Homework

To encourage time for extracurricular activities, reflection, creative play, and quality family interaction, Trinity teachers will avoid excessive homework and will focus on work that accomplishes the following purposes:

·   Reinforcing knowledge and skills that require practice

·   Bridging the gap between home and school

·   Encouraging reading

Through the fourth grade, group and individual projects assigned by the classroom teacher will customarily be completed during school hours rather than being assigned as homework. In grades 5 and 6, work at home will be required for projects. Parents may be called on to assist with projects for enrichment and with the preparations for special activities that culminate a unit (e.g., making costumes, contributing special foods).

In the earliest grades, homework will consist primarily of the review of memory work and the practice of reading, math, and spelling. Beginning in fourth grade, homework becomes a more important way to accomplish class objectives, as with the reading of novels or completing of math assignments. Art and music teachers generally do not assign homework. In the upper elementary grades, teachers closely monitor the amount of time spent on homework, to help students balance the demands of school with the demands of work, play, and family life.

Generally, Lower School students can be expected to be assigned up to 10 minutes of homework per grade level each night. Thus, for example, first grade may have 10 minutes of homework, third grade 30 minutes, and fifth grade 50 minutes. Sixth grade students may be assigned up to 15 minutes of homework per subject, per teacher, for a total of 60 minutes per night.