What about the homework? A letter to Parents from the Headmistress
Dear Madams and Sirs,
Dear Parents,
In response to the numerous questions, suggestions, and requests concerning the statement of the Governing Body of the School in terms of homework communicated through various kinds of media, I would like to present a few explanatory sentences in this matter. I believe that the explanation will allow a deeper understanding of the educational strategy realized by the School, and will help avoid potential misunderstandings.
The Governing Body of the School and the Board of Teachers have responded to the recent trend of not giving students homework with great attention. We are constantly monitoring the changes occurring in pioneer countries in the aforementioned area, such as Finland, and the innovations introduced in this field in some Polish schools. A few years ago already, our School established cooperation with representatives of the national action "Waking Up School", as part of which the effort is made to deconstruct the old-fashioned model of education, tough and unfit for the contemporary days. Problems tackled by "Waking Up School" encompass the matter of homework and self-study as well, according to the new approach which takes advantage from the latest discoveries in the field of neurodidactics. The student is inspired, motivated, and encouraged to study further in order to solidify and deepen their knowledge, without solving endless, repetitive portions of "fill-in" and "complete" exercies at home.
However, on the other hand, our statement is that following the new trend of not giving homework entirely may bring about undesired consequences, especially in terms of some subjects. The large amount of knowledge requested by the Polish curriculum makes it impossible to study efficiently without repetitions and revisions. Even in the Finnish school, often shown as a role model, students get homework – contrary to the common belief. Marking and the character of homework is a different subject. In our School, we intend to inspire and encourage teachers to quit giving large amounts of boring and repetitive homework and replace it with tasks which feed the students' interest in the subject, waking their creativity and the ability to think on their own, ask questions and come up with new ideas. Frequently, homework given at our School are projects completed by students, during which they revise the gained knowledge, search for its sources, and develop key social competences by working in teams.
Clearly, whether we desire it or not, our School must also prepare students for their external examinations and tests (eighth grade exam, middle school exam, matura exam), which are required by the Polish education system. Their peculiar shape frequently demands broad knowledge and competences from students, as well as being skilful in solving particular types of exercises. What follows is that such exercises must be practised beforehand. Often, it is impossible to do over the time dedicated to a particular subject at school exclusively. It frequently implies the necessity to solve some examples and do some revision at home. Thus, we believe that it is rather impossible to fulfill the requests of some Parents to quit giving homework completely. Nevertheless, we can declare that we will continue to intend to limit homework as much as possible, change the approach to giving grades from homework, and formulate it in the form of exercises which stimulate creativity and problem solving, contrary to "fill-in" exercises from the workbook.
Our Teachers, as required by the legal regulations, regularly participate in different forms of professional training, also tackling the problem of changing the approach towards homework and self-study. We hope that in our School, which is open to new trends and professional training, the quality of education will increase constantly, and homework will be less tiring and more fascinating and inspiring. I wish this to you as Parents, Teachers, and our wonderful Students.
Sincerely yours,
Jolanta Kałuża
The Headmistress