Homework Policy

Homework, and the support children receive from parents while completing it, plays an important role is raising the attainment of pupils at Craigievar.

Homework helps your child to:

• Learn how to organise and manage their time
• Take more responsibility for their own learning
• Practise and build on what they have learned at school
• Develop confidence to deal with frustrations, overcome difficulties and solve problems
• Learn and work independently in the future

Formal homework is not set over school holidays, although activities such as reading about destinations, practising languages on holiday, writing postcards or keeping a diary can provide relevant opportunities for pupils to apply learning in new situations.

The typical range of homework tasks that will be set are as follows:

P1-3
Maths – one or two games set per week
Spelling – tricky words sent home each week
Reading – either a book sent home from class or reading for enjoyment each week

P4-7
Maths – two or three games set per week
Phonics/Spelling – word lists or tasks on Glow
Reading – chapters set on Wordsmith and own reading for enjoyment
Topic – 1 research topic per year

We recognise that many children take part in activities after school and encourage this.  These activities play an important part in promoting positive physical and mental wellbeing and helps develop teamwork, perseverance and social skills.

We recognise that attending extra-curricular activities can make it challenging to find time throughout the week to complete homework.  While it is often easier to complete a little bit of homework each day, most activities we set will be due the following week to help pupils and families find a time to suit busy schedules.

Several homework activities require access to the internet, which is not always available or reliable.  If this is an issue, please let us know and we can support pupils to complete these tasks during our ‘Homework Conference Time’ which takes place one lunchtime per week.  This time also allows pupils to ‘check-in’ with the teacher to make sure they have understood the task etc.

Research evidence shows that when children explain what they are learning and the strategies they use, there is a significant positive effect on their ability to remember and apply these processes in future tasks.  We believe discussing homework tasks with your child is just as important as the task itself.  It allows families and the school to work together to ensure any misunderstandings or difficulties can be addressed quickly and effectively, so that children make the best possible progress.  It is really helpful for parents to initial and/or comment on homework activities, in the reading record books and yellow ‘Home Learning’ jotters for P1-4 pupils or on the ‘Homework and Wider Achievement Log’ for P5-7 pupils.

Homework should be an opportunity for your child to share their learning in a positive way.  If your child is finding the tasks that have been allocated too challenging, or if completing homework is taking much longer that the suggested time, please contact the school to discuss how we can support you and your child.

If you feel strongly that you do not want your child to complete homework activities, please put this in writing to the school.