A GLOBAL ISSUE – HOMEWORK!

At a recent conference, I had the pleasure of listening to a presentation by a UK-based inspector of schools who in briefing FOBISSEA Heads about the present inspectorate system in the UK revealed that in her experience the most popular issue of debate amongst parents in the schools that she visited was the quality and in particular the amount of homework given by teachers. She went on to say that if inspection questionnaires reflected a split of 50% of parents who thought that too much was given against those who believed that too little was assigned, then schools had probably got it just about right! It was a flippant remark of course which drew some wry smiles from the audience, but it did serve to highlight that homework is a global issue in schools.

Here at KIS, homework is no less an issue within our community of students, staff and parents. A KIS parent questionnaire at the end of last term saw homework issues high on many respondents list of concerns and as part of the regular review process for all our school policies, homework has recently been an agenda item during our weekly staff meetings, where we have discussed the effectiveness of what we have in place, as well as student attitudes to supporting the work they do in school with work done at home.

Recent research coming out of the UK has found compelling evidence that students in the highest achieving schools spend more time on learning activities at home than students in other schools. At KIS our homework philosophy reflects best practice in the UK and in many schools around the world in that we believe strongly that it has an important role to play in helping to consolidate learning in the classroom by providing the opportunity to practice, review and revise existing skills. We also understand that homework can also play a key role in encouraging independent learning by promoting investigation and research. Accordingly, we are committed to planning homework that integrates with work already done in the classroom and wherever possible we try to ensure that homework is tailored to individual needs and is thus differentiated to meet those needs.

Such principles are naturally well-established in the best schools around the world, but their importance is magnified when applied to the more contentious issue of the amount of homework given to students each week and the students perception of its value and thus their attitude towards it. Once again, recent research has supported the theory that the precise amount of time spent on homework is much less important than the quality of tasks set and the way they are planned to support learning. As a school that follows the UK National Curriculum, we nonetheless broadly follow the homework guidelines published by the UK Education Ministry to aid good practice in schools in England and Wales. Our recent discussions have confirmed the view that our policies and practice in setting, managing and marking homework must be consistent and reflect the value of homework to students right across the school.

Homework is not an option of course and partnerships with parents and students are vital to extending high quality learning beyond the limits of the school day. At KIS, like many schools, we encourage our parents to provide a reasonably peaceful, suitable place in which students can do their homework and on occasions sign homework diaries and monitor work done after school through other home-school communication channels. In the best schools homework is part of a wider partnership with parents and these schools understand the need to be able to count on parents support for their aims and that parents need to be informed about school policies. We will look forward to sharing our revised homework policy with you when we have completed our review.

Stuart McLay

Principal

Kinabalu International school