WHY IS HOMEWORK IMPORTANT?

Homework is valuable for the following reasons:

• It can help pupils to make more progress in learning.
• It can allow pupils to develop the practice of working on their own without the constant presence of the teacher or other pupils on the one hand and the external discipline of the timetable, bells etc. on the other. This way of working is vital at the later stages of secondary education and after.
• Work at home can provide the quiet and private conditions needed for creative and thoughtful work of all kinds.
• It can allow valuable practice of skills learned in the classroom.
• It can allow pupils to use materials and other sources of information that are not available at school
• It can involve parents and others in the pupils’ work for their mutual benefit
• It can give opportunities for long term research and other work.
• It can form an important part of the pupil’s notes.
• This gives pupils valuable experience of working to dead lines and facilitates staff with their marking schedules
• It forms a link with the methods of study crucial to success at Secondary School

Each homework may involve the following:

• Reading, writing & spelling. In all year groups, reading books are taken home as a matter of course. Pupils ‘read’ at home and/or practise key words or sounds with their family. Weekly spellings are given and possibly number bonds or times tables.
• Completing an exercise to practice, enforce or apply aspects of the class work, e.g. writing up practical work.
• The task selected by the class teacher is commensurate with the ability of the pupils.

How does he school help pupils organise their homework?

Each KS1 and KS2 pupil is given a homework book at the beginning of the year. Homework is stuck into books for pupils to complete at home.

We try to make sure that our instructions concerning homework are clear to everyone in the class, and that all pupils have plenty of time to copy down what is expected.

We aim to mark or respond to homework regularly, and in a way that is helpful to pupils.

How can parents or guardians help with homework?

• Check that homework is completed regularly.
• Help your child organise his or her time to best advantage so that things are not all left to the last minute or even forgotten.
• Try to make sure that there are suitable working conditions at home.
• Take a positive and active interest in your child’s work at home rather than just insisting that it is done.
• Let us know if there are problems with homework that you cannot resolve. Perhaps your child seems to be doing too much, or not enough, or is finding it too easy or too difficult. Contact the class teacher in the first instance who will be glad to help.