Introduction
HOMEWORK POLICY GUIDELINES
The Department of Education has now given schools the flexibility to set their own policy for homework our staff team believe that homework is one bridge that connects parents, children, and their teachers.
The overarching goal of homework is to enhance school-based education experiences and promote the attainment of our pupils. Homework is assigned in accordance with the needs and abilities of individual students and in support of specific curricular areas. Homework reinforces and strengthens the home/school connection while reinforcing the skills and concepts learned at school. Through homework, parents learn about the curriculum and can talk to their children in a meaningful way about what they are learning. Homework also teaches children responsibility and good work habits. Homework is designed to be an age-appropriate, successful experience.
Reading at Home
Our school strongly promotes the love of books and reading at home. Parental support is key to the success of our reading program. To continue to build a community of learners, it is critical that children spend time reading. Independent reading provides children an opportunity to apply reading strategies independently and sustain reading behavior. It challenges our children to solve words on their own while reading age appropriate texts. Independent reading promotes fluency and builds confidence. It also strengthens children’s vocabulary and writing skills. To support this we have an extensive library of books across our school which is enhanced by My On, a virtual library linked to our reading system, Accelerated Reader where children can choose books to read within their level.
Our teachers assign homework on a regular basis and expect all students to complete assigned work in a timely manner.
We continue to follow previous department for education guidelines ( pre 2012) as we believe that this level of homework enables pupils to maintain good study skills and habits at an age appropriate level whilst being manageable for families and staff. Wherever possible, a week is given for tasks to be completed. We use a range of online, practical and paper based activities so that a range of learning styles can be supported.
Government guidelines on homework give a broad indication of the type of activities and how much time pupils of different ages might reasonably be expected to spend on homework. For children at primary schools the guidelines are: Years 1 and 2 1 hour per week Years 3 and 4 1.5 hours per week Years 5 and 6 30 minutes per day. In addition to this, a school we are extremely committed to reading and allocate time within the school day for the children and we expect children to read daily at home.