Parents and carers have a huge role to play in our homework policy
Homework can be an emotive issue. Should schools set homework? If so, how much and of what type? Is it simply there to ‘keep kids busy’ or can it boost their learning? Is homework a ‘sin against childhood’ (as it has been called by some) or a helpful tool to enable students to reach their potential?
There are a number of recent studies that have analysed the true impact of homework, and the conclusion that we hold to at Marple Hall is that homework does have a benefit and should be used as a key part of the learning process. A good place to start if you wish to read more is here. Our belief, taken from the respected research body the ‘Educational Endowment Foundation’ is that well planned and well communicated homework can add the equivalent of three months’ progress onto a child’s learning every year, which over the course of a five year school career is significant indeed.
That is why over the past 6 months we have looked to ensure that our homework provision is nothing short of excellent. A couple of years ago we invested in the online platform ‘Show My Homework’ which is a great way for teachers, students and parents to set, see and respond to homework online. Students and parents can get notifications of homework, access the tasks, get copies of resources and even ask question of the teacher if they are stuck. It’s a really neat system…but it only has benefit if the homework that teachers set is of decent quality – ‘rubbish in, rubbish out’ I guess is the right phrase here!
Therefore this year we are working on the new idea that at Marple Hall School teachers of classes in Years 7-9 should only ever set two types of homework:
1) Embedding Tasks – short activities (10-20 mins) aimed at securing knowledge and understanding of the stuff that students have recently learnt in class. These might be quizzes, diagrams, organisers, mindmaps etc
2) Extended Practice – longer activities that are based around an extended piece of writing, no matter what the subject. The task should be well set up in lessons, modelled for students and have a decent timescale for completion. To avoid students being inundated with these long tasks all at once (like the end of a term) there is a timetable that all the departments are sticking to.
By choosing these two types of homework we are building on research into how students learn and retain information, as well as giving many opportunities to develop their literacy and deeper understanding through the extended practice tasks. We’re 6 months into the new approach and the vast majority of tasks set now fit this model, with some of the extended practice tasks being amended and altered by our homework leaders Mrs Lawton and Mr Graves before they are approved. Perhaps one sign of the success of the model is that despite the fact we only targeted years 7-9, most teachers are employing the same language and tasks with Years 10 and 11.
The model makes sense and with consistent care and effort it will work. Homework will become second nature, it will be a seamless addition to the work done in class, students will develop excellent learning habits at home and their progress will be enhanced as a result.
MrBarkerMHS 