- The purpose of homework: We believe homework is an important part of the work we expect pupils to do and is a useful means of reinforcing work habits. It provides pupils with valuable additional time to extend work done in the classroom and develops their ability to work alone: this is a vital skill. It also enables parents/guardians to become more involved in the management of the child’s learning and be better informed about the work pupils are doing.
- Amount of homework: Homework is structured so that there is a gradual development in its amount and complexity as the children move through from Year 1 to Year 9. Each child has a school diary for recording homework on a daily basis and this will be taken home for parents to look at and sign daily for Years 1-6 and weekly for Years 7-9. The child’s class teacher will also use the diary to check that homework is being set and recorded in line with the homework timetable. Each year group will have a homework timetable organised to ensure
- No more than two subjects per night
- No overload at weekends
- At least one evening is allowed to complete each piece of homework.
Each child will have a copy of the homework timetable in their diary and a copy to take home to parents. All staff will have copies of homework timetables.
- Guidelines for Setting Homework: The main focus of homework for children in the Primary school should be Literacy and Numeracy. Science and other subjects should be added to the programme as children move up the school.
- Scheduling: The table below outlines the weekly homework schedule for each year group.
| Years | Time | Content |
| 1&2 | 1 hour per week |
|
| 3&4 | 1.5 hours
per week |
|
| 5&6 | 2.5 hours Per week |
|
All children should read daily. Homework in Years 1 and 2 should very largely consist of regular reading, with parents and guardians looking at books together.
Children are naturally enthusiastic and eager to learn in the early years of their education and it is important not to smother this enthusiasm by putting undue pressure on the children.Short bursts of work are far more beneficial than long periods, in which a child can become despondent.
Reading should be fun and children, as well as reading aloud to an adult,should learn to read through listening to stories and sharing books.
As the children progress, simple spellings are introduced and common words to learn linked with the Literacy Framework. Later, these are matched to the classes’ phonic work. Number games and number tasks are introduced through the Numeracy Framework.
Homework is set for the child and should, with the support of their parents, be
the child’s best efforts. It should not be the parents’ efforts and should be enhancing the partnership between the home and school, not damaging it.
- Secondary 1 (Yrs 7-9)
| The amount of time which should be spent on homework, should fall within the following ranges: | Up to 30 minutes per subject each night, so 1 hour per night. |
| Year 7-8 | Up to 40 minutes per subject each night, so 1 hour 20 minutes per night. |
| Year 9 | Up to 50 minutes per subject each night, so 1 hour 40 minutes per night |
- Planning and preparation: Homework should complement classroom learning and is successful when well planned with appropriate learning objectives, and when differentiated to meet the needs of the pupils.
- Assessment, feedback and progression: All homework should be marked and returned to pupils with appropriate feedback indicating whether they have achieved the learning objective. This will also support the class teacher in planning future homework.
- Resources: A range of homework resources are available to staff in each year group and it is recommended that staff develop a bank of resources.Diaries are used throughout Years 1-9 to record given homework, whilst folders and exercise books are available for completing and keeping homework in.
- Holidays:Generally homework will not be set for holidays. There will be some exceptions to this e.g. Year 6-9 revision over the Easter holidays and occasionally project/research work.
- Monitoring: Both parents and teachers play a crucial role in monitoring homework. Parents are asked to sign the homework diary to show that they have checked that homework has been completed. Subject teachers will make sure that homework is given at the correct time and recorded accurately. Class teachers will monitor homework for their own class and the homework planner weekly. The Director of Academics will monitor homework in the year group by regular sampling of planners.
- Nature of Homework: Finishing work off class work will not regularly be used as a homework task as this disadvantages slower pupils and fails to challenge brighter pupils. Homework will cover as wide a range of tasks as possible e.g. Research tasks, learning spellings or Math tables, Vocabulary, key information, watch a TV program or listen to a radio program, revision of notes, investigations, interviews, simple experiments, essay writing, public library visits, drafting, report writing, designing, making a model, drawing, reading, word processing, desk-top publishing, projects etc. all constitute valid assignments.
- Children should be given clear instructions that can be translated by their parents. Homework sheets with examples on them can be very helpful to both pupils and parents.
- Parents and children should be given an indication as to how long the work should take.
- Feedback: Feedback will be given promptly and be in line with the school policy for Marking and Response, but need not necessarily be written. Homework planners can be used to give feedback to parents and carers to give feedback about how well children carried out the homework tasks and whether the tasks were interesting, too easy, too hard etc.
- The Role of Parents and Guardians:
- To provide a peaceful, suitable place in which homework can be done.
- To support the school by showing that homework is valued, and explain its value in helping children to make progress.
- To encourage and give praise for completed homework.
- To check that deadlines are met.
- To become actively involved in joint homework activities with younger children.
- Sanctions: Subject teachers will be responsible for monitoring their own homework. If three pieces of homework are not done in one month, a letter will be sent home with the homework.
- Recording homework in the Student Diary: Pupils must write what home work has been set for each subject and when it is to be completed by, in the relevant section of the Student Diary. If, for some reason, no home work is set, pupils should write“None set”.The homework set will often be an integral part of the class work taking place at the time. Rather than being an isolated task set for the sake of setting homework, it should relate centrally to the framework of the learning process. For example, assignments designed as part of the planning of a subject scheme of work can help to make homework both relevant and manageable. Occasionally it will be “finishing off” of topic covered in class.