It’s Thursday morning again (already). The Management Team are gathering at 8.20 for their caffeine fix in the Conference Room before our weekly scheduled meeting. We manage to cover three or four times as much, at this time, when we’re all fresh, as in end of school meetings. 
As 9.00 draws near and the sounds of students outside can be heard, we hurry on through the business, aware that there is another important role for us outside the room. If we are all in here, who is outside looking after things….?
Today’s discussion is about that controversial topic, homework, or home learning as we call it, to use the latest educational jargon. We are a leading edge school, after all. Please don’t laugh- this one is too painful. Any OFSTED inspector will tell you that homework comes out as a negative on most homework consultations with parents. Why? Well some will say there is not enough set. Some will argue that there is far too much. If only we had a Goldilock’s response- ‘Not too hot and not too cold- just right.’ But this is a topic to raise rather than cool tempera
tures.
So the big question is: how to set a timetable that parents can follow, teachers can use and students will confess to. Sounds easy? Well think about this. There are over 30 different classes running each hour just in Key Stage 3. Each teacher has a different homework (oopps.. home learning) setting day and another day on which they will collect the work for marking or check it’s been done. Then there are the students. They will have yet another day, perhaps the weekend, when they get down to doing the tasks set. How do we record all this in a formal way that makes sense and allows us to be credible in doing what we say we will?
We’ve tried the ‘setting as required’ approach. It’s very sound educationally but a nightmare to check on and leaves so much to the student’s good organisation and will power. The forced night fixing (everyone will do Maths on Tuesday) is equally insane because the nights never match up to the slots and everyone ends up confused- especially the poor teachers.
Today we bat around the two approaches- laissez faire or lock-in. We’ve decided lock in is the only safe bet, when someone comes up with a genius of an idea- an individualised home learning (actually the jargon is personalised) timetable for each student! What’s more, it will even include action plans to reflect other pressures on students during the week- clubs and activities. We’ll state the night it’s set and required but they can chose, within these boundaries, when to do it and so create, with tutors, their personalised home learning timetables. There, I’ve got all the jargon in that last sentence!
A week later and grids for setting and deadlines are stuck firmly in Planners. Tutors are supporting the students as they write up their timetables. It’s surprising how many subjects are planned into Sundays.
So how many senior leaders did it take to change that particular light bulb? Well, about 30 but no one seems to change light bulbs these days- must be the new low energy types but that’s not a characteristic we’d recognise here.
As 9.00 draws near and the sounds of students outside can be heard, we hurry on through the business, aware that there is another important role for us outside the room. If we are all in here, who is outside looking after things….?
Today’s discussion is about that controversial topic, homework, or home learning as we call it, to use the latest educational jargon. We are a leading edge school, after all. Please don’t laugh- this one is too painful. Any OFSTED inspector will tell you that homework comes out as a negative on most homework consultations with parents. Why? Well some will say there is not enough set. Some will argue that there is far too much. If only we had a Goldilock’s response- ‘Not too hot and not too cold- just right.’ But this is a topic to raise rather than cool tempera
tures.So the big question is: how to set a timetable that parents can follow, teachers can use and students will confess to. Sounds easy? Well think about this. There are over 30 different classes running each hour just in Key Stage 3. Each teacher has a different homework (oopps.. home learning) setting day and another day on which they will collect the work for marking or check it’s been done. Then there are the students. They will have yet another day, perhaps the weekend, when they get down to doing the tasks set. How do we record all this in a formal way that makes sense and allows us to be credible in doing what we say we will?
We’ve tried the ‘setting as required’ approach. It’s very sound educationally but a nightmare to check on and leaves so much to the student’s good organisation and will power. The forced night fixing (everyone will do Maths on Tuesday) is equally insane because the nights never match up to the slots and everyone ends up confused- especially the poor teachers.
Today we bat around the two approaches- laissez faire or lock-in. We’ve decided lock in is the only safe bet, when someone comes up with a genius of an idea- an individualised home learning (actually the jargon is personalised) timetable for each student! What’s more, it will even include action plans to reflect other pressures on students during the week- clubs and activities. We’ll state the night it’s set and required but they can chose, within these boundaries, when to do it and so create, with tutors, their personalised home learning timetables. There, I’ve got all the jargon in that last sentence!
A week later and grids for setting and deadlines are stuck firmly in Planners. Tutors are supporting the students as they write up their timetables. It’s surprising how many subjects are planned into Sundays.
So how many senior leaders did it take to change that particular light bulb? Well, about 30 but no one seems to change light bulbs these days- must be the new low energy types but that’s not a characteristic we’d recognise here.
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