outlining:

ourschool’s expectations and guidelines for homework K-6

Policy Number: HP0.1

Status: Active

Date Issued: March 2014

Evaluation and Review: 2018

Policy Contact Officer: Principal / Assistant Principal

Related Documentation:

Rationale:

Homework provides an opportunity for parents/caregivers to know about, talk about and be involved in their child’s learning. Homework will provide an opportunity for students to practice and reinforce what has been learnt at school.

At Our Lady Help of Christians (OLHC) all teachers recognise the importance of providing opportunities for students to practise theirreading every day. Therefore our main homework focus at OLHC will be on children participating in daily home-reading programs.Providing a regular time for a child to read out-loud at home to a parent, caregiver or even an older sibling for just a few minutes a day will: help to developreading confidence; enhance and improve reading skills; provide opportunities to practise and develop comprehension strategies.

Policy Statement:

Our Lady Help of Christians School recognises that parents/caregivers and teachers are partners in each child’s education. Homework is a valuable part of schooling. It allows for practising, extending and consolidating work done in class. Homework provides training and experiences for students in planning and organising time and develops a range of skills in identifying and using information resources. Additionally, it establishes habits of study, concentration and self-discipline. Homework provides opportunities for students to be responsible for their own learning and to become more capable, independent learners.

The regular setting of homework by teachers is school policy. The nature, frequency and volume of set homework are left to the professional judgements of teachers in consultation with the Principal and other relevant staff members;professional judgements must be madein-line with the school’s Professional Learning Community expectations around professional teacher collaboration.

Homework expectations must take into consideration and be balanced with:family, social and extracurricular activities. Parents should be advised of homework expectations at the beginning of each school year and parents are to be provided with a copy of the school’s Homework Expectations and Guidelines policy (this may be done at the time of enrolment).Parents should be encouraged to supervise and sign the child’s homework with attention given to the quality of any handwriting and the general presentation of the work.

Homework Expectations:

To ensure that set homework supports educational requirements teachers, in designing homework tasks must consider the following homework expectations.

Homework should be:

  • consolidation of knowledge, skills and understandings developed in class
  • appropriate to each individual student's skill level and age
  • appropriate to each student’s needs and aimed at meeting their specific learning goals
  • purposeful, meaningful and relevant to the curriculum
  • assigned with a specific and explicitly expressed learning purpose
  • interesting and when appropriate open ended, but achievable
  • assessed/marked by teachers with timely feedback that acknowledges student effort and provides support when a difficulty or misunderstanding is identified
  • balanced with a range of recreational, family and cultural activities

Home-Reading on a regular, daily (if possible), basis is an expectation across the school from Kindergarten through to Year 6. Teachers should provide each student with a reading log and an age and ability appropriate recommendation as to how many books, pages or chapters the individual student should try to read each night or within the allocated homework timeframe. Students or parents/caregivers should record the title/author of the book and the pages/chapters read at each homework period. The parent/caregiver should then sign and date the reading log to acknowledge that it is accurate. Any reading difficulties, concerns or comments of achievement could also be noted on the log as a way of communicating reading progress between the parent/caregiver and teacher.

The ‘To Know, Worship and Love’ (KWL) text books that support the Religious Education Curriculum of our school are also expected to be sent home for reading on a regular basis over the course of the year. The purpose of sending the KWL text home is to further promote the importance of children reading out-loud to/with their family members. The relevant readings, as identified by the classroom teacher, offer opportunities to reflect on and share the current classroom Religious Education content and for children to appreciate how their school based learning relates to their own home and family lives.

To provide further opportunities for students to consolidate their classroom learning teachers may include additional homework activities to be completed alongside the reading homework. It should be understood by teachers, students and parents that the school’s main focus and area of importance with the homework is reading. If on occasions there are circumstances that prevent ‘additional homework’ from being completed then parents need simply write a quick explanation note to the classroom teacher as teachers at OLHC understand that children and families do have extracurricular activities and unforeseen circumstances that must be dealt with from time to time.

Examples of additional homework activities could include but not be limited to:

  • practice exercises - providing students with the opportunities to apply newly acquired knowledge, or to review, revise and reinforce newly acquired skills, such as: completing consolidation exercises; practising for mastery
  • practising for spelling and mathematical facts, strategies and concepts
  • practising words or phrases learnt in a Language Other Than English
  • reading for pleasure
  • writingfor practice, enjoyment and other creative taskseg. a book report
  • practising and playing musical instruments
  • practising physical education skills
  • researching topics for class work
  • collecting newspaper articles
  • revising information about a current topic
  • extension assignments - encouraging students to pursue knowledge individually and imaginatively, such as:making or designing something eg. an art work; completing Science investigation exercises
  • researching local news
  • finding material on the Internet - information and retrieval skills
  • monitoring advertising in a newspaper.
  • multimedia projects and presentations

Time Allocation (recommendation per night):

  • Kindergarten - Reading: 5-7 minutes

- Additional: 5-7 minutes

  • Year 1 - Reading: 6-8 minutes

- Additional: 6-8 minutes

  • Year 2- Reading: 7-10 minutes

- Additional: 7-10 minutes

  • Year 3 - Reading: 8-12 minutes

- Additional: 8-12 minutes

  • Year 4 - Reading: 10-15 minutes

- Additional: 8-12 minutes

  • Year 5 - Reading: 10-15 minutes

- Additional: 10-12 minutes

  • Year 6 - Reading: 12-15 minutes

- Additional: 12-15 minutes

Homework Guidelines

Teachers should:

  • advise parents of homework expectations at the beginning of the school year and provide them with a copy of the homework policy
  • monitor, record and reward students’ efforts with regards to completing set homework and for the care and pride taken in homework presentation
  • follow up with parents if a student regularly fails to complete homework
  • ensure that students are provided with opportunities to select appropriately levelled and relevant/interesting home-reading books on a regular basis
  • certify that the KWL text books are sent home regularly throughout the year
  • be considerate of students’ outside of school hours commitments
  • take into consideration students’ access to resources and technologies beyond school
  • support the school’s work with parents/guardians to establish good homework patterns from early primary school
  • adhere to the Time Allocations for homework as they are set out in this policy
  • be aware of and follow the homework expectations as outlined in this policy

Parents/caregivers can assist their child/children by:

  • encouraging them to take increasing responsibility for their learning and organisation
  • providing a place and a desk for homework and study;
  • observing and acknowledging their success and asking how their home and class work is progressing
  • ensuring that their reading tasks are completed on a regular, if possible daily, basis and that reading logs are signed and dated
  • encouraging them to set aside a regular daily session to read and complete homework on time
  • setting an example by reading themselves
  • provide an explanation verbal/written to their child’s teacher if homework activities are not completed within the set timeframe
  • helping them to complete homework by discussing key questions or directing them to resources
  • helping them to balance the amount of time spent completing homework and engaging in leisure sporting or recreational activities
  • checking whether homework has been set and ensuring they keep up-to-date with homework
  • being aware that homework should not be ‘new’ learning for their child. If a parent/caregiver has a concern that their child’s homework seems foreign or unfamiliar to them then the parent/caregiver should communicate this concern to the teacher immediately

Students should:

  • be responsible for taking their homework home and returning it to school within the given period
  • accept responsibility for the completion of tasks to the best of their ability
  • show all work to parents/caregivers and ask them to sign and date it
  • be willing to ask for help from their teacher or family whenever necessary
  • take care with the accuracy and neatness of their homework
  • develop a growing sense of pride in the presentation of their work
  • be aware of the importance of homework in the development of effective individual study, organisational and time management skills

O.L.H.C. Homework Expectations and Guidelines Policy October 2014 To Be Reviewed 2018 1 | Page