How many hours HW/night in Yr 7...and how do you help them tackle it?

I don't know about famous people coming out of the school as I haven't been interested in that. I do know of current parents who are famous - often in the academic field but not sure how their DCs will turn out! Not sure if 'fame' per se is a good measure of a good school though, as often the happiet and/ or the brightest people don't necessarily seek 'fame' per se.

What I do know is that it's academically selective rather than 'posh'. I think last yrs A level results indicated about 35% went to Oxbridge and the rest to Russell group Unis except maybe one or two to Unis outsie the Russell group.

I selected the school on academic success and the fact that academic achievement is counted way above social class/ material wealth. So far, my disappointment has been with the large class sizes and the fact that a recently gone co-ed school is still struggling to integrate the genders but they're still in the early days of transition from an all boys school to co-ed and our particular cohort is the largest cohort they ever had in the Prep part. So I like may other parents, think we've had a bit of a raw deal. But that's off topic for this thread.

Seeker - I'm making an assumption about why the school give so much HW but that assumption is in order to promote independent learning at an early age and the 'work ethic'. I assume it's also to reinforce what they've done during the day - eg, recent HWs: in Maths they might do dividing and multiplying compound/mixed fractions and then do a couple of sheets more of those that night or in English, if they've been doing a lesson on the structure of sonnets, they're asked to write two original sonnets for HW that night, following the same structure.

In many ways, I'd rather they get 6 maths examples instead of 36 or one sonnet instead of 2. They also have regular 'revision' HW eg this w/e they have a Physics test coming up next week and have been asked to revise work covered this term on things like mass/ density and it's relationship with distance and gravitational force, in the context of learning about the solar system.

I'd also rather they give individual HW rather than whole class work, to strengthen any particular weak areas for one particular child but with 25/ 26 children to a class (quite high number for this stage in a fee-paying school), I expect they can't get the time to make it completely individual.

There may also be a parental expectation as the school probably has a lot of 'tiger mums' of all nationalities and a lot of children who already outside school are excelling at something nationally, whether that's a sport or maths etc. So a lot of parents are v ambitious and maybe the school responds to this work ethic by giving out lots of HW.

My own desire would be, as above, that there were shorter pieces of work directly related to that day's class work plus some individually targeted work for each child - eg more maths for my DCs but less English, with which they struggle less.

The other thing they've started to get a lot are mini projects lasting 2 weeks. I hate this kind of HW as you're left thinking that the child should do 2 weeks worth of work but DCs are telling me - no it's only one or two sheets with bullet points - and then you find that some children have done powerpoint presentation level work and other's half a side of bullet points copied straight from the internet! Presumably this kind of project based work mirrors the kind of way coursework is part of a curriculum now and it's not so 'final exam results on the day' testing anymore?

No the school isn't in London. If you choose this school, you're choosing an academic one with a certain amount of pressure, regular testing/ exams and it's not for children who wouldn't thrive in such an environment. DT2 certainly thrives.

DT1 has had some wobbles, especially last year, as he's more what I'd call a 'normal' boy - not a geeky/ eccentric/ genius type as some of the children are. A child who has a natural desire to be absorbed by academia, who's a bit of a boffin, a 'little professor type' (male or female) would really enjoy the school. Very very bright children who are more 'ordinary' in social ability and personality - would also thrive there.

It's the children who are bright but have to work v hard to reach their potential or those with some issue like cognitive processing problems (like DT1) or those who are only on the borderline of passing the entrance exams - who would struggle I think.

There are lots of children there who, for example, will have maths as a 'hobby' and the set maths homework will therefore be easy and quick to do and then they'll read further and practice further stuff much further advanced, just for fun/ pleasure or do some physics for fun, memorising facts or laws of physics for pleasure!

There are also lots of children there who happily do a full day's work, an after school club and then out of school clubs/ sports etc too and a couple of musical instruments too and are way ahead of their years. Some children are just born that way and others shaped by parents/ school etc.

My DTs would probably fall into the 'average' child category at that school (except DT2 who has inborn ability and interest in one subject and does it 'for fun' and always has). So they neither find the HW crippling - except occasionally, when it's masses of maths! - nor easy and quick.

You just wouldn't send a child there who didn't accept HW as a part of life and couldn't manage it, to a degree. My DCs even had HW at their pre-prep (a different school) from the age of 3.75. It's always been part of their lives really and sometimes they accept it more than other times. Currently, my DCs enjoy lots of school clubs but we've stopped out of school things for now and I'll see how this all goes as they progress - if they do - into Yr 7.

All children do the subjects I listed above plus I think Latin and a few other ones in yrs 7 and 8 and then they select the ones they'll do for O level (I think they do IGCSEs or something at the school).

It may well be that the average 2 hrs per night (and remember my DCs are not even in that part of the school yet at all but are 10 yr olds currently just started Yr 6) - turns out to be some nights v little, some nights 3 hrs, some w/es v little, some w/es masses? I don't yet know and think it's partly about keeping on top of HW, as they're already having to start to do this yr. This yr - Yr 6 - they get things like small projects to do spread across 2 weeks plus one or 2 main subjects to be completed either by the next day or later in the wek and then one night, 3 subjects but 2 of those can be handed in the following Monday. It works out to about 1 hr a night usually but some nights none at all - but then more to finish at w/es.

I don't know whether it's a good idea or not. Things have changed hugely since I was at school and everything seems much more competitive these days. In my day, a handful of As was good enough and no one at my school did more than 8 O levels and 3 A levels. Now most of the people we know who are a bit older than my DCs would hopes ot get all As and As at O level equivalent I'm still back in the Dark Ages) and do 4 or 5 A levels or the Pre U things I think on offer too at their school and all As or As at that level too. Looking at the school, results, some children do end up with a B or even a C but the majority get As and A*s. So it's that sort of school.

So maybe that's why they work them so hard even after assessing for entry too.

Breadandbutterfly, all the children are expected to do 50 to 60 minutes per night in this current year - Year 6. They're not yet in Yr 7 when it's 2 hrs a night. Sometimes it takes longer and sometimes shorter and some can in any case be done at the w/e instead. From what I know, in the senior school, in Yr 7 - children are expected to do 2 hrs a night and again I think some might be spread to the w/e.

DT2 is in Gifted and Talented for one subject but he, like any of the other children can't be good at all subjects and so some subjects take him longer - eg maths. But the volume of homework is about the same - in length of time it takes - for all children. DT1 is, if anything, incredibly slapdash about his work and his inner mantra seems to be "do the absolute minimum as quickly as possible"! Both have some aspects of perfectionism but neither really applies this to HW...if only! Occasionally, I've helped them with the maths homework (although help maybe not the right word as I find their maths already too hard to do! the school work about 2 yrs ahead of most schools in maths but I'm afraid I fail even at 13 yr old maths these days!!!). On those occasions, my 'tuition' has meant it's taken up to 2 hrs and the school say stop after 50 mins but if I've wanted to help them understand something, it can take that long and then they need to complete the worksheets too.

The school's policy is to get the children into working independently at home, I think to set them on course for independent work at university and out in the world. School days are also busy and intense, eg 8 maths lessons per week - many of those double periods - 8 English lessons a week, physical science, natural science, geog., history, French, D & T, ICT, RE, PHSE and about 2 afternoons of Games aswell....

I don't yet know for sure how Yr 7 will pan out. That's the yr that HW increases dramatically and that's what I'm looking ahead towards and trying to plan how to help DCs manage this.

Like you, I had no HW to speak of in junior school and no harm done but it seems different nowadays in many v academic schools that are competing in league tables. Any child who is going to be taking considerably longer than the specified number of hrs HW each night, is probably not in the right school. But even the genius level children (not mine) are given an amount of HW that takes them the allotted time in all but their best subject.