home learning expectations

"You're never to old, too wacky, too wild to pick up a book and read with a child"

-Dr. Seuss

Children fall in love with books because of the memories created when they snuggle up and read with someone they love.

Wherever you are and whatever you can commit to as a parent, we believe setting up a reading routine is the most important thing to do!

Our Research on the impact of home learning

For decades, there has been a heated debated on the impact of home learning on pupils in primary education and this has left professionals divided. Harris Cooper from Duke University in America, found evidence of a positive correlation between home learning and pupil’s achievements. Alfie Kohn, an American author and lecturer in education, recommends that when purposeful tasks are assigned then home learning has a greater impact on pupils’ learning.

Cooper and his colleagues (2006) found pupils who are assigned home learning purposeful to their learning score 23 percent higher than an average pupil who is not assigned purposeful home learning. In their 2006 research, Cooper, Robinson and Patall’s meta-analysis found positive effects for home learning: there was a direct role in fostering and improving achievement where home learning tasks reinforced learning that took place in the class. The research revealed that regular repetition of key skills helped deepen the learning and knowledge and its retention in the long-term working memory.

What we believe about home learning

At Preston Park, we believe that homework is important in consolidating prior learning at school, developing skills and preparing pupils for secondary school. Below are some of the key ideas behind our rationale for homework:

It should be an enrichment and extension of what is going on in school and provide opportunities for children to develop their creativity and imagination.
It is a vehicle for the involvement of parents in children’s learning.
It provides opportunities for individual work, enabling children to become independent learners, whilst encouraging them to complete tasks.
It develops good habits and self- discipline.
It provides opportunities for parental co-operation, support and insight into the work of the School.
It creates channels for home-school dialogue.
It fulfils the expectations of parents, pupils, teachers and community.
It encourages ownership and responsibility for learning.
It develops skills in using library, Internet and other learning resources.
It can allow practice and consolidation of work done in class.
It prepares children for secondary school.

Joyce Epstein and colleagues (1982, 20002 and 2003) conducted a series of studies to identify the condition under which parental involvement enhances home learning. Interactive homework should allow parents to ask questions that help their child with clarity and summarise what they have learned; parents are not required to be the experts regarding the knowledge and teaching of the content. For this reason, all tasks are planned so pupils can complete the work independently. In maths, we are using a Teaching for Mastery approach and we include guided examples with a clear model of the strategy used to solve the questions will be available.

What you can expect

At our school, we provide all pupils with home learning to enable them to practise skills and learning they have been taught in class. Sometimes the aim is to repeat a skill whilst on other occasions pupils are asked to reapply their learning to a new context. At all times, pupils will not be given tasks that they have not learned in school unless it is a project work.

Pupils throughout the school, from Nursery to Year 6 are given some form of weekly and half-termly home learning. Home learning is given out every Wednesday and is due back the following Monday. Quantity of homework varies according to the year group. Clear guidance on the type of weekly homework will be listed at the front of each pupil’s orange homework exercise book.

EYFS

In the Foundation Stage, a weekly newsletter will be sent home sharing the week’s learning with suggested activities for parents to practise with their child. Additional tasks will be provided, where necessary, to help pupils consolidate or extend their learning. In Reception, parents are encouraged to read with their child daily for a minimum of five to ten minutes. Reading will help develop communication and language skills. Parents should spend time talking about what they have read with their child: discussing images, re-telling the story or making predictions. In addition to this, weekly mathematics and phonics tasks are set which aim to consolidate the week’s learning.

KS1

In Key Stage One pupils are encouraged to read with an adult for at least twenty minutes daily. As part of their weekly tasks, pupils will be set a mathematics task, Times Table Rockstars tasks and English tasks in the form of a reading comprehension, SPaG and spellings. As a Rights Respecting School, pupils are to complete reflections on the Right of the Week in the half-termly reflection grid. Half-termly project work will be set around the creative curriculum pupils are selecting. They will be given a matrix of options, which can focus on the science, geography, RE, PSHE, history or English aspect.

Home learning is always acknowledged and according to the task, is either marked or used in class to support learning. For example, some aspects will be marked as a whole class to help the teacher to address any misconceptions to the whole class. Whereas some tasks may be marked solely by the teacher to allow for personalised feedback. Creative curriculum tasks may be shared in the lesson or used as part of a group activity.

KS2

In Key Stage Two pupils are encouraged to read with an adult for at least fifteen minutes daily and independently for at least fifteen minutes daily. As part of their weekly tasks, pupils will be set a mathematics task, Times Table Rockstars tasks and English tasks in the form of a reading comprehension, SPaG and spellings. As a Rights Respecting School, pupils are to complete reflections on the Right of the Week in the half-termly reflection grid. Half-termly project work will be set around the creative curriculum pupils are selecting. They will be given a matrix of options, which can focus on the science, geography, RE, PSHE, history or English aspect.