Homework

Homework Expectations at Gayton

Changes to Homework Expectations – September 2025

As part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring that our provision is purposeful and sustainable, we have recently reviewed our approach to homework across the school. From September 2025, we will be streamlining our expectations with a focus on simplicity, impact and sustainability.

This decision has been made for several key reasons:

Staff Workload & Wellbeing

Teachers currently spend a significant amount of time each week preparing and uploading homework activities. Increasing requests for paper copies have added to this workload. We want to reduce this demand so that staff can dedicate more time to high-quality classroom teaching and feedback.

Environmental Impact

As a school that takes environmental responsibility seriously, we are committed to reducing our use of paper and photocopying. This not only supports our curriculum driver of Environment but also contributes to our statutory Climate and Sustainability Action Plan, which all schools must have in place from September 2025. Moving to completely paperless homework will be a key part of this.

Purposeful Practice

We want to ensure that homework is meaningful, manageable and reinforces the key skills children need to become confident, independent learners.

To support this, we will no longer be using Google Classroom outside of school. Instead, thanks to the generosity of our PTA, we now have a three-year licence for Seesaw, a much more user-friendly platform for children and families. Once parents have completed the Google consent form and linked to their child’s Seesaw account, you will begin to see staff sharing some of your child’s learning. We hope this will give you greater insight into our curriculum and your child’s progress.

Homework from September 2025 (Years 1–6):

Reading for Pleasure: All pupils will be expected to read at home and record this in their reading record. This may be independent reading, reading with an adult, or listening to a story. Regular reading has the greatest impact on vocabulary, writing and wider academic success, and remains our priority for home learning.

Spellings: Children will continue to receive weekly spellings in line with our current programme. These will be shared in class and on Spelling Shed.

Mathematics:

Key Stage 2: Children should be using TTRockstars to practise their times tables and they will also be set online homework via My Maths.

Key Stage 1: The children should be using Numbots and School Jam regularly to reinforce basic maths fluency. Homework will also be set via My Maths

Homework from September 2025 (F2)

F2 children will be expected to read daily, complete handwriting practise via Letter Join and also use Numbots/School Jam to rehearse their maths skills.

We believe this revised approach will help children focus on the strong foundations that make the biggest difference to their learning, while also supporting staff wellbeing and reducing our environmental footprint.