At St Joseph’s and St Gregory’s we define homework as any activity that pupils undertake outside of school lesson time, either on their own or with the support of family members. We believe that learning is at its best when in collaboration with home and therefore have a strong commitment to parental involvement and see homework as one way of developing the partnership between home and school.

St Joseph’s and St Gregory’s is not a school at which homework dominates home and school life. We accept that not every activity will capture children and parents’ imagination and that home lives can sometimes be busy. We believe that homework should be enjoyable and manageable for all concerned and that if it becomes a chore/burden/source of conflict it ceases to be a constructive aspect of teaching and learning.

Therefore, we do not specify amounts of time that must be spent on a task, preferring individual children and families to set their own routines. Individual teachers are happy to give advice. We do foresee that as children move through the school the expectations of homework will change and children in older year groups will have an increased number of tasks and will need to spend longer completing the activities given to them.

We hope the children are motivated by positive incentives and by the tasks themselves. Children are not punished if they fail to complete the work. However, discreet homework registers are kept and if a child consistently fails to complete and return tasks, this is discussed with the child and their parents to identify whether there are any barriers preventing the completion of homework.

At St Joseph's and St Gregory's we have invested in a range on online learning facilities to help to support your child's education. Please see more details and links below.