Whiteparish All Saints CE Primary School
Homework Policy
‘Learning with joy,
Playing with friendship.
And having God by our side.’
What is homework?
Homework consists of a range of tasks and learning opportunities. These may include:
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Finding information/ research tasks
Asking questions
Answering questions
Written work
Completing class work
Reading tasks/poetry responses
Planning presentations
Practising musical instruments
Learning spellings and times tables
Reinforcing learning at home in everyday situations (eg: shopping)
The actual range and amount of homework set will depend on the age of the child.
What does the Department for Education (DfE) recommend?
The DfE recommends that children are set homework which is manageable. KS1 children
should be set an hour’s homework a week (at least half of this should be reading). In years 3
and 4 this should be increased to one and a half hours a week and by Year 5 and 6 there
should be on average half an hour’s homework a day (2.5 hours a week).
The purpose of homework
We believe that homework should be used to reinforce and extend what is learnt in school.
Therefore homework should:
 integrate with classwork
 be tailored to individuals’ learning needs
 help pupils to learn independently
 be regularly and constructively marked or responded to.
Our Aims
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To ensure that homework fits within the scope of the teaching and learning policy.
To develop the skills and attitudes of independent learners.
To develop the partnership between school and home.
Our Objectives
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Homework tasks are meaningful and planned for.
Tasks are matched to children’s needs.
Homework complements classroom learning.
Pupils understand the learning intention and know the marking criteria, where
appropriate.
Feedback on homework will inform children how to improve. (This may be verbal)
Teachers will therefore:
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Provide work on a regular basis for the children and ensure that they understand what
has to be done.
Set differentiated tasks as necessary.
Give clear deadlines for work to be returned and respond to it promptly.
Provide feedback to children to enable them to move forward in their learning.
Let parents know if they have any concerns or if work is not being completed.
Children are expected to:
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Register their homework task and when it should be completed.
Check with the teacher if they are unsure of a task.
Complete homework to as high a standard as possible.
Hand their homework in on time.
Act on any feedback given by teachers.
How parents can support their children.
 Ensure that your children’s life out of school has time for work, play and rest.
 Provide a suitable place for your children to sit and complete written tasks - not all
children work best in quiet places away from all the rest of the family! Get to know
the situation in which your children can do their best.
 Make sure that your children have a quiet place and time to sit and read each day.
 Listen to your children read daily or regularly discuss the content of their reading
material with them as they get older and more confident.
 Be aware of which days homework tasks are set and when they need to be completed.
Talk to your children about when and how they are going to do it.
 Encourage your children to do their best and to take a pride in their work.
 Help them to self check for errors when work is completed. This may be by asking
them to read the work to you or asking them to explain how they have made the
calculations.
 Try not to do the work for them and don’t expect perfection.
 Help them to learn any spellings that are set and talk with them about the meanings of
the words.
 Practise times tables regularly with your children until they have accurate, rapid recall
of them all, aiming for Bronze and Silver certificates and badges in KS1 and Gold
and Platinum in KS2.
 Praise and reward your children for work well done.
Homework in Owls and Kites
All children should be engaged in daily text related/ reading activities at home. This may be
pre-reading skills such as sorting, matching or talking about a story; it may be the skills of
reading or telling a story to entertain; it may be practising phonic or word recognition skills or
discussing the plot.
Texts are made available for the children to take home each day. Reading records are used to
facilitate communications between school and home. Children who are supported in the
development of their reading skills by an adult at home will make far greater progress than a
child who is fully dependant on the reading activities provided in school.
Children in Owls and Kites may also, from time to time, be set an enquiry task or a fun
challenge based on class work.
All children in Owls have a journal that they take home each week. In this, they are
encouraged to draw or write about what they have done so that they can share this with the
class on Mondays. This is to encourage writing skills but also develops speaking and listening
skills.
The PTA have kindly funded a games library for children in owls to develop many skills
including counting, turn taking and having conversations. Children will have a game each
week to play with people at home as part of their homework.
Year 1 Owls and Kites will be set Maths work which will reinforce the work that they have
been doing in class during the week. These children will also have spellings homework which
will reinforce the spellings they have been working on during the week in school. We do not
test children on these spellings but we have found that children are more confident when
completing written tasks when they are secure in these spellings.
Homework in Hawks
It is expected that by Y3and Y4, most children are fairly fluent readers, so teachers do not
hear children read on an individual basis, unless a child needs extra support. Therefore, in
Hawks reading in school will move towards a focus on group and guided reading. Parents
should therefore promote the individual reading activities outlined above and should sign
their child’s bookmark, which counts towards the KS2 Reading Challenge. It is vital that
your child still reads aloud to someone regularly, as this is a skill that needs constant practice.
Children in Hawks will have other regular tasks to complete such as their spellings.
Additional activities which generally relate to Numeracy or Literacy, but may cover any area
of the curriculum will also be provided each week.
In addition, children who play a musical instrument at school should find time for a
short daily practice. The music teachers award certificates when 10, 20, 30 etc hours of
practice have been completed, Your child should be encouraged to do at least one
hour’s practice a week ( but not all in one session!) otherwise progress on an instrument
is very slow. If your child does not do any music practice, the school may suggest that
the lessons stop and the opportunity to learn an instrument is given to another child.
Homework in Falcons
Children in Falcons (Y4/5) still need to practise reading regularly at home and parents should
sign their child’s bookmark as part of the KS2 Reading Challenge. It is important that your
child still reads aloud to someone regularly, as this is a vital communication skill that needs
practice. In addition to reading, the children should learn their spellings each week.
All children will have at least one maths homework task set a week and in addition to this
there will be either a literacy, topic or science based piece of homework. The children will
have a few days to complete the work so that a small amount can be done regularly.
Y5 Falcons would benefit from engaging in wider reading, which may be fiction or nonfiction. Please encourage your child to challenge themselves by doing the ‘11 by 11’
challenge (reading 11 classic books for children by the age of 11, or the end of Y6) as well as
the KS2 Reading Challenge.
In addition, children who play a musical instrument at school should find time for a
short daily practice. The music teachers award certificates when 10, 20, 30 etc hours of
practice have been completed, Your child should be encouraged to do at least one
hour’s practice a week ( but not all in one session!) otherwise progress on an instrument
is very slow. If your child does not do any music practice, the school may suggest that
the lessons stop and the opportunity to learn an instrument is given to another child.
Homework in Eagles
Children in Eagles (Y5/6) will have work to complete at home in addition to the above.
They will often be asked to continue an activity at home or plan for a school based activity,
especially as SATs approach for the Y6s. This work is essential if the most benefit is to be
gained from their time in school.
Y5/ and Y6 children would benefit from engaging in wider reading, which may be fiction or
non-fiction. Please encourage your child to challenge themselves by doing the ‘11 by 11’
challenge (reading 11 classic books for children by the age of 11, or the end of Y6) as well as
the KS2 Reading Challenge.
In addition, children who play a musical instrument at school should find time for a
short daily practice. The music teachers award certificates when 10, 20, 30 etc hours of
practice have been completed, Your child should be encouraged to do at least one
hour’s practice a week ( but not all in one session!) otherwise progress on an instrument
is very slow. If your child does not do any music practice, the school may suggest that
the lessons stop and the opportunity to learn an instrument is given to another child.
Extended Homework
From time to time, teachers will set an extended piece of homework that will take a few
weeks to complete, such as a project related to the IPC topic, giving the children some
freedom to research something they have chosen. This method works well when the children
do a small amount towards this each week (say, 30 – 60 minutes), resulting in a well
presented project, that has been thoroughly researched and illustrated. This approach to
homework does not work well when all the work is left to the last minute! Please bear in
mind that if extended homework is set, there will be no other homework other than weekly
maths and spellings, so the time that would have been used for Literacy or topic based
homework should be used for the extended project. This is something that children need
support with in organising their time, so parents need to be aware of the scope of the project
and the time frame and encourage good discipline and working habits that will benefit the
children when they move on to secondary school.
Sanctions and Rewards
Where homework is not completed in time, children will be required to do this work in school
so that the class work can continue as planned. This may involve giving up Golden Time,
break or lunchtime. If this is a regular occurrence, parents will be informed and reminded of
the home school agreement, which all parents sign agreeing to support the school and work
together.
Homework which is completed on time will be rewarded with team points, at the teachers’
discretion. Exceptional effort/achievement will be rewarded with a Golden Leaf.
Internet Access
Please let us know if your child needs to use the internet for homework and this is not
available at home. In this scenario, we will ensure that time is available in school for your
child to use the computers here.
Reviewed September 2015
Next review September 2016