Y7 teachers/parents advice/help please... homework, effort, info from school

[WillfSelll]

Gah, it's all a bit of a mystery.

Y7 boy, doing well enough but really putting MINIMUM effort into his homework. He's bright so coasts along. I'm split between trying to raise his aspirations so his effort scores move upwards, versus just leaving him to it - he is pretty organised and committed to doing his homework, he just does the minimum possible when I know he could achieve such a lot more. Should I just butt out? The thing I worry about is that school is so anonymous (which was clear from the review day) that unless he is pretty motivated to respond to feedback, he wont' do it, and the teachers won't otherwise be pushing him particularly...

And I have no idea about certain things to do with secondary school and who to ask - he missed a day or two last term because of illness and he ended up getting a detention because he hadn't realised there was homework while he was ill. Who is supposed to follow this kind of thing up? Is it his responsibility to find the teacher of missed classes? Or ask his friends? What about notes etc that he has missed?

I would also like to find out if there are recommended textbooks for different subjects (cos I'm fed up of him using bloody Wikipedia for all his 'research'!) but no idea how to go about finding out. My son just says 'dunno' when I ask if the teachers have recommended particular websites etc..

[WillfSelll]

[TheFallenMadonna]

How is the homework marked? Is he given an effort grade? We tend to set levelled tasks for homework, and the students know what level they should be working at.

Students need to catch up on the work they've missed, and it's their responsibility to do so, but I wouldn't set a detention for a homework missed because of illness.

[bigTillyMint]

Agree about the text books -v- internet, but I haven't done anything about it yet!

DD is the opposite (which can be just as trying at times as she sort of resents the amount of time and effort she puts in )

Luckily she asks friends if she misses stuff (quite frequent as she sometimes has to play in a match / do an extra practice for something during lesson time), but otherwise I would try to contact the form tutor. Do you have an email address for the form tutor? Or a general one for the school and ask for it to be forwarded to the tutor?

[FreudianSlippery]

Bumping for you, I'm not sure I have much advice personally though.

Totally share your frustration. DH's DS coasted through school and has got nowhere - rubbish A levels, will probably get into uni but we think (privately!) he won't stick to it.

One of his DDs is turning out just the same, she's in yr8 and coasting. It is actually her dyslexic sister who is doing better as she's putting the effort in!

You definitely need to address it. I wish I knew how :( because DH's DCs live with their mum (who doesn't give a toss about school) they have a really poor environment. Their school is as laid back as yours :(

Sorry for rant...

[Goblinchild]

In my son's school, it's the child's responsibility to check, but the teachers use the VLE a lot for posting homework and support materials.
As for texts, I'd contact the subject teacher. Mine is doing GCSEs at the moment and it matters which board and thus which revision guide.

[WillfSelll]

Thanks! I hadn't really thought about the notion of homework being given for reasons of compliance... Hmm. They are giving out effort grades though so clearly they want them to think about it?

I want him to work independently (and it is really best all round that he does because he isn't great at taking advice. Or I'm no good at giving it... ) so I hoped for a textbook he could use as a resource rather than doing worksheets with him.

[WillfSelll]

Thanks all - so emailing the subject leader to ask about textbooks wouldn't be an arsey thing to do then?

[TheFallenMadonna]

Do you really need to help him? I wouldn't set a homework that required parental involvement, because I'd be on to a bit of a non starter for most of my students TBH. It also wouldn't require a textbook.

[TheFallenMadonna]

It wouldn't be arsey. But as a HoD, I wouldn't recommend a textbook for my subject at KS3. But then our homework is skills based rather than information based.

[Goblinchild]

I'm sure you are capable of writing an enthusiastic letter asking for some guidance that doesn't come across as arsey.
I come from a household of academics, so the idea of asking for a reading list is normal, and I'd be at a teacher who got irritated by it.

[WillfSelll]

I dunno TFM. Last term he got sent off to research chromatography. And energy conversion methods. I was not happy about him just Googling or using Wikipedia. I asked him what his teacher had told him about how to find the information, and it took a week after the homework was due for him to remember that she'd said BBC Bitesize was a useful website at the start of term...

[TheFallenMadonna]

I recommended New Scientist a lot at my last parents' evening...

[WillfSelll]

This is EXACTLY my prob goblinchild - I am an academic and I balk a bit a the 'go google it' homework he keeps getting in certain subjects...

[cornsilk]

I don't understand why secondary schools seem to give out worksheets and no text books but the grammars do send textbooks home (where I live anyway)but I suppose that's a different issue.

[TheFallenMadonna]

Hmm. FWIW, I would always recommend that my students put 'KS3' or 'GCSE' into the search to get things that are at the right level for them.

For science scibermonkey is a good place to look for things for KS3.

[TheFallenMadonna]

I don't have enough textbooks for one per student. And if they went home, I would be unlikely to see them again. I have classes where I am reluctant to send exercise books home again because they'll be writing on paper for the rest of the term.

[cornsilk]

that's sad fallenmadonna - the grammar school I worked at recently sent home text books(as do other grammars from asking around) but ds's secondary send home photocopied sheets (which I think is elitism- it's all the same LEA)

[UKcanuck]

At my DD's school each child has been assigned a "homework buddy" (I think it's just the person next along from their name in the register) who is meant to have the responsibility for noticing if their partner is not in school and getting extra copies of worksheets etc; and is meant to be the first port of call with any questions. This was best in Y7 before DD had made close friends as there was someone she could call without worrying about it. Now that she has a stronger circle of friends, in practice she tends to rely on that but the "buddy" system has still come in handy from time to time.

Completely agree re the Googling thing. DD has also been asked to research various things and I guess it has been handy to teach her how many different answers you can come up with on the Internet but I can't understand why the teacher would want to mark 30 pieces of homework potentially copy-pasted from Wikipedia or worse; and how you guard against the internet info being the version that sticks in their head iyswim.

[Goblinchild]

It depends how reputable and reliable the sources are, Wikki isn't one of the more respectable sites if you are trying to verify information.

[WillfSelll]

swallowed, I spend ALL my working days explaining to students why they must not rely on Wikipedia. Although I know it has a place - ie as an encylopedia that may or may not be correct, and therefore background... - I just can't bring myself to let my son think this is his first port of call. Sorry. I want something authoritative, and level-appropriate...

[TheFallenMadonna]

It's pretty good for science really, in terms of the actual science, but it's mostly way too high faluting for KS3. Written by geeks

[WillfSelll]

I'd be happy to buy him a textbook, or encourage him to see if the school library has one (but why don't THEY do that? or maybe they do?!), I just want to know. I'll email the school and see what they say...

[WillfSelll]

Thanks for the scibermonkey link TFM - looks good...