Homework and Assessments

At Paddington Academy, homework and assessment are integral to helping every student succeed. Through regular formative assessment, we check that students have secured a deep understanding of the curriculum and provide timely feedback to support their progress. Homework reinforces learning, develops independent study habits and helps students build the knowledge and skills they need to thrive throughout their time at the Academy.

Homework

Homework

We believe that homework encourages the development of independent learning skills and allows students to take more ownership of their education. Promotion and emphasis of homework skills from the start of Year 7 helps to prepare students for Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 and, in turn, aids our students’ progression and development.

What homework does my child receive?

There are three types of homework:

Paper homework: every week, your child receives one piece of homework from each subject due for the following week. In most subjects, this homework is completed on paper. It allows students to consolidate and extend their learning.
Online homework: Some homework is set online and in place of the paper homework, including most homework for mathematics and science and some homework for English, geography and MFL.
Self-quizzing homework: Your child also receives self-quizzing homework once a week from each subject. This ensures that your child is memorising and recalling the powerful knowledge that they need to be successful.

How much homework should my child receive?

Your child should receive one piece of homework from each of their subjects once a week, in addition to self-quizzing. This will mean that every day they should be completing homework from at least two subjects. Homework tasks will be varied but should include a mixture of activities that consolidate learning in class, extended writing and self-quizzing.

Students in KS3 should spend approximately 30-40 minutes per subject each night
Students in KS4 should spend approximately 1 hour per subject each night
Students in KS5 should spend 1 hour 30 minutes per subject

What additional help is available for homework?

There is a daily homework club that takes place after school in the library. Students can use this time to complete homework in a quiet environment or ask for help from subject specialists. In addition, Sparx Maths, Sparx Reader and Sparx Science clubs run each week to support students with the completion of their homework tasks.

If you have any questions about homework, please contact your child’s Head of Year.

How can you support your child with homework?

Make sure your child brings their planner, homework folder, self-quizzing book and 100% book to school every day.
Check your child’s planner every day and encourage them to complete their homework in order of priority, completing the homework with the soonest due date first.
Make sure your child has a quiet, well-lit place to do homework.
Avoid having your child do homework with the television on or in places with other distractions.
Be positive about homework. Tell your child how important school is. The attitude you express about homework will be the attitude your child acquires.
Help your child with time management. Establish a set time each day for doing homework. Don‘t let your child leave homework until just before bedtime. Think about using a weekend morning or afternoon for working on big projects.
Stay informed. E-mail your child‘s teacher. Communicate with your child's teacher via their student planner about the quality and quantity of homework.
Encourage your child to attend homework clubs. Homework clubs run every day after school in the library. Students are able to work with teachers and access resources to help them complete their homework successfully.

Online homework

Online Homework Websites	Which subject and year groups?	What if I can’t log on?
Sparx Maths	Online mathematics homework - Year 7, Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10	Click ‘forgotten password’ or speak to your maths teacher
Sparx Reader	Online reading homework - Year 7 and Year 8	Click ‘forgotten password’ or speak to your English teacher
Educake	Online science homework - Year 7, Year 8, Year 9	Click ‘forgotten password’ or speak to your science teacher
Sparx Reader	Online science homework - Year 10 and Year 11	Click ‘forgotten password’ or speak to your science teacher
Seneca	Online English, geography and RS homework - Year 10, Year 11, Year 12 and Year 13	Use the same e-mail address and password as Office or speak to Mr Park
Languagenut	Online French and Spanish homework - Year 7, Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10	Click ‘forgotten password’ or speak to your French or Spanish teacher
Memrise	Online French and Spanish homework - Year 11	Click ‘forgotten password’ or speak to your French or Spanish teacher
Up learn	Online learning platform for A Level Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Economics and Psychology	Please speak to the Sixth Form team
The Ever Learner	Online GCSE PE and Sport BTEC homework Year 10, Year 11 and Year 13	Click ‘forgotten password’ or speak to your PE teacher
Office	Access your school e-mail, Teams and more All year groups	Go to the IT office next to room 214 at break or lunch

Self-quizzing overview

For every learning cycle, the content for each subject is distilled into a knowledge organiser. This provides key fingertip knowledge for each subject. For each cycle, all the knowledge organisers are collated into a 100% book or folder which each student receives. These 100% books underpin mapped revision homework, alongside regular skill-focused homework.

Students are also provided with a self-quizzing book, which they use in order to test themselves on the knowledge in their 100% book; self-quizzing is one of the most effective revision strategies to embed key knowledge. Students are taught how to use the read, cover, write, check revision strategy and question and answer flashcards to test themselves. This encourages students to take ownership of their learning, and to support them in developing good learning habits. Embedding this content is critical for long-term success and effective retrieval from long-term memory.

What does effective self-quizzing look like?

Read, cover, write, check

Students learn key information in their knowledge organisers by reading a small section, covering it up, saying the definitions to themselves, writing out those key terms and definitions in their self-quizzing books, then checking to see if they got them right. They should correct any errors in green pen, then repeat the process.

Set-up, read and cover - video

Write, check and repeat - video

100% Books

100% Books

Linked below is each year group’s 100% book. This contains the core knowledge that students must know for the subjects that they study in order the access the curriculum. We call it a ‘100% book’ because we expect all students to know 100% of the knowledge inside the book.

Every week, students are set definitions for every subject to self-quiz and memorise. Parents can help by taking their child’s 100% book and testing their child on the definitions that they’ve been asked to learn. If your child has self-quizzed successfully, they should be able to repeat back the definition to you.

Cycle 1 2025 - 2026

Cycle 2 2025 - 2026

Knowledge test

Knowledge Test

To support pupils to memorise their definitions, students complete weekly knowledge tests across all of their subjects. Knowledge tests are short (between 3 to 5 minutes) and designed to support with retrieval practice – students recall key definitions that have been set for homework and write them down to check if they can recall the definition correctly.

We make reasonable adjustments in knowledge tests for a small number of pupils with SEND who find it more difficult to remember new material.

Why do students sit a knowledge test?

We know that when students are tested on these definitions, they have to think hard about the definitions and retrieve them from their long-term memory. The effort involved in this process helps students to remember the definitions that they need to be successful.

We’ve carefully selected the definitions in each knowledge organiser to represent the foundational knowledge pupils need to be successful. As a result, we expect students to achieve 100% in their knowledge test. This doesn’t mean that pupils need to write out their definitions word-perfect – but the meaning does need to be accurate.

How do students prepare for a Knowledge Test?

Each week, students are set definitions to learn from their ‘100% book’. As part of their homework, students self-quiz these definitions using the ‘read, cover, write, check’ approach. Students should write out their definitions at least three times using this approach. They should then correct in green pen.

What happens during a knowledge test?

Students write out the definitions for the key words that they have self-quizzed twice that week.

How many words do students have to learn?

Students in Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 are tested on 2 definitions in each subject each week.

Students in Year 10 and Year 11 are tested on 3 or 4 definitions in each subject each week.

Students in Year 12 and Year 13 are tested on 4 or 5 definitions in each subject each week.

Assessment

Assessments

We know that curriculum and assessment are inextricably intertwined – our curriculum is our progression model. The more of the curriculum our students know and remember, the more progress they have made.

At Paddington, it is primarily through formative assessment, rather than high-stakes exams and summative assessment, that we check whether our students have a coherent and deep understanding of the curriculum. Formative assessment functions as regular statements of competence – that students have mastered the content – and allow us to provide tailored feedback to students to allow them to progress successfully through the curriculum.

While summative assessment at Key Stage 3 is important for several reasons, it is not the ultimate focus of the education we provide at Paddington – rather it is students’ successful acquisition and retention of the knowledge of our high-quality curriculum, guaranteed by rigorous and regular in-class formative assessment, that is particularly valuable.

Having checked rigorously for understanding, we act on what we learn to ensure students know what we expect them to by certain point