At The Purbeck School, we know completing home learning is essential to long term academic success. It allows our students to extend their learning and to reinforce what has been learnt in class. Every day, your child is expected to study for around one hour. Home learning will be in three 20 minute parts:

• Reading for pleasure.
• Maths
• Subject self-quizzing.

Reading for pleasure

Like anything else, reading is a skill that becomes better with practice. The objective of Reading for Pleasure is to increase your child’s sense of achievement, confidence and develop their vocabulary – but most of all, for your child to learn to enjoy reading. We encourage your child to challenge themselves with their choice of reading material. Your child should try to read a range of fiction across genres with increasing levels of difficulty. Regularly Reading for Pleasure will have enormous benefits across your child’s subject areas and is heavily linked to success in later life.

Your child has been issued a Reading for Pleasure booklet. After each two weeks of reading, your child must complete a journal entry about the book that they have chosen to read. From a list of prompts in their booklet, each journal entry should be written in full paragraphs. Our English teachers will check your child’s journal entry and may ask your child to discuss their reading in class.

Maths 

Maths home learning provides your child with the opportunity to become more fluent with their maths skills and practise what they have learnt in lessons. Set weekly, from Monday to Sunday, Maths home learning tasks are split into three parts, using three websites:

In Hegarty Maths, your child will be set two tasks on a specific mathematical skill. These are skills that your child would have had deliberate practice within lessons. They should aim to achieve at least 80%. Your child can show you how they performed by clicking on ‘My Tasks’ or ‘My Scores’. These lists provide details on what tasks need to completed, the score achieved on each task and how long they took. Please can you regularly check that your child has completed their home learning, so that they don’t fall behind with their work.

Complete Maths acts as a personalised maths tutor! Following an initial diagnostic assessment, students work through a recommended course. The platform identifies your child’s strengths and weaknesses in maths and addresses gaps one goal at a time.

It is so important for every child to know their times tables because it helps access higher order skills and solve problems. Times Tables Rock Stars provides students with vital practice. We would expect all students to be able to recall their times tables within two seconds.

Each website is very reliable. However, in case your child experiences internet problems or needs support with a task, 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 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, before the home learning task is due;
• Come to our Maths Support Sessions held every lunchtime in room M13;
• Go to Study Plus, our after school study club, Tuesday to Thursday (3.10-4.10pm) in the cafe

In Hegarty Maths, your child can show you how they performed by clicking on ‘My Tasks’ or ‘My Scores’. These lists provide details on what tasks need to completed, the score achieved on each task and how long they took. Please can you regularly check that your child has completed their home learning, so that they don’t fall behind with their work.

Each maths teacher will set TT Rock Stars games for their classes. It is so important for every child to know their times tables because it helps access higher order skills and solve problems.

At The Purbeck School, we know that if your child works hard, completes their home learning to a high standard every week and seeks support, when required, then they will fulfil their potential in mathematics.

Subject self-quizzing

Your child has been issued with a Knowledge Organiser. It has been created to help our students learn a wide range of knowledge, which in turn will allow them to connect different ideas and apply higher order skills in their lessons. It will also prepare your child for the new style, more rigorous and challenging, GCSEs that they will sit in the future. Once a fortnight, your child’s subject teachers will quiz your child on the essential knowledge and skills from lessons that they are expected to learn.

According to significant educational research, frequent quizzing has many benefits for memory and motivation. These include producing better organisation of knowledge, causes students to learn more from their next study episode, identifies gaps in knowledge and improves long term retention.

At home, using a practice exercise book, your child should revise the specific knowledge, as directed by their teachers and highlighted by your child, using the highly effective Look, Cover, Write, Check self-quizzing strategy. Our tutors have directed all students to highlight when quizzes are scheduled onto the front of their Knowledge Organiser. 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 in three quizzes in a fortnight, then an after school self-quizzing session will be assigned 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 and take it home every evening.

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 can be accessed below.

Knowledge Quiz Schedule 2022-23

Y7-Parent-Information-Evening

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 GSCE level or above. Certificates will be awarded to celebrate achievement and effort. Further details of the projects will be provided by classroom teachers. The project outlines can be found below:

Year 7 Enrichment Projects 23-24 Booklet

Year 8 Enrichment Projects 23-24 Booklet

Year 9 Enrichment Projects 23-24 Booklet

Support

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. This facility has lots of computers if you are struggling at home with internet access.

Home Learning Log

Every day, your child must complete their Home Learning Log, which can be found at the back of their Knowledge Organiser. Your child must provide details of their scores from their Maths tasks, tick the subject they have self-quizzed and how they have performed in their knowledge quizzes. As their parent, every day, please check their completed home learning tasks and sign 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.

At The Purbeck School we want to reward and celebrate hard work and effort. House points are given to all students who complete their reading logs, perform well in their Maths home learning tasks and achieve ‘excellence’ in any knowledge quiz. We think it is important that students 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.

KS4 Home Learning Schedule 2023-2024

The home learning schedule is designed to spread out the days on which home learning is assigned to students and should be copied into their planner.

Year 10

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.

Year 11

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.

Rewards and consequences

If a student achieves ‘Excellence’ then house points can be given to reward their success. If a student fails to complete home learning that has been assigned Teacher will firstly assign an extension to enable the student to catch up their home learning, it is important that students stay up to date with their home learning.  If this is then not done than an afterschool detention will be assigned in which the student should complete home learning.  Afterschool 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 for them to attend a meeting to discuss this.

10x Home Learning Timetable