HOMEWORK

At DBS, homework is seen as a partnership between parents, teachers and children. It is an important part of a child’s learning, which aims to maintain standards of achievement and maximise educational opportunity beyond the school day.

Homework is set regularly throughout the school, gradually increasing in quantity and complexity as students get older. In Pre-Prep, teachers will share the term’s learning objectives including skills that would benefit from practice at home. Additionally, children are expected to read daily each evening, practise spellings and complete activities set by their class teacher on ‘Education City’. 

Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6)

In Y3 and Y4, students receive consolidation work each week for English, Maths, Thai and Mandarin. The aim of these tasks is to consolidate their learning and to encourage practice of spellings and times tables. Each piece takes no more than 20 minutes to complete. Longer term project-based work is also given to enhance development of skills, creativity and curiosity. 

In Y5 and Y6, the homework continues in the same way, with Science work also being set each week, each piece taking no more than 20 minutes to complete. 

Upper School

In Y7 homework tasks continue to take approximately 20 minutes, increasing to 30 minutes in Y8,  and are set for core subjects. The core subjects at DBS are English, Mathematics, Science, Thai and Mandarin/Japanese. Homework should be recorded by the student on the day that it is set, as scheduled on the homework timetable. The deadlines are set as per the homework timetable. On occasion, a subject teacher not on the timetable may set a short piece of homework eg. preparing a skit for Drama or gathering resources for the following Art lesson, but the infrequency of these additional items will ensure that the students are not overloaded.

In Y9 and above, the students will receive independent learning from additional subjects, not just the core, on a daily basis to encourage more independent work and to develop time management skills. Further direction and information on Independent Learning can be found on the Senior School Parent Sites. Reading for pleasure should be considered as part of these tasks set. 

A crucial part of home learning is daily reading. Reading is the key to unlocking so much other learning; it not only supports academic progress across the curriculum but also nurtures a lifelong love of books and stories. As a guide, we expect children to read every day at home. Each child will have a reading record, and we kindly ask parents to write a brief comment in it each time they hear their child read. This simple but important routine helps strengthen home-school partnership and allows us to monitor and support each child’s reading journey.

Your child’s achievement is under constant review in all areas of the curriculum. This will be done through observation, providing feedback on learning, marking, testing, discussion with children and observations through monitoring. The information gained is used to inform teachers when planning their next lessons, to ensure they are relevant and pitched at the appropriate level for your child. More formal assessments also take place at different intervals throughout your child’s school career. The test results along with the on-going teacher assessments will determine a level of attainment for your child in different subjects. Regular assessments help to track the progress of our children and thereby maintain and improve standards within the school. 

Subject teachers will assess the students both formatively and summatively throughout the year, as is deemed appropriate in the curriculum. The Senior School also holds a formal assessment week in Term 3,  during which the students will be assessed under strict exam conditions. The exam timetable will be shared with parents before the exams in Term 3.