Homework Policy

School: Caherleaheen NS

Aims:

Guidelines for Teachers:

Guidelines for Parents:

Parents are encouraged to:

The way we engage with homework has changed dramatically in the last few years. Children engage with teaching and learning using digital technology and platforms such as Seesaw, Padlet, Aladdin, on a weekly basis. These platforms are used to open communication between home and school. Children and teachers can upload aural, oral, pictorial and written activities.

Please see our Remote Learning Policy

Link: Remote Learning Policy

Shared reading and oral work is is a vital part of engaging  with and enjoying  your child’s  learning and progress.

  1. As a general rule, every child from First to Sixth Class inclusive is given homework from Monday through until Thursday evening. These classes have homework notebooks. Teachers also post homework on Parents’ Aladdin App each day. Junior and Senior Infants have homework folders. Parents are asked to ensure that their children complete  homework each night. In the event of  homework not being attempted or not being completed, especially in senior classes, teachers may insist that the homework is completed by the children during some of the school yard breaks or on the following night. However, this is rare.
  2. Each child from First to Sixth should have a homework notebook which is kept tidy and clean. Parents are asked to sign the homework notebook each night.
  3. School bags, equipment and copies are expected to be kept clean, tidy and in good order.
  4. Occasionally, teachers or visiting VIPs may forego homework as a treat or reward.
  5. We have Active Homework for all classes on alternate Wednesdays. This homework can be a board-game, a card game or one of many outdoor or indoor physical challenges/games. Active Wednesdays are designed to promote whole-family engagement and well-being.

Homework Guidelines

The Early Years:

NOTE: There is no doubt that the early years are vitally important for your child’s social, emotional and intellectual development. Homework should be regarded as quality and personal time between parent and child. Parents, though they may be stressed for time, can rest assured that investment in communicating with and encouraging your child during homework and beyond, is time very well spent indeed, particularly from Infants to Second Class. Surrounding children with social and playful games/stories/books and creative activity greatly supports your child, in partnership with his/her school.

Junior Infants: As part of the literacy programme, your child is taught the Jolly Phonics programme which involves being given written activities- letter formation and sound recognition. These written sounds and words should be practised each night. The tracing/writing of letters is more than just a quick little exercise. It is an opportunity for parents to elicit initial/ final sounds, rhyming words and engage with their child’s development of phonic awareness skills.

Your child will also be given a word bag. These words are sight words which your child must revise often. They are not words that should be ‘sounded out’ phonetically.

The teacher may send a homework folder home each day or week, with a reader which is for shared reading between parent and child. The main emphasis of the infant programme is on oral language/expression and it is important to listen to your child as he discusses illustrations and characters in readers or relates the day’s news.  Please join in with rhymes and songs (using actions and movement). Generally, no homework is given until the October mid-term break.

Senior Infants: Please refer to Junior Infant homework above. Homework will consist of shared and independent reading, a small amount of Maths or manipulative activities. There will be some writing, too. Again, the written or prescribed short reading passages are springboards/prompts for parents to explore phonics and language in a relaxed and engaging way each evening.

First Class:  Again, as above, oral work and phonics are an important feature of parents engaging with First Class homework. Children will also be given some spellings/phonic exercises, a little written work and  Maths activities (parents should remember that concrete materials such as counters/lollipop sticks/pasta/3D or 2D shapes and many household items greatly support maths work at home). Your child will also have English reading each night and Irish reading will also be introduced.

Second to Sixth Class:

  1. Literacy: reading and oral exploration/comprehension. Spellings/phonics.
  2. Leitheoireacht, scríobhneoireacht agus litriú.
  3. c) Maths: Sums or manipulative activities, as a consolidation of the day’s work; Tables or number facts to be learned.
  4. d) Written literacy activities, as a means of reinforcing or extending the day’s lessons.
  5. e) Project work/ some research on occasions
  6. f) Digital activities, e.g. on Seesaw or Padlet

 

Below, please find the approximate times that teachers expect the average-paced child in each class to spend at prescribed homework. Please be assured that all children are different and some may have difficulty settling down to their homework tasks. Routine and a calm, encouraging atmosphere are important. Some children may have specific learning needs which benefit from differentiated homework, thus enabling them to achieve homework objectives and experience success.

Homework is written in your child’s journal each day and it is also uploaded on your Aladdin Connect App. for your convenience. We ask that you or a guardian sign your child’s homework journal every evening. This indicates to the teacher that you have overseen and supported your child’s good work and effort.

There will, of course, be times and circumstances when homework cannot be done or completed. Parents can write a short sentence to the teacher in the homework journal. There is no need to provide an explanation.

It is important that parents inform the teacher of any difficulties or issues regarding homework, by means of a note in their child’s homework notebook or by arranging a phonecall/meeting with the class teacher. Homework should never be rushed and we place great emphasis on tidiness, good handwriting, attention to detail and care of all copies and books, including books which are rented or belong to the school. Please check that school bags and pencil-cases are clean, tidy and well- equipped with pencils, erasers, rulers etc. This should be done regularly.

 

Skill Night Wednesdays: Every week we allocate age-appropriate active or family homework which encourages children to play outdoors, complete physical challenges, learn DIY skills,  participate in household or gardening chores, repair equipment, learn craft-work, play family board games, or to relax by reading or sharing a favourite book with an adult. Children suggest a choice of activities to their class teacher.

PM Readers: Our precious PM readers are occasionally loaned to Junior and Middle standard children by our station teaching team. They must be returned, each morning and exchanged for the next reader.

Class Novels: Middle and Senior Classes are also asked to take care of class novels and return them to their class library when requested.

The staff of Caherleaheen N.S. recognise that parents are the Primary Educators of their children, as enshrined in our Constitution. We are your partners. We regard all kinds of homework as a learning bridge between school and home.

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