Download a printable copy from the link below:
HomestudyPolicy.pdf (PDF 40 KB)
Purpose
Home study helps students to:
- establish behaviour patterns involving work outside formal school time.
- establish a habit of revising or studying work on a regular basis in order to improve retention, conceptualisation, recall and understanding.
- establish organisation skills which require planning time in order to meet various commitments (personal, leisure, work deadlines, etc).
- complete work from that day's lesson.
- complete extra work set to challenge understanding in a 'low' situation (basic skills)
- do extension work set to challenge higher abilities
- complete longer term assignment work.
Guidelines
Home study consists of two dimensions:
- Formal Homework- specific tasks set by teachers.
- Informal Study - personal revision, reading, etc.
Responsibilities
The responsibility for home study is shared between students, teachers and parents.
A. School Responsibilities
- Setting achievable work regularly (at the end of every lesson or at other regular intervals as determined by the Faculty) - completion, extra, extension, assignments.
- Checking and/or correcting all set work. Work should always be checked and frequently be corrected.
- Maintain accurate records of homework set and completed.
- Set appropriate penalties for non-completion of Homework (usually two discipline points).
- Providing recommendations for personal extension or on-going study/revision eg. summarising, reading over work, watching TV programs, listening to radio broadcasts, reading magazines.
- Recommending daily/weekly time spent on homework.
- Teaching students the organisational skills required to plan and effectively use time at home.
- To use the Student Diary and other means to inform parents of:
- school expectations and parent responsibilities
- ways of helping students at home.
B. Family Responsibilities
- To work together in setting schedules which allow for at least the recommended weekly time for work at home.
- To provide a setting which allows work to be done effectively.
- For parents to monitor students work regularly.
- For students to develop initiative and independence by completing their schedule without the need of reminders or requests from parents.
- For parents and students to discuss the work at hand in order for encouragement to be given and as a means of keeping parents informed.
Recommended Times
Times are the average total hours for all work done at home in a week. Variation will occur due to the needs of individual students and specific demands at different times.
Year 7 - 5 hours
Years 8 - 10 (Pathways) 6 - 10 hours
Year 11 & 12 - according to VCE requirements.
Faculty Policies
All faculties have a policy regarding Homework. Homework of some kind is set in every unit, even those which are substantially practical in nature.
Use Of The Diary
All Homework should be written into the diary. Subject teachers will monitor this. Even if homework is not formally set or shown in the diary, students should still spend time at home doing study or reading.