Homework

The Academy believes that a good, well-managed homework programme helps our students to develop the skills and attitudes they will need for successful lifelong learning.

Homework is highly beneficial because it helps develop these skills:

• To enable students to manage their time and work to set deadlines

• To practice the skills they have learnt in the classroom and develop their independence and resilience

• To prepare for knowledge tests, big assessments and their GCSE Examinations.

• To enable students to embed class-based learning, securing knowledge retention and consolidating understanding.

• To develop and build skills of effective research, creativity and encourage reading, often in preparation for a new topic or theme.

Passion Projects are a new initiative which allow students to achieve and excel, producing projects at home which cover a different cross-curricular focus each half-term. These are optional, but students completing the passion projects will be recognised and rewarded, with the opportunity to share their work through parental showcase sessions. We had our first passion project in the Summer Term and were wowed by some of the submitted work. We are excited to see what our students produce this half-term!

Autumn Term Passion Project - Holiday Review

We ask that parents support their children by seeing that home learning is done conscientiously and in the best possible conditions. Facilities and conditions that are conducive to study include: 

• Access to a suitable place to study and away from distractions, including mobile phones, computer games or the TV. Research shows that it can take at least 15 minutes to return to a state of full concentration after a text message or phone call has distracted us

• If there isn’t somewhere quiet to work at home, encourage your child to use the LRC

• Encourage your child to spend a set amount of time each evening on homework and take an interest in what they are studying.

• Parents can support their children by encouraging them to engage with their Topic Guides - please see the Topic Guides section.

• The frequency of homework is displayed in the table below.

All homework will be recorded by teachers. All resources that the students will need to complete the work will be uploaded to ClassCharts. Students will be able to see all submission deadlines and should plan their work around these deadlines. Parents/Carers can also see these deadlines on their Class Charts accounts. 

Topic Guides have been written across the curriculum to support the unit of study for each Year Group at a given time of year. These are a comprehensive resource which detail the key learning that students need to understand if they are to master a subject area.  We hope that you will find these a useful resource to use at home to pose questions for your child about what they are learning, and to test if they have managed to retain all of the information.