Home Learning Grid (explanation)

(taken from http://www.otuinter.school.nz)

Since 2008 our school has adopted a new form of homework. This is based on a Home Learning Grid and will include a range of tasks and activities, some school based and some home based.

Feedback from our school community, (including a homework survey undertaken last year), indicates that home learning activities are highly valued by families and teachers. It is clear that there are a wide range of these activities and that many families have numerous commitments in addition to the home learning activities set by classroom teachers.

The Home Learning grid allows for a combination of relevant and achievable tasks set by your child’s teacher, (these could be individual, group or whole class tasks), and activities and tasks that are an important part of your child’s family routines. The Home Learning grid places value on both sets of activities.

Please make sure that you are aware of your child’s Home Learning grid. These are issued each week and we are asking parents and caregivers to check their child’s progress each week and sign the grid before it is returned to school. Students who fully complete their Home Learning grid each term will receive a home learning ribbon to acknowledge their achievement.

What each section involves:

Read or be Read to: Reading is an essential skill that translates to every facet of life. Reading, here, includes reading for pleasure, reading fiction, newspapers, magazines, textbooks and assigned reading of texts set by teachers as class work. Being read to is an essential part of developing the desire to read and bond with parents. It enables children to imagine and form thoughts in their heads.

Shopping: This is an active pastime and a very valuable one in gaining a number of life skills including budgeting, selecting, discerning, totalling, money handling, reading item labels and discovering what things cost and value for money. Many students leave school without these skills and these should be developed early in life.

Physical Activity: This is a crucial part of the grid and should be a daily part of every student’s home life and work. There is a need for young people to have less sedentary lives, get fit and learn active skills that should see them grow into healthier, happier adults. This entry would include all forms of sport training dictated by coaches or done individually by children to master skills or improve endurance. It also includes activities with parents and siblings such as walking, riding a bicycle, bushwalking, fishing, walking the dog and a whole range of active pursuits both indoors and outdoors. This, again, when done with one’s parents, enhances communication and assists with the building of strong and lasting bonds between adults and children.

Housework: This is absolutely compulsory and must be a daily part of the grid. Students are often opting out of family life and not doing chores, which places a lot of stress on parents, particularly where both parents work or in the case of single parents who are very busy doing the job of two parents. Children must not make parents their servants. At the very least they need to pick up after themselves and assist with activities for their benefit such as chopping wood, helping prepare meals, tidying their rooms and other parts of the house, cleaning the house and keeping it clean and tidy both inside and outside. Outdoor work could include weeding, gardening, raking and sweeping, painting and decorating. Many handyperson skills are necessary for them to be able to manage their own dwellings in later years. Again when housework is done with parents or siblings, it becomes a bonding activity and should enhance family life.

Teach your Family: One of the best ways of consolidating what one has learnt is to teach the concept to another. This can be set for class work or happen spontaneously to enable students to brief parents about work covered, but go a step further and try to explain and teach particular topics learnt that day or that week.

Classroom Tasks: These could include consolidation of basic facts, research tasks and other classroom related activities.

Cultural Activities: These could include any after school dance, music, drama, kapa haka, art or other classes. They would also include any family cultural activities such as visits to museums, places of historical interest and live theatre performance.