Al Ain English Speaking School
PO Box 17939
Al Ain
UAE
Tel. 03 7678636

school@aaess.sch.ae


Homework in the Primary School

PATHS – Parents and Teachers Home support.

At AAESS we feel homework is important and sets good working habits.  We want to make sure it is valuable, flexible, creative and fun. Our homework tasks are directly linked to the needs of the children and build on previous knowledge.

We use various homework strategies; for example parental support and guidance, joint family learning tasks and independent learning.  Homework will not always take the form of recorded work.

In Key Stage 1, we will outline what has been happening in class and then give suggestions for practical activities rather than recorded. We will draw on the internet to give further learning opportunities.

Suggested homework times (4 times a week) -

            Reception   – 10 minutes per night reading
            Year 1       – 10 minutes reading per night and 10 minutes other
            Year 2       – 10 minutes reading per night and 15 minutes other

In Key Stage 2, we will outline what has been happening in class, share examples of practical activities, draw on the internet to give further learning opportunities and support this learning with recorded work where we feel it is appropriate.  We aim to give a varied homework diet with a strong mix of simple oral activities, investigative work and scaffolded recorded tasks.

Suggested homework times (4 times a week) –
           
            Year 3 – 15 per night reading and 20 minutes other

            Year 4 – 15 minutes reading per night and 25 minutes other

            Year 5 – 20 minutes reading per night and 30 minutes other

            Year 6  - 20 minutes reading per night and 40 minutes other


Our pledge to children and parents

    We will inform you of our classroom activities and help support your discussions and activities at home

    We will give you suggestions for home support

   We will try to vary tasks to keep children of all learning styles and interests are stimulated.

    We will offer differentiated activities as and when appropriate.

    We will review our homework policy regularly and make amendments as necessary

    We will strive to keep homework interesting and creative

   We will share and delight in your child’s work at home as before.  As the children's home work supports our class learning, their work at home will always be acknowledged.

   If we feel a particular child needs a different homework approach, we will               communicate this to you and change it.

    We appreciate that every child is different.

 

    How PATHS will be communicated to you
 

   Each year group’s homework will be posted to your family e mail address and put on the web site every Sunday

    The homework will be held on the web site for one week only

   For those of you that do not have an internet connection, we will hold a hard copy in  each classroom that can be copied at      your request

  Should you requite a hard copy every week, please communicate this to the class teacher.  It is not a problem, but we would like to keep paper copies to a minimum

How to support your child at home

 

    •  Always tackle homework at a suitable time – often this is not straight after school or     just before bed time

  Stick roughly to the time guide lines

  Encourage your child to retrieve the homework each week from the internet if possible

  Talk through the class activities and encourage your child to tell you more about them

  Ask questions about the class work - discussion is very important

  Get your child into a reading routine – this can be silently and independently at times and aloud with an audience at others. Encourage discussion about the book and not just decoding.

  Read through the suggested PATHS activities. They should be self explanatory, but they will have been discussed with your child in class, so ask them too.

  Set time aside for different suggested activities but utilise other incidental time too eg, taxi rides, bath time…….

   Try not to get too stressed if your child is struggling. Leave the task and come back to it, or ask the teacher for more support.

   You know your child well.  Do what you can in the time you have but make sure that your child still has time for ‘normal’ family activities and play.

   Offer lots of support, encouragement and praise.