Homework enhances students learning, improves achievement and develops study skills and is an integral part of the learning process.
An assigned task by teachers, homework is to be completed outside of class/school time: these tasks have been carefully planned and integrated into all curriculum areas.
Students should have homework that is set regularly, and is meaningful and appropriate to their age and stage.
Homework is set in order to:
- Develop essential transferable skills for life
- Enhance, deepen and foster a scholarly love of learning in the subjects studied
- Assist in the process of formative assessment to help teachers in adapting planning accordingly
- Foster a learning community, where teachers, parents/ carers and students work as partners in the educational journey of students
Recommended hours for Homework
To continue learning at home we expect students to take part in the following activities each week:
| Key Stage | Subject | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Reading Plus | 2 hours a week |
| 3 | Maths | 2 hours a week |
| 3 | Seneca (all subjects) | 2 hours a week |
| 3 | Reading a Library Book | 30 minutes a day |
| 3 | Additional assignments and quizzes set via Teams and supplementary research/reading set for higher prior attaining students | As directed by their teacher |
| Key Stage | Subject | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | GCSEPod (all subjects) | 2 hours a week |
| 4 | Maths | 2 hours a week |
| 4 | Seneca (all subjects) | 2 hours a week |
| 4 | Reading a Library Book | 30 minutes a day |
| 4 | Additional assignments and quizzes set via Teams and supplementary research/reading set for higher prior attaining students | As directed by their teacher |
All students will be issued with a planner to encourage them to manage their time at home. Quizzes and assignments will be set via class teachers and deadlines also communicated in lessons. Students will be given usernames and passwords for all platforms they will record in their planner so they can access as well as personal development sessions that show them how to use each platform.
Advice for Parents
Supporting your child with home learning:
- Make sure your child has access to key apps such as Reading Plus, MathsWatch, Seneca and GCSE Pod (if they are in Year 10/11)
- Build homework into your child’s evening routine
- Use incentives and rewards such as giving them gaming or screen time as a reward for an hour of Reading Plus work.
- Provide a quiet space for your child to complete any homework set
- Ensure they have an appropriate device to complete online work via Teams and Word and access to the internet
- Check to see if their homework is completed by reviewing their planner
- Check with their tutor if you have any concerns regarding homework. You can contact them directly via email from the website’s Who To Contact page.
Microsoft have published a helpful guide to logging into Teams as student here.
Your log in details are your school email address and password. If you have log in issues, please see your Head of Year.
Teams is also available on many SMART TV’s, PlayStation Consoles, and XBox consoles, by selecting the internet browser from the available applications in the Apps available on the device and navigating to Microsoft Teams in the browser application. The log in process is then the same as shown above.
Each cohort has a Microsoft Teams group where any additional quizzes and assignments may be set for each subject.
An outline of this is on our Class Charts calendar:
All students must have access to Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Word on a device.
If you are using a mobile phone to submit homework Assignments, watch this short guide here.
If you are using a laptop/desktop to submit homework Assignment, watch this short guide here.
Request a Device
Most homework can be completed by having the Microsoft Teams app on a mobile phone (see video above). However, we do have a limited amount of laptops for loan for parents/carers whose child has no access to a device at all. You can request a device for your child by completing the form here:
Request a Device Form
Recommended Revision Platforms
- One website, 3 apps and over 6000 Pods (short videos with accompanying questions).
- Content is specifically designed to squeeze the content required for students to know into short 3-5 minutes chunks. It helps with learning, homework and revision.
- Seneca is a free online learning platform that students can use to help them study a wide range of subjects.
- The courses are linked to the exam boards used by the subjects they study and Seneca can learn the strengths and weaknesses of students and use this in the questions that it asks.
- This website can be used to help with your homework, revision and learning. You can find educational videos, step-by-step guides, activities and quizzes by level and subject.
- Curriculum aligned activities, games, simulations and puzzles are created with a focus on learning through fun.
- Python programming fundamentals and task available
- Extensive resources for all year groups that develop vocabulary, speaking and listening skills, etc.
- Students can self-quiz with the questions based on KS3 and GCSE Science exam questions. They can set themselves questions from specific topics they have found challenging in the past or help to get a head start on upcoming topics.
- Revision notes available
- For Secondary schools, Sparx Maths delivers personalised intelligent maths practice, that is proven to boost grades.
- Students can access exam papers, exam questions, GCSE revison, KS3 revsion, videos and walk throughs on topics.
- Students can access Online maths lessons, activities and homework. Tasks are marked, graded where student receive instant feedback.
- Students can access all topics, predicted exam papers, exam style questions.
- The resources from 1st Class Maths are very high quality. Click ‘Revision’ to access videos, questions and answers for all Maths topics. You can also access all the exam papers for Maths on this website, click ‘Exam papers’.
- There are 100’s of videos and resources you can use on Corbett Maths. Click here for a 100 day countdown, with a different video shown every day on a different Maths topic.
- This website contains topic-based compilations of questions from past GCSE papers. Sign up is FREE and takes 2 minutes.
- All GCSE Maths Past Paper questions by topic with answers including every question from Edexcel, AQA and OCR from June 2017 to Nov 2022: Home | Gcsemathsquestions
- Students in Year 7-9 all need to complete Reading Plus tasks every week. They need to read 5 books and complete their vocabulary skills test. The more students read; the more they will progress with their literacy skills and move on to higher level books.
- Youtube Videos
- On-line Science lessons covering the KS3 and GCSE topics
- Students can self-quiz with the questions based on KS3 and GCSE Science exam questions. They can set themselves questions from specific topics they have found challenging in the past or help to get a head start on upcoming topics.
- Use Quizlet for GCSE Sciences to learn about everything from culturing microbes to atomic structures. Discover curriculum-aligned study sets and learning activities for all subjects.
- Spaced repetition learning based exam questions.
- Increase your exam confidence with these GCSE science past papers. By practicing with past papers, you’ll get more familiar the exam structure and types of questions.