Home Learning — Ruyton Girls' School

Home Learning helps students by complementing and reinforcing classroom learning, fostering good lifelong learning and study habits, and providing an opportunity for students to be responsible for their own learning.

Recommended Time to be spent on Homework

It is important that good study habits be acquired and a regular home learning time be set aside. Our general recommendation of time per night is as follows:

Year 7 - approximately 1 hour

Year 8 - approximately 1.5 hours

Year 9 - approximately 1.5 hours

Year 10 - approximately 2 hours

Year 11 and 12 - as required to meet academic requirements

At the weekend, students should spend the same amount of time or more on home leanring; eg a Year 7 student could spread their approximately 1 hour over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
We believe these hours are a reasonable guide to the amount of time spent at home, but of course there may be some variation from one individual to another, depending on the pace at which each student works.
Students in the Junior Secondary years are cautioned against spending long periods of time on home learning. The School feels that it is very important for students of this age to be engaged in a wide variety of activities and to develop a range of skills through physical, recreational and social activity as well as academic pursuits.

Personal Organisation

Home learning tasks should be entered in the School Diary and students should allocate their time so that assigned tasks are completed by the due date. A useful organisational strategy would be to prepare a home learning planner. Careful planning of time will help students, so that a last minute rush is avoided.
Subject teachers, Mentor Teachers, Wellbeing Leaders and the School Counsellor are available to assist girls in the planning and organisation of home learning.
Some subjects may set a small task which is due the next day. Such home learning is obviously an immediate priority; the balance of time can then be used for assignments or more extended learning tasks.
For extended tasks, students should allocate their time so that previous commitments do not prevent completion by the due date.
Appropriate arrangements should be made for completing home learning. If possible, students should work in quiet, well lit surroundings, without unnecessary distraction.
Managing technology is an important organisational skill. Students are expected to ensure that their work is backed up appropriately.
Tasks should not be deleted from computers without consulting the subject teacher. In general, tasks should remain on computers for a semester.

School Practice

The following penalties will be imposed for the late submission of assessment tasks:

one letter grade per day (A drops to B⁺)

over the weekend a two letter grade reduction applies

one week (7 days) after the due date, the work will receive UG (ungraded) although it still may receive an “S” as a work requirement/ outcome.

In special circumstances, eg: illness or extended absence, an extension may be negotiated with the teacher. This negotiation should take place before the due date and thereafter the negotiated revised date is binding.

Parents can help their daughter by:

encouraging them to take increasing responsibility for their learning and organisation
observing and acknowledging their success and asking how their home and classwork is progressing
discussing key questions or directing them to resources and by encouraging them to complete homework by themselves
helping them to manage their studies within the recommended time frame.