Port Hedland Primary School

GUIDELINES

Every school is to have a documented approach to homework that takes into account the needs of the students and their phase of development, and reflects the context of the school.

It is expected that homework will relate directly to the learning and teaching programs appropriate to the needs of the students.

PRINCIPLES

Homework should

• support the development of the student’s independence as a learner;

• further the partnership between school and home;

• avoid dependence on unreasonable levels of parental assistance or resources that are not readily available to the student;

• be set without impinging on reasonable time for family, recreational, cultural and employment pursuits relevant to the student’s age, development and educational aspirations;

• be balanced across learning areas so as to avoid stress and overload;

• be phased in gradually and consistently as students move through the upper primary years and sustained through the secondary years;

• be consistently applied, monitored and assessed in a whole-school approach that is responsive to individual needs and learning area requirements;

• only be used to facilitate the achievement of learning outcomes;

• form part of a developmental learning program that is responsive to individual needs, clearly relevant, supported by classroom practice and, where appropriate, developed in collaboration with students; and

• be disassociated from any form of punishing students or means of securing discipline.

PORT HEDLAND PRIMARY SCHOOL

POLICY: HOMEWORK

RATIONALE/GOAL:

International research indicates that homework has little effect on improving students’ achievement in Primary School. However, there is also evidence that a reasonable amount of homework, balanced across the curriculum, supports the development of the student’s independence as a learner and can further the partnership between school and home.

Our goal is to develop students’ self management skills through students developing their own study habits with support from parents and teachers. Homework tasks should be phased in gradually and consistently as students move through the primary years.

Responsibilities and Expectations

From Teachers (PP-Yr 6)

·  Provide students with a choice of relevant and developmentally appropriate homework tasks to be completed for the week.

·  Provide all students in PP-Yr 6 with the opportunity to choose appropriate reading material to take home. (Home Readers, Library Books)

·  Acknowledge student effort.

From Students

·  Complete reading.

·  Assume responsibility for ensuring timely exchange of reading materials.

·  Ask teachers for clarification if required.

·  Assume responsibility for setting aside time to complete reading each night.

Recommended Times

·  PP- Yr 2 10 minutes daily

·  Yr 3 – Yr 4 15 minutes daily

·  Yr 5 – Yr 6 20 minutes daily

From Parents

·  Year 3-6 (As secondary school will require all students to be able to manage time effectively to complete all homework tasks, we recommend parents encourage their child/children to be responsible for completing their homework.)

·  K-2 Working with their child/children to focus on phonics, sounds and counting on a daily basis.

·  Provide a place for child to work.

·  Assist with Time Management.

·  Ensuring time is set aside for Daily Reading.

·  Assist students to be responsible for reading materials and assist with exchange of materials if necessary.

·  Provide materials to support the learning undertaken in school, such as iMaths student book, Library Bag

Review

Annually by Staff and School Board

Reviewed by Staff – 12th October 2015

Endorsed by School Board –

·  NOTE – Holiday packages will not be supplied to students if going on Vacation during term time

Tips for a getting the most out of your child’s reading sessions

Before, during and after reading aloud to your child

Emphasize that even though you are an adult reader, questions before, during, and after reading continue to help you gain an understanding of the text you are reading. Ask questions such as:

"What clues does the title give me about the story?"
"Is this a real or imaginary story?"
"Why am I reading this?"
"What do I already know about___?"
"What predictions can I make?"

Start reading the text, and ask yourself questions while reading:

"What do I understand from what I just read?"
"What is the main idea?"
"What picture is the author painting in my head?"
"Do I need to reread so that I understand?"

Then reread the text, asking the following questions when you are finished:

"Which of my predictions were right? What information from the text tells me that I am correct?"
"What were the main ideas?"
"What connections can I make to the text? How do I feel about it?"

Stretch your child’s thinking

The best way to stretch students' thinking about a text is to help them ask increasingly challenging questions. Some of the most challenging questions are "Why?" questions about the author's intentions and the design of the text. For example:

"Why do you think the author chose this particular setting?"
"Why do you think the author ended the story in this way?"
"Why do you think the author chose to tell the story from the point of view of the daughter?"
"What does the author seem to be assuming about the reader's political beliefs?"

Another way to challenge readers is to ask them open-ended question that require evidence from the text to answer. For example:

"What does Huck think about girls? What is your evidence?"
"Which character in the story is mostunlikeAnna? Explain your reasons, based on evidence from the novel?"
"What is the author's opinion about affirmative action in higher education? How do you know?"

Holiday Work Package

It is not uncommon for students at Port Hedland Primary School (PHPS) to be taken out of school by their families for extended breaks to visit family and friends in Perth, interstate and even overseas. The type of employment many of our children’s parents are involved in does not make it possible for children to travel during school holiday periods. As a result teachers are quite often asked to provide work packages for students during these extended breaks. As a staff we believe;

·  Concepts covered in class require introductions, examples, small group work, individual assistance, trial and error, feedback and assessment. Without the teacher being in a position to work with the child, a worksheet on its own (which the child can already do independently) is simply busy work, and:

·  Whilst we appreciate the fact that families can only take holidays at certain periods of the year, the decision to withdraw children from the school is one that parents make knowing that their child(ren) may miss key concepts during their absence.

Teachers will always do their best to ensure students have every opportunity to succeed, both prior to and after returning from holidays.

We understand that holidays provide an opportune time to build on and create new learning experiences for children. The activities listed below have been compiled by staff as being simple and beneficial to the learning process.

·  Keep a written diary of events.

·  Use a calendar/diary to plan dates, events and times.

·  Write letters to classmates at school informing them of the adventures had.

·  Take a range of books, talking books, magazines, comics and brochures to read.

·  Use a map to log travels, work out directions, distances, keys and symbols.

·  Visit local Visitors’ Centres, collect brochures and make a poster, or their own brochure.

·  Read road signs to help calculate distances and approximate arrival times.

·  Play eye spy (junior primary letter recognition) and 20 questions.

·  Help with holiday shopping to learn about money, decimals, rounding and estimating (create a budget for pocket money).

·  Write some important facts about places of interest that have been visited.

·  Play basic facts number games (adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing).

·  Parents talk to the children and ask questions that require higher order thinking e.g. What did you like most about…. Why do you think…. What could happen if….