Homework

Independent Home Learning (IHL) at ACS

At Abbeywood Community School (ACS) we believe IHL is a key part of school life. It allows students to develop their skills and knowledge independently and makes the difference between good and great progress.

IHL has a range of purposes that include:

Deliberate practice and consolidation of work done in class
Providing further stretch and challenge
Providing opportunities for independent work
Preparation for exams and tests
Preparation for future class work
Developing library skills and use of other learning resources outside of school
Allowing assessment of students’ progress and mastery of work
Developing students’ good learning habits: organisation, meeting deadlines, resilience, independence, creativity, responsibility
Providing opportunities for parents/carers to get involved with their child’s learning and creating channels for home-school dialogue

IHL tasks are set at a frequency proportional to curriculum time

In Years 7 and 8 IHL tasks should take about 20-30min to complete and are set weekly for core subjects and fortnightly for all other subjects
In Year 9 IHL tasks should take about 45-60min to complete and are set weekly for core subjects and weekly or fortnightly for all other subjects
Years 10 and 11 examination subjects tasks should take about 60-90 min to complete and are set weekly for core subjects and weekly or fortnightly for all other subjects, plus additional revision and exam paper practice where necessary
Post 16 tasks are set on the “hour for an hour” principle

Setting and submission of work

All IHL is recorded on Arbor and students are expected to check their timetable and ensure that work is submitted on or before the deadline. Students who fail to submit their work will be required to complete the missing work in after school sessions.

Some subjects use Google Classroom or other applications such as Seneca to set out the tasks for homework. Other subjects hand out paper copies of homework in the lesson, or ask students to note down their homework. However the task is actually set out, the teacher will always record the setting of homework on Arbor so that students and parents can keep track of what is set over the course of each week.

IHL timetables below are planning aids for students – they show the day students should complete homework for each subject. This may or may not match the day on which homework is actually set.

Option blocks

In year 9-11, some subjects are set in option blocks. For example, 11C/Hi on a student’s timetable is history in block C.

YEAR 9
*OPTION A*	*OPTION B*	*OPTION C*	*OPTION D*
Geography	Art	Art	Art
Hospitality	Computing	Computing	Drama
History	Drama	Drama	Geography
Product design	Hospitality	Geography	Hospitality
	History	Hospitality	History
	Music	History	Music
	Product design	Product design	Product design
	Textiles	Textiles

YEAR 10
*OPTION A*	*OPTION B*	*OPTION C*
Art	Business	Business
Computing	Computing	Drama
French	Geography	French
Geography	History	Health & social care
Hospitality	Music	Hospitality
History	Sociology	History
Photography	Sport	Product design
Spanish	Textiles	Sociology
Triple science	Triple science	Spanish

YEAR 11
*OPTION A*	*OPTION B*	*OPTION C*
Computing	Art	Art
French	Product design	Business
Geography	Geography	iMedia
Health & social care	History	Drama
History	Music	Product design
Hospitality	Photography	History
Spanish	Sociology	Photography
Sport	Sport	Spanish
		Textiles
		Triple science

Subject	Outline of IHL Year 7-9
Art	IHL linked to classwork per term.
Drama	Tasks are varied, and will include line-learning for script-work; writing in role; review and analysis written work; research.
English	Year 7 & 8: Independent reading for pleasure and completion of weekly word booklet to develop use of cross curriculum academic vocabulary. Year 9: IHL linked to classwork that is incorporated into lessons once a week.
Geography	Revision and quizzes. Some specific assignments on Seneca.
History	Students will be issued with the topic knowledge organiser, which will also be available on the website. Students will be told which numbers on the knowledge organiser to revise and memorise over a two week period. They will then be tested on this content at the start of a lesson.
ICT	Revision and quizzes.
Maths	Students will be set a Hegarty maths/Sparx task per week. This requires them to watch and take notes from the relevant clip and answer the quiz questions in their blue IHL book.
MFL	Learning vocab, recall & spelling check (knowledge organisers), peer-assessed writing & translation into TL tasks (termly).
Music	Variety of tasks including retrieval quizzes, listening activities, research and practice.
Product design	Students to be given a project to work for IHL across each rotation which will last for the full 8 weeks.
PE	Termly knowledge organises. 10 question multiple choice quiz at the end of each term.
Religious studies	Students will be given quizzes and online activities that test fundamental knowledge and keywords from the current course. In Y9, students are also given short exam questions.
Science	Students will recap knowledge from KS2/3 and review current learning on ‘Seneca’ www.senecalearning.com. Students will have their own account and be invited to join a class, where they will find their assignments.

Subject	Outline of IHL Year 10-11
Art	Independent research and taking home sketch book to improve coursework.
Biology	Students will be given sections of knowledge organisers to learn. They will be tested on short sections (10 questions) fortnightly to demonstrate this. They will have received a pre-published timetable of what will be tested and when.
Business	End of topic exam questions, exam board checking test at the end of each topic, knowledge organiser recall – set via Google Classroom
Chemistry	Students will be given sections of knowledge organisers to learn. They will be tested on short sections (10 questions) fortnightly to demonstrate this. They will have received a pre-published timetable of what will be tested and when.
Computing	Students will be making notes from video resources.
Drama	Tasks are varied, and will include line-learning for script-work; writing in role; review and analysis written work; research.
DT	Students will be given sections of knowledge organisers to learn and specific tasks on Seneca.
Engineering	Tasks are varied, and will include activities related to examined units, classroom/workshop-based units as well as reviews of practical activities and projects. Activities may be by worksheet, written script or through Google Classroom.
English	Students will be given weekly revision tasks linked to current and prior learning. This will involve a combination of Seneca and written revision tasks. Students will be given regular tests to check this revision.
Food	Y10 topic based activities linked to exam preparation. Y11 short projects to support coursework.
Geography	Students will be set weekly tasks to assess knowledge and understanding of current and prior learning. This will involve a combination of Seneca tests (assigned), GCSE revision book worksheets and exam questions.
Health & social care	Students will be set fortnightly tasks to assess knowledge and understanding of current and prior learning. They will be given sections of knowledge organisers to learn. These will be tested. Additional IHL linked to coursework will be set when required.
History	Students will be issued with the topic knowledge organiser, which will also be available on the website. Students will be told which numbers on the knowledge organiser to revise and memorise over a two week period. They will then be tested on this content at the start of a lesson.
ICT	Ongoing work to support coursework.
Maths	Students will be set a Hegarty/Sparx maths task per week. This requires them to watch and take notes from the relevant clip and answer the quiz questions in their blue IHL book. In addition there may be further practice questions.
MFL	Weekly learning vocab check & recall (knowledge organisers), peer-assessed theme based writing/translation tasks, reading comprehension and grammar (every 2 weeks).
Music	Variety of tasks including retrieval quizzes, listening activities, research and instrumental practice. Coursework based tasks for BTEC students, potentially using programmes such as Logic if students have access or are able to spend extra time in the department to complete this.
Sport	Students will be given weekly revision tasks or coursework linked to current and prior learning.
Physics	Students will be given sections of knowledge organisers to learn. They will be tested on short sections (10 Questions) fortnightly to demonstrate this. They will have received a pre-published timetable of what will be tested and when.
Photography	Students will be given a ‘word of the week’ (WOW) where they will be asked to take a single photograph on a new theme each week, paying particular attention to composition. Additional IHL linked to coursework will be set when required.
RS	Students will be given online quizzes for key content and exam questions to answer.
Sociology	Students will be given a range of tasks to complete every fortnight. Students can expect to complete Seneca tasks to help with recall. Students will be given sections of knowledge organisers to learn. They will be tested on short sections to demonstrate this.