Homework horrors

Sadly not abnormal in some kinds of schools, but its not universal. It may be something that you want to seriously consider as a factor in whether you keep her there or move. I'm a secondary teacher. A lot of the work I am told to set is 'busy work'. It really depends on how you want to play this and what sort of relationship you have with the school.

What sort of school would give detention if you don't get 100% that's ridiculous. Do they really do that nowadays. What's happend to just being given homework to do and giving it in at the next lesson doesn't that happen anymore.

Honestly, hand on heart, no.I think it is wildly unhelpful, certainly below y10. Revision for end of unit tests and regular reading is fine. If a child needs more practice they should run maths clinics within school hours. I've been teaching for decades and love the kids and classroom environment but am increasingly uneasy at the system I'm part of. Sorry if that's a bit gloomy.

In year 8 most schools will have a similar sort of expectation.

mostly it doesn’t include weekend days and mine did quite a lot at the weekend. As well as on the bus on the way to school.

realistically if school finishes at 3:30 they’re home by 4, 4:30 at the latest. Chill and watch some tv, dinner together and then do homework. Bedtime at that age is usually 9ish so they do have five and a half hours after school to relax and do homework in.

if they’ve got clubs or scouts or whatever then the night before or after becomes a homework night.

Many kids that age have multiple sports, hobbies, music practice or training sessions of one that they're specialising in. 90 minutes every night is not achievable and weekends should not be spent playing catch up. God forbid they might also have some downtime.

I'd hang on to see if that amount is actually set. My dc's school claimed they'd get far more homework than they actually did.

I don't love sparx maths, but it isn't learning by rote, it's definitely based on completing calculations and maths problems. And the 100% you're asked for is about doing 100% of the work, not getting 100% of questions correct, you can re-try questions, and if you can't get it then it just shows you a video on how to do the question. So it might be as bad as you're imagining.

Some schools have done this for years (even schools that have longer days, so she effectively has more time if it's like most schools 9ish-330ish), and in some, tasks are open ended, so might take kids of similar intelligence either 5 minutes, or 5 hours. I know you said hers isn't like that. On the plus side, she'll breeze her GCSEs and balancing study/work when she's older if she gets used to this.

I don't know if this is normal but it is utterly ridiculous anyway. I am against homework to begin with (if every person was clocking 90 minutes of work after their workday was over, there would be something seriously wrong with their workplace expectations. Why do we accept this in schools?). But also specifying time rather than task very much points to "busy work".
When I was at school, we were given a specific task for the subject i.e. 12 maths problems, a chapter to read before the next history lesson etc. Whether you did it in 15 minutes or 120 minutes was nobody's business.