Homework AND HOME LEARNING

Homework and Home Learning

Homework and home learning are part of the school’s research informed Curriculum Implementation Policy.

We believe that there are many benefits of Homework and Home Learning including:

encouraging students to develop the practice of independent study;
providing an opportunity for regular review and retrieval of work which leads to increased retention of knowledge;
developing perseverance, confidence and initiative;
helping to build effective habits for learning and helping to develop time management
encouraging students to think critically, research, discuss and present work using a variety of resources;
ensuring that students are able to keep up with learning, communicate and receive feedback from teachers during remote education.

Home learning resources and activities are those that help students to develop their understanding of the content delivered in lessons. These lesson content materials are uploaded daily by teachers for students to review at home, for retrieval and for completing when they are absent from lessons or during remote education. Homework is the work that is produced by the student to demonstrate their understanding.

Agreeing to complete homework on time is part of the learning contract students sign when they start at Regent High School, and parents/carers also sign to say they will support their children in this.

Homework will be set using Google Classroom. All students in the school have received training and log-in details for Google Classroom. This means that from home, they can access resources for all their subjects from a device such as a laptop, tablet or mobile telephone.

There is a homework timetable for each year group that shows the days each subject will set their homework.

Key Stage 5:

Each student should expect to be typically doing at least four to five hours of independent learning per subject per week in addition to the time they have in lessons. This will include revision, research and preparation.

Key Stage 4:

Each student should expect to be typically doing at least 60-90 minutes of independent learning per subject per week on average. Each subject has flexibility to set this work over a longer period, as is appropriate, to meet the needs of the subject. Students should use this time to revise, research, prepare and produce work.

Key Stage 3:

All homework is set on a weekly basis according to the homework timetable. Teachers may choose to set longer pieces of work broken into manageable stages, and these stages must be recorded on Google Classroom. Each faculty should have a clear rationale for the type of homework that is set to maximise the benefit to students and students should expect to typically spend 45-60 minutes of independent learning per subject per week on average.

Students will be set a variety of types of homework including:

reviewing and evaluating learning and progress;
pre-learning to be done before a lesson;
reading fiction or non-fiction;
researching a topic, including wider reading;
memorising, e.g. spellings, essential facts, and key vocabulary;
making notes and summarising;
extended projects;
completing a piece of art and design work;
completing retrieval quizzes;
completing work on a learning platform e.g. HegartyMaths, Seneca.

Support for completing homework

If students have any difficulties with accessing Google Classroom or have been unable to meet a deadline, they can approach their teachers, tutor or Head of Year for support. We expect all of our students to understand the importance of home learning and homework and should a situation arise as it did earlier in the year, when students were asked to complete work remotely due to the pandemic, we will teach students using Google Classroom.