At Bute House, we believe that any work that children are asked to undertake should have a positive impact upon their learning. Any work which is set to be completed outside lessons must have a clear purpose or intention and should link closely with whatever learning is happening within the classroom. There is little conclusive evidence that setting large amounts of homework has a big effect on children’s progress. Overall, research suggests that lots of homework in primary schools does not appear to lead to large gains in learning. Regular daily homework in the form of repetitive worksheets, for example, which a child is expected to do unaided, can have a negative impact. It may lead to pupils developing a negative attitude towards home learning and divert parents away from doing positive educational activities with their children. However, activities that involve the parent and child working together or talking about their learning, can be enormously beneficial. We firmly believe that the most effective thing any parent can do to help their child succeed at school is to read with them every day.
In addition, at Bute House, home learning tasks are carefully chosen at the start of each term and communicated to pupils and parents in the form of a home learning menu, from which pupils can choose tasks to complete each week. The expectation and frequency of home learning tasks escalates in a manageable way throughout the year groups, with Upper School pupils completing regular home learning on most nights of the week.
