It is widely recognised that homework makes an important contribution to students’ progress. At SJB, it is felt that work completed at home is an essential part of school work. When homework is used properly, it extends the challenge open to the students and ensures that teaching time is used to maximum effect. It also prepares students gradually for the more independent demands of study as they mature. Equally, we believe it is important that all students have time in their day to ‘play’ and spend time participating in extra-curricular activities. For this reason, our homework gradually increases from 50 minutes per night in Year 7 to around 1.5 hours per night in Year 11 and 2-3 hours per day in the Sixth Form.
In Year 7 and 8 there is a blend of ‘subject’ homework as well as the development of literacy and numeracy skills; every night students will complete 30 minutes of ‘subject’ homework as well as a further 20-30 minutes of homework focused on the development of literacy and numeracy skills as we believe these are fundamentally important in being able to access learning across the curriculum. From Year 9 onwards there is a greater ‘subject’ focus. Further to this, each half term, there will be a minimum of one homework aimed at improving vocabulary and one aimed at improving your child’s reading and comprehension skills.
We set homework for the following reasons:
- It encourages students to develop the skills, confidence, and self-motivation needed to study effectively on their own.
- It consolidates and reinforces knowledge and skills being developed at school.
- It facilitates retrieval practice and enables students to commit knowledge to long term memory.
- It extends school learning (for example, through additional reading).
- It sustains the involvement of parents in the management of students’ learning and keeps them in touch with what is happening in the classroom.
- It helps students to develop their time-management and organisational skills.
- It enables students to better manage the increasing demands placed on them as they get older and become young adults.
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