School in Focus - celebrating success in schools

Carwarden House Community School

Imagine a school where students ask for more homework because it's so much fun, and where teachers don't have to mark it; a school where every child can have their homework tailored to their needs, but teachers can monitor the progress of the whole class on a single sheet of A4.

Does this sound like a fantasy? Welcome to Carwarden House Community School in Camberley, Surrey, where almost 90 per cent of Students regularly do homework – and quite a few ask for extra!

Homework hasn't always been so popular at this special school for Years 4 to 14. In fact, the current situation is quite a turnaround from that faced by the school six years ago, when less than 20 per cent of the students regularly completed homework and the school's Ofsted report two years earlier had highlighted it as an area for concern. But staff overcame these difficulties with a creative and inspiring homework solution – and the Mathematics homework scheme they developed in partnership with two local mainstream schools has proved so effective that it is now used in many schools across England.

Students with special educational needs (SEN) can have particular difficulties with homework, and Head teacher John Cope explains that this provided the starting point for the project. They often require adult supervision in order to get the most out of homework, yet many parents feel unable to help. Teachers also face the general problem of finding material appropriate for each student. 'We found ourselves setting 'easy' homework, so that children could work independently,' John says. 'The old system wasn't flexible enough for us, and it certainly wasn't fun for the children.'

Deciding that a totally different approach was needed if the situation was to improve, teachers started to experiment with Mathematics homework games. The games were designed to be played with pens, pencils and a pack of cards – equipment the teachers knew students would have at home. As well as supporting the idea that Mathematics is fun and involving parents in their children's learning, the games were intended to reinforce and support the National Numeracy Strategy and to minimise teacher administration time.

To develop the games further, Carwarden's Assistant head and Key Stage 4 Mathematics teacher Su Cope joined forces with a former member of the school's staff and colleagues from a mainstream junior school and a mainstream infant-junior school. The four teachers set themselves the challenge of coming up with an approach where the students wouldn't even feel like they were doing homework and where parents and siblings could get involved too.

The games they drafted proved so successful when trialled by a small group of students that a decision was made to put them into production for use by all year groups at the school. With the help of educational resources provider St Joseph's Workshops, the Homeworking – School and Parent Partnership scheme was created. Carefully designed, the games in this original scheme were divided into four levels (recently expanded to five levels). With 36 games for each level, each student can have a different game for every week of the school year. Each game comes in a colour-coded pack containing instructions and everything needed to play it – such as dice, spinners, counters or a board.

The games were a hit with Carwarden's students – and continue to be hugely popular. Eight-year-old Max, for example, loves the Build a Snowman game, which is played using a dice, spinner, paper and pen. 'I like maths homework – I really like Build a Snowman!' he says. 'I play it with my dad.' Another popular game is School Dinners, a level 1 game that enables students to practice their addition by choosing from a set of prices and foods to make the most disgusting school dinner with the least amount of money.

The games have really changed students' attitudes to homework, too. Year 10 student Danny thinks that homework is fun: 'It helps you learn, so that when you're older you know what you're doing,' he says.

In fact, the games were such an immediate success at Carwarden and the other two schools involved in the project that they attracted the attention of Surrey LEA, which supported a decision to pilot the games in a cross-section of its schools. Following the success of the pilot project, the homework scheme took off on a huge scale. In 2000, the materials were successfully launched on the national education market – and, by summer 2004, the scheme had been purchased by 1,500 mainstream and special schools across the country.

John has no doubts about the educational benefits of the scheme. 'In a school situation, you are only able to educate a child for the time they are in front of you,' he says. 'But with our system, you get constant reinforcement at home and there is much better retention of what has been taught. The programme has had a direct impact on attainment.'

He says that the scheme has definite social benefits too: 'One of the biggest problems in families with one special needs child is competitiveness with other siblings – but because the material for our homework is so unique and interesting, parents are reporting that other members of the family are keen to get involved. It brings families together – and, where this has happened, you see a huge improvement in social skill development.'

The scheme also has benefits for teachers, as Su explains: 'Children in the same class can work at different levels. It's age-appropriate and it compliments what is being taught in the classroom. And there's very little recording, just monitoring!'

At Carwarden, the appointment of a homework coordinator – former teacher Mariejan Crear – has made teachers' lives even easier. While class teachers set reading and spelling homework, all Mathematics and English homework is administered by Mariejan. 'Having Mariejan takes the pressure off teachers,' says John. Mariejan is able to monitor and record every student's progress and is on hand if they have problems. Once a week, she also staffs a homework helpline for parents. 'They can ring Mariejan and say, 'I need more help with this' or 'this is a bit easy or difficult',' explains John. 'I'm sure that's responsible for the high uptake of the programme.'

Carwarden has used the royalties earned from sales of the homework scheme to other schools to fund internal projects, as well as jointly to finance the development of a fifth level of the scheme. The games are scheduled to be translated into Welsh in autumn 2004, and there are also plans to launch them in the American, Australian and Canadian education markets.

Looking back, Su says she is amazed at what has been achieved: 'I think we must have been absolutely crackers! It was a lot of work, but we were really convinced that what we were doing was worthwhile. It was a new initiative, it was innovative – and we were just sure it was going to work!'