Homework Guidance

Independent Study Overview

At The Albion Academy, we are a school community who celebrate inclusivity, ambition, and aspirational learners as such, we believe that independent learning encourages the development of skills and allows students to take more ownership of their education. Promotion and emphasis of independent study skills from the start of Year 7 helps to prepare students for Key Stage 4 and beyond, and, in turn, aids our students’ progression and development.

What study tasks will my child receive?

There are three types of task that your child could receive:

Online independent study: In KS3 (Years 7, 8 and 9) all homework will be set online and there will also be some homework set online in KS4 (Years 9 and 10). This will be in place of paper homework.
Paper independent study tasks: in Years 10 and 11, students may receive a study task that is paper based. Students will be given a week to complete this task and it will then be checked by their subject teacher. This will allow students to consolidate and extend their learning.
Self-quizzing independent study: Your child also receives self-quizzing homework once a week from each subject. This ensures that your child is memorising and recalling the powerful knowledge that they need to be successful.

How many independent study tasks should my child receive?

Your child should receive one piece of independent study from each of their subjects once a week, in addition to self-quizzing. This will mean that every day they should be completing at least one piece of homework. Homework tasks will be varied but should include a mixture of activities that consolidate learning in class, extended writing and self-quizzing.

The independent study timetable is below, it shows what night each subject is set on and this is also the day it is due in:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Year 7	Science	English	Maths	Geography	Spanish
Year 8	Science	English	Maths	Geography	Spanish
Year 9	Science	English	Maths	Geography	Spanish
Year 10	Science	English Option A	Maths Option D	Option C	Option B
Year 11	Science Option B	English Option C	Maths	Option A	Option D

Students is KS3 should spend approximately 30-40 minutes per subject per night.
Students in KS4 should spend approximately 1 hour per subject per night.

What additional help is available for study?

Study rooms are open daily before and after school. Study rooms are open from 8:05-8:20 am in the morning and from 3:00-4:00 after school. Students can use the rooms to complete study tasks in a quiet environment or ask for help from subject specialists. Study rooms are fully equipped with IT equipment so online tasks can be completed.

How can you support your child with independent study?

Make sure your child brings their journal, independent study book and knowledge organiser to school every day.
Encourage your child to complete their independent study in order of priority, completing the task with the soonest due date first.
Make sure your child has a quiet, well-lit place to do complete independent study tasks.
Avoid having your child do independent study with the television on or in places with other distractions.
Be positive about independent study. Tell your child how important school is. The attitude you express about independent study will be the attitude your child acquires.
Help your child with time management. Establish a set time each day for completing independent study. Don’t let your child leave tasks until just before bedtime. Think about using a weekend morning or afternoon for working on big projects.
Encourage your child to attend study rooms. Study rooms are open before and after school every day. Students can work with teachers and access resources to help them complete independent study tasks successfully.

Online independent study can be accessed in the following places:

Online study website	Which subject and year group	How to log on.
Sparx Mathx	Maths independent study. Year 7,8,9, 10 and 11	Use log on details provided by teacher or use school email address to login using Microsoft.
Sparx Reader	English independent study. Years 7,8 and 9.	Use log on details provided by teacher or use school email address and password to login using Microsoft.
Seneca	English (Years 10-11) MFL (Years 10-11) and Geography independent study (Years 7-10).	Use log on details provided by teacher or use school email address and password to login using Microsoft.
Carousel Learning	Science independent study Years 7, 8 and 9.	Click on the link that has been sent by email from your science teacher and your login is your first and last name.
Language Nut	MFL independent study Years 7, 8 and 9.	Use log on details provided by teacher, or use school email address and password to login using Microsoft
Office	Access your school email, Teams and more. All year groups.	Login using your email address and password that you have been given in school.

Self-quizzing overview

For every half term, the content for each subject is distilled into a knowledge organiser. This provides key fingertip knowledge for each subject. For each half term, all the knowledge organisers are collated into a booklet which each student receives. These booklets underpin mapped revision study tasks, alongside regular skill- focused independent study.

Students are also provided with a self-quizzing book, which they use in order to test themselves on the knowledge in their knowledge organiser booklet; self-quizzing is one of the most effective revision strategies to embed key knowledge. Students are taught how to use the read, cover, write, check revision strategy and question and answer flashcards to test themselves. This encourages students to take ownership of their learning, and to support them in developing good learning habits. Embedding this content is critical for long-term success and effective retrieval from long-term memory.

What does effective self-quizzing look like?

Read, cover, write, check.

Students learn key information in their knowledge organisers by reading a small section, covering it up, saying the definitions to themselves, writing out those key terms and definitions in their self-quizzing books, then checking to see if they got them right. They should correct any errors in green pen, then repeat the process.

https://youtu.be/2BMwcCLS3bI

https://youtu.be/iBhPLbO4_DI