Homework Policy

The purpose of homework is to promote high-quality student learning and achievement, and to nurture a desire for students to continue to learn. Homework at Branksome Hall falls into four categories:

Engaging with learning: homework that provides a springboard or introduction to a topic by accessing prior knowledge, stimulating interest or eliciting questions about a new topic.

Checking for understanding: homework that gives the teacher insight into student learning of new concepts and skills taught in class to ensure that students have developed a complete and correct understanding before moving on to practise or apply them.

Practising: homework that reviews and reinforces newly acquired skills and concepts.

Processing: homework that provides opportunities for reflection on learning, extending or applying skills and conceptual understanding, and synthesizing information. Processing includes reviewing for and preparing assessment tasks. It also includes inquiry tasks that may involve autonomous student-directed activity using off-campus resources.

The amount of time appropriately spent on homework varies depending on the grade level, course and the ease with which the student masters the material. When homework is a necessary curricular requirement, teachers will give guidelines regarding how much time students should expect to spend on the task. Parents are asked to see that homework is done independently and conscientiously, and that students avoid multitasking by postponing the time they spend on social networking until homework is done.

Students are responsible for completing homework assigned during absences of any kind. Students must regularly check in on their course notes and information that is found either on the Portal, Shared OneNote or Google Classroom which faculty use to provide students access to online course content.

The day following a religious holiday, a special event, or a long weekend is designated as a “No Homework Due Day.” For Grade 9-11 students, no homework will be assigned to be due on the day following such events and holidays. For Grade 7 and 8 students, the two days following will be designated as “No Homework Due Days.”