PARENTS’ GUIDE TO HOMEWORK

“I need to complete my homework on time”

Malala Yousafzai

At Fulford School, we believe that homework is important. As well as helping your child build on the knowledge and skills from the lessons, homework can develop a passion for learning, foster other life skills such as independence and open new lines of inquiry.

This means that time spent on homework is significant. In fact, just spending between 30 minutes and 1 hour on homework every school night over five years can add up to 950 extra learning hours – that is more than a whole year of lessons.

Frequency and duration of homework

In order to enable students to balance their learning with their own extra-curricular interests, it is recommended students should spend the following amount on each homework:

Setting of homework – ClassCharts

Homework is set by teachers on Class Charts and communicated to students in lessons. Students can also choose to write homework in their planners to help them stay organised. The information on ClassCharts for the set homework will include the task, the due date and the expected duration of the work.

A student logging into ClassCharts will see something like this:

When they click on the expand icon next to the homework, they will see more details about the task. Any attached links or files will be visible. We recommended that when a task has been completed they change the status of the task to ‘completed’ to help them manage their homework more effectively.

Homework completion

Students are sometimes instructed to upload their finished work, or sometimes there is a physical task to complete in their books or elsewhere. Any electronic resources can be made available as hard copies for the students from the teacher. There is no centralised homework timetable but it is expected that teachers try to set homework at the same point in the week. In order to enable KS3 students to manage their workload, all subjects – with the exception of Maths, English and Science – will allow around a week for completion. In order to support students with the completion of homework, all students have access to Office 365 which contains online versions of Microsoft office programmes such as Word, Powerpoint and Excel. Students can login to Office 365 using their school email address as their username and the password they use to login to the school network.

Class Charts parent app

To support parents and students, Class Charts provides homework information on the parent app.

Parental support

Parents are always keen to help with homework and there are many ways in which parents can support their child that does not involve doing the work! Below are some suggestions on how you can help:

• Show an interest by having regular conversations about homework and helping out if necessary.
• Encourage your child to complete homework to the best of their ability, in a place that allows them to focus and avoid distractions. Has the time that your child has taken to complete a task been used effectively? Is the work well presented and detailed? If completed early, can it be extended? Could they do some revision, practise something they find difficult or prepare for the next lesson?
• Develop a routine for the completion of homework, such as doing the work on the set day.
• Praise effort and achievement as this will keep them motivated. Praising their organisation and independence will also help build confidence.
• Monitor homework by checking the ClassCharts parent app or even looking over finished assignments, if appropriate.
• Build on the child’s interest by going to a library or visiting places linked to the studied topics. This will also foster a love of learning as well as develop your child’s passion.
• Recommend use of school resources such as the Resource Centre (open Monday – Friday 8.15-4.15) and homework clubs that run at lunchtime.
• Communicate with school if your child feels overwhelmed by homework. You can put a note in their planner to alert their teacher to anything which might have made it hard for your child to complete their homework.

If you have any questions or wish to discuss your child’s homework, please contact the relevant subject teacher or Head of Year.