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Home Learning

Home Learning, done weekly, can make a significant difference to a student’s deeper understanding, retention of information, and final exam outcomes and it is important that the student, the parent and carer  and the school work together to achieve this.

The minimum amount of home learning per subject per week is as follows:

Key Stage 3 – Years 7, 8 and 9

A minimum of 45 minutes per subject per week

Key Stage 4 – Years 10 and 11

A minimum of 60 minutes per subject per week

Key Stage 5 – Years 12 and 13

A minimum of 8-10 hours per subject per week outside of lessons

We recognise that students and their parents and carers have busy lives outside of school and so we ask you to work together to draw up a timetable that fits within the family schedule, especially with the younger students, so as to form good habits and develop organisational skills. All home learning set is due one week later.

Different subjects will set a range of stimulating, relevant, challenging and accessible activities which will be assessed in different ways. Home learning is frequently used to prepare for learning in the classroom in a future lesson; this is so that the teacher can build upon the basic knowledge, understanding and skills during the lesson. Without this preparatory work, a student will be unable to participate in the learning, and so it is essential that parents and carers support the school to ensure that good home learning practices are embedded and sustained.

All home learning will be set by the class teacher on SIMS, but the detail and often the tasks, might be stored elsewhere; for example, a task sheet in their exercise book or an assignment on Microsoft Teams. If students complete the work within the allocated time, then they can do one of the following additional tasks:

  • revise for topics covered in the subject 
  • read ahead for the topics coming up
  • read around the subject more widely

Any time spent going over previous learning is time well spent, and gives your child a future advantage in examinations, due to these extra moments of revision. Please do not accept claims of "it only took 15 minutes" etc. from your child; home learning is time to consolidate learning. Please help us to make this time count.

Research on home learning:

  • High quality home learning can have an average impact of 5 months' additional progress
  • Home learning has the strongest effect when it is set in a way that lets students practise what they have learned in the classroom
  • Home learning has most impact when students spend 2 or more hours daily after school