Gunthorpe CE Primary School Homework Guidelines September 2014
HOMEWORK GUIDELINES
Introduction
The pressure to achieve is a constant in our lives these days; both in education and at work. More is expected of children than ever before and the time constraints in school are always being stretched. Homework provides an invaluable opportunity for children to practise skills and check their understanding. At Gunthorpe School we believe that homework should support and embed work conducted in class, it develops greater independence and self-discipline in the learner and enables parents to become more closely involved with their children's schoolwork.
Early on in school, homework will require a great deal of parental support and interaction. As the children progress it may offer increased opportunities for children to develop their own work and follow up areas of interest to them. For any homework policy to be 100% successful it must have the support of parents and consistent application from school.
Aims
To provide motivating, relevant and challenging tasks
To provide opportunities for practice and extended learning
To develop independence, perseverance and self-discipline.
Quality and commitment
We believe it is important that homework is completed to the same standard as would be expected in class work. Where children use pencils in class they should do so with homework. If they normally use pen in school then they should endeavour to use a similar type of pen at home (use of biros is not encouraged). Children should take all possible care with handwriting and spelling and see homework as another opportunity to do their best work. When homework is not completed to a satisfactory standard, children may be asked to repeat it at break times.
Pupils are expected to complete and return homework at agreed times, having shown commitment in time and effort. Teachers will ensure that deadlines allow all children time to complete their homework. Where pupils consistently fail to hand in homework, parents will be contacted by class teachers to seek co-operation in finding ways to remedy the problem.
Where there is a genuine reason for not completing homework, an explanatory note from the parent should be brought into school by the child.
Current Practice
Foundation – Daily reading or sharing of books. Key words to learn to read and spell. (Any opportunities for using counting skills through day to day practical activities).
Key Stage 1 – Daily reading 5-10 mins. A fortnightly English or maths task. 5 spellings related to their phonics group. Bug Club, Mathletics.
Key Stage 2 – Lower Juniors (Y3/4) – Daily reading 10-20 mins. A weekly English or maths task. 5 spellings related to their phonics group. Bug Club, Mathletics. Work related to English and maths targets. Occasional topic related tasks. (Children in Junior 1 have number bonds to learn, and a record of their achievement to complete. As they progress towards Y4 they will move on to multiplication tables. Children should learn these at an appropriate time each week, as there are regular checks for them to earn bronze, silver and gold stars with a certificate upon completion of their record.)
Key Stage 2 – Upper Juniors (Y5/6) – Regular reading 20-30 mins. Bug Club and Weekly specific set work in Mathletics. Work related to literacy and maths targets. Tasks relevant to ongoing work e.g. DARE Homework, SATs preparation and revision (Jan – May), topic related tasks.
‘Mathletics’ and ‘Bug Club’ are on-line, password protected resources which the school buys into for children to use at home. There is an expectation that parents will monitor children and support this with time and access to the internet. Where this proves difficult, parents should inform the teacher who will make arrangements for work to be conducted during lunch breaks.
Guidance
Reading - Up to Y3 (depending on the type of text that the child is reading)
Each child should read for a brief period every day
- Y3-6 Specific times should be set for more sustained reading (moving from daily reading to less often but for longer periods)
The accent must always be on sharing the book; discussion of the story so far, prediction and inference are all important tools to support comprehension; helping to understand the text rather than just to ‘decode’ the words, and above all fostering enjoyment in reading.
Spelling - Short spelling lists appropriate to the child’s level, usually involving one or more letter strings. (words which have similarities: eg. could, should would) The important aspect here is the method of learning words should follow the procedure: -
LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE - CHECK
This is about developing a clear learning strategy for all new words. The child looks at the word; says it aloud then covers it up and tries to write it correctly. A check is then made to see if it is correct. The process can be repeated until the word is embedded.
Homework is necessary on occasions to draw from situations, materials, or sources of information not readily available in a school environment. It may also be required to catch up with work after a prolonged absence or to continue work unfinished in school.
Additional requirements are made from time to time that relate to work going on in the classroom. These will be of the: - find out, ask about, look for, bring in or collect group of tasks. Children may also come home wishing to follow things up independently and this should be encouraged where practicable.
Time spent on homework tasks can vary greatly and it is difficult to give clear-cut advice on how long to spend on homework. Judgements need to be made that relate to the task and to the child. Attention spans in younger children tend to be short so homework tasks should be designed to take a short time or to be done in short bursts of time. As books grow in length so they may not be finished in one reading session of 10 - 15 minutes. Independent reading for older children should be around 20 - 30 minutes, but some children may wish to read for longer. Tasks such as learning spellings or tables are best done repetitively in short bursts.
With weekly set tasks infant children may spend up to 30 minutes on the task whereas junior children ought to be working for up to an hour to do the task justice. Anything more than this on a regular basis may be excessive. The children should not be stressed by the work but they should be challenged and encouraged to persevere.
Some children may need individual, intensive homework programmes and these will have been previously discussed with parents.
Communication
Children can be sometimes be careless and lose or forget homework sheets. We do understand this but there will be an increasing expectation that children learn to be responsible for their own organisation as they move up the school. If at any time there is a difficulty in completing homework, please speak to your child’s class teacher.