Rationale

At St Mary’s Church of England Primary School, we believe that homework is an essential part of pupils’ learning. In line with National Curriculum requirements, homework is set and children are encouraged to, and expected to establish good homework habits from the beginning of their school life.

• Homework is set regularly as a means of reinforcing and extending learning
• Homework is differentiated to meet the needs of individual pupils
• Homework should be understood by pupils and parents, and not be seen as an onerous task

 Definition

Homework is defined as work set by the teacher to be done at home, either by the child alone or with the support of an older sibling, parent or carer. The main focus of homework will be numeracy and literacy, with occasional tasks to extend and enhance learning across the curriculum.

Homework will involve some or all of the following activities:

Reading-A minimum of 5 times a week

Weekly spellings from Year 1-6

Weekly times-table practice

Number bonds

Creative Homework tasks

Learning Knowledge Organiser Facts

The nature, type and amount of homework will vary according to the age and ability of the pupil.

Entitlement

All children are entitled to have homework set by their teacher, which is matched to their ability and needs. Parents are entitled to share in the learning of their child.

Aims

At St Mary’s, we appreciate how important the links between home and school are, and the need for us to work together to ensure a good education for all children. It is for this reason that we believe that it is important that children have homework set that will support learning within the classroom. Homework will be carefully planned to extend learning, enhance and reinforce skills and understanding, and allow children to consolidate and improve their skills further.

Through the provision of a variety of activities and approaches to homework we aim to:

• raise standards in all curriculum areas but particularly basic skills in Maths and English
• create a sound partnership between parents and teachers with regard to children’s learning
• consolidate/reinforce pupils’ skills, knowledge and understanding of work covered in class
• improve pupils’ attitudes to learning and independent learning skills

Parents

At St Mary’s, we recognise the importance of developing a sound partnership between parents and children with reference to children’s learning.

Parents will:

• be provided with additional guidance to support learning at home and to help children with homework tasks;
• be encouraged to support the school’s homework policy

Monitoring

The Headteacher will regularly review the Policy and Guidelines on behalf of the Governing Body, alongside the whole staff team, and will monitor the quality of homework provision provided.

Expectation Guide

We have produced a handy school expectation guide which has been sent home to all families. A copy of which can be seen below. 

Parent Guide to support your child's learning at St Mary's

Take a look at the superb homework projects for April 2019:

Creative homework projects for February 2019. Yet again, we have had some AMAZING homework projects! Well done to everyone who took part and brought something in to show to the school during our special  assembly to showcase the homework projects!

- The children Foundation made projects related to a traditional fairy tale.

- Years 1 and 2 made projects inspired by Italy.

- In years 3 and 4, the projects were related to the children's current project of the human body.

- Harry Potter was the inspiration for the children in years 5 and 6.