Waingels affirms that homework and independent learning is an important part of teaching and learning and supports students to develop their study skills which will support them in and beyond school.

The Home-school partnerships is key to students’ success with homework and independent learning. We hope that parents/carers recognise their shared interest and responsibility for supporting students to complete their homework and independent learning. The school supports parents with this through parents’ forums which give guidance on study skills and through the area of development comments on reports.

The Purpose of Homework and Independent Learning:

1. Homework and Independent learning should make positive contributions to students’ learning and progress.
2. Supports students to develop their confidence in their knowledge, content, and skills to help them with their learning.
3. Provides opportunities to consolidate, extend and/or develop students’ classroom learning.
4. Provides support for students to prepare for assessments.
5. Allows for the completion of guided learning hours for all subjects.
6. Helps students to develop essential organisation and time management skills.
7. Helps students become more resilient and prepare for working life
8. Creates a focus for students to engage with their parents about their learning.

 

Independent learning falls into two categories: Homework and Independent study

Homework – this is when specific tasks will be set by a teacher. This will be on Satchel One and include a deadline and details about what needs to be submitted. Independent study – students’ complete tasks that help them to consolidate/revise or get a deeper understanding for a topic or specific part of the topic. This will not be set on Satchel One student will receive rewards badges for work that they show their teachers.

 

Homework Timetable 2024/2025

Year	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
7	Maths Computer Studies History	Science English (Bedrock) Beliefs and Life	Maths French/Spanish Science	Art/Food English (Spellings) Music	Geography Drama
8	Science English (Bedrock) Beliefs and Life	History Art/ Design/ Food	Maths French/ Spanish Computer Science	English (Spellings) Geography Drama	Maths Music
9	French/Spanish English (Bedrock) Option C	Option B Science	Maths Geography Option A	History English (Spellings)	Maths Science Beliefs and Life
10	English Biology Option B/C	Maths Option B/C	Chemistry Beliefs and Life	English Option A/D	Maths Physics Option A/D
11	Biology Option D	Option B Option C Maths	Chemistry English Beliefs and Life	Option A Maths	Physics English

Notes for students and parents:

1. Homework should be shown on Satchel One you should use this to help you plan your time. Please see the link for more detail about how students and parents can use Satchel One here.
2. The homework timetable is a guide suggesting when you might do your homework, it does not show when it is set.
3. You can be set homework in any lesson by any teacher, however, they would not expect you to hand it in until after the day shown on your timetable.
4. You do not have to follow this timetable, but your teachers will use it to plan when the homework is due in. It is your responsibility to ensure that homework is handed in to the teacher at the correct time.
5. If you are struggling to complete your homework then it is your responsibility to find the teacher or email them before the deadline to get the help you need to complete the work.
9. For longer project work (e.g. Year 7 and 8), you should use the timetable to help you organise your completion of the project over a longer period of time.  Teachers may ask you to share how much you have done each week.
10. You may be set additional tasks such as preparing for tests and assessments as needed by subjects.
11. For English you should spend at least 10 minutes a night reading in addition to homework set. Year 7-9 have Bedrock homework and spellings.
12. For languages (French/Spanish) you will given spellings to learn each week in addition to other homework.
13. Work will be of differing lengths, some tasks will be very quick, for example a quiz to check your understanding.  Other tasks will require you to spend longer on them and you may need to plan to do them over a period of time.  As a guide you should aim to spend the following amount of time on any task set:

Guided study time per week

Year	Homework recommendation (including homework and proactive)
Year 7	30-60 minutes a day – up to 5 hours a week
Year 8	45- 75 minutes a day – up to 6 hours a week
Year 9	1 hour-1 ½ hours a day – up to 7 hours a week
Year 10 & 11	1½ - 2 hours a day – between 8 and 10 hours a week
Year 12 & 13	3 hours per week for each subject – up to 12 hours a week.

Teachers will use Satchel One to indicate the allocated time to spend on the task set. If students are taking longer to complete the task, then they should let their teacher know. This may be an indication that the student needs more support. This is a guide only as teachers will set Homework when it is going to support students in their progression or help them prepare for assessment.

 

Independent learning: Guidelines & Expectations

When students don’t have directed independent study then they can carry out proactive independent learning activities within the guided independent learning hours. Students can choose where they are going to focus this time – students can use area of development comments on reports to guide this or ask teachers to suggest activities for them.

To support proactive independent learning students can use knowledge organisers that can be found here or other resources. They can carry out activities that support their learning, support with this can be found here. These activities may include:

a. Pre-learn before they start a new topic. This is particularly useful for students that have Dyslexia, ADHD, or other learning needs.

b. Keyword or vocabulary activities

c. Diagrams

d. Research

e. Character/ important people profiles

f. Interpreting data

g. Drawing timelines

h. Revision activities – A step by step guide can be found here

 

Rewards

There is no expectation for teachers to collect in or mark independent learning. This is rewards based and any feedback will be verbal in class feedback.

When students have completed a piece of independent learning then they should show their teacher at an appropriate time, and they will be issued with an Independent Learning Badge on Satchel One.