Category: Parenting

Get connected: School Expos offer personal touch

Education is a first-order priority for most families but finding the right school isn’t always a straightforward exercise.

Academic results and statistical profiles only tell one part of a school’s story. Its values, atmosphere and learning culture are often just as important to a student’s happiness and success but these intangible qualities can be difficult to appraise from a distance.

While websites and social media reveal a great deal about a school and its achievements, even in this digital age the personal touch goes a long way. There’s nothing like a face-to-face meeting to get a true “feel” for a school.

At the North Shore Schools Expo earlier this month, almost 2000 parents took the opportunity to meet with staff and students from Sydney’s top independent schools. Continue reading “Get connected: School Expos offer personal touch”

Independent schools offer support for busy parents

At The King’s School in Parramatta, an after-hours program that sees boys staying at school as late as 9pm every evening is proving increasingly popular with parents and students alike.

As part of the school’s “flexible boarding” policy, the Extended Day program offers relief to busy parents by allowing day boys access to boarding facilities after school.

In this safe, supervised environment, students can pursue extra-curricular activities, play sport and get their homework done with the help of overseer teachers. They even have access to shower facilities. With the day’s work accomplished and afternoon tea and a hot dinner provided, the boys are relaxed and well-fed by the time parents collect them in the early evening.

Commuting difficulties on top of long working hours can be very stressful for parents trying to fit everything into overloaded days, particularly when both are working full-time. Flexibility around school pick-up times is a welcome perk for King’s School families. Student participation in the Extended Day program has doubled since its introduction.

King’s School headmaster Dr Timothy Hawkes told the Sydney Morning Herald that growing demand for the program is due to the changing nature of family life.

“The boundaries between that which traditionally operated at home and that which traditionally operated at school are now being dissolved,” Dr Hawkes said.

“Most parents are in a dual income situation. Many might be asset rich, but they are time poor – we can help out in that regard.”

The upside for the boys, said Dr Hawkes, is the opportunity to access extra academic support while developing life skills and independence.

While extensive after-hours supervision of students, especially at the high school level, is still a rarity in Sydney, Kincoppal-Rose Bay, The Scots College in Bellevue Hill and St Joseph’s College at Hunters Hill run similar programs to that at The King’s School.

Another solution for overstretched parents is weekly or casual boarding. Many of Sydney’s boarding schools offer casual and short-stay accommodation to day students.

For older students, occasional boarding offers a number of advantages. It can help them focus harder on their studies free of the distractions of home, allow them to participate more easily in early morning and late evening extra-curricular activities, and help them forge a deeper bond with their fellow students.

Indeed, the demand for weekly boarding is driving a resurgence in boarding numbers throughout the country.

As Australian Boarding Schools’ Association executive director Richard Stokes explained to the Australian Financial Review, the trend for city kids to board during the week is partially a response to the time pressure on families and but also recognition that commuting time can be better spent.

“One of the things that is contributing to more urban boarders is the fact that in our big cities – Melbourne and Sydney and, to a lesser extent, Brisbane – families are really struggling with travel. For a child actively involved in a school’s extra-curricular program, parents might question why their child might spend an hour or more on public transport, travelling to and from school when, in fact, they could live at the school and use that time wisely.”

For more information on out of school care and residential options, parents should contact their school registrar.

Read more:

The private schools where students aren’t picked up until 8pm – Cosima Marriner, Sydney Morning Herald, January 24, 2016
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/there-until-8pm–the-new-school-day-20160122-gmc05s.html

Boarding schools appealing to the city as much as the country – Emily Parkinson, Australian Financial Review, May 6, 2016
http://www.afr.com/news/special-reports/boarding-schools-appealing-to-the-city-as-much-as-the-country-20160503-golmnt

How much homework is the right amount?

Many parents worry that their child is doing too much, or too little, school work at home.

While homework volumes vary considerably from school to school and even teacher to teacher; by secondary school, almost all students are expected to do some homework on a daily or weekly basis.

A 2014 OECD report found that Australian 15-year-olds spend an average of six hours a week on homework. This is slightly more than the international average of five hours per week and significantly less than the 13.8 hours Shanghai’s students allocate to homework every week.

The picture is quite different at Australia’s independent schools though, where 15-year-olds devote an average of nine hours a week to homework.

In NSW, the Department of Education offers guidelines but no set minimum homework requirements, leaving it up to schools to determine their own policies in consultation with parents and teachers.

Nonetheless, the department’s policy is that homework is a “valuable part of schooling” that “allows for practising, extending and consolidating work done in class. Additionally, it establishes habits of study, concentration and self-discipline.”

The Scots College in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs supports the department’s view, saying that its philosophy concerning home learning is premised on three principles:

* Home learning consolidates work in class without being new work.
* Home learning is showed off rather than being assessed.
* Home learning is driven by the student’s interests and needs.

As an example, Scots suggests this daily homework schedule for years 7 and 8:

* 20 minutes of Maths
* 10 minutes of language/instrument practice
* 10 minutes of reading
* Respond to the question “What else do I need to do?”

The last point allows students “an opportunity to expand on their studies, finish incomplete work or try to work through a problem in their studies,” Scots says. As well, the school expects students to dedicate home learning time to each of their subjects every week.

Similar guidelines are offered by Danebank Anglican School for Girls in Sydney’s South. The school’s policy states that, homework “should be appropriate to the student’s skill level and age; interesting, challenging, purposeful, and meaningful in helping students develop their knowledge and skills at all times.”

Taking these factors into account, Danebank outlines a daily homework schedule for years K-12:

Kinder and Year 1: No more than 20 mins
Year 2: No more than 30 mins
Year 3 and 4: 30–45 mins
Year 5 and 6: 1 hour
Year 7 and 8: 1½ hours
Year 9 and 10: 2 hours
Year 11: 3 hours
Year 12: 3½ hours

The emphasis on homework at independent schools is well-founded. OECD data shows that extra study at home is rewarded by better test scores, as evidenced by the results of its 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) – a series of standardised tests similar to NAPLAN.

Testing of more than 28 million 15-year-olds in 65 countries showed that among the highest achieving schools in the Maths component, “students saw an increase of 17 score points or more per extra hour of homework.”

International research shows that relevant homework in reasonable doses has positive benefits for students overall, particularly at the high school level.

In terms of how much time students should put into it, Duke University psychology professor and author of The Battle over Homework, Harris Cooper, endorses the “10-Minute Rule” – multiply the year level by 10 to get a rough estimate of how many minutes of homework students should be doing on a daily basis. Academically-focused and senior students should aim to do a bit more.

Most important though for Cooper is balance.

“My feeling is that the effect of homework depends on how well or poorly it is used. Teachers should avoid extremes. All children will benefit from homework but it is a rare child who will benefit from hours and hours of homework,” Cooper cautions.

Read more:

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Education at Glance report, 2014
https://www.oecd.org/edu/Education-at-a-Glance-2014.pdf

NSW Department of Education and Communities Homework Policy document, May 2012
https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/policies/curriculum/schools/homework/Hwk_Pol_guide.pdf

How much home learning should my son be doing? – Ryan Smartt, Coordinator of Studies and Academic Staffing, The Scots College
https://www.tsc.nsw.edu.au/tscnews/how-much-home-learning-should-my-son-be-doing

Danebank Anglican School for Girls Homework Policy K-12
http://www.danebank.nsw.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/Homework-Policy.pdf

Students in these countries spend the most time doing homework – Sonali Kohli, Quartz.com, December 12, 2014
http://qz.com/311360/students-in-these-countries-spend-the-most-time-doing-homework/

Homework’s diminishing returns – Harris Cooper, New York Times, December 12, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/12/12/stress-and-the-high-school-student/homeworks-diminishing-returns