HOMEWORK

Homework for children can be a facility for encouragement and assistance. It can offer a choice or a deliberate action taken by a teacher to increase a child’s learning.

Homework varies in its content and purpose. For some children, it can enhance their day school work, whilst for others it is something to be avoided. It is for the teacher, in conjunction with a parent, to decide on an appropriate course of action to suit a particular need. For these needs to be assessed, please consult with the class teacher and an appropriate arrangement may be agreed.

Most children already receive regular homework and many are willing to co-operate in completing and returning the work plus the books to school. However, there are numerous children who dislike additional work and provide endless excuses for not completing it, frequently leaving their books at home. These factors are frustrating to both the teachers and parents and within this atmosphere, homework becomes a chore and not conducive to learning.

Many parents have expressed a wish that their child is not issued with homework, as they consider a day’s work at school adequate.

Many children already complete work at home and the amount varies depending on the age of the child. I list below suggestions for you, which may include some unexpected aspects which you may not have considered, but which the staff has approved as a positive aid to learning. I do not consider a regular planned set homework a necessity and in many instances, as mentioned above, extremely difficult to administer with a class of 30 children, but if you follow our suggestions set out below, plus the additional work often set by the teacher, this will be both appropriate and helpful for your child. However, there will be an increase in homework, given on a regular basis, for the Year 6 children. This, we hope, will help smooth the transition of children into their secondary schools.

Suggestion list of homework ideas

We have compiled a list of homework ideas. Not all of them are relevant to every child, but please consider that children vary considerably in their abilities at any stage of their learning, as some can read and write on entry to school, whilst others have difficulty constructing suitable sentences for communicating and that these stages and differences continue throughout their formal education and beyond.

Reading set books or a couple of chapters every evening
Learning their tables: Years 1 & 2 2 3 4 5 10
Years 3 & 4 2 3 4 5 6 7 10
Years 4 & 5 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Year 6 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
- Learning: their weekly spelling tests
the alphabet
days of the week/months
Be able to write their own name and address
Be able to tell the time Years 1 & 2 hour and half hour
Years 3-6 correct time
Give your child a poem to learn
Can they address and write a short letter to a relative
Help with cooking/weighing skills
Crosswords
Play games regularly – draughts, snakes & ladders, chess etc.
Join the library – go with your child each week
Over a meal, discuss various topics, but get them to answer in complete
Discuss the news each day
Encourage readers to read the newspapers
Read a chapter of a book or an article in a newspaper and then ask them questions about it
Complete jigsaws
Can your child throw, catch and kick a ball?
Can they skip 10, 20, 30 times without stopping?
Go for regular walks and point out various features, discuss afterwards what was seen
Develop their reference skills – alphabetical order, finding words in a dictionary, subject areas in an encyclopaedia – how quickly can they find the page?
Can they read a map? Allow them to direct you, using a map in the car. Can they tell you where you have been after a journey?
Holiday homework – keeping a diary/log, with pictures, postcards, written descriptions etc.
Reading bus and train timetables, recipes etc.
Observational drawings
Handwriting practice