HOMEWORK POLICY

Many factors influence the healthy development of a child.  After-school activities such as Brownies, Cubs, piano lessons, and sports provide valuable life lessons as a part of growing up.

Homework, too, can play an important role in this process.  Research has shown that when students do a little bit of homework each day, it:

1.     reinforces the learning they have done in school

2.     develops positive work habits

3.     enhances student achievement

At Keheewin, we believe that students should do some homework each evening, and for the purposes of this recommendation we are defining “homework” as any activity, assigned or otherwise, that will enhance your child’s learning.  These activities (depending on the grade level) could include:

• home reading

• learning or practicing basic facts

• writing a story

• organizing binders and notes

• researching more information on a topic being studied at school

• reading the newspaper

• preparing a title page

• writing their own mathematics problems and solving them

• making a spelling list of words they are misspelling in their work and then studying them

• playing an educational game

• practicing a musical instrument (recorder)

• studying weekly spelling list

In order to strengthen the partnership between the home and the school, homework expectations will be reasonable and clearly communicated.  Homework will be assigned by the teacher on an “as needs” basis.  Specific assignments may occasionally exceed the suggested guidelines; if you find that your child consistently requires more than the suggested amounts of time to complete homework, you should contact his/her teacher.

We suggest that the following amounts of time are appropriate for each grade level.

                    Grades 1 and 2                10 - 20 minutes

                    Grades 3 and 4                20 - 30 minutes

                    Grades 5 and 6                30 - 45 minutes

Keep in mind, however, that students differ widely in their ability to manage the time required completing a given task.

We recommend that each child be given a quiet location and a set time to complete their homework.  At the grades 1 - 6 levels we would encourage students to have a Student Agenda.

Your child’s teacher will be addressing their particular homework expectations for their class at the Parent Information Night.