Skip to content ↓

Five Acres High School

Homework

Students spend only a small fraction of their time at school. Homework offers an additional opportunity to ensure our students have a better chance of success; it is an essential part of learning.

Our homework model is built on the principle of retrieval. It is designed to facilitate the embedding and recall of knowledge across different subjects to develop clear neuro-pathways in order to best remember the most important information.

We advise that students spread their homework out across the week so that they do a little and often rather than trying to cram it all into one evening. This is the best way to engage with retrieval-based activities that are designed to enhance long-term memory. For example, spread quizzes over 4 nights, and complete Sparx over several sessions.

The table below summarises the homework we set for each year group to best support their learning.


Completion of online homework is checked weekly, along with a planner check for Low Stakes Quizzes and Reading on a Friday morning during roll call.

 

Further Homework Information

 

Maths - Years 7-11 

Maths homework is set through Sparx. This platform combines an independent approach with supported reinforcement of learning from lessons in an easy, intuitive format. The programme adapts to the individual student based on their performance, meaning it is highly differentiated.

Students will be completing 60 minutes per week of Maths practice on sparx.co.uk. All the tasks will be listed on the pupil dashboard when they log in, with each question having a supporting video should students need help. All questions are tailored to student understanding and all questions must be answered correctly before the homework is considered to be complete. Wrong answers will prompt students to complete similar questions with greater support until they have this element. Students write all their workings in their Sparx exercise books.

Completion is checked every Friday @ 2pm

English - Years 7-8 

Students need to have completed 2 lessons on vocabulary in one week, between Monday 8am and the following Sunday 7pm. A lesson should take 15–20 minutes to complete. You can check if the child has completed their homework by clicking on the history tab at the top of the page. You will see the lesson number e.g. lesson 45. If the lesson is completed there will be a green percentage next to it. If it is red it does not count and will need to be redone. This will still be one lesson until it is green. Please note that quizzes (shown as pre and post tests on the history) do not count as completed lessons.

English - Years 10-11 

Students should complete the Seneca task set by their teacher. Tasks need to be completed to an average score of 80% or more.

In addition, student in Year 11 also have a Literature revision paragraph to complete. These should take approximately 15–20 minutes to complete and are assessed in class.

Completion is checked Sundays @ 7pm for Years 7-8, KS4 Seneca deadlines are set for Sundays @ 10pm

Science - Year 9 

Students will complete the weekly Seneca assignment that can be found on the Assignments page of Seneca.

Students should complete all parts of the assignment, achieving an overall score of 80%. The maximum time a student should spend on their Science homework is 1 hour (even if they haven’t achieved 80% overall). 

Completion is checked every Friday @ 7am

Science - Years 10-11
 

Students will complete the three weekly Seneca assignments (one Biology, one Chemistry, one Physics) that can be found on the Assignments page of Seneca. Students should complete all parts of each assignment. Students on Higher tier need to achieve an overall score of 80%. Students on Foundation tier need to achieve an overall score of 70%. For all classes, the maximum time a student should spend on their homework is 1 hour 30 minutes (even if they haven’t achieved the minimum overall score). 

Students log into Seneca using their school Gmail accounts, by clicking “Continue with Google” on the Seneca login page. All students automatically have an account and have been assigned to the correct class.

Parents can also create a Seneca account to monitor homework at https://senecalearning.com/en-GB/parents

Completion is checked every Friday @ 7am

Help with Homework 

We offer a daily homework club support in ICT on Mondays-Fridays to provide access to our computer-based systems. Students on our SEN register are invited to attend our homework support club on Mondays-Thursdays, staffed by our Teaching Assistants in the Library.

We also recommend families consider a homework schedule to break it down - what can seem like a lot becomes much more manageable if you take it in steps. Below is an example of a Key Stage 3 homework schedule.

Low Stakes Quizzes 

All pupils are to complete 4 quizzes in a one-week period, and use the pages in their planners for this. These are self-created by the pupil taken from the information in the knowledge organisers. Pupils have a choice over the subject they choose to do these quizzes for but should be varying the subjects and focusing on those areas they find most challenging. Tutors will check these quizzes weekly with their tutor group.

This is a valuable retrieval exercise. Cognitive science has shown that the more often knowledge is retrieved, the more it is committed to long-term memory and therefore the stronger the learning taking place. It is also a highly effective revision method that pupils are taught how to use from their first year here, giving them vital tools for later on in their school career when they are approaching their exam years.

Consequences 

As a school we do not set homework for any other purpose than to give each individual student the best possible chance of success whilst they are here. We feel strongly that our homework model works, and for this reason students who fail to meet the expectations are sanctioned with a one-hour after-school detention.