Homework

The Academy uses Show My Homework, an online system to set homework.

New students will be given details of how to set up their Show My Homework Account early in the Autumn term.

It is linked to your school email address which will also be set up early in the term and may be used to reset your password if you forget it.

It is important that all students use the school email account and not a personal or other adults email.

Existing students in Years 8 to 11 should make sure their account is active and they can access it. WE must stress that it is very important that it is linked with your school email address for reset/reminder purposes.

Your subject teachers in Year 8,9 and 10 will use SMHW to communicate work set, you will NOT have a written planner.

The system for whole year group homework booklets for knowledge and reading in Year 7 and Mathematics practice in Year 7 and 8 via IXL and printed revision tasks for Year 11 is new this term and will be communicated to students in those year groups early in the term.

More information on our homework systems and procedures, and how to get help with any access issues, will be published early in the Autumn term 2019.

This is the link to the SMHW section on the school website - please be advised that this information will be updated for 2019 early in the autumn term to reflect the new systems and procedures we have outlined HERE

Help with Show My Homework

If you can't log on to your account

Try these five steps yourself to get back up and running

1. Have you searched for the correct school and spelt St Margaret's CofE Academy correctly?
2. Have you entered your email address correctly e.g. 18croberts@stmargaretsacademy.com?
3. Have you entered your password correctly? – it will have been set up as at least 10 characters including at least 1 uppercase, 1 lowercase, 1 number and 1 special character
4. If this doesn't work use the forgot password link to get a password reset email, access your email account and reset your password. (link to email on desktop, website or use office 365 online)
5. If all of the above fails, and only then please ask your form tutor to kindly access SMHW, look up your form, and get you a new PIN code to set up your account as a new user (Remember- always use your school email please for SMHW).

If that doesn't work please ask Mrs C Roberts for advice on what to do next.

All students in all year groups will be issued with a homework schedule at the beginning of the school year. Homework is regarded as an essential part of the learning process since it extends the work of the classroom and enables students to develop the self-study skills necessary if they are to cope with the demands of GCSE and A Level. The homework timetables will be published on the website once available.

Show My Homework
Help if you can't log on to your account Try these five steps yourself to get back up and running
1. Have you searched for the correct school and spelt St Margaret's CofE Academy correctly? 2. Have you entered your email address correctly e.g. 18croberts@stmargaretsacademy.com? 3. Have you entered your password correctly? – it will have been set up as at least 10 characters including at least 1 uppercase, 1 lowercase, 1 number and 1 special character 4. If this doesn't work use the forgot password link to get a password reset email, access your email account and reset your password. (link to email on desktop, website or use office 365 online) 5. If all of the above fails, and only then please ask your form tutor to kindly access SMHW, look up your form, and get you a new PIN code to set up your account as a new user (Remember- always use your school email please for SMHW).
If that doesn't work please ask Mrs C Roberts for advice on what to do next.

Year 7

We are making changes to how homework is organised in Year 7, with effect from this September 2019. Information about Year 7 homework will be issued at the information evening early in the autumn term. We are currently planning that homework in Year 7 at SMA will consist of three elements.

Mathematics

Each night you will do extra Maths practice. You will be expected to complete Maths exercises using the IXL system. You will log in using your IXL login which will be issued to you early in the term and complete the exercises you are told to do each day. The system will track your progress and your progress will be centrally monitored by teachers. You work will be marked digitally and automatically.

We understand that this places a reliance on technology, in particular the internet. Should you have problems completing homework some provision is made in school for those with genuine reasons, within after school sessions with computers available but we want you to form good habits of completing homework at home. Details of provision will be available on this website once scheduled.

Reading

Reading is a top priority at St.Margaret’s. It will improve your writing, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, knowledge, attention and memory. Our subject departments have provided reading and each week we want you to read as many words as possible.The reading will be issued to you on a half-termly basis in a booklet. The reading is from a variety of quality publications and some of it you will find to be quite challenging. You will also be expected to log at least five new words from each piece of reading that you do. These will be entered into our vocabulary database, which will be available early in the new term and certainly by the time we issue the booklets to you. Each week we will select the ten most common new words and issue a list of the words and their meanings to your form tutor. Your subject teachers will encourage you to use the words of the week and merit rewards will be available for use.

Knowledge Organisers and Key Facts

The Year 7 knowledge booklet contains the most important knowledge that you will need in your subjects each half term. These specify in detail the facts that you need to know that provide a foundation to that subject. These might be dates, definitions, characters and concepts that you need to master within your long-term memory.

Your teachers will guide you in weekly lessons on the sections of the knowledge you should be learning. You will then be tested in future lessons so it is important that you learn by heart the exact material you are expected at each stage of the term. The homework schedule will make it clear when test might be.

Year 8

Mathematics

Following a successful pilot in the summer term with around 50% of the year group (while they were in Year 7) it is intended that year 8 will do regular extra Maths practice. You will be expected to complete Maths exercises using the IXL system. You will log in using your IXL login which will be issued to you early in the term and complete the exercises you are told to do each day/week. The system will track your progress and your progress will be centrally monitored by teachers. You work will be marked digitally and automatically.

We understand that this places a reliance on technology, in particular the internet. Should you have problems completing homework some provision is made in school for those with genuine reasons, within after school sessions with computers available but we want you to form good habits of completing homework at home. Details of provision will be available on this website once scheduled and from your Maths teacher early in the term.

In year 8, students are set one homework in each other subject each week which should take approximately 30 - 45 minutes to complete. This will be published on the SMHW system. See information after this section.

Year 9 and above

In Year 9 and above, the amount of homework increases. In Years 10 and 11 a more flexible approach to homework is adopted as required by the demands of the GCSE course and examination work. Information of Year 11 revision based homework will be issued at the Year 11 information evening early in the autumn term.

Homework assignments must be well presented and handed in on time. A comprehensive Homework Policy Document, which is currently being reviewed in the light of changes detailed above will be available for viewing, in due course, at the School on request.