• Independent Learning is an essential part of students’ education at Abbey Grange. In order to become lifelong learners, students must learn not only to study when supervised in the classroom, but also independently, as they would have to do at university.
• Students who do not have a home environment conducive to longer periods of study are able to take advantage of the Academy’s homework club to complete their work.
• Teachers carefully plan and set tasks that not only consolidate learning from previous lessons, but also contain new challenges so that students continue to progress beyond the classroom. Independent learning, therefore, must be an integral part of medium and short-term planning, and this is reflected in all curriculum plans.
• A variety of tasks is set, including extended writing, in-depth reading, research tasks and online activities in order to awaken students’ curiosity and motivate them to complete tasks to the best of their ability.
• All curriculum areas are supported by having the latest resources at their disposal and receive training on managing the marking load generated through peer assessment, self-assessment, self-marking online tests, and effective time management.

High quality home learning is linked to one of the following:

• Learning content for future retrieval
• Synthesising prior or future learning in preparation for application
• Applying knowledge or skills to tasks which mirror future assessment

Examples include:

‍Independent Home Learning. Students can typically expect in each Key Stage:

‍Key Stage 3: 30-60 minutes per subject per week ‍

Key Stage 4: 60-90 minutes per subject per week (with the exception of PE and PSHCE) ‍

Key Stage 5: 5 hours per subject per week minimum.