Dear Parents

Home Learning (formerly known as homework)

In classrooms, the material that teachers prepare for individual or groups of students is always based on their specific needs as identified through formative (anecdotal) and summative (tests) assessments. Teachers do not give out the same learning material to every child because in any given class, some children would find it way too hard and others would find it way too easy. The same goes for home learning. A generic homework sheet given to every child would have the same effect; too hard for some (and therefore stressful to child and family) or too easy (therefore a waste of that child’s time).

This is the letter for parents prepared by Anne Bridgman (slightly modified by me) which nicely states what we do for home learning:

Research by John Hattie identifies that “homework has been found to have no effect on the progress of primary school children. To get it right without getting rid of it, children at primary level should be given less projects and more activities that reinforce what they learnt in the lesson that day instead. Whilst homework does make more of a difference to secondary schoolchildren, too much emphasis is placed on it; 5-10 minutes of practising what was taught that day at school has the same effect as 1-2 hours does.”

We aim to ensure that home learning is meaningful and of value so will encourage…

Literacy:

• Personal Reading – We want to foster a love of reading so students will be encouraged to select, reflect on and share books for personal reading.
• Being read to – We want students to experience the world of literature in order to open up new horizons for them.

Mathematics:

• Students will be encouraged to use Mathletics to reinforce recent learning and basic facts recall.

Inquiry:

• For older children, student GAFE (Google Apps for Education) accounts allow students to access their own learning tasks at home so provides opportunities for them to add to and extend their research, thinking and current learning.
• For younger children, they may be asked to find some information or complete a task related to their inquiry learning.

Current Events & Issues:

• Throughout the year students may be assigned additional oral/visual language/thinking tasks involving relevant current events and issues for further discussion in class.

Spelling:

• In Year 2, word lists are based on weekly sounds from the phonics programme and according to individual needs.
• In Year 3, word lists are based on weekly sound patterns from Switch on to Spelling, plus errors from children’s writing.
• In Years 1, 4, 5, 6, there is no spelling home learning. Spelling lessons are completed within the class programme.

A thought – “It is better to give no homework than the same homework to everyone.”

A Kohn (2007)

The best kind of home learning is not structured, it is in the everyday conversations parents can have with their child, introducing them to new experiences, challenging their thinking with books, fun games and riddles, letting them bake, write notes, play, make huts, go bike riding, create lego masterpieces. Everything you do with your child is learning in the home.

Sabbatical

I have been awarded a Ministry of Education sabbatical for term 2. This is the rationale for my research project:

Rationale: The terminology ‘distributed leadership’ dates back to the early 2000s and ‘leading from the middle’ is the more current terminology. The MOE document ‘Leading From the Middle, Educational Leadership for Middle and Senior Leaders’ was published in 2012.

I am going to explore the ways in which schools have structures and systems that support leading from the middle. I am interested in the ways schools are tapping into leadership potential and using ‘leading from the middle’ principles to grow leadership capability. What the commonalities are between schools and what structures are successful and what pitfalls have been overcome.

More importantly, I am going to look closely at the opportunities and barriers from middle leaders’ perspectives. What are their needs in terms of professional development, board support, in school support? I will use the Educational Leadership Model as the springboard to frame questions and surveys around.

So, I am away all term 2 and will be back at the beginning of term 3. Jane Cameron will be acting principal in my absence so it will be business as usual.

Kind regards

Janice Adamson