Key Points
Our weekly formative tasks and accompanying progress summaries provide a regular snapshot of each student’s individual progress with their learning here at Gymea.
Junior students will receive a weekly homework task all four core subjects (English, Maths, Science, History/Geography) and a fortnightly homework task for all remaining subjects.
Senior formative tasks are delivered each week across all senior courses and are based on HSC content and exam preparation.
You can see a series of quick videos on how your child can access and submit their homework tasks below.
Bridging the learning that is happening here at school with home in a way that focuses on regularly informing student progress is what makes our unique Homework and Formative Task program so powerful. This coupled with our weekly progress summaries helps provide pointed and detailed information for parents and students about their learning as well as ongoing recognition of their progress. Likewise, allowing students to see their progress on a regular basis enables that reflection and commitment to improvement regularly, rather than waiting for a traditional semester report.
What is formative assessment and what will the homework task look like?
Formative assessment is a tool that teachers use to measure a student grasp of specific
topics and skills they are teaching at that point in time. They are like mini snap-shot assessments that let the teacher and the student know how well they have understood a new concept or skill.
Junior homework tasks will therefore often be something like a multi-choice quiz, short answer responses to a set of questions or a short writing task that are all completed or submitted online. They should take approx. 30 minutes per task to complete.
Senior formative tasks are delivered each week across all senior courses. They are based on HSC content and help to regularly engage our senior students in the style of questioning presented in the HSC exam for each of their courses. This regular and continued practice is crucial preparation for our seniors and has proven to be a contributing factor to high levels of success in their HSC exams. Each of these tasks should take around 30-45 minutes to complete and are in conjunction with their other coursework and assessments they must complete.
How often will my child be given homework tasks?
Years 7-10
Junior students will receive a weekly homework task all four core subjects (English,
Maths, Science, History/Geography) and a fortnightly homework task for all remaining subjects including electives in years 9 and 10 where the periods are stretched out across the 10 day cycle.
Years 11 and 12
Senior students will receive a weekly HSC preparation style formative task across all senior
courses.
All homework tasks are distributed online on a Monday across all courses 7-12 with all tasks
due on the Friday of that same week at 3pm.
It is a good idea for students to build a homework schedule of when they will complete each of their tasks throughout the week to ensure they are completed by the Friday 3pm deadline.
How does my child access their homework tasks?
Our homework and formative tasks are all distributed and completed online through our learning management platforms Moodle and Google Classroom.
Even if the tasks are completed through Moodle which is common for some subjects such as Maths, Geography or History, the class teacher will place a link to the homework task for that week in their Google Classroom that will take them directly to the homework task.
Below are a series of short videos created by Harvey of Year 10 that help to explain how to access, check and submit your child’s homework tasks.
How to access Google Classroom
How to access each homework task
What is on your Classroom dashboard?
How to see what is incomplete
How can I see how my child went in their tasks?
Our individual student progress summaries detailing important information on the progress of each child are emailed home to parents and students each week. A program unique to Gymea, it continues to provide valuable and regular communication on student progress for all families.
The weekly summaries provide information individualised to each child indicating:
Student engagement in lessons: Teachers give an indication of how well a student is engaged in their learning measured as all the time, most of the time, or some of the time.
Student absences: These provide a record and count of the number of whole and partial day absences providing an overview for both the students and families on the pattern of attendance.
Student assessment progress: As the term and the year progresses we will see those assessments included as they are completed.
Reward points: These points are awarded based on the student’s engagement with their learning and have contributed towards special events such as the end of year rewards excursions. These reward points are something that we are hoping to expand on across other areas of school involvement.
Formative homework records: Faculties set weekly and fortnightly formative tasks and mark, provide feedback, and record in a tracker so that both students and parents can see how students are progressing with their work.