Let’s Talk About Homework!

Written By:
Carolyn Green, Senior School Principal
Russell Marston, Middle School Principal
Crystal Shea, Junior School Principal

Questions about homework are often the most asked questions from families about their child: “My child is doing too much homework/too little homework/no homework. Should I be worried?” As a result, to take the pulse of what is happening at home, we include a question about homework in our annual family surveys, so that we can monitor and respond accordingly. 

Cathy Vatterott, in her book Rethinking Homework. Best Practices That Support Diverse Learning Needs, highlights the changes that have taken place over the past 15 or so years. For example, growing research and development in the areas of:

• Formative feedback (ongoing, timely feedback given during the learning process to help students improve, focusing on growth rather than just grades),
• Growth mindset (the belief that abilities, intelligence, and talents can be developed through dedication, hard work, and persistence, rather than being fixed traits),
• Brain research about factors influencing learning, and
• Sleep and downtime. 

She also refers to some significant educational trends that have taken place during that same period:

• The movement towards mastery learning that emphasizes the role of homework as an ungraded formative assessment and opportunities for practice and feedback. 
• The appreciation of the value of personalized learning, choice and student self-assessment is highly motivational for students. 

Additionally, at GNS, we emphasize the increased focus on educating the whole child—the growth in importance of outdoor education, service-based learning, co-curricular opportunities, social-emotional learning, overall life-skill development, and work-life balance in support of family time. We also know that it is imperative that we future-proof our students, preparing them for careers that lack predictability and are ever-changing.    

The fact is that the landscape of homework has changed significantly. As adults, we can no longer compare our experience as students with that of our own children. Our homework was often busywork; taking hours to do those many worksheets, or putting together those projects with little to no critical thinking. 

Today, homework reinforces the continuity of learning through skill development. Sometimes this looks like practice and repetition, as in the case of mathematics homework. Often, it is as a result of work not completed in class, which needs to be done prior to the following lesson. So, a student who uses their class time effectively may appear to have little or no homework. 

At GNS, we believe that homework is meant to be a meaningful learning experience assigned by a teacher that supports and enriches the learning development of each student, as highlighted in the IB Learner Profile and in support of the Approaches to Learning Skills (ATL skills). It is considered an extension of classroom learning and hence can be a valuable source of information and feedback for both students and their teachers.

To accurately assess student learning, teachers have to ensure that the learning is the student’s own, as this informs the future teaching focus for that student. Any significant summative assessments are typically completed in class or over a period of time under the supervision of a teacher. Work done beyond the classroom has the potential to be impacted by the support or help of tutors, siblings, parents, and now AI, often rendering it inaccurate for assessment purposes. That does not mean that students cannot get help with their homework if it focuses on skill development and practice; we encourage this as needed. 

At GNS, we support five types of homework:

To carefully manage homework at GNS, we have our Essential Agreements:

• Homework should be carefully assigned, if at all, to Grades JK to 3.
• Families are encouraged to engage in early learning activities such as playing, talking and reading together in English or in the family’s first language.
• Homework assigned in the early grades will more often take the form of reading, playing a variety of games, having discussions, and interactive activities.
• Homework will be assigned by teachers from Grades 5 to 12, as needed.
• In general, homework should not be assigned on school holidays or in conflict with students’ involvement in other important school occasions, as deemed by the Principals (e.g., Winter Wonderland Concert).
• Wherever possible, homework will be assigned by teachers so that families can best support its completion at home by balancing the time required for homework with activities outside of the classroom.
• Where appropriate, there will be progressive consequences for incomplete homework.
• Homework not done is viewed as a loss of learning opportunity and of receiving feedback. 

Individual teachers will oversee:

• The setting, monitoring and completion of homework.
• The school accepts that, on occasion, family commitment may take priority over homework.

In the Junior School: 

• Students are expected to read or be read to for at least 20 minutes each night, as reading provides the opportunity to develop and strengthen not only fluency and comprehension skills, but also correlates to improved spelling and writing skills.
• Occasionally, additional practice may be required in a specific subject area, typically literacy, numeracy and French, which would be communicated to parents in advance.
• Families are provided with suggestions for helping students solidify concepts learned in class with the “At Home Support” section of each grade’s classroom newsletter.
• Discussion of a student’s learning journal and reflection is to be shared with families at the end of each Unit of Inquiry, and then shared with the classroom teacher once complete.
• Activities to support the Unit of Inquiry or concepts being studied may be assigned to include a homework component, such as taking pictures of various 3D shapes you find at home, bringing in examples of money from other countries, finding examples of signs in the real world, etc.
• To help our Grade 5 students prepare for Middle School, students are given homework Monday through Thursday to help them build healthy habits and routines to support their transition to Middle School.
• Some assignments are designed to only be completed at school to foster student agency and ensure that the results are a reflection of the student’s independent abilities. This is particularly evident during the Grade 5 Exhibition. 

In the Middle School:

• A variety of tasks and types of homework will be set across each subject by the subject teacher.
• Certain daily tasks may not be written in the agenda, but are expected to form part of the homework routine. These tasks include things such as instrument practice, daily reading, vocabulary review for languages, and skill building in math (math facts, etc.).
• Homework is set within the lesson in a manner which allows students time to record the homework. Generally, students are given time within or at the end of the lesson to record homework assignments in their agendas.
• Homework has a clear deadline for completion recorded in each student’s agenda.
• In setting homework, teachers take into account the different needs and abilities of students and differentiate homework accordingly.
• Where appropriate and possible, teachers will intervene regularly and frequently with regard to feedback about homework tasks, both orally and in writing, giving students constructive advice on how to improve their work and learning.
• As part of our understanding of the impact of homework, we aim to avoid overload in work set at weekends.
• Tasks should be specific and achievable for each age group—a long-term project, for example, may not be suitable for younger students, where specific, step-by-step guidance may be required.
• Homework is reviewed at the end of each day by homeform teachers to help students plan and prioritize. Students have a chance to ask clarifying questions, and homeform teachers double-check that agendas are appropriately filled in before signing them.
• The general rule is that Grade 6 students will have around 30 minutes per night, Grade 7 students can expect over 30 minutes per night, and Grade 8 students can expect around an hour per night, though this may vary from day to day and student to student.
• Open communication between home and school is encouraged. Should homework become an ongoing challenge, parents/guardians are encouraged to reach out to homeform teachers to work together towards a solution.

Monitoring of Homework in the Middle School:

• Each teacher will regularly monitor homework in their subject.
• Where a student is not completing homework regularly, the homeform or subject teacher will work with the student, along with parents/guardians, to help build stronger habits and to determine a positive path forward.
•  Some degree of professional discretion and understanding between individual teachers and individual students in relation to homework is necessary. Ultimately, we wish to see it as an intrinsic and valuable element of the GNS educational philosophy.

In the Senior School:

• Homework will fluctuate from one night to the next. 
• In Grades 9 and 10, homework should not exceed 2 hours per night unless absences and/or co-curricular commitments have prevented the student from meeting learning outcomes. 
• In Grades 11 and 12, the two-hour limit may need to be extended depending on the number and nature of courses selected. For example, a student may choose to do three sciences or online courses in addition to their courses at school.
• It is expected that homework will peak at certain times of each term. For example, prior to significant assignment and assessment deadlines and leading up to each Learning Update and the Summary of Learning.
• A variety of tasks are set across each subject.
• Homework has a clear deadline for completion. 
• In setting homework, teachers take into account the different needs and abilities of students, and differentiate homework accordingly where appropriate and possible.
• If a student has no or limited formally-set homework, then it is expected that they review their learning, both current and previous. 

Monitoring of Homework in the Senior School:

• Each teacher will regularly monitor homework in their subject and provide feedback to students.
• Where a student is not completing homework regularly, the homeform teacher is informed so as to monitor any patterns across subjects and provide support; parents will be informed.
• Where a student has not completed homework, students may be assigned to Academic Completion Time (ACT) with the relevant instructions as to how to complete the homework. If appropriate, the student may be asked to complete late homework during a relevant time in the school day (e.g., the lunch break or a study period).

Assessments in the Middle (MS) and Senior School (SS) that require longer than usual preparation and which would impact homework are monitored and managed through the MS and SS Academic Calendars by the Coordinator of Academic Programming.   

“Homework is a unique educational practice. Of all the learning strategies that a teacher may use, it is the only one encompassing the two worlds of school and home that all children inhabit. Given the complexity of family life and the diversity of students today, it is no surprise that the practice of homework is challenging” – Kathy Vatterott