Student Organisation and Homework — Wimbledon High School

Lockers

All students have a locker for storing books, school equipment and PE kit, when not required for lessons. Girls bring in a combination padlock at the start of the academic year - the more distinctive the better! In all cases, locks should be sufficiently strong and girls must learn responsibility for ensuring that their things are kept secure. Any combination code should be logged with the form tutor at the outset. Items which go ‘astray’ can be redeemed from Lost Property each week; a small fee is charged for this service, which is run by Year 9 for their chosen charity. All possessions should be clearly named. School insurance does not cover any personal possessions brought into school: clothing, musical instruments, cameras, watches, phones, etc. Phones must be locked away in girls’ lockers during the day; if they need to contact you in an emergency, they should go to Reception to make the call.

The Student Planner

Each student is given a Student Planner at the start of every academic year. It is an essential part of school life, and, we find, helps greatly with organisation. In her planner, she will have her timetable set out, and this is where she record all homework set, Excellences awarded, personal reminders, music lessons etc. Girls must bring in their planners every day. At the end of each week, parents are asked to sign their daughter’s Planner, to show you have been kept up-to-date.

An important element of transition to Senior School, and indeed the on-going happiness and wellbeing of students, is communication between school and home, so the planner is a useful, additional channel of communication to or from the Form Tutor or a subject teacher. We have chosen to keep this to pen and paper rather than an online homework system, in an effort to encourage independence in the girls, but so that you as parents can get an overview of homework tasks.

Homework

We want our girls to develop habits of independent learning, resilience and resourcefulness; work beyond the classroom allows for this. Over the course of a term a variety of homework tasks will be set by each subject teacher. Some may be short tasks such as learning some vocabulary, completing a set of questions or writing up an experiment. Others may be longer, more extended tasks requiring reading and research as well as producing an end product.

In Year 7 the total amount of homework amounts to an average of between 60 and 80 minutes per night, 5 nights a week. Homework, however short the task, will be set with at least 2 evenings before the deadline, allowing the students to plan around their co-curricular activities as well as their out of school commitments. Some students may choose to spend longer at the weekends; others may prefer to do more in the week to allow for more free time at the weekend. We do not wish to see homework taking over the students’ lives, especially in Years 7, 8 and 9. In order to help us monitor this, students are asked to record in their planners how much time they have spent on an individual piece of homework. If a student is regularly spending more time than recommended on homework, please contact the form tutor.

Good homework routines should be set up from the beginning of Year 7. Meeting homework deadlines is an essential skill and if homework is consistently handed in late, tutors will get involved to try and find the cause of this before any sanctions are introduced, in the form of detentions, etc.

Checklist to help girls be organised

A clear work space for books, paper, etc, without distractions where possible.
Strong plastic wallets – one per subject
A second set of resources at home – pens, paper, glue, etc.
A personal weekly timetable showing the school timetable, any regular co-curricular activities both in and out of school and a plan for completing the required amount of homework each week pinned to the wall in an easily accessible place
Use of their BYOD device (not linked to social networks while working on homework).

We strongly advise against:

Students having a television in their bedroom
Students using their tablets / laptops in their bedroom
Students taking mobile phones to bed. We recommend buying a separate alarm clock, so that girls do not get into the habit of using their phones as their alarm.