Our Approach to Homework

As we prepare for the start of the new school year, we are determined to help pupils build homework habits that will enable them to be as successful as possible. We enjoyed celebrating lots of great GCSE success stories last week and have already spent some time looking at what helped make our pupils successful. It was no surprise to find that the pupils who achieved the highest marks in the maths GCSE were those who consistently spent the most time on Sparx! We want to help all pupils be successful and know that building strong habits around independent study and homework is key.

There are a number of ways we are hoping to help all pupil to make a strong start this year:

• Pupils in all year groups will receive their homework timetables on their first day of term; pupils will be provided with a spare paper copy so you can display it at home.
• All pupils will receive their first piece of homework on Monday 11 September; ask pupils to show you what they have to do and when they have completed it.
• We will start by focussing on reading, maths, English and Science so pupils can become familiar with the different platforms we will be using; homework club will run every day so pupils can receive help in accessing the platforms.
• Staff will be available to show you how to help pupils access their homework online at each of the parent information events.

We know the importance of regularly completing work outside of lessons, and how hard it can be to catch up once a pupil falls behind, so pupils will attend homework catch-up the same day that homework is due, if it is incomplete.

Pupils will need to attend homework catch up for 30 minutes or until the homework is complete – this may take up to an hour.

All pupils will receive instructions about how to complete their homework and whether or not it is to be completed online in the first week back. There are 6 main platforms that will be used for homework in addition to Microsoft Teams.

• Sparx (maths)
• Century (science)
• Seneca
• Lexia (English)
• Accelerate Reader (reading)
• Sparx Reader (reading)

There are lots of ways for you to keep up to date with how your child is doing;

• You will receive an email weekly from Sparx telling you how long your child spent on Sparx and how many points they achieved
• You will receive updates daily if your child has not completed their homework because they will be attending homework catch up
• You will see your child move up the ranking in their end of term assessments, because we know that completing homework well has an impact on pupil performance.
• We will publish leaderboards for maths, English and science every week on the school website – every half term all the names will be entered into a raffle to win a prize!

Iyad, who is now in Y8, was the lucky winner of our first homework competition – congratulations Iyad, and watch this space for more competitions and celebrations of success through homework!

Pupils can complete their homework on the laptop provided to them by the school. If your child does not have a laptop or if you have any questions about homework, please get in touch with their Head of Year to ask for help. 

The is a homework club running every day after school between 4-5pm which pupils can attend if they would like to complete their homework at school.