Homework

The school believes that short effective homework tasks help to build children’s knowledge and bridge the gap between home and school. However, the school also recognises the importance of allowing children time with their families and for play and the importance of this for children’s mental health and well-being. As such, the school decided to work alongside parents to redesign its homework policy to match the needs of the school community.

Using feedback from staff, pupils and parents, the school has devised the following rationale for why we include homework in our curriculum offer. Homework should be used to:

Reinforce previous learning.
Develop a lifelong love of reading.
Develop rapid recall and fluency with number facts to aid calculations.
Provide a space for children to read with their family.
Prepare children for secondary school.

Making homework work for our school community

Using feedback from staff, pupils and parents, the school decided on some protocols for making homework work for our school community:

Homework should focus on core skills and reinforce learning, where possible.
There should be a consistency and structure to homework across the school.
Homework should not set over school holidays, when pupils should be enjoying time with their families and developing hobbies and learning outdoors.
There is an expectation that homework should be completed weekly.
Homework should increase in the amount of time spent on it and its complexity as children move through the school to better support transfer to secondary.
Homework should be a balance of online and offline work.
All homework is set on a Monday and the expectations is that it will be completed by the following Monday.
Suggested strategies for learning times tables, number facts and spellings will be shared during curriculum information meetings at the beginning of the year as well as be available to view on the class pages on the school website.
Teachers will provide verbal praise and feedback in class for all homework. All workbook activities in Year 5 and 6 will be marked with pupils during a lesson and whole class feedback provided.

Where to find homework for your child’s year group

All homework expectations, optional tasks and any weekly updates are published by each year group on their class pages. If you have any concerns about your child’s homework or their ability to access the task, please speak to the class teacher.

Homework Timetable

Year Group	Reading	Spelling	Maths
Year R	10 minutes reading per day, including reading to an adult and being read to by an adult.	5 minutes practise of phonics and tricky words twice per week	5 minutes practise of number bonds to 10.
Year 1	10 minutes reading per day, including reading to an adult and being read to by an adult.	5 minutes practise of phonics and tricky words twice per week	5 minutes practise of counting in 2s, 5s and 10s twice per week.
Year 2	10 minutes reading per day, including reading to an adult and being read to by an adult.	5 minutes of spelling practise twice per week	5 minutes practise of x2, x5 and x10 tables per week.
Year 3	10 minutes reading per day, including reading to an adult and being read to by an adult.	10 minutes of spelling practise twice per week	10 minutes practise of x2, x5, x10, x3, x4 and x8 tables twice per week.
Year 4	10 minutes reading per day, including reading to an adult and being read to by an adult.	10 minutes of spelling practise twice per week	10 minutes practise of all times tables twice per week.
Year 5	10 minutes reading per day, including reading to an adult and being read to by an adult.	10 minutes of spelling practise twice per week	10 minutes of maths workbook twice per week. 10 minutes practise of all times tables once per week.
Year 6	10 minutes reading per day, including reading to an adult and being read to by an adult.	10 minutes of spelling practise twice per week	10 minutes of maths workbook twice per week. 10 minutes practise of all times tables once per week.

Optional Inspiration Tasks

As part of the survey process of pupils and parents, some members of the school community expressed how they enjoyed opportunities to extend the children’s learning from the classroom in other curriculum areas. As part of the process of streamlining and creating consistency in our approach to homework, the school did not want to lose opportunities to inspire further learning in pupils who wished to undertake it. Therefore, each year group will publish two optional tasks related to their current learning in history, geography or science. These tasks will be on the class page on the website and can be undertaken by those pupils who wish to explore them. However, there is no expectation for this to be completed, unlike the weekly homework tasks. If children do complete the tasks, they can bring the task in to show their teacher who will provide some verbal feedback on the task.

Expectations

The expectation is that homework will be completed each week. Where homework is set on an online platform, such as through Times Table Rockstars, homework should be completed for the Monday after it was set. To aid with the change of expectations at secondary school, where incomplete homework could result in a detention or a sanction, if homework is not completed in Year 5 and 6, there will be a lunchtime homework club for children to complete their homework in. This will be organised by the Year 5 and 6 teachers each week.