Holy Trinity College

Holy Trinity College Homework Policy

September 2014 Holy Trinity College Homework Policy

While homework generally arises from, and is stimulated by, the Schemes of Work it is also recognised that homework flows naturally from work done in class and that digression and variation in homework task and focus is encouraged.

Why is homework important?

 It can help pupils to make more rapid progress in learning.  It can allow pupils to develop the practice of working on their own without the constant presence of the teacher or other pupils on the one hand and the external discipline of things such as the timetable or the bells on the other. This way of working is vital at the later stages of post-primary education.  Work at home can provide the quiet and private conditions needed for creative and thoughtful work of all kinds.  It can allow valuable practice of skills learned in the classroom.  It can allow pupils to use materials and other sources of information that are not always available in the classroom.  It can involve parents and others in the pupil’s work for their mutual benefit.  It can give the opportunity for long-term research and other work.  It can form an important part of the pupil’s notes.  This gives pupils valuable experience of working to deadlines and facilitates teachers with their marking schedules.  It forms a link with the methods of study crucial to success at Post Primary school.

How does the school help pupils organise their homework?

 Each pupil is given a homework diary at the beginning of the year.  We try to make sure that our instructions concerning homework are clear to everyone in the class, and that adequate time is allowed to copy down what is expected.  We aim to mark or respond to homework regularly, and in a way that is helpful to pupils.

2 Purpose of homework

Homework is seen as one of the principal ways in which pupil achievement can be raised and provides opportunities for parents and children to work together and, most importantly, fosters an effective partnership between home and school. We greatly value the support of parents/Guardians and we believe this policy will be successful if there is a strong partnership between home and school which is reflected in our Home-School Covenant.

Homework enables students to:  Consolidate and extend work covered in class or prepare for new learning activities.  Develop research skills.  Have further opportunity for independent work.  Show progress and understanding.  Further enhance their study skills e.g. planning, time management and self discipline.  Engage parental co-operation and support and create channels for home-school dialogue.  To prepare for text/examinations.  To further challenge and extend gifted and talented children.  To provide focused and sustained support for less able pupils.

Homework will support staff by:

 Providing feedback in the evaluation of teaching.  Identifying areas for intervention within students’ learning.

3 Homework expectations:

Each curriculum area is responsible for setting the following maximum amount of homework every week:

Key Stage 3 Time per week Subject Year 8 Year 9 Year 10 English 45 mins 45 mins 1 hr Mathematics 45 mins 45 mins 1 hr Science 45 mins 45 mins 1 hr Religion 45 mins 45 mins 1 hr Music/ 45 mins 45 mins 45 mins Tech/Art./Drama. Environment and 30 mins 30 mins 45 mins Society (Hi and Geog) Modern Foreign 30 mins 30 mins 45 mins Languages Total: 5 hrs 15 mins 5 hrs 15 mins 6 hrs 15 mins

Key Stage 4 Time per week Subject Year 11 Year 12 English 60 mins 75 mins Mathematics 60 mins 75 mins Science 60 mins 75 mins ICT 45 mins 60 mins BTEC Options 60 mins 75 mins Other Options 45 mins 60 mins

The students’ work will receive the following:  A summative statement about the quality and presentation of the work.

4  A grade/ mark (if appropriate) for the content of the work. This is particularly relevant at GCSE, AS and A2 level where past papers form the basis of a lot of the homework set.  Misspellings, poor punctuation and grammar will be identified.  A formative comment highlighting both positive attributes and areas that need improvements.  Date.

The teacher will outline how improvements may be made either on a particular homework or during general oral feedback to class. The teachers will use whole school strategies relating to developments in Assessment for Learning, including peer and self assessment, shared learning intentions and learning outcomes in the assessment of the pupils’ work. Particular emphasis is placed on self and peer assessment.

Teacher will record all marks awarded in his/her mark book and/or on SIMS, enabling them to monitor students’ progress.

Marking policy

The teachers’ assessment of the pupils’ work can be considered effective when:

“The pupils’ written work is regularly and consistently marked in ways that highlight the strengths and shortcomings, using approaches that are well understood by the pupils and their parents.”

‘Evaluating Schools’ ETI 1998

In as far as is reasonable, the department has a common, manageable policy on marking that is implemented by all teachers. As well as helping students to achieve higher levels of attainment, good marking also aids the development of ‘basic skills’.

Students will be praised when they show evidence of planning, drafting and writing allowing teacher to see progression and in order to build upon their own achievements and development and also when they have followed the Presentation Guidelines common across the college. Each class teacher marks in Green ink.

Assessment of day-to-day progress depends heavily upon the marking and correction of written work and other tangible forms of pupil response.

5 The main purpose is formative – helping students to see how their work can be improved and developed, identifying weaknesses and uncertainties as a basis for remedial action, and as a major and effective practical means of establishing suitably high expectations of each pupil.

Most students want to please and believe the marking of their work to be worthy of time and effort. In order to keep the marking load manageable, teachers can use elective detailed marking of books or other key pieces on a regular basis supported by a lighter scrutiny of other work. As and A2 marking tends to be more regular, though teachers are encouraged to use agreed methods of self and peer assessment to make this task less onerous.

All teachers need to ensure that:  Marking is regular and thorough enough to spot errors and inaccuracies.  Marking is constructive, using diagnostic comments mindful of pupils needs.  Particularly in years 8 and 9 marking needs to be simple, positive and pupil friendly.  Written comments and oral feedback communicate clearly to individual students and their parents the pupil’s strengths / weaknesses, level of understanding and skills. This can help parents take an active role in their child’s education.  They do not accept inaccurate or inadequate responses to written or oral tasks.  Steps are taken to act on missing, incomplete or poorly presented work.  Work is returned promptly to students.

School Practice

Senior Leadership Team

SLT will ensure that the development of homework programmes in departments is monitored and evaluated during the academic year.

The SLT will take responsibility for informing parents of the whole school homework policy in Holy Trinity College. The SLT will inform parents of:

 The aims of the homework policy  The use of the Diary

6  How best they can support their child’s study

Heads of Departments

Heads of Departments should prepare and implement realistic and manageable programmes of homework, maintain accurate records of completion and non completion of homework. Staff will make mention of homework when reporting to parents.

The Heads of Departments will ensure that:  The whole school policy is embedded firmly in departmental provision.  Regular monitoring and review of departmental provision takes place.  Teachers keep up to date records of assessment and homework completed.  Parents/Guardians are informed when pupils consistently fail to complete homework assigned by teachers in their departments.

Teachers

Class teachers should issue and monitor homework regularly and ensure that instructions for the completion of homework are stated clearly. Teachers should also ensure that homework issued is recorded by all pupils in the pupils’ Diary and that they maintain a record of all non- completion of homework.

How can Parents or Guardians help with Homework?

 Check that homework details are filled in clearly and regularly in the Homework Planner. There is space included for your weekly signature and this will be countersigned by the form teacher.  Help your child organise his or her time to best advantage so that things are not left to the last minute or even forgotten.  Try to ensure suitable working conditions at home. If possible provide a table, chair and a quiet place to work.  Encourage your child to avail of the college’s Homework Club.  Take a positive and active interest in your child’s work at home rather than just insisting that it is done.  Let the school know if there are problems with Homework that you cannot resolve. Perhaps your child seems to be doing too much, or

7 not enough, or is finding it too easy or too difficult. In the first instance contact the class teacher who will be glad to help.  Check presentation and content of all homework being returned to the College.

The role of the parent is crucial if a student is to benefit from homework.

To reinforce its value through positive feedback will give students the confidence to persevere, work hard and reach high standards of achievement.

Checklist for helping your child with homework

Show you think Education and Homework are important:  Set a regular time everyday for homework.  Ensure your child has paper, books, pencils and other things needed to do assignments.  Set a good example by reading and writing yourself.  Stay in touch with your child’s teachers.

Monitor assignments:

 Do you know what your child’s homework assignments are? How long should they take?  Do you know how the teachers want you to be involved?  Do you see that assignments are started and completed?  Do you read the teachers’ comments on assignments that are returned?  Is TV viewing cutting into your child’s homework time?  Do you check your child’s homework diary on a regular basis?

Provide guidance:

 Understand and respect your child’s learning style.

8  Does s/he work better alone or with someone? Does s/he learn best when s/he can see things, hear them, or handle them?  Help your child to get organised. Does your child need a calendar or assignment book or a bag for books and a folder for papers?  Encourage your child to develop good study habits (e.g. scheduling enough time for big assignments, CM tasks and preparation for exams)  Do you talk with your child about homework assignments? Does s/he understand them?  Do you and your child talk about plagiarism and it's consequences?

The Role of Pupils

At every stage, pupils should be encouraged to recognise the value of homework, and become fully aware of its capacity to improve learning.

Pupils are responsible for completion of homework to the best of their ability and on time. Pupils should be encouraged to plan their programmes of study, to ensure that their workload is as evenly spread as possible. Pupils should be encouraged to seek appropriate support to ensure that they are able to complete tasks set for homework. Pupils must record all homework tasks in their diary.

Pupils are asked to:

 Complete their homework and hand it in on time.  Listen carefully in class to make sure they understand what is asked of them.  Contribute to pupils’ interviews and pupil questionnaires on homework for the school to monitor and evaluate.  Highlight to the School Council any ideas they may have about homework.  Complete their homework using appropriate writing materials  Attempt all their homework activities.

Monitoring and Evaluation

A continuous process of monitoring the effectiveness of the Homework Policy will be carried out by Senior Leadership Team through scheduled book scoops and quality assurance checks on Homework dairies.

9 Heads of Senior and Junior School and Year Heads will regularly check the use of pupils’ diaries.

A whole school evaluation of the effectiveness of the policy will be carried out regularly. This should involve consultation with staff and a sample of parents and pupils. Where further good practice is identified, this will be shared across the school.

Subject teachers will:

 Keep a record of homework tasks as part of a lesson plan. (In Teacher’s planners)  Make the records available to the Leader of Learning and Heads of Department.

Leader of Learning and Heads of Department:

 Sample homework records,  Look at examples of homework and talk to students and staff according to monitoring programme using homework monitoring criteria,  Evaluate and update action plans accordingly.

The Senior Leadership Team will:

 Sample homework records  Sample examples of work and talk to students according to monitoring programme.

Evaluation of policy and practice:

The policy, and consequential strategies, will be regularly monitored and reviewed through lesson observations, work sampling, staff and student responses, analysis of assessment data and planning reviews.

Information provided from the monitoring and review process will inform decision making about improvements and further developments.

Additional information

Special Educational Needs

10 Although it is seen as important that children identified as having special educational needs do as much in common with the other children as possible, there will be occasions when they may benefit from special tasks that are alternative to the homework set for most of the other children in the class. If extra resources are needed for parents of identified groups of children e.g. dyslexic, children with speech and language difficulties, then parents are encouraged to borrow these resources from school.

The Gifted and Talented child

It is acknowledged that the able child needs to be given homework that will use their full ability and their homework may differ, but not always, from that set for the majority of the class.

Additional homework

If a parent feels that particular circumstances (e.g. prolonged absence from school) warrant additional homework this should be discussed with the class teacher. Additional homework will not normally be set simply because a child is taken out of school for a family holiday.

To successfully implement this policy all stakeholders are encouraged to play their part:

The Governing Body has:

 Delegated powers and responsibilities to the Principal and SLT to oversee the development of this policy, effective implementation, monitoring and evaluation of this policy.

The Senior Leadership Team will:

 Promote this policy by raising its status and importance.  Ensure that homework is built into teachers’ planning.  Provide support and guidance for parents.  Monitor and evaluate this policy.

Teachers will:

 Integrate homework into their planning.  Set homework appropriate to pupils’ Key Stage and abilities;

11 Failure to complete homework

Any system to ensure the completion of homework must ultimately involve working in partnership with parents/Guardians and the pupils involved.

The following system should be used to ensure a consistency of approach across all departments once the class teacher has exhausted all his/her powers of persuasion:

 Class teacher to issue a verbal warning. Teacher to record homework missed in his/her own records.  Subsequent homework missed -Class teacher to record on SIMs. Teachers may record in pupil diary. (Optional)  Third offence – Class teacher to a. record on SIMs b. issue a standard homework letter and inform the Head of Department that this has been issued.  Fourth offence – Class teacher to record on SIMs. Pupil given after- school Detention. Class teacher informs Head of Department. Head of Department to inform administration staff in charge of detention and parents informed about after-school detention via text.  3 subsequent homeworks missed – Head of Year informed by Head of Department. Head of Year will invite parents/guardians in to discuss. Class teacher to record on SIMs.  Class teacher to keep an ongoing record of non-completion of homeworks and this can be discussed at Parent/ Teacher meetings.

12 Homework Support and Guidance for parents – Frequently Asked Questions.

We are aware that parents and guardians may have a number of questions regarding homework. Some of these are summarised below.

We hope this will be a helpful guide which will enable you to further support you son/daughter.

Question: Answer:

1. “What is my role in homework?” Encouragement is a major role.

Ensure that your child manages and copes with the workload. Sit with them. Talk to them about tasks. If your child can verbalise their learning they are more likely to retain the knowledge. Check and sign your child’s diary each week.

2. “I’m busy and don’t have time to It is not essential that you sit with help. What can I do?” them and work alongside them, but showing an interest is imperative. Ask them what tasks they’re undertaking tonight and sound enthusiastic!

3. “I can’t help because education You can support by appearing has changed since I was at school. I interested in the work of your child don’t know what my child is taught.” and the college. Often simply reading through the tasks set will allow you to open up a discussion with your child. This will help your son/daughter in the in the learning process. Some materials are available on the college website. If there is

13 anything further that we can offer to help, please do not hesitate to contact us.

4. “I don’t know enough about a Young people thrive on rewards and specific topic to help my child. How can encouragement. Maybe collect and look I help?” at some information together. Supporting is an excellent way of helping. Often asking open questions and allowing your son/daughter to verbalise their understanding is useful. 5. “ It’s noisy and there’s no space at The school has a homework club which home” runs on a Tuesday and Thursday from 3.10 pm until 4:10 pm. There are also opportunities to complete homework in the LRC before school, during break and dinnertime. 6. “How much homework should my The current homework schedule can be child be doing?” found in the homework policy which is published on the College’s website. A hard copy is available from the office on request.

7. “My child doesn’t tell me about Firstly check your child’s diary. Ask homework. What can I do?” them open questions about today’s learning at school. Ask your son/daughter’s form teacher about any concerns you may have. 8. “My child’s homework is set The first thing to do would be to talk irregularly and then doesn’t get to your child and make sure of the marked.” facts. If there is an issue, tell us via the class teacher in the first instance. This issue can then be resolved. 9. “My child spends more time than Young people work at different speeds. necessary on their homework.” However, if they are spending inordinate amounts of time on tasks make a note in the pupil diary i.e. ‘x has spent 60 minutes on this task’; the subject teacher will then take charge of the situation.

Signed ______Signed: ______(Chairman of Board of Governors) (Principal)

14 Date: (Revised July 2014)