wyedean School

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Wyedean is an academic & nurturing global school committed to
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Homework - Edulink

We launched EdulinkOne, an online tool to help you keep track of your child's homework in September 2022. EdulinkOne allows you to see the details of the tasks your child has been set, as well as their submission status and grades.

Current students and parents have received login details to a personal account, ready-linked to each child's homework calendar. For new students, this will be provided by the Head of Year.

Features of the site:

·       24/7 access

·       View quality and quantity of homework

·       Free apps available for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android devices

·       Receive automated notifications before homework is due

If you or your child have any questions about the service, please don't hesitate to get in touch with our IT Support team – helpdesk@wyedeanschool.com 

 

 

LEARNING aREA HOMEWORK Policies

Please find below details of our expectations regarding homework for each Learning Area.

 Applied

 

Homework Policy 2021

homework policy update 2021 applied.pdf

 Creative

 

creative subjects homework policy.pdf

 

English

KS3

At KS3, students in English will focus on a key assessment skill in each unit of work. These will be linked to reading or writing, depending on the unit or text studied. Each unit is supported by the use of knowledge organisers which contain important information, such as targeted vocabulary, how-to tips and useful sentence stems or phrases to develop written work. Knowledge organisers will be kept in students' exercise books and will be used regularly throughout the half term. 

To support the development of these skills, students can expect to be set English homework every 3 or 4 lessons, or on a weekly basis, depending on the class timetable. 

This could comprise of any of the following:

  • A reading assignment, making use of an online reading programme such as ReadTheory or CommonLit. Teachers will be able to track students' activity and progress using these platforms. 
  • An activity using the information from the knowledge organiser (for example, a spelling or vocabulary test using the key words listed for this unit)
  • A development or extension of a task started in class, or the opportunity to rewrite assessed work and complete a DIRT task, using the Review and Transform model. 
We also expect every KS3 student to bring a personal reading book to school. Every English lesson will begin with ten minutes of silent reading, and students will be encouraged to record and share their reading progress. We recommend that students read for at least 20 minutes a day at home, in addition to their reading at school. 
 
KS4
At KS4, students will be expected to use the Review and Transform model to add to, develop and extend their written notes from class. They will also be expected to reflect on previous work, identify targets and complete DIRT tasks to improve their responses. This focus on independent learning is crucial as students learn how to revise effectively and revisit exam content regularly. Regular use of knowledge organisers will support this process.
 
In addition, teachers at KS4 may set any of the following tasks to support content in class:
  • Use of recall quizzes on SMHW
  • Revision tasks on online platforms, such as BBC Bitesize or Seneca
  • Exam preparation: timed essays / completing past papers / quotation exercises
  • Researching the context of texts
  • Wider reading - non-fiction texts such as broadsheet newspapers or other literary texts written by key authors.
KS5
At KS5, students are expected to prepare in advance of lessons as well as complete ‘homework.’ This means they may read a text in advance of a lesson in order to ensure they are prepared to read it closely a second time with their teacher. Students at KS5 are completing either exam or coursework preparation. Therefore, the expectation for work at home must reflect this and students must divide their time depending on the type of deadline which approaches. Nevertheless, the minimum expectation is that students spend one hour at home for every hour they spend in school reviewing, transforming, reading, making additional notes or completing written homework. 
 
The following types of homework are likely to be issued to Year 12 and 13 students: 
  • Reading and analysing a number of texts or extracts 
  • Re-reading and revising core texts 
  • Timed essays 
  • Writing model paragraphs 
  • Research for coursework 
  • Writing or redrafting coursework 
  • Wider reading: reading other books written by the same writer as core literature texts 
  • Researching the context of texts 
  • Researching critical opinion about texts 
  • Researching audience reactions to texts
Useful websites:
 
https://readtheory.org
https://www.commonlit.org/

http://youramazingbrain.com/ 

http://www.playkidsgames.com/

http://www.learninggamesforkids.com

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise 

http://www.sparknotes.com
https://senecalearning.com/en-GB/

Maths

KS3 and KS4:

Students are set 1 hour of maths homework per week on a Thursday, on Sparx Maths (www.sparxmaths.com)

Sparx Maths analyses student performance on their homework and personalises the content to their needs – as such it is vital that students complete their first attempt of any question without any help (after their first go they may get help from parents/other students/teachers).

If students didn’t complete their first attempt independently then Sparx would very quickly make the work too challenging for the student and then not as useful for their learning (maths that is too easy or too hard is far less impactful on student progress). Students should be encouraged that it is ok to get things wrong, but it is how they respond to this that is important.

Students are expected to complete all questions they are set (first attempt independently, subsequent attempts are allowed help).

Later in Year 11, past exam papers will become a homework focus also.

 

KS5:

Students will be set homework on average weekly by each teacher (classes have 2 teachers). These tasks will be a mixture of:

 

Other useful sources of material for independent learning:

https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/

 https://www.examsolutions.net/

https://integralmaths.org/ (there’s a lot more than just the quizzes)

https://www.mathsgenie.co.uk/newalevel.html

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1ZiqBksUHNYX3dkQXFRQ0NlNDA?resourcekey=0-kLAeYk4VfrSc7tlrGa7hGA (A google drive containing pdf’s of the textbooks we use)

  

 

MFL

Homework is an agreed form of consolidation and preparation for work that is done in school. It consists in the vast majority, of vocabulary learning and retrieval practice, grammar consolidation and revising for assessments or independent study/research.

This retrieval practice homework is set in the form of high stakes quizzes using various language learning websites/apps from; Blooket, Memrise and Gimkit, to Quizlet, Lyrics Training and Seneca.

Across KS3 and KS4: written homework is given once a half term and generally takes the form of translation and preparation of; a 40 word, 90 word or 150 word written task, which is then completed during the end of unit assessment. Whole class feedback is then given to students with relevant differentiated DIRT tasks to complete.

Each member of staff is responsible for a different year group when setting written tasks for assessments and uploading them onto Show My Homework. Each member of staff is responsible for uploading Knowledge Organisers for a different year group at the beginning of each half term in order that students can start their revision early and continue their learning/revision at home.

All knowledge organisers are available to download via the school website too.

Written Assessment Tasks / Vocab HW Responsibilities:

Yr 7 French: NM

 Yr 8 /Yr 10 Sp: RLS (HOD)/MS

Yr 9 sets 1 & 2: ED/MS

Yr 9 set 3 : NM

Yr 11 Fr: ED

Rewards

Stickers, stampers, comments in English and/or in the target language.

Sanctions

If homework is not completed satisfactorily (and here the amount of effort according to ability is an important yardstick) then a student may be asked to re-do the piece.

Students in Years 12 and 13

Various pieces of homework that make up approx. 3 hours every week.

This may be of a written/reading or listening nature (essay writing, grammar worksheet, summary writing, listening comprehensions, translations, etc), which is marked and feedback given as a class.

But it more often takes the form of revision, vocabulary learning, grammar practice and cultural research, watching films/TV programmes in the target language or reviewing and transforming their class notes. 

It may also take the form of exam preparation (speaking task cards, preparing questions for the speaking exam). It is an expectation that students undertake wider reading activities and read around their topics in the target language (BBC Mundo/Monde and internet newspapers/blogs are ideal for this).

All notes and vocabulary from lessons are kept and placed in folders. Students in KS5 are expected to bring a dictionary for the relevant language and also purchase verb books and grammar books for independent learning at home.

KS5 students are expected to continuously revise vocabulary and grammar independently at home, via the language learning websites; memrise.com and Seneca learning.

 

 PE

wyedean school pe department homework policy 2021 22.pdf

 

Sciences

 

 

sciences.pdf

Sixth Form 

 

Types of homework set

Frequency

What students should expect in terms of marking and feedback

What staff expect in terms of time spent on the work

What enrichment/extension activities are available

Essays, past paper exam questions, reading and note taking in preparation for lessons, review and transform, research, coursework (for BTEC courses).

 

Weekly for each subject with additional revision and retrieval practice in Y13.

Coursework, essays and past paper questions will be formally marked. Review and transform work will be checked through file checks and low stakes testing. Reading and note taking will be assessed via class discussion.

3-4 hours per week per subject.

Students will also be expected to catch up on any work they miss through absence to lessons.

Review journals in the library, Psychology article of the month, super curricular reading and documentaries on Sharepoint. Students are encouraged to read around the subject and keep up to date with current developments.

Social Studies

In Geography, History and Religious Studies homework is set according to the learning opportunities presented by the programmes of study. Therefore, no specific timetable of homework is followed. 

KS3 students should expect 1-2 pieces of homework per half term in addition to bits of finishing off or revising for quizzes. For RS, it should be at least one, given that they have only one lesson per week). We would expect homework to take approximately 30-40minutes, but this would be indicated on the Show My Homework page. Where more extended projects are given the timescale for submission will be extended. Full criteria for what is required for homework will be published on SMHW. In most instances, students will be given feedback or verbal feedback on their homework.

At KS4 homework is generally set on a weekly basis.  In RS this will include regular knowledge quizzes. These will be published on SMHW. In addition, we ask students to undertake regular “Review and Transform” activities – using their notes, revision guides and other online resources (especially knowledge organisers) to consolidate their learning.  In total we would expect students to be spending roughly 1 to 1.5 hours on this per week. 

At KS5 homework is set at least once per week. These will be published on SMHW. In addition, we expect students to undertake regular “Review and Transform” activities – using notes, revision guides, library and other online resources (especially SharePoint pages) to consolidate their learning. In total, we would expect students to be spending roughly 1.5 – 2.5 hours on this per week. 

Students at all Key Stages are also encouraged to undertake extension/enrichment activities, reading widely around the topics they are studying. Staff will direct students to such useful resources and in most cases ideas for extension work are published on the subject SharePoint pages.

 

Archived policies

 Business Studies 2018

Creative Subjects 2018

English 2018

Hospitality and Product Design 2018

ICT and Computer Science  2018

Maths 2018

Media Studies 2018

Modern Foreign Languages 2018

Science Homework 2018

Social Studies 2018