Having a homework monitoring policy that both teachers and students understand and stick to is essential for getting the best outcomes for your students. Schools that have a clear homework monitoring strategy have found that teachers are better able to support students in their work, which results in high homework completion rates and subsequently more rapid progress through the content.
Start with clear hand-in and hand-out days
The choice of hand-out and hand-in days should be considered carefully to ensure that:
Teachers have enough time to monitor progress toward completion
There is time to give support and encouragement to students
Consider:
Hand-in on the same day as a timetabled lesson: students who have completed their homework can be praised and have their books collected or checked. Students who have not completed their homework can be reminded to do so.
The same hand-out and hand-in days across the school (or at least each year group): this helps support clear and consistent messaging about expectations.
A weekend between hand-out and hand-in days: this gives students more time to complete their work.
Avoiding a Monday hand-in, as we've seen that schools that do so have statistically lower completion rates.
Set expectations for completion
Set out your expectations for both staff and students from the beginning:
What monitoring activities will staff need to do each week?
What rewards and sanctions will they use?
Who will check to see if these are being carried out?
For students:
What do you expect students to have done and by when?
What will you do if this expectation is met?
What will you do if this expectation is not met?
For staff:
We have found that regular use of the Hand-in page significantly improves homework completion.