Home Learning

The Westgate School recognises that home learning is an essential and integral part of the school curriculum and is beneficial in the education of all pupils. Home learning is seen as providing an opportunity to:

• Reinforce knowledge
• Apply and practice skills
• Enrich, enhance and widen experiences
• Complete and consolidate work begun in class
• Carry out research and reading beyond the classroom.

Home learning allows pupils the opportunity to develop individual study skills including time management and independent learning.

Home Learning Support and Information for parents of Year 7 & 8 pupils. Click here to see Mr Damant's presentation delivered at the Home Learning Support Evening

Guidelines

1. Home learning should be set as part of the ongoing curriculum and not simply as a bolt on addition. It may be a continuation or extension of current work, examination coursework, and preparation for the next part of the syllabus or conversely, it may reinforce previous work
2. There should be a planned and published home learning timetable for Years 7 – 9. Home learning in Years 10 and 11 will be set regularly based on the lesson timetable
3. The time allocated for home learning should be graduated to increase as the pupil’s progress from Year 7 to Year 11 with reasonable deadlines. Teachers will try to avoid setting home learning to be handed in the next day, as far as possible.
4. Wherever possible home learning should be differentiated to take account of the differing abilities within a class.
5. Feedback, using formative and summative assessment for learning, will be given on a regular basis.
6. Teachers should seek to encourage pupils to fulfill their home learning tasks through both incentives and penalties outlined in the Procedures for Good Conduct document.
7. The school will seek to encourage parental involvement and support for home learning.
8. The pupil Personal Planner should be used to record all home learning set and the deadlines for completion. This will provide the pupils with an aid to organising their home learning and give the parents the opportunity to become involved in the home learning process. The Personal Planner provides the first line of communication between home and school with regard to home learning.
9. Teaching staff will make every effort to make the home learning task accessible to all pupils in terms of availability of materials, the feasibility of carrying out research and the allocation of an appropriate time scale.
10. Failure to carry out or complete home learning will be pursued. Should this continue to be a problem, parents will be notified. In extreme cases pupils may be withdrawn from the home learning programme. Such a move may well jeopardize future examination entries as the pupil may not have completed the syllabus content or skills practice required to take the examination. It will be preceded by a letter informing parents of the seriousness of the situation.