Homework

The purpose of homework

Homework is a valuable element of the teaching and learning process which can raise standards, improve your child’s attitude to learning, extend and enrich class work and improve your child’s organisational and study skills. Click here for our full Homework Policy 

We value homework and the learning partnership between school and home. We see homework as an opportunity to:

• practice, consolidate and reinforce skills learnt in school, particularly in Maths & English
• use and apply skills learnt in school
• extend school learning (for example, through additional reading/finding out information in advance of new topics)
• improve the quality of learning experience offered to pupils by encouraging parents/carers to work alongside their children
• encourage your child to develop the confidence and self-discipline needed to study on their own, therefore preparing them for secondary education and exam/revision study
• give children the opportunity to demonstrate skills other than in Maths & English

Much of the homework set will centre on you working with your child. For example, reading with them, learning spellings and number bonds/multiplication tables.

Getting your child into an organised supported pattern of learning at home will reap rewards during their secondary education.

Remember our strapline is “New day…Endless possibilities”. Never be afraid to discuss homework with the teacher if you need further information. Together we can create secure foundations for lifelong learning.

Homework expectations

Every child has an individual work pace so the time taken to learn or complete work will vary. Homework is usually set on a Friday to be returned by the following Wednesday. As the children get older, the expectations regarding the quantity of work increases in preparation for their transition to secondary education:

Reading at home

Reading well is an essential part of your child’s education as it unlocks their ability to understand other subjects, leading to increased understanding and progress.

Reading helps your child to communicate and interact with others. It improves speaking, listening and writing. It is an essential life skill.

As parents, as our children get older and are more independent readers, we tend to be less involved when actually your children need you more as the content and language gets increasingly challenging!

Key messages are:

• For younger children, read little and often, every day is best rather than reading for a long time. The more they read, the more fluent they will become.
• Find a suitable reading environment which is quiet and relaxing so that you and your child enjoy your reading time.
• Your main roles are to check the accuracy of reading/decoding, explaining or finding out the meaning of unfamiliar words and discussing the text, questioning your child about what they have read.

Holiday homework

The children are on holiday for over a quarter of the year. The curriculum expectations are high and experience has shown us that doing no homework/learning over holiday periods leads to children forgetting many skills learnt.  In addition, later in their educational life (but as soon as Y6), the school holidays become the key revision time and so children assuming that school holidays mean they don’t have to do any work won’t help prepare them for the next phase in their education!

Creative holiday homework was introduced in response to feedback received from parents, to promote different skills and as a break from the more formal term-time homework.

We set a creative task for FS-Y5 for each short holiday to encourage the children to use and apply their learning in a more fun way whilst still keeping those brains active. Y6 will continue to have written homework during the short holidays in preparation for SATs but may complete the creative task in addition to this if they wish.

This holiday homework is optional (except work set for year 6) but strongly encouraged and children who choose to complete this homework will continue to be recognised for their hard work and commitment.