Aims

• Homework should be interesting, challenging and where appropriate open ended.

• Homework should be purposeful, meaningful and relevant to the school curriculum.

• Homework should help to develop good organisation and planning, reflection on performance and build on effective study habits developed at school.

• Students should be encouraged to develop time management skills.

• Students should complete homework on a regular basis.

• Homework is most effective when it enable students to revise or consolidate prior learning. Concepts revisited within one to three months have a greater chance of being retained in long term memory.

Guidelines for Students

• Homework can take two forms

  1. Home tasks – set tasks to be completed by a due date. Students should space the time they spend on these home tasks accordingly.

  2. Home Study – revision of class work, organisation of folders, completing study notes etc.

• The College e-diary/diary is vital for keeping to these deadlines.

• Home-study is the consolidation and revision of what students have learned. All students should make up a home-study timetable. Identifiable problems could then be resolved quickly.

• Students should be aware of the world around them so they should read widely, including the daily newspapers.

• Students in Year 7 are expected to complete a minimum of one hour’s work per night, with the time increasing as students progress through the school.

Eg: Years 7 & 8 1 hour per weeknight or 5 hours per week

Year 9 1.5 hours per night or 7.5 hours per week

Year 10 2 hours per night or 10 hours per week

Year 11 2.5 hours per night or 12.5 hours per week

Year 12 3 hours per night or 15 hours per week.

It is also considered appropriate that at Years 11 and 12 up to six hours will be spent on home-tasks and home-study during weekends.

Guidelines for Teachers

• Teachers should set realistic tasks. Be sure that students know what is required of them. Do some sample tasks in the classroom, if possible, before setting it for home-study or as a home-task. In Middle school classes in particular, teachers should consider having the whole class enter the task in their e-diaries when it is set.

• Know how long the tasks will take and space the work accordingly. Take note of the feedback you get from students about the amount of home-tasks/home-study they have at a particular time.

• Try to be aware of work other teachers have set at that level. This should be discussed at level meetings. This includes trying not to overload students with more than two tests on the one day.

• Keep to deadlines except for compassionate reasons.

• Provide feedback on all homework tasks promptly.

• Tests should not be set on the first day of a new term.

Guidelines for Parents

Home-study provides further opportunities for parents to participate in their child’s education.

• Provide suitable conditions for study. Students need a quiet place, with adequate equipment (table, chair) and lighting.

• Take an active interest in the work set. Check the e-diary/diary (helping your children to use it systematically to record tasks to be done). Use the e-diary/diary as a means of communication between individual teachers and your home.

• Take note of due dates (put them on your house-hold calendar too) and see that the work is actually done.

• Get to know your children’s work habits. Pace of work varies from person to person. Some students work better in the morning others at night. Make allowances for these individual preferences.

• Help your children to find a suitable balance between the time spent on school work, sport, entertainment, part-time job, household chores and other activities.

• Encourage your household to work cooperatively. Parents and students need to realise each other’s needs and to work together to achieve family ambitions and goals.

Years 7-9

The college believes that students in Years 7- 9 need a rest from homework during school holidays. However, students may be:

• Asked to complete tasks which were set earlier in the term and whose deadline for submission has passed

• Asked to read a novel in preparation for work in the new term

• Offered a chance to start a piece of work due in the new term

Years 10-12

It is expected that students in the Senior School will be set some homework to be completed during the holidays. This could take the form of: set reading, completing set tasks, revision work etc.