Homework. Love it or hate it, one thing is indisputable: it is one of the hottest topics of discussion within schools and among students and parents.
In recent years, many schools have overseen changes in their homework policies and our school – The King’s CE Academy in Kidsgrove – is no exception.
While we have found a “no-homework” policy pleases only a few, having a table of creative but generic homework tasks for teachers to choose from – differentiated using chilli peppers! – infuriates the masses.
For some parents, no matter how much homework is set it will never be enough. For others, trying to fit homework in between a 12-hour work shift, extra-curricular clubs, and family life is a logistical nightmare.
And even though our own internal data analysis shows, consistently, that those students who commit to homework in the long term go on to achieve significantly better outcomes at GCSE compared to those who do not, raising the profile of learning outside of school was proving to be an on-going challenge.
To this end, over four years, we compared a student's average commitment to homework grade when they were in year 11 to the outcomes they went on to achieve in their GCSE examinations. The values in the table below represent GCSE grades, where positive figures indicate over-performance and negative figures indicate under-performance.
For example, in 2021:
- A student who averaged an “outstanding” commitment to homework (grade 1)achieved, on average, over half a GCSE grade better (+0.53) than the national average performance in each of their Best 8 GCSEs.
- A student who averaged a “requires improvement” commitment to homework (grade 3) underperformed, on average, by more than one whole GCSE grade (–1.18) than the national average performance in each of their Best 8 GCSEs.
Rather than continuing the debate for and against homework, we decided to focus our attention on the quality of homework set, ensuring all stakeholders could recognise and appreciate the value it brings.
Drawing on research from Robert Marzano and Debra Pickering (2007), we concluded that homework should always add value to the learning process for teachers and students.
According to the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), homework can have a positive impact (offering an additional five months of progress across a year) on the progress of disadvantaged students in secondary schools with very small cost implications.
As such, it would be remiss of us to discard this as a tool to support learning and progress. This is where “meaningful homeworks” came in to play.
Meaningful homeworks
When pulling together our new programme, we agreed that homework needed to be:
- Meaningful work (not “busy-work”) linked to the key skills and knowledge being developed in lessons at that point in time and higher level skill tasks that move away from comprehension questions, poster-making, and spelling worksheets.
- Set at the “right time” to reflect the learning journey of the students.
- Framed with the “why” – so students become a part of the bigger picture.
- Responded to with timely feedback.
How did we achieve this?
The first thing we did as a teaching and learning team was to remove the weekly homework rota, replacing it with the simple expectation that staff would set one to two homeworks each half-term (depending on the subject and allocated time).
Using their curriculum overviews as a guide, teachers now carefully plan a homework that aims to develop and extend the learning taking place in lessons, focusing explicitly on the application of key skills and knowledge that were being honed that term.
Most importantly, teachers have control over when the homeworks are set meaning they are aligned with the sequence of learning.
Documenting the meaningful homeworks on each subject’s curriculum overviews gave this new strategy gravitas – stakeholders could see how we valued the work completed at home and considered it to be as important as the work completed in class.
As a school, we expect parents and carers to participate in their child’s education by accepting their part in overseeing the work done at home. Publishing the homework overviews, with modelled examples on the website, has given parents and carers a clear overview of what homework their child should be receiving each term and a platform for them to engage in discussion about it.
A consistent approach
This was a whole-school effort, one which required a change of culture. As such, the approach needed to be consistent for all staff. When setting homework, staff are expected to allocate time at the end of the lesson to talk through the task and expectations. This is important because it allows teachers to articulate its relevance to current and future learning, highlight their expectations in terms of quantity and quality (displaying models), and where appropriate provide scaffolding and answer any questions students may have.
All homeworks are then recorded on the school’s management information system using the following three headings: Tasks. Guidance. Success Criteria.
Removing barriers
During the implementation stage, we considered the common barriers that our children face when completing homework: lack of clarity, lack of purpose, and a lack of space and resources.
To combat these, we have set up a homework club with a dedicated learning assistant who can provide both a quiet space and support for those students who need it to complete their work. Students can attend voluntarily or be referred by a member of staff, depending on their needs and circumstances.
Feedback to homework
Providing timely feedback has played a fundamental role in the success of meaningful homeworks across the school. Students need to see that their efforts have not been in vain and have been acknowledged, rewarded, and have supported learning in future lessons.
For staff, workload has decreased – instead of setting and marking a piece of homework every week, they are now setting one or two a half-term. As the homework is substantial, it means staff are also able to use this as an assessment piece to inform on-going progress.
Lessons learned
The main take-away for this difficult issue is that the clearer the person setting homework is about what the task is designed to achieve, the more likely it is to be of value.
Be transparent with staff and parents so that expectations are well managed. And remember that less is more and while the tasks set should be specific and focused, so too should the timely feedback.
Aimee Williams is director of school improvement at the Three Spires Trust, a multi-academy trust based in Staffordshire. She is also a Specialist Leader of Education for both English and teaching and learning.
Further information & resources
- EEF: Homework, Teaching and Learning Toolkit, last updated 2021: https://bit.ly/3oYWpHZ
- Marzano & Pickering: The case for and against homework, Educational Leadership (64,6), 2007: https://bit.ly/3JmS9sP
- SecEd Podcast: Making homework effective, 2022.