Anyone's child just gone into s4 (Scotland) and studying nat5s? How much homework do they have?

[RhondaJean]

Particularly maths.

Dd seems to have hours of the stuff. I mean literally a couple of hours a day at the moment.

By comparison my friends son, different school, same local authority, has practically none.

[squeezycheeseplease]

Do you mean they're on their induction for next academic year, they've just finished third year?

[squeezycheeseplease]

Mine has just finished S4, first year of Nat 5 exams all done and dusted, and had masses of homework for everything. It got worse as the year went on, and the amount to do before Easter was crazy. In school for hours afterwards every day doing portfolios for things, and it seemed like the teachers didn't really know how much they needed to do.

I felt so sorry for all of the kids. They've worked so hard but they've just been guinea pigs for it all, and, at our school, they'll be the same again for the new Highers now as those were delayed a year.

[RhondaJean]

Yes she is a year behind yours.

They are banking nat4 work at the moment but she has formal maths homework once a week, daily maths homework and massive revision booklets.

I'm watching with bemusement to be honest.

[SquirrelledAway]

How many subjects is she studying? If it's 7 or 8 then that will be a lot of work to get through in one year.

DS just finished his 6 Nat 5s. PE was all by assessment (portfolio and performance, no exam). For the other subjects for Nat 4, I think maths, physics and chemistry were assessed on each unit (that would be the booklets), geography and English he had to do some essays.

He didn't do that much homework though, most stuff he got done in class, and I'd guess he mostly only had on average 2 or 3 hours homework each week.

[squeezycheeseplease]

It was 8 Nat 5s here. Homework for a minimum of three hours a night I'd say, sometimes more as there were often days when lots of subjects gave it at once. At that school, they're not allowing them to do 8 in the next academic year as it's too much - which was obvious really early on.

[MeanwhileHighAboveTheField]

Started S4 on Monday, no homework yet (that I know of...) Only 6 nat 5s though

[SquirrelledAway]

squeezy lots of parents were up in arms that our kids weren't being allowed to do 7 or 8 Nat 5s (to the point where some pulled their kids out to go private) but I was quite glad that they were only doing 6. Even then, a couple if subjects struggled to get through the entire syllabus. DS always knew what he wanted to do at Higher, so he hasn't found the subject choices restrictive.

[RhondaJean]

7 nat5s, maths and two sciences, music and graphics, english and geography.

It seems to be maths that almost all the homework is coming from.

[PurpleFrog]

Dd has just gone back today after study leave into S5. The amount of homework in S4 was a big step-up from S3. She did all three Sciences, and at least the Science Faculty deliberately staggered their end of Unit Assessments etc., but three or four times she had a number of big pieces of work or revision to do in the same week for different subjects.

I am another parent who was ultimately glad that her child was only doing 6 Nat5s. [Although we did have a couple of shaky weeks where she decided that she hated 2 subjects and only wanted to carry on 4 of her 6 subjects to Higher...]

[SquirrelledAway]

Purple DS is carrying four of his subjects forward to Higher and picking up a new subject at Higher without having done Nat 4 or 5 in it.

We weren't given the option to do all three sciences - it was two sciences or triple science. Think that's changed for the new S4s this year.

[Timeandtune]

We just started S4 on Monday. I say "we" because I feel very much involved. Doing 7 Nat5s and a Nat4. Only a trickle of homework thus far but expect it to pick up and be fairly constant.
In S3 I reckon DS2 had average of 90 mins per night 5 times a week.

[PurpleFrog]

Squirrelled - I suggested that to dd, in particular I thought Geography might be a good bet, but in the end she decided to go for one of the subjects she was already doing. She decided on balance that there was no other subject she actually wanted to do... sigh!

What is triple science? I can't find that on the Nat5 exam timetable.

[haggisaggis]

According to ds he has no maths homework (no homework at all, actually). Started S4 timetable yesterday...mind you he does have yet another maths exam in 2 weeks so he needs to start revising for that. I would say that during S3 he didn't get much homework - which doesn't really surprise me since apart from Maths & English they don't start the Nat 5 course until S4. I think he is in for a big shock this year - at parents night the teachers were all saying there is a massive amount of work to cover in 1 year.

[SquirrelledAway]

Purple not entirely sure how triple science works other than you cover all three sciences in the same timetable space as two separate sciences, DS thinks that it probably gave you a Nat 4 in physics, chemistry and biology.

[PurpleFrog]

Ah - OK - that makes more sense, SquirrelledAway.

[Timeisawastin]

Another one here with a Dd just finished 8 Nat 5s. She did get a lot of maths homework, yet still found the exam tricky. Her school aren't running next year with 8 subjects as it's just too demanding. As with another poster, the last few months were awful with every subject teacher fighting to get their pupils in for extras sessions. I really hope it was all worth it!

[PurpleFrog]

Maybe we should start our own Highers after Nat5 topic instead of hijacking OPs?

[RhondaJean]

No feel free to use this one I have it all happening in 12 months don't I!

[PurpleFrog]

True!

Dd is about to embark on a mixture of old and new Highers. Her Sciences are old, the English is new and I have no idea what the other two are yet! I have mixed feelings about this. With the old Highers the teachers are familiar with the course and there will be no surprises halfway through the year. On the other hand dd says it means there will be a bigger jump to the new Advanced Higher. Sigh!

[SquirrelledAway]

I think we're doing all new Highers, the school (or local authority?) seems to have dived straight into the new CfE rather than do a halfway house kind of thing.