Sixth Form Open Evening – Thursday 13th November 2025 from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm

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HOMEWORK

“If a student completes an hour’s homework per school night for five years, it is the equivalent of an extra year at school.”

Regular homework is important, since it serves as an intellectual discipline, establishes good study habits, eases time constraints on the amount of curricular material that can be covered in class, and supplements and reinforces work done in school. In addition, it fosters student initiative, independence, and responsibility, and brings home and school closer together. It helps students to become confident and independent in their learning and crucially good organisational skills and strong study routines will significantly reduce anxiety caused by assessments and terminal exams.

Crucially, homework at secondary school has been proven to work. There have been countless studies done looking at the correlation between exam success and homework and the results are indisputable! Students who regularly complete their homework achieve better grades in final exams than those that don’t. One study noted links between students who regularly did their homework and tidy bedrooms! Research has shown that students who regularly complete homework benefit from:

  • An increased progress from 12 months in a year to a possible 20 months
  • An increased retention of knowledge
  • Improved study habits and skills leading to an improve work ethic
  • Improved self-direction and self-discipline
  • Improved time management skills

 

Homework is set on Arbor and is visible to students and parents/carers to see each week. Students receive one week to complete homework.

WHAT TASKS SHOULD STUDENTS BE DOING FOR HOMEWORK?

Homework is not about keeping students busy. The homework tasks that we set are based on the theory of practice. We all know the saying ‘practice makes perfect’. At King Charles I School we work on the premise that ‘practice makes permanent’. The more practice a student does the more they can remember for longer. We do not want students to be able to remember things for a test or a quiz, the focus is on lifelong learning. Plus, the more they can remember the easier tests become and the less anxious students feel about tests and exams. 

HOW DO WE SUPPORT?

We recognise that the transition from Year 6 into Year 7 can be a challenging one and students will come to us with a varying understanding of homework and homework routines. Therefore, we stagger the amount and type of homework set to build good habits and support transition to secondary school. For example, in Year 7, students begin with Sparx Reader, Sparx Maths and spellings before beginning Sparx Science further on in the year.

NEED HELP WITH HOMEWORK?

Homework club is run on both our sites and is open to all students. It provides students with a calm environment in which to complete their homework as well as allowing them access to extra support, books and computers. Homework club can also be accessed by students in the event of a club being cancelled. Homework club is currently open as follows:

Years 9, 10 and 11: Hillgrove Site: the homework club will take place after school in the Hillgrove library. It runs from 3:10pm until 4:00pm all week.

If your son/daughter does not understand the homework task, they should speak to their teacher well before the deadline date to clarify what to do or get some extra support. If they can’t find their teacher, they should send them an email or pop into homework club for support.

Maths homework is set on the website Sparx Maths.

Sparx Maths is a personalized learning tool that will be enhancing your child’s maths experience at school. Sparx Maths goes beyond traditional homework by providing a tailored program that caters to each student’s individual strengths and weaknesses.

Sparx Maths provides full coverage of the curriculum up to and including GCSE. New material is introduced in the videos through well-explained reference to its pre-requisite building blocks.

Here’s how Sparx Maths benefits your child:

  • Personalized Learning: Sparx Maths creates a unique weekly practice session based on your child’s learning pace and the curriculum covered in class. This ensures they’re challenged appropriately, neither feeling overwhelmed nor bored.
  • Stronger Foundations & Deeper Understanding: By revisiting previously learned concepts alongside new material, Sparx Maths reinforces knowledge and builds connections between topics. This fosters a deeper grasp of mathematical concepts.
  • Improved Confidence & Engagement: Success breeds motivation! Sparx Maths personalizes the difficulty level, ensuring your child experiences achievable challenges. This builds confidence and makes learning maths a more engaging experience.
  • Reduced Attainment Gap: Sparx Maths personalizes learning for all students, regardless of background. This helps bridge the attainment gap and ensures everyone has the opportunity to excel in maths.
  • Valuable Insights for Parents and Teachers: Sparx Maths provides weekly reports that keep you informed about your child’s progress. Teachers can also use this data to tailor their classroom instruction for better support.
  • We offer Sparx Maths support clubs that are run by maths specialists on a Monday and Thursday afterschool until 4pm in L22 on the Borrington site and in Q11 on the Hillgrove site. In addition, there is a lunchtime support club every Thursday lunch time in L22 on the Borrington site.

All students have access to Times Tables Rockstars as a fun way to boost their times table knowledge. Students who have been identified as needing to significantly improve their times tables have compulsory times tables homework set each week in addition to their Hegarty Maths.

The phone app makes it easy to use and it can also be accessed online at www.ttrockstars.com.

Times Tables Rock Stars is a carefully sequenced programme of daily times tables practice. Each week concentrates on a different times table, or the times tables the class teachers has specifically identified for the class or individual student. There is a recommended consolidation week for rehearsing the tables that have recently been practised every third week or so. The heat map identifies times tables that are strong or weak by colouring each tables fact red, amber or green. Green means that students can instantly recall that times table fact. The aim is for the whole heat map to be green! Parents can check this and support by quizzing their child on the red and amber facts or providing home rewards for reaching a fully green heat map.

Fun is injected by the colourful and game-like nature; students get to pick a rock star avatar and rock hero name to represent them. As they earn more points they can purchase clothes or new guitars from the “shop”. They can compete against each other and teachers!

This format has very successfully boosted times tables recall speed for hundreds of thousands of pupils over the last 8 years in over 14,000 schools – both primary and secondary – worldwide. Improved times table knowledge will increase fluency with the aim of being able to instantly recall all times table facts from the 1 to 12 times tables. This will free up a student’s working memory to focus on problem solving.