St Joseph’s School Homework Statement 2010 - under review

• Play cards, board games
• Play ball games and be outside with them
• Watch and discuss the TV news, or read the paper together
• Read stories together
• Read non fiction books and discuss these
• Cook, sew, make things with them
• Take them to different places in our community
• Talk with them

In our busy world, your time is the most important thing you can give to your child.

As the children have already spent 6 hours at school, we believe that your children would benefit from and therefore enjoy their time at school if they have a break from ‘school work’ at home. The staff believes that it is very important for your child to have time to play outside or to take part in cultural or sporting activities as after school interests.

But sometimes there is a need for the children to have homework.

Homework arises out of school work, therefore, the purpose of homework is predominately to practice a skill your child has learnt or to gather information. This year’s homework may include Religious Education, Spelling, Reading and Basic facts.

As the children move through the school the purpose of homework for Year 1-6 is different from Year 7 and 8. We have outlined the expectations for the children as follows:

Year 1-3
Reading
Your child may bring home a reading book or poem. The book that your child brings home will be read over 2 days. The purpose of re-reading a book is so the child increases their ability to read unknown words, to improve their understanding of what they read which increases their fluency. Re reading a book also consolidates the work covered in class.
If your child does not have a reading book, you may like to spend time sharing and reading a library book or a favourite book from home with them.
This may take only 10- 15 minutes.
 

Spelling

The children may have spelling words to learn that relate to the spelling being taught in class. These words may appear to be ‘easy’. The Spelling focus is for the children to be able to spell the word correctly and  to use it, correctly, in their written work.
This may only take 5 minutes.
Spelling is encouraged within the Classroom Literacy programme and will require practise at home



Religious Education

At times, your child will bring home their Religious Education book. Please take time to complete the activity with your child and to discuss what your child has been learning in class.
At the end of each unit, the teacher, the child and parents are asked to make comment about the work the child has completed. The expectation is that you spend time talking with your child about the unit and what they have learnt then write a comment in the appropriate box. This aspect is very important for the child as they can see that you acknowledge the importance of this and are interested in the content of the programme.

Basic Facts

Students may have basic facts ( addition/ subtraction )  to practice. The time spent on these should be kept to a minimum and never cause too much pressure for the child.
This may only take 5 minutes.

Years 4-8 

Students in Years 4-8 may have Homework sheets to complete- these sheets may have a variety of reading, maths, language and general knowledge/ current event activities which will be linked to the classroom programme. They may have a theme of Social Activities to complete at home. Homework content may vary from class to class.

Reading:

If your child does not have a set reading book for homework, you may like to spend time sharing and reading a library book or a favourite book from home with them. It is important for your child to be encouraged to read at home. This will consolidate and allow them time to practise what they learn from school.
This may take only 10- 15 minutes.

Spelling:
The learning of words is to be encouraged at home so these words become very familiar to the child.

Basic Facts
Students may have basic facts to practice. The time spent on these should be kept to a minimum and never cause too much pressure for the child.
This may only take 5 minutes.

Religious Education
As for Years 1-3.

Additional for Senior Students

Research
As the year progresses, students may be researching information from a variety of sources. This hopefully will bridge the gap from Primary to Secondary school.
The research will be topical and be relevant to what is being taught in class or is reported in the news.

Students will also be expected to complete schoolwork at home, if work, through poor time management, is uncompleted while at school.







Reviewed Feb 2010