Information guides for parents

At Key Stage Three students complete three curriculum cycles in each year. At the end of each curriculum cycle in Year 7 and 8 they complete two short assessments, looking at their recall of what they have been taught in the cycle and their application of skills they have learnt. In year 9 they will complete a skills assessment only. These assessments build up as they progress through Key Stage.

In school students are supported to prepare for these assessments in their lessons, and are all given a Knowledge Organiser that details all of the information that they need to learn. Students use these in class, and in form times are shown different methods to revise that they can use at home. In Year 7 and 8 we focus on the ideas of ‘look-cover-write-check’, concept maps, flashcards. In Year 9 we continue with these ideas and introduce the concept of self-quizzing.

All of the technique’s students learn to help them with their revision are grounded in research, and students are introduced to the theory behind the techniques in tutor time.

For an overview on Revision, please have a look at the video below and take a look at our Effective Revision Guide.

You can click here to access a digital copy of the Knowledge Organisers, but you will need your child’s school login details to view them. You can also look at the following video for an overview of how we ask students to use Knowledge Organisers and the revision techniques applied in Key Stage 3.

Knowledge Organisers Overview

Homework

Guide to Helping your Child with Homework

Guide to Transition Homework 

Year 7, 8 and 9

KS3 Introduction to Homework

In years 7, 8 and 9 students receive weekly homework to help them to revise and consolidate their learning in class. Weekly set homework tasks are based around the Knowledge Organiser and are designed to support students in remembering more in order to be successful in their assessments, as well as building self-study habits that are needed for success at GCSE. Homework is set in booklets and this is given to students and monitored by class teachers.  

In KS3 homework will be set weekly but only by a set number of curriculum areas. Homework will be set for: 

• English 

• Maths 

• Science 

• History 

• Geography 

The length of the task will be different as students progress through KS3: 

To prevent students doing the same homework all year, each Curriculum Cycle will have a specific focus for the homework tasks. This prevents all homework being the same and gives the students an opportunity to focus on a different key revision skill: 

Y10 and Y11 

KS4 Introduction to Homework 

In years 10 and 11 homework is more skills based, but continues to be designed to support students’ self study skills and to build their confidence as they prepare for their GCSEs. This homework is also set weekly and monitored by class teachers. There are homework clubs and spaces in school for students to access with support for their homework. 

The KS4 homework offer is broader than at KS3 to enable staff to respond to gaps in knowledge and understanding quickly with appropriate tasks that will have the biggest impact. Broadly, Cycle 1 homework should focus on recall and interleaving content from earlier in the cycle (Y10 students) or from Y10 (Y11 students). As the cycle progresses, homework should will include links to assessment (e.g. past questions – but not past papers at this stage)  

Cycle 2 homework will focus more on preparation for the assessments so will include more of a focus on assessment questions and exam skills. 

All homework is set weekly for all subjects and is designed to last for 30 minutes. 

The homework calendar (at the bottom of the page)  will show the weeks that tasks are set and the weeks those tasks are due in. Work will be set with a one-week completion window.