Essentially you use a large piece of paper set out as a grid. I used a 6 x 10 grid which gave me 60 boxes. Each box was filled with an activity the child could complete. The idea was the higher up the grid, the more “difficult” the activity – this usually equated to it requiring more time, care, or thought. I tried not to fill the grid with “difficult” things and went mainly with projects that were fun to complete but provided valuable learning opportunities. Each activity gained a certain amount of “points”. So, activities in the 10th column were worth ten points, the first column was worth 1 point and so on. The activities available covered various topics and subjects.
I set a new grid every half term, so I had 6 in all I that I used each year (modified if any topics changed). The goal was for each child to score 60 points in any way they wanted. They had each half term to reach 60 points, which gave the children a lot more freedom over their own time. Having a set time frame and an achievable goal helped teach them valuable time management skills – hugely helpful for when they go to secondary school.
As I said, I found this system worked well for me in Year 6. But working well is not working perfectly.
This system still didn’t eradicate some of the usual issues: getting homework back consistently, marking, and providing accessible feedback. Although setting it is easier this way because it is just one document given out every half term, inevitably some children are not there the day it goes out. 75% of children lose the sheets which then costs more time and money reprinting them.
All of this could have been made a lot easier if we went online.
