Often we are asked, "how much is homework should my child be doing?"

Firstly, there is always something to do for homework. If your child is in the junior years, they should be reading, working through their Maths pathways modules or doing Word Flyers. Of course teachers will set homework and this may be completing work, doing some research in preparation for a lesson to come or students could be working on common tasks at home as well as at school.

Senior students should spread out their homework and study evenly between their subjects. Again, their will be certain times when the volume of work may be greater than usual. Obviously, leading up to exam times and assessment periods, there will be an increase in the load. Having two hours (or more) of work to do if your child is a senior is not unusual, especially in the Preliminary and HSC years.

The diary does provide some guidelines for recommended time but it may be the case that at times students may need to spend more than the usual time on home study and tasks. Obviously if your child is regularly struggling to complete tasks, you may need to support them by looking at how they are organising their time. Are they sitting with their phone by their side as they do their work? This is a big distraction and best used only in breaks. Students should have their homework and assessments written in their diaries to help them plan for what is due. An idea might be to go through the diary with your child and help them plan for the week ahead.