What is the purpose of homework?

• To encourage students to study independently.
• To develop perseverance, self-discipline and self-organisation.
• To allow practice of skills learned in the classroom.
• To allow more ground to be covered and more rapid progress to be made.
• To allow classwork to concentrate on activities which require the teacher's presence.
• To open-up areas of study using materials and sources of information not available in the classroom.
• To involve parents in students' work.

What tasks might homework include?

• Following-up or finishing off work begun in class.
• Applying what has been learned in class.
• Exploration in libraries, reading relevant newspapers or magazines, listening to relevant radio programmes or watching TV programmes.
• Visits to museums, shopping centres, or other places of interest.
• Quiet reading.
• Learning for a test.
• Preparing and organising for the following day.
• Exercises (eg in Mathematics)

Not all of the above tasks involve written work, nor obviously would they all be completed for the following day. They are no less important because of that.

How can I help my child with homework?

• Provide, if possible, an area to study which is warm, quiet, well lit and has a flat surface on which to work.
• Set aside a regular study period each day and at weekends. Ensure she or he keeps to this even if they claim to 'have no homework'. All students will have reading, revision, missed work to complete, materials and books to check for the following day - sufficient to fill the study period.
• Set aside a time at least every week to discuss homework in every subject with them.
• All students in years 7, 8 and 9 will receive a Student Planner into which they should enter details of the work and the date by which it is due to be completed. We would ask parents to look at their Planner every week and sign it when they have done so.

How much and how often should my child be getting homework?

All students will receive a homework timetable. We would suggest the following rough guidelines on the amount of homework.

The timetable and the figures above should serve as a useful guide but are no more than that. It is better to look at weekly or fortnightly totals (ie Year 7, 5-7 hours per week and so on) than become too concerned about a particular night.

From year 8 onwards it is likely that the coursework element in GCSE will lead teachers to set work over several nights or even weeks rather than just one or two nights. It is, of course, vital that the quality of the completed work reflects the extra length of time given.

What should I do if my child seems to be receiving too much or too little homework?

Obviously contact the school quickly if you feel this is the case. However, before you do so it is useful to do the following:

• Check the amount of homework in each subject as exactly as you can over a period of two weeks.
• Remember that not all homework is written.
• If too little homework seems to be set - check the work is not being done at times of which you are unaware, eg at lunchtimes (some children use the school library then and this is encouraged by us) and before you return from work.
• It is worth checking with another parent or a friend of your son/daughter to see if their experience is similar. Often you may find it is not!

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