Could I ask a question about homework practices please?

[PetraDelphiki]

Senior school question for the teachers here -could really do with knowing how schools do things/what teachers consider best practice!

Basically does your school give the students homework timetables (eg Monday maths 20mins, English 20mins)?

Do the teachers stick to the timetables (days and amounts)?

Do the heads of department have any way of seeing if the teachers are sticking to it? Do they (should they) care?

Do they have any way of seeing if homework has been set/marked?

Do they get any feedback on how individual students are doing?

Do they have any way of knowing if the teachers are tracking how students are doing on homework?

Do the teachers have a standard way to tell students about homework (eg all homework is posted on one place on the intranet)...or is it a mixture of verbal/email/other messaging?

There seem to be a lot of issues that I hear from dd and friends (Similar problems in multiple schools) ridiculous large amounts of homework for the timetables, homework on wrong days, some groups not getting any homework all year, homework not being marked at all.,and I’m just trying to find out what is best practice!

Thank you!!!

Different schools do different things. I haven’t really got the energy to write answers to all those questions (!) but I will tell you that the best school I worked in for homework allowed staff to set what/when they liked, homework was recorded in planners and there was an expectation that students would usually have a week to complete it.

Thank you...yes that did end up with more questions than I meant...any responses will be much appreciated!!!

I have no idea what the rest of the deptartments' policies are, which will tell you something about our whole school approach (or lack of).

My dept (English) set fortnightly homework for junior classes, in theory. I don't have to give feedback more than a cursory glance over (the task is not related to classroom learning). Senior classes are at the individual teachers' discretion.

We report on homework as part of our tracking and reporting procedures three times a year. Our line manager would be asking us if we didn't have the data to report on (i.e. we hadn't set any).

I'm a primary teacher but have a DD in secondary. Her school doesn't have a fixed homework timetable so teachers/HoDs don't oversee whether or not anyone sticks to it. Not all homework is marked because it's not always something that needs marking e.g. preparation of a presentation, research for use in a subsequent lesson. Sometimes homework is acknowledged with a tick, sometimes not e.g. if finishing off classwork.

In general, pupils have about a week to do homework which used to be recorded by them, in their planners. This year, the school has introduced the use of Show My Homework so homework is meant to be set on there and submitted in class.

Totally depends on the school.
My advice to students is to talk to their teachers if they think they may not be able to complete homework on time. Preferably when it is set.

my school monitors how much homework teacher set and I usually get in trouble for not setting enough.

Happy to tell you what my school does, although I've got no idea whether it's "best practice or not".

Basically does your school give the students homework timetables (eg Monday maths 20mins, English 20mins)?

There's a homework timetable, but it's not this specific- it's more like 1hr of science per week, 1hr of English per week, 1hr of history every fortnight (this changes year on year, so these are rough amounts). Not every Y8 student will have say, MFL, on the same day, for example, so having set days would be tricky.

Do the teachers stick to the timetables (days and amounts)?

I think most do roughly, but as I say ours isn't prescriptive on days.

Do the heads of department have any way of seeing if the teachers are sticking to it? Do they (should they) care?

Mine could see what I was setting via show my homework (although I think I'd have to log in for him. My HoD has far more important things (like right now organizing Y11 mocks etc) to be doing than checking up on people setting homework though and he trusts our professional judgement.

We do report on homework twice a year (effort rather than achievement) so if there was no data as none had been set, this would be a problem!

Do they have any way of seeing if homework has been set/marked?

Again, he can check via SMH what has been set. For what's been marked, he could check books. However, most of the homework we set is revision type homework, so it doesn't always need marking.

Do they get any feedback on how individual students are doing?

No. I teach science, there are 900(ish) students studying science between Y7 and Y11 + sixth form. It would be impossible for one person to have oversight of this many students individually. If there are persistent issues with one pupil, things might be escalated to the HoD.

Do they have any way of knowing if the teachers are tracking how students are doing on homework?

Only in terms of checking if teachers are setting detentions- these are recorded via SIMS. HoDs can keep a track of this, but again digging into each detention that has been set and finding out why would be very time consuming and they have more important things to be doing.

Do the teachers have a standard way to tell students about homework (eg all homework is posted on one place on the intranet)...or is it a mixture of verbal/email/other messaging?

We have show my homework- I also tell all my classes verbally. Having a system like show my homework works well for about 90% of children. Some struggle to access it though and new students can take a while to get access.

I do think your expectations of heads of departments are a bit high- most have quite a high teaching load, and a lot of work falls to them. Keeping track of all the students in your department and their homework just isn't feasible. In most schools Y7 and Y8 at least take all subjects- that's usually at least 200 children, keeping track of how they're doing in their homework would be a full time job!

I also think that a lot of teachers would resent being pulled up on things like "why didn't you set homework this week?" or "why did you set homework on Thursday not Tuesday?". If a HoD has hired someone, usually they will trust their professional judgement to an extent unless it becomes clear there is an issue.

I think my question is more about how an HOD would then know (eg) no homework had been set for a term...or stuff (actual work not revision) was being set and not marked? There seems very little point in a lot of the h/w dd gets because it is “answer these questions” but never marked - so teacher can have no idea whether students are getting it done let alone right if they don’t look at it!

I’m not thinking about HODs following 900 students individually...but surely there should be systems that show whether work has been set/done/marked ...

And it’s lovely that your HOD trusts your professionalism...but how do they know they can do this if they can’t track your work? The HOD at dds school didn’t know that one teacher hadn’t set any h/w all term until they were told by a parent...all other classes in same subject had covered way more content and had h/w as timetabled! Surely that’s something they should want to know?

I guess my concern is that by the time the HOD finds out there is an issue from end of year exams or whatever the students have had a year wasted....

We don’t have a set day- I think those timetable are well meaning but tend to fall apart when they meet the many and varied iterations of the timetable. I always give a week for homework so the pupils can sort out when they do it. The homework is set online and automatically sends the kids reminders . SLT do monitor homework but report back in broad terms to the whole school- eg year 8 aren’t getting much homework at the moment . I suspect they would come and find me if they could see I wasn’t setting any at all. We are supposed to set homework once every two weeks for KS3 or every 6 lessons. I don’t know what it is at KS4 officially but I aim for short and weekly unless I’m marking exams. I’m part time though so under less time pressure. Our class books are taken in at least once a term and they are still looking for extensive and regular feedback in green pen. There is a general underestimation of how long it takes to mark at set of 32 books, even if you are flying and can get a book opened , locate the work , ( or rummage through the sheets that fall out) mark it and give meaningful feedback, and record the marks in your planner in 5 mins, that’s still only 12 books an hour.

There is a general underestimation of how long it takes to mark at set of 32 books

Oh how true. I do between 64 and 96 a day (upper primary), as of course in Primary the expectation is that all work is always marked for the next lesson in the same subject, so children can immediately act on the feedback given. Its OK when it's a paragraph or two in English, a set of problems in Maths and a worksheet in another subject - but extended writing, open-ended problem solving and a good Science experiment write-up or History output can seriously eat time when multiplied by 32 each time!

I think there needs to be a review of the purpose of Homework and whether it's meeting the purpose. DD2 hates homework. She doesn't enjoy school, finds it hard going and doesn't want to be spending 'her free time' on homework. She's a good girl, though, so with help, she does it. It often takes far longer than it's meant to (ASD) but we persevere until it's done, which is fine, it's what needs to be done.

I do then get irritated when I find that another child has marked her history homework 'This is good but perhaps some more pictures?'. Or the stop animation project which we busted a gut over was handed in on time, but the next lesson several people hadn't finished theirs and DD2 gets to just sit around for a whole lesson while they finish it, then several weeks later the teacher is only just getting around to having a look.

Teachers probably don't have time to look at it all, but if they aren't going to give any feedback, the child won't know if they were on the right lines.

Homework given out for the sole purpose of sticking to a homework timetable is generally pointless and wastes teachers' and students' time

I set homework...because I have to. But it's pointless.

I use online systems so. I put on show my homework do 39x minutes on Seneca. I have no idea what day is on my school timetable. But I set everyone's on a Thurs and give them a week to do the homework.

My head of department can see what I put on show my homework and a spreadsheet is released firmly of how many times a teacher has set homework. But no links to the quality of that homework.

I can see if students have completed. But I know my diligent students will. The ones that don't care about sanctions won't.

I rarely chase or look unless parents evening is coming so I can have conversations with parents.

Years 7, 8 and 9 have a homework timetables with 3 subjects per night Monday to Thursday and are expected to spend 30 to 45 minutes on each of those subjects. Then weekends are for revising for tests, and reading (each year group has a reading list, and the assessment timetable is published to students and parents). Year 10 and above doesn't have a timetable but students should have minimum 3 nights to complete homework tasks, to avoid overload on one evening and to account for a particular day of the week when they spend a lot of time on an extracurricular.

Heads of department see all the tasks posted in Google Classroom so can check how much is being set and how much time is given. Heads of Year also do random peeks, e.g. ask 5 different kids how much homework they have that day and week (this is to see how students are organising themselves, not to 'spy' on staff).

All homework has to be posted on Google Classroom, which all students are, and parents can if they wish to (they just have to accept the automatic invitation at the start of the school year). We also have to tell students verbally in a lesson, "there is homework in Classroom, due on x", but don't need to explain what the task is, etc. Students are really good at getting the homework from the Classroom and it does make them independent as you can add whichever resources they might need or want to help them complete the task(s).

All our homework is given verbally and recorded by students. They and parents also have access to brief info about the task and due date online. There is a timetable and if you are concerned about homework taking way too long or being regularly set when it’s not supposed to be I would discuss it with the form tutor. I would also expect the work to be marked regularly with useful feedback.