Home learning here at Penketh High is centred around student engagement and progress. Each home learning booklet is directly linked to the work being undertaken in class. For students this means that there will always be home learning to engage with and for parents, you can always be sure that your child has work of value that they can engage with at home to maximise their progress and understanding.

The main aim of the booklets is ensure that students are acquiring knowledge. Knowledge is an exceptionally important strand of student success, it’s important that students have knowledge of the content that they are studying in each topic as this is the very foundation of understanding.  New curriculums mean that students are being exposed to more complex concepts and are required to demonstrate a good understanding of these concepts and are often expected to combine ideas from different concepts.  These skills are more challenging, but the important first step in conquering this way of working is to have a deep knowledge about the topic itself.

Home learning booklets also ensure that students are able to fully prepare themselves for internal and external assessments and, although booklets will vary from subject to subject, there are key elements that will be present in all:

• Knowledge Organiser
• Key Vocabulary and definitions
• Example questions with answers to check for accuracy
• Wider reading opportunities
• Useful websites and links for further exploration and understanding
• Revision checklists/techniques

There are three main strands to the home learning booklets and, if done well, can add several months of extra progress to a student’s learning.

1. We encourage all students and families to engage in home learning by turning knowledge organisers into revision flashcards. This is a really useful revision technique that helps cement that knowledge to a students’ long-term memory. For further information on how to use flashcards effectively this article is really useful – https://www.primrosekitten.com/pages/revision-flashcards-for-revision
2. Engage in the wider reading opportunities but don’t just read the article, students could make notes or summarise the passage into their own words. Maybe make a note of any interesting facts or anything they didn’t quite understand so they can ask your teacher next lesson. Another useful home learning strategy is for a student to talk about what they have read with their family, maybe even teaching them something new to promote that idea of life-long learning – https://leadingeducation.co.uk/wider-reading/
3. Engage with the questions in the booklets. All revision strategies should involve answering questions in some way. Students should answer the questions to the best of their ability and, as the unit develops, students may add to their answers or even change their answers as their understanding grows. Here are some useful tips about engaging with practice questions – https://www.mytutor.co.uk/blog/students/6-top-tips-to-help-you-ace-exam-questions/

 

Staff will be assessing students regularly through lesson activities and checking on the regularity with which pupils are completing work, if we have significant concerns we will of course contact parents.

Student agency and responsibility is crucial in developing resilient learners and from new Year 7 students through to Year 11 students preparing for GCSE exams, taking responsibility for your learning is a must. We want students to understand that they need to engage in activities now that their future-selves will thank them for in years to come.