At Plymstock School, we believe home learning plays an essential role in providing students with opportunities to expand their knowledge beyond the classroom. The EEF Home Learning Guidance Report (2021) highlights its significance, stating that effective home learning improves academic performance, fosters independent learning, and develops self-regulation skills. It helps student deepen their understanding of subjects, consolidate learning, and apply knowledge in practical contexts, therefore raising student potential and preparing them for future success. The findings from the report states ‘Homework has a positive impact on average (+ 5 months), particularly with pupils in secondary schools’.

There is no expectation for home learning to be set for Personal Development, Forensic Reading, or PE at Key Stage 3.

At Key Stage 4, teachers should set home learning weekly. However, there is no expectation for home learning to be set in Personal Development, EPiC, and Core PE at Key Stage 4.

*From January 2024, we will set 60 minutes of compulsory Maths home learning each week on Sparx, for all students, in-line with all other WeST secondary schools. Research findings that support this change can be found at the end of this letter.

Following student and parent feedback, we have made the decision re-establish a Key Stage 3 timetable to allow students to better manage their workload throughout the week. Students must be given a minimum of three school days to submit their home learning, including work set during school/bank holidays. If, for example, home learning is set on a Wednesday during school hours, the earliest submission date would be the following Monday.

All submitted home learning should be awarded a positive point on Class Charts. Points can be used to purchased items from the Class Charts rewards store.

When students reach home learning submission milestones, they will receive recognition on Class Charts, which will also be shared with parents and staff. Achievements may also be celebrated amongst our school community (e.g. through the school’s social media accounts).

We cannot rely on sanctions as our main strategy for addressing non-submission of home learning. There could be a wide range of possible factors that contribute to a student failing to submit a piece of homework and we feel that a centralised sanction system often fails to support students to overcome these barriers to learning. At Plymstock School we believe a personalised approach will support our students to make long term changes in their attitude towards their learning.
This support comes in various forms, such as:

• Communication with parents to inform them of the impact non-submissions have on progress and to offer guidance on how they can support their child at home
• Support for students at department and whole-school level, finding ways to address non-compliance by seeking to remove barriers to learning at home

All home learning that has not been submitted will be awarded a negative point on Class Charts. This allows us to monitor student submissions and respond more effectively to concerning patterns of non-completion. If a student fails to submit 3 separate homework tasks within a week, parents will be informed through a message on Class Charts.

Homework support is available every Tuesday/Thursday 3.15 – 4.15 in TE09. Computers, printers and staff will be available to support students from all Years.

Education Endowment Foundation Home Learning Study: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/homework

Independent analysis of the relationship between Sparx Maths and maths outcomes:
https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/research/programmes/sparx/SparxKeyFindings.pdf