Parents' Handbook 2018-19

8 If you love learning, you will be learned ACADEMIC Curriculum Details of each stage of the curriculum are given to parents as their sons progress up the School. Booklets describing the curriculum at each level of the School may be accessed from the school website and are also available on request from the Curriculum Director. Choices of subjects have to be made from time to time in a boy’s school career, and at these points the parents can exert a major influence; however, we are obliged to make it clear that the composition of a boy’s timetable, and the arrangements made for teaching him (e.g. by setting) must ultimately be at the School’s discretion. Curriculum arrangements are made by the Curriculum Director to whom enquiries about the curriculum and subject choices should be addressed. The School is always willing to consider special timetabling or curricular arrangements for individual pupils. Books and Materials Textbooks and stationery are at present issued, generally speaking, without any separate charge. Books remain the property of the School and a charge is made for any lost, damaged, or defaced. A small number of necessary items (a dictionary, mathematical instruments, etc.) are normally bought by boys. We recommend Heinemann’s School Dictionary or the Pocket Oxford Dictionary. There are also charges made to boys in the Fifth Year who choose to take advantage of the careers profiling and interviews that are run through Cambridge Occupational Analysts. Homework Homework properly done is the corner-stone of most subjects. As a rough guide, boys in the first two years should do about one hour each evening (Mon to Fri), rising + to two hours each evening by the fifth year (also Mon to Fri). Homework time-tables are published for years 1 to 5, and parents of dayboys are asked to ensure that their sons comply with these programmes, and that they carry out the assignments recorded either in their prep diaries or on Firefly, the School’s virtual learning environment. Parents may raise questions about their son’s prep at any time, with his Tutor or with the subject teacher concerned. Reports, Assessments and Academic Monitoring A boy’s progress is monitored, and reports are made to parents, by a variety of means both formal and informal. Subject teachers and tutors consult regularly, and tutors are primarily responsible for bringing to the attention of parents any special problems that may arise during the course of a term. Reports and Parents’ Evenings: The pattern of these reports varies by year group but in essence there will be two "full" reports of a more detailed nature during the year with shorter reports or just grade sheets in the other three reporting sessions. All reports have comments from Tutor and Housemaster and for two sessions (Summer Term in 5th and U6th years) reports comprise just Tutor and Housemaster comments. Most reports carry grades for Effort and Achievement over the relevant period of reporting. The grading system is explained on each report and Effort and Achievement grades are converted into two overall percentages that can be monitored from report to report. As a rough rule of thumb, percentages of around 65% indicate that all is mostly well, in the region of 80% and above that things are going very well indeed and in the region of 50% and below that there may be some causes for concern.