Homework

Oak Wood School believes that homework is an integral part of the learning process of pupils and sixth form students. It also believes that it is a way in which pupils and sixth form students, staff and parents can work together to support pupil progress.  

 The purpose of homework is to  

•  Provide opportunities for pupils and sixth form students to work independently and to take responsibility for organising their work 
• Help pupils and sixth form students recognise the link between good study habits and higher standards of achievement  
• Check that pupils and sixth form students have understood class work  
• Consolidate or extend work covered in school  
• Prepare for future lessons  
• Give time for more extensive coverage of the curriculum, through integrated planning of class work and homework  
• Make more effective use of lessons by focusing on those activities, which require more direct teaching, with other tasks, not dependent on the teacher, being set for homework 
• Improve pupils and sixth form students’ attitudes to learning  
• Improve pupils and sixth form students’ organisational and study skills  
• Raise the standard of achievement  
• Help parents understand what their children are learning in school and to encourage them to participate in that learning 

Homework Expectations 

Homework will be set regularly and planned specifically to reinforce and extend pupils and sixth form students understanding. Homework will not be set for the sake of it, but instead should link to work that is currently being studied, review work that has been completed (retrieval practice, interleaving) or introduce work that will be looked at in the future (flipped learning).  

We expect that our pupils and Sixth Form students will complete both Formal homework, which will be formatively assessed with feedback provided to improve the work, and informal homework to review learning, such as: completing a question response; organising the work that they have completed; or, re-reading something that they are unsure about.  

Amount of Homework  

Pupils will need to learn to manage their time as they will need to complete homework each evening. The time devoted to homework should increase as the pupil progresses through the school.   As a guide, pupils and sixth form students should spend the following amount of time on homework per evening: 

• Key Stage 3  (Years 7,8 and 9)                 Minimum 1 hour per day 
• Key Stage 4  (Year 10 and 11)                 Minimum 1.5 to 2 hours per day 

Key Stage 3 – Amount per subject per week 

• One piece of homework per week from Core Subjects - English, Maths & Science 
• One piece of homework per week from History, Geography & MFL  
• One piece of homework every other week from ICT, RE, Design Technology, Art and Music  

Key Stage 4 – Amount per subject per week 

• Two pieces of homework per week from Core Subjects - English, Maths & Science 
• One piece of homework per week from Option Subjects 

Key Stage 5 – Amount per subject per week 

• A minimum of 1 hour of private study per lesson taught each week 
• Completing subject specific ‘Directed Independent Study Checklists’ 

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