HOMEWORK POLICY

Britannia Village Primary School

Homework  Policy

Updated October 2018

 

At Britannia Village Primary School we believe that parents and teachers working in partnership have the best effect on children’s achievement.

 

We also believe that children need to enjoy their childhood and so homework should not deprive them of the time and space to have family time, to play, talk, imagine, create and learn in their home situation.  Children also need time to join clubs and organisations and pursue extra curricular activities.

 

There is no legal obligation for primary schools to set homework, but we recognise that children can benefit from sharing their school experiences with parents/carers.

 

Appendix 1 shows how we would expect parents to support their child at home.

 

Appendix 2 is a guide to additional learning activities which parents and children can try at home.

 

Appendix 3 is an analysis of the Parent Homework Survey, conducted during the Autumn Term 2015

 

Aims of homework

 

1. To contribute to raising standards through sustaining and consolidating the learning taking place in school.

 

1. To help develop good learning habits and encourage children to become independent learners.

 

1. To ultimately help children prepare for secondary school.

 

1. To help parents to understand and share in their child’s learning at school.

 

1. To enable the children to see partnership between their parents and teachers and how this benefits them.

 

 

Guidelines for Teachers

 

There is no legal obligation for homework to be set.  However, at Britannia Village Primary School, we set homework and encourage children to complete it in order to meet the above aims.

 

Teachers at Britannia Village are not required to mark homework. Instead, they will demonstrate that children’s efforts are valued by responding to the tasks for example through discussion at the beginning of a lesson or acknowledging homework in rubrics in books or through ‘Homework Award’ recognition in Years 4 to 6.

 

Activities should be planned as a year group or key stage for consistency, allowing children equal access. Activities should be linked to the curriculum in the classroom and should be achievable independently.

 

Parents are reminded of the need to supervise their child if they are accessing the internet for research linked to homework.

 

The school uses the Read Write Inc spelling programme. Spellings are recorded in Log books or via Spellodrome. It is important that these spellings are practised at home.

 

Homework packs may be given to children as national tests approach, in order to support their learning over the holiday periods.

 

Please refer to Guidelines to Parents for further details and information.

 

Guidelines for Parents

 

We welcome parental support in ensuring that homework activities are completed to a good standard and ask that parents sign written work to indicate that they have overseen it. If a child is unable to tackle the task set it still important that the homework is returned with a note so that the teacher is aware.  

 

We realise that, for a variety of reasons, parents may not be able to support their child in completing homework tasks. We aim to increase parents ability to do so through:

• Including an explanation and/or a worked example
• Providing training opportunities for parents
• Informing parents of useful websites including our own school website.

 

Reading

There is an expectation that children will bring reading books home in their reading bags every day. Children, even when they can read fluently, will benefit from reading aloud daily to an interested parent. It is also important that children are asked to summarise their reading and challenged to questions about what they have read (referring to the text for answers and proof) as well as encouraging children to predict what will happen next.  It is really important that books are returned each day in good condition.  Damaged or lost books will have to be paid for.

 

Please note that children who do not have their school book bag with them will not be allowed to bring books (Year 3-Year 6) home. Book bags can be purchased from the office.

 

Should pupils have difficulty in completing homework, a homework session is provided on a lunchtime (and for invited pupils after school) where pupils can raise questions to members of staff and tackle some of the homework as well as develop greater independent strategies. Pupils who do not bring homework into school without a valid reason (in writing from parent/carer), will be required to stay in over lunchtime to complete their homework. This will be logged internally as a Yellow Sheet on our behaviour system.

 

Appendix 1 – A guide to helping your child at home

 

 

Note: Maths targets are sent home 3 times a year, at your child’s level, with more suggested activities to try at home.

 

 

 

 

 

APPENDIX 2

 

Parent/Carer and Child Activities

 

Involve your child in domestic activities:-

• cooking has lots of language, maths and science potential
• laying the table has maths potential – patterns, numbers, sets, “next to”, “left”, “right”, comparisons of sizes of plates etc.
• going shopping – handling and counting money, sorting items in the trolley, dealing with change, discounts, special offers, let your child write the shopping list, read it to you in the shop and tick items off.
• Washing – how do the clothes get clean and dry? Sort out the socks – matching pairs, find the biggest, smallest etc.

 

• Playing with water – filling containers, guessing how many of one container fills another.

 

• Visit the library on a regular basis and let your child join.  Reading together at bedtime, discussing pictures, taking turns to read.  Let your child see you reading for pleasure and information. 

 

• Teach your child nursery rhymes, poems and songs.

 

• Provide paper, pencils/crayons to draw or write with.  Any early “scribbles” are the beginning of writing and should be encouraged.  Encourage your child to keep a diary for a short while, write letters, cards, etc.  Maybe thank you letters after Christmas and birthday presents.

 

• Help your child make a scrap book of places visited.

 

• After you have watched a T.V. programme, turn the TV off and talk about it. Also encourage your child to summarise what they have watched.

 

• Join in their imaginative games, role play, provide a dressing up box and an old blanket or sheet.

 

• Play with your child using construction toys such as Lego, Duplo and train sets.

 

• Do jigsaw puzzles – have you tried a 3D one?

 

• Visit the park, play with bats, balls, skipping ropes and hoops.

 

• Play with board games e.g. draughts, snakes and ladders, Monopoly, Scrabble, chess, also dominoes and cards.

 

• Telling the time and timing activities.

 

• When travelling – encourage your child to be involved in reading the timetables and discussing time until departure, length of travel etc.

 

• There are also a wide variety of educational Apps available for children.

 

• Look out for events at theatres and offers in the Primary Times.

 

Most Importantly – HAVE FUN! – It is all Educational.

 

 

 

 

APPENDIX 3

HOMEWORK POLICY SURVEY 2015

 

Homework Policy Review

Parent Survey, Autumn term 2015

86 questionnaires returned

Questionnaires returned per year group

Reception – 18

Year 1 – 4

Year 2 –  13

Year 3 - 13

Year 4 - 8

Year 5 - 18

Year 6-  12

 

Analysis:

 

1. My child is given an adequate amount of homework.

A) Strongly Agree    30%

B) Agree                  53%

C) Disagree            17%

D) Strongly Disagree 0

 

2. I supervise my child when they complete their homework.

A) Always    66%

B) Sometimes     31%

C) Never    3%

 

3. I understand my child’s homework.

A) Always    67%

B) Sometimes   33%

C) Never 0

 

4. I would appreciate further guidance with:

A) Maths Homework 46

B) English Homework 21

C) Reading Homework 17

D) Other – please state 5

 

5. I make use of the school’s website to advise with homework

A) Strongly Agree   8%

B) Agree                30%

C) Disagree       34%

D) Strongly Disagree  12%

 

6. I would rather that the classteacher spend less time planning lessons and more time constructing homework and marking homework.

A) Strongly Agree    3%

B) Agree                11%

C) Disagree          58%

D) Strongly Disagree   28%

 

7. I take my child on additional visits to supplement their classwork.

A) Always       10%

B) Sometimes    62%

C) Never        28%

 

8 Please take the opportunity to make any other comments below

 

 

Comments about homework

 

Some of the maths homework can be a bit tricky but we are happy with the progress my child is making.

 

Positive comment about appreciating the reading training for parents

 

A prompt would be useful to explain the homework.

 

Holidays shouldn’t be used for reading journals.

 

Parents requested further information/milestones for achievement.

 

No reception homework on mathematics

 

Planning should take precedence over marking homework.

 

The teacher is always approachable and helpful with regards to homework.