Home Learning - Allestree Woodlands School

Why do we value home learning at Allestree Woodlands?

Research from the Education Endowment Foundation (educational research) shows that:

Home learning has a positive impact of up to +5 months for students in secondary schools.
Home learning that is linked to class work is more effective.
Feedback on home learning has a high impact on learning.
It is important to make the purpose of the home learning clear to our students.

We know that it gives students a better chance of success if they complete regular, purposeful home learning activities, as it helps students to:

Consolidate what they have learnt in a lesson, or across a series of lessons. This is the best way to develop links to prior learning. Creating stronger bonds in the brain means students can remember this knowledge better and recall this in the future, when they need it again.
Practise areas of their studies that they may not have completely grasped or been able to apply during a lesson.
Learn about a topic or theme prior to learning so they can contribute their own research, views and knowledge to their lessons.
Receive feedback to help them understand their misconceptions and improve further.

What are our home learning expectations?

We do not have a fixed home learning timetable with time allocated for each subject on each evening. However, there is an expectation that all subjects will set home learning within the following guidelines:

Years 7, 8 and 9: 20 – 30 minutes per subject. 45 minutes – 1 hour per evening (spread across the week)

Years 10 and 11: 40 – 50 minutes per subject. 1.5 – 2 hours per evening (spread across the week)

Students are expected to manage their time so that they complete home learning each evening in line with guidelines above. Satchel One, the platform we use to set home learning, helps students to do this by creating a to do list and priority order for completion.

Post 16 home learning expectations

Students studying post-16 courses in our 6th form are expected to manage their home learning more independently. The expectations of studying A-levels is that students complete wider reading around their subject, we recommend that students complete at least one hour of independent study for each hour of class. This includes both independent study time in school as well as home learning.

Home will this home learning be set?

As a school, we invest in a platform called Satchel One. This can be accessed on a laptop, desktop computer or on a student’s smart phone by downloading the app. Students are able to use this app as a planner. Teachers will set home learning for students on Satchel One and it will show up on their timeline. This helps students to manage their work more effectively and get notifications when their work is due. To log in to Satchel One, students can use their school log in and password. If any student has an issue using this, we will help them set this up in school for them.

As a parent/carer can I support my child to complete their home learning?

Firstly, all those with parental responsibility are able to see their child’s timeline by downloading the Satchel One app as a parent – this also works if you have more than one child at our school. This allows you to see the home learning they have been set, when it is due and how much they have to complete. This means you can help them manage their time more effectively and make sure they don’t miss any deadlines.

Other ideas to support your child with their home learning could include the following:

As much as possible, create a designated home learning area at home. If this isn’t possible, AWS offers home learning club in the LRC Monday-Thursday each week after school 3.15-4.00pm. All students are welcome.
Try and help your child stick to a regular routine of home learning every evening, sticking as much as possible to the time guidelines set out in this document.
Praise and encourage your child to help boost their confidence.
Ensure distractions are removed. Notifications from social media and friends are a distraction as well as loud music and TV. Try as much as possible to ensure this time is calm.
Test your child on what they have learnt. This could be so much as three simple questions:
What have you completed in *subject*
- What key things have you learnt in *subject*
- Is there anything you are not sure about or you might need more help with in *subject*?

If your child needs any support to complete home learning or they are finding the work too challenging or not challenging enough, please encourage them to speak to their teachers. It is important that teachers know this so they can support their students through home learning tasks and ensure they have the best chance of completing it.