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There is general agreement that Home Learning can clearly be beneficial, but the tasks set need to be manageable and not overwhelming. Sharples School prides itself on knowing its pupils, understanding their concerns and putting their well-being at the centre of everything we do. This approach has informed our approach to Home Learning.

All Home Learning is compulsory and will be shared with students via the Bromcom Student Portal.

Parents/Carers can access details of home learning through the Bromcom My Child At School (MCAS) portal.

The Purpose of Home Learning

  • To develop good learning habits
  • To demonstrate whether the student has understood the work done in class
  • To give the student an extended opportunity to practice work done in class
  • To consolidate and reinforce skills and understanding developed at school
  • To extend school learning e.g. additional reading, research, flipped learning, self quizzing, use of Internet and other resources outside the classroom
  • To manage curriculum tasks and demands such as GCSE assignments and project work.
  • To involve parents and carers in learning and student progression

How long should my child spend on Home Learning?

All Home Learning must have a clear purpose, to develop knowledge. It is essential that both pupils and parents can easily work out what is expected from any particular piece of Home Learning.

Home Learning tasks should not take a pupil longer than 30 minutes to complete for Key Stage 3 and 1 hour for Key Stage 4.

Parents who are concerned that their child is spending more than this amount of time on Home Learning, should feel confident that they can tell their child that they have done enough.

Home Learning should be set at a level which pupils can complete on their own; without the need to ask a parent for help or support. The school does, however, encourage all parents to participate in their child’s home learning and we do encourage pupils to share their learning with their parents.

What does Home Learning look like at Sharples?

KS3 (Year 7,8,9)

English, maths, science, geography, religious studies, history, MFL

The majority of home learning will be based on retrieval practice e.g. quizzes to consolidate key knowledge learned. Each subject will set one home learning task per week. Feedback will be given to students during marking which will be self-marked in class, automatically marked for online quizzes or peer marked in class.

These home learning tasks are very important for;

  • students, to ensure that key knowledge has been committed to their long term memory
  • teachers, to assess misconceptions and knowledge gaps in order to revisit these

Practical Subjects; Art, Performing Arts, Technology, P.E, Computing

Some retrieval practice will also be set in the practical subjects. However there will also be home learning that involves the practice of techniques e.g. in sketchbooks in art, learning lines in Performing Arts. the organising, weighing and measuring of ingredients in Food and Nutrition.

Feedback for Home Learning that involves the practice of techniques will be in the format of what went well (strengths) /even better if (areas for development) which can be both written and verbal. For retrieval practice, feedback will be given to students during marking which will be self-marked in class, automatically marked for online quizzes or peer marked in class.

KS4 (Year 10,11)

All students at KS4 will receive AT LEAST one piece of home learning per subject per week.  In many subjects these will be online, self marking retrieval questions, testing key knowledge learned with immediate feedback to students.

This will allow students to continually revisit key terms and knowledge to ensure that they are knowing and remembering more.

Teachers will use feedback from these quizzes to inform their planning of future teaching and learning.

All students are expected to take part in Additional Learning Sessions (ALS) when these are offered. These take place after school until 4.00pm.

These will begin in Year 10 and increase in number throughout KS4.  This is part of the Sharples Advantage offered by our school.

The Sharples Advantage

The Sharples Advantage highlights all the extra opportunities and enrichment that Sharples School offers its students to further develop the whole student during their time with us.

Advantage Home Learning Opportunities

These are provided by all subjects on our website.  These include reading lists of recommended books and website links.

Roles & Responsibilities

The following principles are to be applied by all staff to ensure that homework is effective in maximising progress and promoting positive learning outcomes for all students:

  • Promote a culture of high expectations and no excuses
  • Share success criteria and use model responses
  • Support students by recording homework tasks accurately via Bromcom

Students:

  • Routinely check the Bromcom Student Portal to see what home learning has been set and the deadline they are to be in for
  • Organising workload to ensure that home learning is completed to the best of their ability
  • To seek support from teachers and to access study support club when finding work difficult

Parent /Carer:

  • Promote the importance of home learning as a way to improve learning
  • Engage with Bromcom to check for Home Learning tasks for their child
  • Ensure that all home learning tasks are completed to a high standard
  • Contact school promptly if there are any problems relating to home learning

All Staff:

  • Ensure that home learning tasks are communicated clearly to students
  • Ensure home learning tasks are communicated through Bromcom
  • Support SEND pupils in the recording of homework tasks e.g. use of HLTA/TA
  • Ensure that the frequency and volume of home learning is in line with school expectations

Rewards

Students should be rewarded for completion of homework for example:

  • Achieving a high standard consistently
  • One off outstanding piece of work comparable to ability

Rewards could involve:

  • Reward Points.
  • Praise stickers.
  • Informing parents e.g. postcard home.
  • Nomination for a subject award.
  • Invitation to sign the Headteacher’s book of honour

Sanctions

  1. Forgotten homework first time in the year – give a warning for homework to be provided the following day. If received – no further action
  2. Set a home learning departmental detention with subject teacher – log on Bromcom which will send a text automatically to parents. If compliance – no further action
  3. If non-attendance at after-school detention, refer concerns to the Director of Subject