ADHD and homework

Reading, spelling and tables are the only homework Yr 2's need.

What else is she expected to do beyond that? It sounds ridiculous.

Personally I'd prefer a teacher to say what they're wondering about rather than leave you in the dark not knowing what they're thinking might be wrong.

Seems a lot. In Y2: mine did reading, spelling and X tables. But spelling and X tables was about 5 or 10 minutes usually done on the school run.
If it's written work then it's too much. Although I'm pretty sure they can't enforce homework at primary school age. You can ask for less but if they refuse just do what she can. Whatever she does in 20 minutes is it for the day.

If the homework is that bad in year 2 then I agree with the previous poster who said move her to another school. That level of homework is completely ridiculous.

Well you’re the parent. Be the parent and change her school.

Two things from a very experienced teacher and Senco
1: a class teacher should not be telling a parent that their child may have ADHD. It is incredibly unprofessional. The correct protocol should be to look at the areas of concern, discuss an appropriate SMART intervention to address one of the issues, then review. Assess, Plan, Do, Review. All in consultation with the Senco and parent. Following an APDR cycle, it may be decided to consult someone with more knowledge such as an EP or SALT then adjust the APDR.
2: a child who has only just started in Year 2 should not be given such a ridiculous amount of homework. It’s counter productive, can make the child develop a sense of failure and is now considered very poor practice. You believe that because your child is (unsurprisingly) struggling with this homework there must be a problem. In reality, the problem is with the teacher who thinks this approach to learning for 6 year olds is in any way appropriate!

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/homework

I would ditch everything other than reading during the week some spelling practice and times table practice in the car. Inform (rather than ask) the school it is a parent decision as she is struggling with overload.

This seems like an insane amount of homework for Y2. I would pick one or two bits a week that you think are most important and concentrate on those. There are no consequences at this age for not doing it and it’s just pointless if it’s stressing everyone out so much.

We did spellings and times tables in the car on the way to school, sometimes reading too (depends if your child gets car sick!)

If you're sending her to school every day and doing what you can to support learning outside school, you're doing enough.

Drop the rope.

I'm a secondary school teacher.

Save your energy!

It just makes you think that Swedish children are in school 8-1 and have no homework, and a very high quality of education.

i wasn't a fan of homework, so we came up with other plans

Some i just point blank refused to do, some we did in the car, some we did on the move/on a walk and i recorded the answers. Some we did in 5 minutes chunks with a reward, and some i wrote the answers she gave me.

all was done with the schools approval, some worked, some didn't.

However, Don't feel all homework needs to be done in one go, in one sitting, and the same place, make it fun, give it movement and novelty.. you might find more gets done!

YANBU. That is hideous, I wouldn't tolerate that amount of homework at all. When is she actually allowed to be a child?

Also I’ll add, how does your dd even know what homework is set unless relayed by you? My secondary school one knows because it’s set on an app and she can see it.

My Y3, the teacher emails us, with the exception of the spelling book, which is a physical book that comes home. If I don’t think it’s suitable, I just ignore it. Even when it used to come home as an actual printed off set of work for the term, I’d do what I thought was beneficial, stick a sticky note on it to explain we did what we chose to do, and sent back the whole pack mostly incomplete. Never an issue. I don’t think my dc even looked in there to know what might have been done.

In parent’s evening, the teacher (with dc in the same year) said it was fine, her dc didn’t do all the homework she set for him either. The school makes her do it to hit certain targets, but she just ignored them and mostly just did reading.

They are 6, it really will not impact their lifelong motivation and productivity to not to all their homework at this age.

That’s not ADHD, that’s too much homework. She’s 6? Of course, she’s going to struggle.

Ditch most of it, do only the most important bits that build core skills (regular reading), get outside and play instead.

My youngest is in Y3 and he has reading, maths and spelling every week. The reading takes 5 minutes, 5 times a week. We read 2-3 pages. Like literally no more than he can do in 5 minutes.

Spelling, it’s 3 times a week, takes 2 minutes to write out like 8 words.

Maths is just a time tables app. We do it as and when he wants to, maybe twice a week for 5-10 minutes.

Sometimes they have a project to do every half term. But it’s like draw or paint a picture in the style of Pablo Picasso like we’ve been learning in school. He will do some drawing for 20 minutes the day before it’s due, done. Or build a den like we learnt in forest school. We take a walk as a family, build a den, I take a photo of him in front of it, done.

Weekend homework for someone that age is insane let alone more than an hour's worth!! Nothing good can come of that.

Have had this conversation with my DD's teacher and the teacher was very clear that if DD was having to be pushed into doing homework and finding it stressful then we should not force it. I think she is absolutely correct. I don't want to put DD off learning altogether and I don't want to add to our battles.

In my opinion homework should really be reserved for much older children. But then I realise there are some children that like doing it. However maybe it should be presented as fully optional.

I completely understand that. That is why I do encourage my son to do his homework, but I'm always aware of his mood so I can see if it'll stress him out or not. Honestly I would say that you should encourage your daughter to do the homework, but if she doesn't, don't force it and just tell the teacher that it's too much for her. Start a "homework" diary if you have to, so you can keep track of what might have affected her ability to do homework that day/week. It sounds like a lot of effort but I've found that a lot of teachers don't take things at face value

Gamifying homework sometimes worked a bit. I had some success with Teach Your Monster to Read (phonics), and Reading Eggs/Maths Seeds. These are research based.

Our DD was diagnosed with ADHD at 7 and before that we had already been in to see the Head to beg her to help us with the meltdowns over homework and reading. She was v nice about it and got the ladies in charge of after school club to do a bit of homework and reading with her.

DD is now 12 and still feels very strongly that home is home and school is school!