Homework / Home Learning

After a lengthy consultation on homework or home learning beginning in October 2016 with the questionnaire almost all of our parents and carers completed on parent’s evenings and discussions we have had with pupils and as a staff, we have made some changes to the way homework / home learning will be issued at Currie Primary School, which will start after the February break.

As a result of the homework survey in October 2016 we gathered examples of the types of home learning other schools both in Edinburgh and across Scotland are doing and used these to create a grid style of homework which will allow pupils to have more choice in what they do. In January 2017 a representative group of children from P4 to P7 looked at and approved these grids before a group of parents and staff met to look at the grids and agree a way forward. The grids have also been seen and discussed by our Parent Council.

From week beginning 20 February 2017 reading and spelling home learning will be issued as normal. We acknowledge that spelling home learning can often be the most difficult piece of homework to get children to do but it is something we feel is vital to work on at home as well as in school and we have a set list of patterns to get through in each year stage. However, we will keep trying to come up with different and creative ways to issue spelling home learning and are open to any suggestions you may have on this – please send any ideas or examples you have in to your child’s teacher.

In addition to reading and spelling a grid will also come home with a list of suggested activities, websites etc. to do that your child can pick and choose from. These activities will complement work planned for the class for the term or block. The grids will vary in style with P1 and P2 having a similar style, P3 – P5 sharing a similar style and P6 and P7 following similar formats. Each grid will contain information for children and parents on suggested numbers of activities to complete each week, how to record activities completed and when to bring the work into school to share.

Thank you to everyone for taking part in this survey and to the parents who came into school to meet with us to discuss and agree a way forward with home learning.  The collated results will be available on our website later this week in the ‘About our School’ drop down menu then ‘Documents and reports’ tab as well as an updated Home Learning Policy. As you will see from the results of the survey homework is a difficult thing to get right for everyone but we are hoping this new style of homework will give everyone what they would like to see in particular the children, who during consultation asked for ‘funner’ homework! We will monitor, review and adapt as appropriate the grid style homework as we go on over the next few months.