Homework passes test

But Gazette reporters found other Wiltshire heads have no plans to follow suit.

THE pioneering head of St John's School in Marlborough, Patrick Hazlewood, is refuting suggestions that all homework will soon be history for his pupils but he does want to scrap it for many subjects.

Parents of year seven pupils, who were at a meeting he called last week, believed he had indicated formal homework was to stop, which would mean that teachers could put the hours they spent marking it into planning.

But children would not be able to go home and say they had no homework, he said. Instead parents should review with their children what they had learned that day.

In an interview with the Gazette, Dr Hazlewood, who is the driving force behind St John's School and Community College's bid to be among the top state schools in the West, says he will definitely not be pulling the plug on all homework.

However instead of the traditional homework set by teachers, disliked by many pupils and scorned by some parents, he wants students to learn for themselves by doing their own home study in many subjects.

Students will still be expected to complete maths, science and languages homework assignments, which teachers will set and mark, said the head.

It's part of a pioneering Royal Society for the Arts curriculum that St John's has been taking part in.

The RSA believes that a teacher's job, rather than transmitting a body of knowledge to pupils, is to encourage students to learn for themselves.

It is only the school's youngest pupils in Year 7, aged 11 to 12, who will be affected by the homework change.

"Instead of teachers doing everything for them and telling them what to do they have to do it for themselves," said Dr Hazlewood.

But other Wiltshire headteachers say formal homework is a valuable tool to education, and they are going to hang on to it. Gerard MacMahon, head of Chippenham's Sheldon School, said he was a firm believer in homework and had no plans to scrap it.

"A few schools have discussed this policy and what concerns me is that some of it comes because of the workload of teachers," he said.

"Homework is a valuable way to check learning. Sometimes a child can go away from the classroom and not understand something they've learnt.

"It's also a good way for parents to see what work the children are doing in school, and for the older children, it prepares them for the world of work or higher education."

Colin Smith, head of Hardenhuish School, Chippenham, said homework was an essential part of school life and the younger children started getting homework, the better.

"We have no intentions of scrapping homework at Hardenhuish," he said. "There has been a big national debate, but we think homework is designed to do three things.

"One is to reinforce and extend schoolwork, the second is to instil habits and good practice in children and the third is to prepare them for GCSE and A-levels."

Clare Osborne, headmistress of independent Stonar School at Atworth, said homework helps pupils learn to organise their study. "It provides the self-discipline they need to go on and study at university," she said.

"No one should be overburdened with homework but it is very valuable in finding out if the individual pupil has understood what they have learned in class."

Martin Watson, headteacher of Lavington School at Market Lavington, said: "We gradually increase the amount of homework as students progress through the school.

"When students join us in year seven we limit the amount of homework to no more than one piece of homework per night. Our policy on homework is that we believe that students need to develop independent study as well as taking the opportunities to prepare for future lessons or enhance and extend the work they have done in lessons."

Marcus Chapman, assistant headteacher at Corsham School, said it had no plans to end homework.

"We are totally committed to it and we feel that it plays a very valuable role in the youngsters' education," he said.

"It teaches them the independence that they need to cope with advanced courses, such as A-levels and university. At the moment we are developing new ways of doing homework, like work packs in the library, and we will shortly be putting homework on the website."

Malcolm Irons, headteacher of Devizes School, said he shared the philosophy of Dr Hazlewood in attempting to turn pupils into independent learners.

Mr Irons said: "We have a working group of teachers who have been reviewing homework and they are considering a range of different ways that homework could be made better in the school.

"In our present policy we encourage homework to be done on a regular basis and the amount of homework gradually increases as the pupils move from year seven to year eleven.

"Personally I think homework is important if it is used properly. It can develop the individual pupil into being more of an independent learner, which I am quite passionate about."

Malmesbury School headteacher Malcolm Trobe said he believed doing work outside lessons was important.

He said: "There is a perception that homework involves a youngster sitting down and doing work. But there are a whole range of strategies available. On some occasions the homework we set is project based. However, in some other subjects, we give much more, shorter and regular homework."

Mr Trobe added that the function of homework was to build on and reinforce learning.

Chris Montagute, head of Wootton Bassett School, said he believed homework gave students a greater chance of success in later life.

"It's really is an important aspect of the whole learning process, which doesn't just happen in school," he said.

"Homework tests pupils' understanding, develops their own skills of research and demonstrates to teachers what they have learned. We also have after-school homework clubs and are developing an on-line support group to help students with their homework."