Homework and Unfinished Classwork

It's worth taking a few moments to clarify the school's thinking when it comes to homework.

Most homework taken by students (particularly primary students) is not really homework at all. Instead, it is unfinished classwork. Each day students set their goals relating to the amount of work they will do in their individualised workbooks for the day. These goals should not be easily achieved. Rather, they should stretch the students and require effort. Still, the goals should be achievable and students should be aiming to complete them during class time. Ideally, students will finish their goals most days - say three out five days each week or more.

Instructions to our teachers include the following: "Require students to attempt challenging tasks. This forces them to set priorities, to struggle, to concentrate, to seek alternatives, to budget time, to have goals. These tasks build confidence and maturity as students experience accomplishment through effort, determination, and right choices." Of course, this is all done at an age appropriate level. Younger students will require more assistance and oversight than our older students.

When a student fails to finish the set work for the day, they are often required to take this unfinished classwork home to be completed. If that classwork were to remain unfinished on a regular basis, it would result in the student falling behind the level expected for their age.

When a student is struggling or requires more time than others to achieve mastery, the teacher may adjust the student's goals to be less than the norm. This is to ensure goals are still achievable for the student. Of course, setting less work for a student's daily goals will also likely mean the student will fall behind the level expected for their age. In this case, the teacher may require the student to take home additional work (over and above their goals) in an attempt to help the student progress at a rate similar to his or her peers.

When a student sets an appropriate amount of work for the school day and they complete that work at school, they won't have homework. This earns the student a green dot on their goal chart. Three green dots in the week earns them "green dot treat."

Secondary students will also sometimes have homework in the non-individualised learning areas such as Visual Arts, Geography, Science, Math etc. Often this homework is posted on our learning management system, Canvas. Teachers across the various secondary subject areas communicate with each other and do their best to spread the assignment and homework load across the term. Students need to manage their time well and work diligently to make sure the work is completed on time. When a student load is too great, they are encouraged to respectfully speak to their teacher and work out an appropriate pathway for completion.

Some things we are doing at school:

1. Encouraging students to break the homework cycle. Students should finish their goals regularly. Instead, for many, homework has become the norm. We want to change this culture.

2. Improving efficiency in the classroom. We're teaching students to concentrate and do their best to complete their work well the first time so they don't need to waste time correcting it. Our aim is to help students budget their time well and learn to set priorities and work well independently.

Some things parents can do to help:

1. Take an interest in whether your child has completed their goals or not. If they haven't, ask them why. Often, the student will seek to blame someone or something else, but encourage them to consider what they could have done differently in order to finish their work.

2. Encourage your child to complete their homework to a very high standard. If the work is done well, the student won't lose so much time the next day at school when they need to score and correct that work. If they do lose a lot of time scoring and correcting last night's homework, they are less likely to complete the new day's goals.

3. If you believe your child's homework load is too great, and family life is suffering, please speak to your child's teacher. We believe students should have time to play, relax and hang out with family after school. We don't want homework to get in the way of this. If it is impinging too much, let's talk and figure out a better way forward.

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