There's a "culture of low expectation" in secondary schools. Do you agree?

beatback
kids I know who got D at GCSE English are perfectly literate, but will never be writers.
clients who are illiterate (and I have several) failed GCSE English completely. And Maths. And Science.

Sorry I don't know what subject you teach and I don't know what KS3 is.

So Evil if you could be pretty darn sure that your pupils did do their homework, could you utilise it for everyone's benefit?

OK, I'll bite. Homework is the thing parents conplain about. The same parents don't tend to help ensure that their DCs do homework, IME, so it becomes pointless.

Homework causes problems. Kids who don't do it need chasing. That takes time. They don't show up to the detention, so that needs further sanctions.

Also, homework is categorically not supposed to be about consolidating learning - check ofsted if you don't believe me. Homework has to extend learning, not consolidate it.

I don't set much homework- not at KS3 anyway. No parent has complained to me direct, it tends to be a general "he's not getting much homework"

Interesting debate on homework.

DS gets daily homework, but it is relatively short and (mostly) rehearsal / securing what has been done in the lesson OR pre-learning so that the next lessons will be more interesting.

He does have some longer pieces, which are imaginative and interesting (Geography, mostly) or highly structured and very carefully assessed against grade boundaries (science).

I do know that a local-ish school sets much more homework ... but from a similar cohort gets much poorer results. DS's school (non-selective but nice catchment comp) works them VERY hard in lessons, though. I think it's sensible to look across the whole package of lessons + homework, rather than looking at homework in isolation...

TAlKIN PEACE. Is a D literate because earlier in this post there were some jokes about people with D being functionally iliterate which was not funny.

talkin only someone as arrogant as you, would take radio silence as complete acceptance ...

nit whilst I have some sympathy with not taking things too seriously in year 7, and I would never advocate hours of homework as necessary (neither of mine ever did that), I do think there's a lot to be said for getting each building block properly laid as you go along.

For one, many subjects keep building. And you can't really move on meaningfully until you've nailed the block below.

For another thing, doing the work as you go along is going to make those GCSEs a lot less daunting! Especially now they're all linear.

The teachers at DS school who know how to make linear work well, bang this drum all the time. Don't leave it til year 11...

beatback
my childrens' school is non selective, but their sets are not
the whole of the top set is expected to get A/A*
The next set A/B
The next set B-D
The next set D downwards
and the bottom set are just pleased to be literate.

I'm still waiting for a teacher to tell me that homework is not for the parents.

Viva/Habba If your DC"s are Educated with kids whose abilty is C/B it is quite possible that they will come down to the norm within the class and become like their surrondings. That is why my niece achieved 4As at A level and is now at a Russell Group university studying french and business studies that was down to the expectations of her Grammar School, and though she is obviously academic i never thought of her that way because she was only normal within her friend group at School. The point i am making is that human beings adapt and become in sync to their surrondings and that in itself can lead to underachivement. It has to be very difficult in a non selective School where a B is very high to be able to focus on these type of DC"s who are often 2 years ahead of the pack.

Did your daughter go to NLCS, Xenia? Well blow me down...

Some homework is good, and some teachers are better at setting meaningful ones than others, I will certainly agree. WRT Viva's dd, I took the comments to mean that perhaps you needn't worry too much about hours of homework in year 7.... in my experience, you might start out with annoying posters (as in posters you design, I mean), but it soon turns a bit more challenging: don't wish it away, I say!

'Interesting' argument between my dds last night, as dd1 told dd2 she shouldn't spend so long on her music homework, in her world-weary 'I'm in year 11 and only I know what real work is' manner, because 'it's only music and you're only in year 7, just you wait' type thing. Told dd2 it's quite right to try as hard as you can at anything you're set, but I'm also not too fussed at the moment if what she's set isn't always too stretchy in its nature just yet.

Equally 'interesting' are the comments about how a lot of selective kids do badly at uni because they are spoonfed.

As opposed to the kids who do nothing but write notes as the teacher lectures?

DD gets far more homework than DS, and she's at a far less selective school.

Though she does make more of it too ...

I thin North London Collegiate (my daughter's school) had a policy of no holiday or weekend homework which I always thought was rather good. Another of my children at an equally selective school had a school with a no homework in holidays policy too.

My children at the moment do just about all homework at school which I can't imagine is the best way to do it but they seem to have a thing about it at the moment so I am letting them get on with it for now. I used to do some of mine on a school coach after swimming and still did pretty well. It's a nice feeling when everything is done and over and you're free.

In France, there has been a lot of discussion at state level about abolishing/reducing homework on the grounds that homework is unfair to less privileged pupils.

However, it is the less privileged families that clamour for homework. Privileged families know that they can help their children get ahead on their own...

Its also interesting that pupils are always being encouraged to be self motivtaed and independent learners...yet doing stuff outside the classroom is just a waste of time apparently.

It's interesting how posters, in an attempt to disprove the OP, are in fact confirming it.

Your child is coasting? She is at same level as her classmates so be happy. Find her some afterschool activity to distract her from the academic boredom.

Homework? Waste of time. Turn up to the lesson and listen to the teacher churn out the facts. Be happy with that.

How come university lecturers never get accused of setting 'homework' in order to placate parents paying £9k pa in tuition fees?

DD's history homework last week was to research WWI ie dates, who fought who and where.

In the lesson they quickly disposed of the facts and moved on to how the events afterwards led to the rise of the Nazi movement and what lessons were learned and applied by the Allies after the end WWII ie don't bug out and let the extremist take over the country :)

Just because some teachers hand out pointless 'make a poster' homework, don't assume that is the norm.

Yes, I'd be interested to hear from MFL teachers who wouldn't rather their students do their rote learning at home.

Or an English teacher who wouldn't like sometimes to have the class read a chapter at home so the class come prepared and ready to have a discussion.

Or a Latin teacher who wouldn't like students to learn their conjugations at home...

Or a maths teacher who wouldn't like pupils to consolidate what waslearned in class...

I agree, wordfactory - a lot of the learning tasks that require rehearsal and repetition are much better done at home, as are tasks that require hard thought and head scratching, where time spent on task varies wildly from child to child.

I'll let all the teachers on these boards answer first.

The reality isthat homework in all types of school can be done for the benefit of all concerned!

Students can be asked to do things at home, that there is no point to do collectively, then collective time can be used more wisely.

But you do have to have a cohort who will do it!

If you don't, then you have to do those tasks in class. Thus wasing time, particularly for the more able and willing students who could have done it in half the time alone!

This happens in all types of school.

Honestly talkin you set yourself up as the expert on every independent and selective state school in the country?

Oh and every comprehensive too?

Making pronouncements about what every single school in a sector does or doesn't do, just makes you look daft at best...

My comment was "fee paying and selective" and yes, it is the case.
Roll your eyes all you like. Its the truth.