Providing a homework programme which will help students develop the skills needed for life long learning 

Introduction

Homework can have many benefits for young people. It can improve both recall and understanding of classwork. Homework can help students develop study skills that will be of value even after they leave school. It can teach them that learning takes place anywhere, not just in the classroom. Homework can benefit young people in more general ways as well. It can foster positive character traits such as independence and responsibility. Homework can teach young people how to manage time.

Homework assignments typically have one or more purposes. The most common purpose is to allow students to practise material already presented in class. Practice homework is meant to reinforce learning and help the student master specific skills. Preparation homework introduces material that will be presented in future lessons. These assignments aim to help students learn new material more effectively when it is covered in class. Extension homework asks students to apply skills they already have to new situations. Integration homework requires the student to apply many different skills to a single task, such as book reports, science projects or creative writing. From our perspective homework provides us with an opportunity to assess the extent to which students are coping as individual learners. From the evidence we collect we can also plan lessons to support students where the need arises. 

What you can expect from us 

How Parents Can Help

• Provide the necessary supplies (dictionary, pens, pencils etc).
• Provide a regular study area.
• Establish a consistent "homework time" (e.g. right after dinner).
• Monitor the homework that is set by checking your child’s organiser
• Communicate with school as soon your child has any issues about their homework assignments or you have any concerns about the amount/quality of homework being set

Subject areas will have different homework requirements. These depend largely on whether the subject is creatively focused and involves a substantial amount of personal reflection, e.g. English or factually-based, where there is a lot of information to learn and understand e.g. Science. These differences will be apparent on the individual subject pages.

On this page you will find tables devoted to each subject area that your son/daughter will study in Year 9.

These subjects can be found in the following order:

English
Maths
Science
Art
Citizenship
French and Spanish
Geography
History
ICT
Music
RE
Technology

To help you support your son/daughter listed below are the weeks of the academic year and whether they are Week 1 or Week 2 on the timetable. 

Assessment of written work

As of September this year (2007) Wolgarston High School staff have adopted a new “Written and Oral feedback” whole school policy. Each department has written their own specific policy within the remit of the whole school document.  

We are encouraging a far greater variety of approaches to feedback this year including self assessment, peer assessment and more frequent oral feedback, as well as the written feedback you will be familiar with seeing in your child’s books. We will share our practices with the students so that they are aware of the reasons behind the strategies we are adopting.  

The one theme that runs throughout all feedback policies is that the students must be given advice which takes them onto the next phase of their learning. Grades will not appear on written work unless they are KS3 Levels or GCSE grades and they are supported by criteria which will demonstrate to the students how they can improve. 

Please contact Miss S Thomas (Deputy Headteacher – Learning and Teaching) at school if there are any issues to do with the assessment of your child’s work that you would like clarification on.

English 

In common with other creative and essay-writing departments, the English Department will not always be setting short written homework tasks. 

The Department’s need is to encourage and teach students to write extended and prepared longer pieces for KS3 coursework. Most often this will involve the student in preparing and perfecting an extended researched and taught essay which should need many hours of homework. This cannot be done overnight. We expect students to plan their work towards these extended tasks by use of their organiser. 

Instructions for coursework will be given to students in writing. Each piece of work of this kind must be submitted by the Departmental deadline and will be assessed in relation to the appropriate national standard. The results of this assessment will be communicated to parents each half-term through the interim report. Deadlines will be communicated to parents via the website and update sheets. 

The completed coursework folder is assessed for KS3 Teacher assessment levels in May. 

We ask parents to encourage students to understand that they will almost always have a major piece of English work that they are working towards completing to the highest possible standards. The only times students will not be preparing coursework of this kind is prior to exam periods when exam preparation and revision is expected. 

All coursework must be dated and on A4 paper. The department encourages and prefers coursework to be word processed.