Homework

At South Benfleet Primary School we value the role that Home Learning/homework can play as part of the whole learning experience. We also recognise the value of the many activities that children are involved in after school and at weekends, through family and friendship activities or their membership of clubs and organisations (e.g. Brownies and Cubs, sporting activities). We would not want home learning to cut through these activities that play such an important part in the children’s overall development. We believe homework should be proportionate to the age and ability of the child.

Any allocated homework for your child's class will be detailed in the Weekly Newsletter.

Aims

• To practise and consolidate/reinforce skills learnt at school- rather like practising an instrument between lessons
• To encourage self-motivation, self-discipline and independence especially for older children as they prepare for secondary school.
• To further develop home-school links and partnerships.
• To help parents gain an understanding and an insight into children’s school learning.
• To encourage children and parents to work together - sharing the learning.
• To plan and prepare for work to be done at school (research, talk homework, experiment, collect etc.)

Definition of home learning activities

Home learning/homework is “any other work or activity which pupils are asked to do outside lesson time, either on their own, or with parents or carers.”

Home learning/homework activities take a variety of forms but will always include reading.

Other activities may include:

How Parents can support children with Home Learning

• Help, encourage, be interested, stay calm, but don’t do it for them!
• Try to provide a quiet, dedicated space where parent and child can sit together to work through homework. – no distractions like TV in the background
• Encourage children to be neat and careful in completing the task – e.g. use a pencil not felt tip pen or biro.
• Complete tasks in small manageable chunks. Little and often is better than sitting for a long time getting tired, frustrated and fed up!
• Try to plan a homework time - it might not be a good idea to do homework just before bed.
• Be positive.
• We want parents to be involved in their child’s learning but we also need to see what children can do on their own, particularly as they get older. If parents, siblings etc. complete a homework task for their child, they’ve got little or nothing from it. However, if parents sit alongside encouraging, discussing and supporting it becomes a shared, positive experience.
• Remember that reading is a homework task every night. Quality reading time and discussion of texts is essential for every child. Parents should record home reading in Reading Record Books.
• If a child finishes a piece of homework or if no homework has been formally set, parents are encouraged to continue to read, talk about learning in school, go over spellings, learn times tables or number bonds, play a game, finds a suitable activity on the internet etc.

Feedback and Marking

We will value children’s home learning in a variety of ways. Sometimes, there will be written comments; sometimes work will be discussed, shared or used in class time; housepoints, stickers or certificates may be given; more creative tasks may be used as part of a classroom display. Where appropriate, tasks will be marked e.g. maths sheet/book. We ask Parents to take an active role in giving feedback to children. They could use similar forms to those used by the school – writing a comment, discussing the task, giving a sticker/smiley face etc. Always inform the teacher if a child has particularly struggled with a task, found it particularly easy, enjoyed the task etc.

Differentiation

We will provide differentiated activities as appropriate. This means that different groups may be asked to do different tasks appropriate to their ability. Some tasks will be differentiated by outcome- e.g. each child will tackle the task in their own way with many different outcomes. Children with Special Educational Needs may have some additional homework to target specific needs or have a different homework which supports target areas on individual plans.

Other resources / information

We will over time work on internet and other learning links for parents to support learning which we will display on our website and send home from time to time.

When homework is effective, everybody should see an impact on the child’s progress, interest and attainment.

If in doubt please ask!