HOMEWORK POLICY
April 2019
INTRODUCTION
This document has been prepared primarily for parents and guardians and outlines the policy of Mesarya Education House on homework, how it is organized and managed, and the important role that parents and guardians have in helping the Mesarya Education House to achieve and maintain high academic standards.
Assigning homework serves various educational needs. It serves as an intellectual discipline, establishes study habits, eases time constraints on the amount of curricular material that can be covered in class, and supplements and reinforces work done in Mesarya Education House. In addition, it fosters student initiative, independence, and responsibility.
DEFINITION OF HOMEWORK
Homework is defined as out-of-class tasks assigned to students as an extension or elaboration of classroom work, and can be of one of three different types: practice, preparation and extension.
Practice assignments reinforce newly acquired skills. For example, students who have just learned a new method of solving a mathematical problem may be given sample problems to complete on their own. Preparation assignments help students prepare for future activities that will occur during normal class time. Students may, for example, be required to do background research or reading on a topic to be discussed in class. Extension assignments are frequently long-term continuing projects that parallel class work. Students are normally required to apply previous learning to complete these assignments.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Mesarya Education House believes that homework:
- Requires the co-operation of parents/guardians
- Should be firmly rooted in current curriculum work
- Should be marked and assessed by teachers like any other work completed in MEH
- Should gradually increase in complexity and quantity as students’ progress through their programme of study
- Is more about quality than quantity
PURPOSES OF HOMEWORK
- To encourage students to develop the practice of independent study
- To help students to develop perseverance, self-discipline and organization skills
- To actively involve parents and other adults in students’ work and keep them informed about the work of their children
- To consolidate and reinforce work taught in timetabled classes
- To allow practice where it is needed of skills learned in class time
- To facilitate the efficient delivery of work in class time
- To help ensure students make adequate progress with their learning
- To open up areas of study and to make possible the use of materials and sources of information that are not always accessible within MEH
- To help manage the demands of GCSE and A-Level coursework
ORGANISATION OF HOMEWORK
To ensure that students gain the most benefit from homework, staff will:
- Set aside time during class time to make sure that homework has been completed
- Give encouragement and praise for genuine effort
- Make allowances for differing abilities and speeds of working
- Ensure that the work produced is of an appropriate standard in relation to the subject and level being studied
- Ensure that appropriate sanctions are imposed where students either fail to complete set homework or where it is completed to an inappropriate standard
- Actively encourage parents and other adults to be involved in homework
RESPONSIBILITIES
Teachers
It is the responsibility of teachers to set regular homework in accordance with the learning requirements of the academic programme which a student is undertaking, to ensure that homework is related to current curriculum work, to ensure parents receive an update through the termly academic progress reports on performance in homework tasks, to effectively mark homework and to ensure that students receive adequate and regular feedback on homework.
Student
It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that homework is completed neatly, on time and returned to the teacher by the specified submission deadline. It is the student’s responsibility to maintain a record of homework tasks set by his/her teachers.
Parent
It is the responsibility of parents and guardians to support the Institution’s aims in respect of setting homework, and to support the Institution’s policy by offering guidance and support to their children.
QUANTITY OF HOMEWORK
The following is intended as a guide to the number of hours of homework set per subject per week for NCUK International Foundation Year, NCUK International Year One, and NCUK Pre-Masters, 1 year GCE A-Level.. The number of hours a student is required to spend completing homework in subjects may vary depending upon the requirements of individual subjects throughout the academic year.
| Academic Programme | Hours of Homework per Subject per Week |
| NCUK Int. Foundation Year | 2 hours |
| NCUK Int. Year One | 2 hours |
| NCUK Pre-Masters | 3 hours |
| 1 year A-Level | 6 hours |
Parents or guardians who feel that there is a problem with the amount or difficulty of homework given to their child should contact the Mesarya Education House for advice.