- Consolidating work done in class
- Strengthening the students’ grasp of the subject
- Supplementing / Reinforcing what has been taught in school
- Ensuring that classwork concentrates on those activities requiring the teacher’s presence
- Improving skills and application of knowledge acquired during lessons
- Offering the chance of remote preparation for future lessons
- Opening up for the students areas of study and making possible the use of materials and information that are not accessible in the classroom
- Keeping parents / guardians in touch with what is happening in class
- Encouraging parents / guardians to show interest and be involved in students’ work
- Educating students in time-management, responsibility and independence
- Developing perseverance and self-discipline in work
- Giving feedback to students
- Allowing the teacher to check that work has been understood.
Primary
Written homework is usually intended to consolidate and/or offer practice of skills taught in the classroom. Thus, language exercises, short questions on a unit covered in class, mathematical sums, creative writing or comprehension exercises may be given as homework. This homework varies according to the age of the children.
But homework is not always in a written form. Regular reading is of extreme importance for the education of every child. Reading and discussing the text with parents / guardians extends the child’s understanding. Children who read regularly with an adult make more progress than those who do not.
Drawing and illustration as well as research work, suitable to the age and ability of the children, are also important forms of homework.
Revision work done at home with parents / guardians is a very good way of strengthening the children’s grasp of the subject/s and enhances the involvement of parents / guardians in their children’s life at school.
Secondary
Every subject teacher can give homework in one or more of the following forms, according to the subject being taught:
- creative writing
- grammar exercises
- comprehension work
- research / project work
- mathematical exercises
- essay work
- short answers to given questions
- scientific reports
- course work
- practical work
- theoretical and practical applications of topics covered in class
- preparation for class presentations
- cultural and sports activities as reinforcement and/or components of the syllabus
Revision work and reading are very important types of homework.
Students’ Responsibilities
- Students are expected to complete homework and hand it in on time.
- Their homework must show effort, be neat and as correctly done as
possible.
- It is the students’ responsibility to find out what homework has been
assigned if and when they are absent.
- Students should do “Correction” when necessary, i.e. they should redo
incorrect parts of the homework / assignment.
- Students are to hand in homework that has been done by themselves,
and not copied and / or plagiarized.
Checks and Sanctions
- Students who do not hand in homework on time for a very good reason which is verifiable (e.g. family funeral or illness) may be allotted a longer time span to do so. This is within the teacher’s discretion.
- In the Primary pupils who fail to complete homework and hand it in on time are first reprimanded and asked to do it.
- Parents/Guardians are then alerted to the problem through a written comment by the teacher.
- If the problem repeats itself, parents / guardians are asked to sign the comment stating that the homework has not been done. It may be thought necessary to give a small punishment at the teacher’s discretion.
- In the Secondary students who do not complete homework satisfactorily or fail to hand it in on time for the first time and for no good reason will be reprimanded and a warning given. A system of internal reports is used for this purpose.
- It is the teacher’s duty to notify the parents when students are not handing in certain types of homework eg. Project work
- The third time homework is not handed in will result in an External Report to be duly signed by the parent / guardian. These reports are filed and kept for future reference.
If the problem persists, the parents / guardians are called to school to discuss the matter.
http://www.stmonicabkara.com/homework-policy
