to enjoy during the session and there is time to chat to other parents and school staff whilst you enjoy learning with your child.

During the Café, you will be asked to sign in – this is simply so that we can monitor attendance across the school and strive to improve! Likewise, post-it notes will be provided for you to leave feedback about the session: we love hearing what you enjoyed and tips for how to make our Cafés even better!

In Autumn 2023, all of our parent cafes will be focused on maths!

What will a maths cafe include?

• Maths! We want everyone who attends to have the opportunity to enjoy maths with their child. 
• A presentation that will be shared with you afterwards (please note that while we will try to make these as informative as possible, they will not be able to replicate attending the cafe). 
• Some top tips to take home to support your child with maths.

What else might the cafe include?

• Examples of the manipulatives we use in school and when they might be used.
• The children’s maths learning journey for the year.
• Suggestions of useful, age appropriate websites.
• End of year expectations for your child’s year group. 
• Examples of the calculation strategies the children will be using this year.
• The chance to see some assessment style questions e.g. end of KS2 SATs.
• Key vocabulary, with definitions, for your child’s year group.
• Common misconceptions 

Are there any websites I can use to support my child at home now?

Numberblocks on iPlayer is an excellent program for preschoolers up to Y2. The program is based on the latest research and the mathematical language used is the same as we use in school.

BBC Bitesize EYFS, KS1 or KS2 - excellent for revision.

The ‘1-minute maths’ app is a great, quick way to practise at home. Just download for free, no logins required. Available on Apple, Google and Amazon.

National Numeracy - advice, ideas and materials to help your children to feel good about numbers

We look forward to seeing you all 🙂