SENIOR SCHOOL STUDENT - PARENT HANDBOOK

guidelines set by chaperones. A small financial contribution may be required
to help meet the costs of certain trips.
8. HOMEWORK AND HOW TO HELP YOUR CHILD WITH IT
It has long been a widely held belief that homework improves academic
achievement, reinforces skills and knowledge learned in the classroom, and
teaches students independence, organization, responsibility, and selfdiscipline.
However, there is no conclusive evidence to support this belief 2 ,
and there are better ways of teaching most of the skills above than by
extending an already long school day. In addition students need “down time”
from school work - even during the week – and developing adolescents, who
are learning to find their places in the world need time to develop their social
relationships – with their families as well as each other.
For the reasons above, we do not assign homework for its own sake, but
there are times when students will be asked to work at home. There should
be a clear reason for asking the students to work at home, and the task
should be one that can be better done at home than at school. The teachers
are encouraged to ask themselves the following three questions before
assigning work to be done at home.
• Is this assignment worth asking the students to give up their time for?
• How will this assignment affect the students’ attitude to learning?
• Does everybody need to be doing the same assignment?
All assignments are due by the deadline set by the teacher. It is the class
teacher’s responsibility to ensure that the due date – for written work and oral
presentations – is clearly understood by all of the students in the class.
Assignments which are a necessary preparation for day-to-day class work
cannot be accepted late. For longer range assignments:
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i. Students who anticipate having difficulty meeting a deadline must see
the teacher before the due date to discuss a possible extension. An
extension may be granted if the teacher judges that there is an
acceptable and legitimate reason.
ii. Otherwise, work may be accepted one day late only if accompanied
by a letter from a parent/guardian, giving a legitimate reason. The
teacher reserves the right to contact the parent/guardian.
iii. Students with an absence for the day that an assignment was due
should hand in the assignment on their return. They are also
responsible for finding out what new assignments there may be and
when they are due.
2 See for example: Kohn Alfie, The Homework Myth, Cambridge, MA, Da Capo Press
2006.
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