Homework

In Year 7 and 8, students' homework will take the form of revision tasks that link to the current learning in the curriculum.  These will take the form of watching a video, learning spellings, creating a poster or revising colour or techniques from a knowledge organiser. They will have one research project, in which they discover, make and present information about art related careers.

In Years 9 - 11, students complete homework once a week.  The task will usually be to complete work begun in lesson, so that the quality and quantity of work can be maintained and help students to keep on top of their coursework - this work will be regularly checked.  Students who take Photography are encouraged to take photos for their project ideas beyond the school, in order to develop creative and personal ideas. We would expect students to spend at least an hour on their homework, which will increase in Year 11. Homework is essential for GCSE but can be flexible for BTEC given the differing structure for assessment.  As BTEC students have to complete work in controlled conditions, unfinished work will need to be completed in school.

Students complete one piece of homework each week. The homework is often knowledge retrieval activities which may include answering essay questions, completing an assignment on Seneca Learning or answering short-answer questions on a worksheet, perhaps with an accompanying case study. Students may also be asked to revise from notes provided to them for an upcoming knowledge test.

In Years 7 and 8, students will not typically receive homework. Before assessment periods, teachers will post revisions resources, such as knowledge organisers or links to guided revision.

Students in KS4 ICT will usually be assigned one homework task per week. In Year 9, homework will mostly consist of activities to support the skills students are working on in practical lessons, such as keyword retrieval. In Year 10, homework will usually consist of tasks in support of their Non-Exam Assessment project which will vary throughout the year. In Year 11, homework will consist of keyword retrieval and practice questions based on the topics being taught in lessons, to help embed concepts into students' long-term memory. The purpose of homework in KS4 is to reinforce key learning concepts or to complete necessary tasks when working to a brief.

Students in KS4 Computer Science will usually be assigned one homework task per week depending on the topic students are currently learning in lessons. The purpose is to provide opportunity for retrieval practice of previously taught topics or to provide additional opportunity for practice of key skills. Students will complete homework tasks on a variety of platforms, including Google Colab or Coder+ for programming and Knowitall Ninja for theory. Depending on the topic, students may be assigned revision tasks such as watching a short video or answering practice exam questions. Students will also be assigned revision tasks supported by a variety of online resources.

Homework will be varied from practical tasks including rehearsing phrases, dances or choreography. Theory will involve exam questions linking to all three sections of the written paper.  This will include hypothetical choreography questions, questions linked to own performance, including physical, expressive and mental skills, as well as questions analysing the six professional dance works.

In Year 7 and 8, students will not be set Drama homework. Instead, they will be encouraged to use the assessment booklets sent home to independently revise for their practical and written Drama assessment that will take place at the end of every term. 

In Years 9-11, students will be set homework once a week. Homework tasks will vary depending on what students are currently doing in lesson. Drama homework can be a range of activities such as rehearsals, line learning, answering exam questions or costume/lighting/sound or set design. Students will be given the resources needed to support their homework in lesson time.

In Years 7 - 9, students are set two homework tasks per week. One homework will be a reading task where they will be required to complete at least two lessons on Reading Plus. The second homework could be a quiz, spelling test, creating flashcards or mind maps or other activities to help students revise and prepare for upcoming assessments.  Students will have knowledge organisers provided to support them in their revision.

In Years 10 and 11, students will be set two homework tasks per week, the aim of which is to consolidate what they have learned in their lessons. One of these tasks will be to complete at least two lessons on Reading Plus. Other homework tasks will include activities such as online quizzes, spelling tests, pre-reading materials for upcoming lessons and revision tasks such as making flashcards or mind maps. Students may also be referred to videos on YouTube to support their revision of the GCSE content, as well as websites such as BBC Bitesize. In the run up to the GCSE exams, students may be provided with additional exam papers to use as part of their revision.  Students will have knowledge organisers provided to support them in their revision.

In Years 7 and 8, students will complete homework in order to prepare for assessments. This will be in a variety of formats including Seneca quizzes based around current topics, learning key terminology and using knowledge organisers. Most homework will be done online/on worksheets as students generally keep books in school other than revision for assessments. Students will be directed towards websites and have knowledge organisers provided that can support all of the above tasks. 

In Years 9 -11, students will be expected to complete one piece of homework every week. This will be directly related to the topic they are working on. It will usually consist of reading around the current topic in preparation for upcoming lessons, practising exam questions and reviewing work. Students are expected to ensure their Seneca logins are kept up to date to support with this and will be directed towards websites and have knowledge organisers provided that can support all of the above tasks. 

In Years 9 and 10, students will be expected to complete one homework per week.  It will consist of pre-reading/pre-teaching activities or preparation for upcoming assessments. 

In the synoptic windows for Year 10 that run from 1st December until Easter, homework tasks will relate to the brief that is worked on in class.

In Year 11, students will read key content knowledge organisers/create revision flashcards each week and be tested on content in Do Now tasks from September until the exam.

In Year 7 and 8, students will be set revision based tasks linked to learning and recalling knowledge learned in class.  Therefore, the homeworks will often take the form of online quizzes, or using knowledge organisers and their History books to create mind maps, revision posters of flash cards.  There may be times when the homework is something different.                                                                                                                                          
In Years 9-11, students are assigned homework once a week. The main purpose of these assignments is to help students with knowledge retrieval. This is typically done through online quizzes, or by creating mind maps, revision posters, or flashcards using their knowledge organisers and exercise books. However, we also require students to not only remember what they've learned but also to apply it to exam questions. Therefore, there will be many instances where homework is based on an exam question. These tasks may include writing a single paragraph or a conclusion, planning an essay, or, in some cases, writing a complete answer.

In Years 7 -11, students will complete one homework a week using Sparx Maths. The purpose of these tasks is to consolidate learning and develop fluency. This gives students the opportunity to practise topics that are being covered in lessons and get support through videos where required. Students will also complete tasks on previously taught topics. This retrieval of prior knowledge will help to embed learning in their long-term memory.

Students in Year 11 will also be set an optional homework task each week focusing on past paper questions.

Students will use homework to practice key analytical skills; applying this to unseen products in order to develop what they have learnt during lessons. Homework tasks may also include pre-learning or recaps of subject specific terminology, as well as the application of this to various set texts, to support their understanding.

In order to promote Independent learning, the students will have access to knowledge organisers via the website revision page and on their classes Google Classroom - the intention being that students will use those knowledge organisers to create their own quizzes, mind-maps or revision cards.  Students should also be completing tasks which enable them to explore and expand their media knowledge and understanding. This could be watching or reading or accessing information about products they are less knowledgeable about e.g. watching the news or reading a magazine.

In Years 7 and 8, students are set a song to teach their parents/carers as a regular homework. These are based on key structures taught at KS3 and help to embed the learning of these and strengthen memory pathways. Students are also regularly set Duo Lingo and Linguascope tasks. Students will have some written tasks in Year 8 and homework will also consist of students learning their written paragraphs for assessments. Students also have glossaries to help facilitate their learning at home.                                                                                                                                  

In Years 9 -11, as well as making use of Duo Lingo and Linguascope, students are also guided to use Memorise which helps support the embedding of key GCSE vocabulary and can be tightly controlled by the teacher. Students are set a combination of short written tasks, gap-fills and, eventually, written pieces to learn based on the GCSE topics. Students are also set some translation of key structures and then extended translations where they are required to manipulate these. 

Year 7 and 8 homework will take the form of revision tasks that link to the current learning in the curriculum.  These will take the form of listening to music, learning key terminology or completing revision quizzes. This bundle of revision resources will be given to students on Arbor at the beginning of each half term and will prepare them for their cumulative assessments that occur at the end of each term. 

In Year 9 -11, students are set homework once a week and the tasks relate to the topics that they are completing that half term. Homework ranges in activities such as: retrieval of key terminology tasks, rehearsal time, past exam questions or appraising (listening + analysis) tasks. Students are given resources needed to complete their homework in lesson time. 
Within the assessment windows (Dec/Jan and May/June), there will be an additional homework in the form of intervention for Year 10, and Year 11 students completing NEA in order to support them with official deadlines. 

In Years 7 and 8, students are set a variety of homework tasks. This can include: recapping tasks , pre-learning  key vocabulary with the use of Knowledge Organisers and structured written tasks. They will also be taught specific study and revision skills which they will practice as part of their homework. 

In Year 9 -11, homework is set weekly and builds on the previous learning and skills developed at KS3. For example, creative revision including retrieval of key terminology which help to consolidate the learning done in class. Students will also look in depth and revise key quotes and statements from leading figures in Philosophy and religious texts. Students may also be set homework which requires them to practice and prepare for end of unit and key assessments throughout the year, linked to the activities completed in class. 

Students complete a range of tasks set approximately weekly depending on the topic. Types of homework tasks include online knowledge quizzes; exam questions/ long answer 9 mark questions where relevant; acknowledgement tasks based on marking of tests or classwork; consolidation tasks from the lesson, for example labelling a diagram. Homework tasks will also be used to help students prepare for assessments.

Students will deepen their knowledge of Science and the world around them through a variety of tasks. Homework is based around applying classroom learning to exam style questions to develop Science knowledge and skills such as calculations, analysing results and graph drawing.

Science homework will also be an opportunity for students to prepare for upcoming assessment windows for landmark assessments. There will be a range of tasks for students to access which will then be followed up with activities in the lesson.

We make use of online platforms to complete homework, which students can use their school Google login or unique logins to access. The platforms we use are:

•        Kay Science
•        Kerboodle (online text book available for each Science discipline)
•        Google classroom

In Year 7 and 8 students will be set a range of tasks throughout the academic year to consolidate underpinning key scientific concepts. Students will complete retrieval practice quizzes and knowledge organisers to develop their science knowledge. Students will be set 30 minutes homework per week.

In Year 9 - 11, we know it is a priority to develop student understanding of the scientific world and consolidate their learning to prepare for their GCSE exams in Y11. Students will be set 45 minutes of homework from Biology, Chemistry and Physics each week.

Year 9 and Year 10 students will be predominantly using ‘Kay Science’ where they will be set 2 videos and 2 sets of questions to complete from each Science discipline. Students will be expected to reach a 60% benchmark score for each homework. In preparation for landmark assessments students will be set other assessment preparation tasks such as using knowledge organisers exam questions.

Year 11 students predominantly will complete a range of exam style questions, using ‘Kay Science’ and other revision preparation tasks for their GCSE Exams.

To support homework completion Science Surgery runs twice a week, where students have access to a computer to complete any homework with the support of Science teachers.

In Years 7 and 8, tasks could include learning content and key terms (for example from a Knowledge Organiser) in preparation for short test at the start of the subsequent lesson and content which will be further explored through questioning and discussion. Homework may also include short written activities, making creative resources in preparation for the following lesson (for example quizzes on Food Safety). Learning key vocabulary will also be a key part of homework for Technology to ensure key terms are understood and embedded.

In Years 9 -11, students will be set homework on a weekly basis. This will again include learning homework in preparation for quizzes/assessments, as well as exam based questions. Homework will in addition include completing work started in class (for example project work) ensuring students meet deadlines set.