Over each half term, your child will also have the opportunity to voluntarily take part in subject based Enrichment Projects and other home learning. These are aimed to stretch and challenge your child further. They are run half termly to provide an enhanced learning experience, if you are interested in that subject or would like to study it at GCSE level or above. Certificates will be awarded to celebrate achievement and effort. Further details of the projects will be provided by classroom teachers. Our project outlines can be found here:

• Year 7 Enrichment Projects 23-24 Booklet

• Year 8 Enrichment Projects 23-24 Booklet

• Year 9 Enrichment Projects 23-24 Booklet

www.readingplus.com

Our Reading Plus programme supports pupils with reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Each pupil will be given access to their own personalised library of texts based on their current reading age and skill level. In order for the programme to have a significant positive impact on pupil reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension skills, it is required that all pupils complete their weekly set tasks.

Pupils are provided login details by their English teacher. They are assigned five short reading assignments each week and one vocabulary assignment. Your child’s English teacher will monitor their activity each week in order to see how their skills are improving over the year and to address any gaps in class.

www.sparxmaths.com

Sparx is an exciting online platform that personalises each pupil’s homework, creating a weekly set of questions tailored to their level of understanding and learning pace. The questions are designed to be achievable whilst offering the stretch that pupils need to make progress. Each week, homework should take around one hour. Pupils access the website using their school IT login details. Questions from previous topics will also be included so that pupils can keep practising the skills they have learned.

Each week, you will receive an email from Sparx-Maths providing information on their task progress. Please encourage your child to complete their home learning earlier in the week, and not to wait until Sunday evening!!! Your child may find some questions more challenging than others. If your child requires help and support with their home learning then please ask your child to speak to their maths teacher.

Your child has been issued with a Knowledge Organiser. According to significant educational research, frequent quizzing has many benefits for long-term memory and motivation. These include connecting new learning to prior-learning, identifying gaps in knowledge and improving long term retention. Once a fortnight, subject teachers will quiz your child on the essential knowledge and skills from lessons that they are expected to learn.

Look Cover Write Check

Subject teachers will ask your child to note specific questions from their knowledge organiser into the home learning log. At home, using a practice exercise book, your child should revise this using the highly effective Look, Cover, Write, Check self-quizzing strategy. Please be proactive and support your child by quizzing them daily. If your child scores ‘100% − Excellence’, then house points will be assigned. If your child hasn’t learnt what is expected, then we have after school self-quizzing sessions to provide more time and practice for your child. Please can you encourage your child to bring their Knowledge Organiser and self-quizzing exercise book to school every day.

This short video helps to explain how to self-quiz to enable you to maximise your success in your home learning:

Our knowledge quiz schedule:

• Knowledge-Quiz-Schedule-2023-24

Found at the back of their Knowledge Organiser, your child must complete their Home Learning Log. This involves recording their attendance, ticking off when they’ve completed their English and Maths online home learning and recording how they have performed in their knowledge quizzes. As their parent, every week, please check their completed home learning tasks and their Home Learning Log.

At home, please support your child by ensuring that they have a quiet environment to do their home learning. It is important that your child gets into positive and effective study habits now so that they can fulfil their learning potential. If your child is struggling with any aspect of their home learning then please encourage them to go and see their subject teacher. Your child can also attend Study Plus, our after-school home learning club, which is held Tuesday to Thursday from 3.10 – 4.10pm in the cafe. In these sessions, we can provide a laptop if you are struggling at home with internet access.

At The Purbeck School we want to reward and celebrate hard work and effort. House points are given to all pupils who complete their reading logs, achieve 100% in their Maths home learning tasks and achieve ‘excellence’ in any knowledge quiz. We think it is important that pupils understand the importance of home learning and the study skills that it allows them to practice and grow. We know that if your child works hard and completes their home learning to a high standard every week, then they will fulfil their potential in across all of their subjects.

At The Purbeck School, we believe completing home learning is essential to the academic success of all students. It gives students the opportunity to extend their learning and to reinforce what has been learned in class. Home learning will be assigned in the following ways:

• Weekly home learning will be assigned for English, Maths and the optional GCSE subjects, the tasks should be approximately 60 mins in length.
• Science will be set by each teacher once every 2 weeks and should combine to average 60 mins per fortnight the slots on the home learning schedule are there to support the students in using their time efficiently rather than identifying the day the home learning will be assigned.
• There will be no home learning set for students in personal development, RE or PE.

At The Purbeck School, we believe completing home learning is essential to the academic success of all students. It gives students the opportunity to extend their learning and to reinforce what has been learned in class. Home learning will be assigned in the following ways:

• Weekly home learning will be assigned for English, Maths, Science and the optional GCSE subjects, the tasks should be at least 60 mins in length.
• Science will be set by each teacher once every 2 weeks and should combine to average 60 mins per fortnight the slots on the home learning schedule are there to support the students in using their time efficiently rather than identifying the day the home learning will be assigned.
• There will be no home learning set for students in personal development, RE or PE.

If a student achieves ‘Excellence’ then house points can be given to reward their success. If a student fails to complete the home learning that has been assigned, their teacher will firstly assign an extension to enable the student to catch up with their home learning. It is important that students stay up to date with their home learning.  If this is not done, then an after-school detention will be assigned in which the student should complete home learning.  After-school detentions are used as this helps to ensure that students don’t fall behind in their studies, which is why it is important that they use the time for completing home learning.  If a student persistently fails to complete their home learning on time, the teacher will contact parents/carers and may ask them to attend a meeting to discuss this.

For whatever reason, if your child has been set no home learning, then they should be working independently using GCSE Revision and Independent Study booklet.