Positive partnerships with families are known to improve both learning and wellbeing outcomes for students. This week we have welcomed Year 7 and 8 parents to the College to participate in a study skills workshop, facilitated by Director – Middle Years, Miss Sam Riddle. To say we were overwhelmed by the level of interest in these sessions would be an understatement – 400 tickets booked within 24 hours certainly indicates a strong appetite in this community to partner with us to support our boys in their learning!
Students shared a range of obstacles to engaging with learning at home – from lacking in motivation, to having busy schedules of co-curricular activities; from finding tasks boring or irrelevant, to not knowing where to start. Ms Riddle presented difference between homework and home study – and a number of tasks which can be independently completed by students to reinforce their classroom learning even when their teacher has not set any homework tasks. Establishing positive habits in the Middle Years of secondary schooling really does set students up to achieve the success of which they are capable in the Senior Years.
Parents were provided with helpful ways to support their sons, through demonstrating curiosity for their son’s learning and by helping him to identify the time that he will complete homework/study tasks, and to make explicit the tasks that will be achieved each day. A key message across the night was to persist as each family works out what might work best for them. For most students, tackling homework in shorter, discrete bursts will be more effective than struggling through 90 minutes without a break.
Daily Homework and Study Guidelines
| Year 7 | 1 hour + 30 minutes reading |
| Year 8 | 1½ hours + 30 minutes reading |
| Year 9 | 2 hours + 30 minutes reading |
| Year 10 | 2½ hours + 30 minutes reading |
| Year 11 | 3 – 3½ hours + 30 minutes reading |
| Year 12 | 3½ – 4 hours + 30 minutes reading
6 hours on weekends |
This year, all Whitefriars College students have been equipped with a planner. We hope that this “tool of the trade”, when utilised regularly and effective, will serve to improve the organisation of our students and reduce the cognitive load that they experience as juggle competing demands on their time and attention. Students are expected to carry their planner with them to all classes, and to record key college events and reminders, to note set homework tasks and due dates for assessment tasks. New copies of the Student Planner can be purchased from Reception if required.
Mrs Catherine Spurritt
Deputy Principal – Learning & Teaching
