Mike Barrett
Theresa Clune runs an after-school care and homework club at her Newmarket home. From right are McKenzie Clune, 9, Bridget Quinn, 7, Liam Clune, 6, Emma Legere, 6, Charlotte Quin, 5 and Patrick Legere, 8.
Regional News
April 11, 2008 08:41 PM
School board says current homework levels stay
Teresa Latchford
York Region District School Board has no plans to review its homework policy, board officials said.
The announcement was made in light of Education Minister Kathleen Wynne encouraging the Toronto District School Board to re-examine its current homework policy because students are becoming stressed and have less time to play.
The Toronto board is considering a new “family-friendly” homework policy including homework-free holidays and no more than two hours a day, based on recommendations put forth by a committee of trustees.
A vote on the recommendations is expected by Wednesday.
However, the public board in York Region has no plans to change the review cycle of its policy, according to superintendent of curriculum and instructional services Beate Planche.
“We review all of our policies within a five-year span,” she said. “Policies can be reviewed before that time, but there needs to be a good reason to bring it ahead of the other policies being reviewed.”
The school board has a sound policy, Mrs. Planche said, adding it was devised with the input of school board trustees, parent councils and teachers.
The policy was last reviewed in 2005 and is scheduled to be reviewed again in 2010.
Grade 1 students can be assigned 10 minutes of homework up to four times a week, the current policy states.
The amount of time students do homework increases by 10 minutes a night per grade, so in Grade 2, 20 minutes and in Grade 5, 50 minutes.
“Homework isn’t something that is brand new. It is to practise the in-school program,” she said. “The increase is designed to ramp (the students) up to the workload they will have in high school where they are expected to work independently.”
Posts on yorkregion.com’s discussion board asking readers how they felt about homework as a response to a previous article outlining large homework loads, made clear there are inconsistencies in the amount of assigned work from school to school.
“These policies are guidelines,” Mrs. Planche said. “There is always room for some flexibility from school to school.”
The policy is in place board-wide, but ultimately homework is at the discretion of the teacher.
It is impossible for the board to take into consideration special cases as a work sheet could take one student no more than 10 minutes to complete but could take another 20 minutes, she added.
“If your child is receiving what you think is too much homework, talk to the teacher,” she advised. “It is all about communication.”