Homework
There are three strands to homework at Denton Community College:
- Need to Know Books
- Teacher-set tasks
- Love to Learn
Every student at the College receives a Need to Know Book (NTKB). These books contain factual knowledge for each subject. The books directly follow the school curriculum and are a part of the essential equipment for every school day. For Year 7,8 and 9, a new NTKB is provided for every term and old books should be kept as revision tools for the future. For students studying their GCSEs, a larger NTKB is provided covering all of the knowledge for the duration of their remaining time at DCC. Homework is predominantly set as the revision of knowledge from the NTKBs. Students will get the opportunity to show off their knowledge within lessons through the use of low stakes quizzing and other retrieval activities that will be based directly on the knowledge they have been asked to revise. Students will be aware of what they are studying in each subject, so the expectation is for students to revisit and revise key knowledge in these books at least once a week per subject. Students may be directed to specific pages, but if they are not they need to revise the entire topic that they are studying. A presentation to support the effective use of the NTKB can be found here.
On top of this, it may also be the choice of the classroom teacher to provide additional homework as appropriate. This will be at the discretion of the classroom teacher and will build upon knowledge undertaken in a lesson with further written, research or subject appropriate tasks such as SPARX, SENECA Learning, or GCSEPod Videos and quizzes.
Love to Learn is an additional optional homework task provided for KS3 students in order to foster a love of learning. Love to Learn is our way of making homework fun! Students have a fun project to complete each term, whether it’s building a castle in Year 7 or designing a treasure map in Year 8. There are loads of ways to get involved in the project, and for students to let their imaginations loose. The brochure for Love to Learn can be found here.
The advantages of educational projects are immeasurable. The Education Endowment Foundation states that ‘Students who explore subjects in self-directed and creative ways develop a sense of responsibility for their own learning – enabling the optimisation of teaching contact time.’ These projects aim to encourage interaction with in school learning independently and help to foster the idea that learning is an action that does not only take place during school hours, but one that can be undertaken anywhere and at any time or place. We encourage the participation of parents, carers and other family members in these projects as often this can lead to greater enthusiasm from students and a greater perseverance in completing projects.
The homework policy in full can be found here.
If you have any questions about homework please feel free to email Mr Bacon at
j.worrall@dentoncommunitycollege.org.uk