How much homework does your Y7 grammar/independent child get?

I don't, either. What matters most, day to day, is the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom. Excellent teaching and learning in the classroom, with very little homework, is likely to be at least as valuable as mediocre teaching and learning in the classroom supplemented by huge amounts of homework - and measuring the quality of a school by how much homework it sets is therefore prone to error!

LaQueen,

DD does a LOT of dancing, and several of her friends in the year above have started at GS this year. All of them do 10+ hours of dancing a week out of school, on top of significant travel time + homework.

Theyt are disciplined girls - they wouldn't have got as far as they have in a very stretching dance school if they hadn't.However, the strain is beginning to show on the girls who get 90 minutes + homework a night [from Grammar A] vs those who get a more limited amount [Grammar B]. Grammar A actually gets worse results.....

Also, she gets home at 4:30 does her homework right away and so is done by 6. She goes to bed at 9. There's 3 hours for dinner & "other activities" (whether structured or just flopping about, watching You Tube).

Curlew, because DD benefits from homework. It reinforces what she has learned in class that day and 'cements' the concepts in her head and enables her to use them in a more independent study environment and get to grips with them further. Sometimes it is also used as prep for the next lesson, so valuable teaching time isn't "wasted" on tasks that children can do easily at home.

As for "getting home at 5pm", not sure where that comes from. Her school day finishes at 3:45 with 2 evenings of optional sporting after school clubs which run until 5. She does 1 club after school and therefore is home by 4:30 4 days a week.

Homework may not benefit all children, but it certainly has a positive effect on my youngest's learning.

Same here Takver.....my DD often does revision homework or consolidation occasionally (Maths) teacher stretches them (which I dont always agree with)... I much prefer my DD to do enrichment activities out of school rather than school work....

However, if a child is struggling with work they do not understand then I can understand more focus with additional work at home ...also (controversial) if you have had your child tutored to get into a school but they are not naturally able to cope with the level of work then they are going to need more home work to reinforce aspects of their education that dont come easy .....

Am I the only parent who is counting their blessings that their dc has minimal homework? DD is in yr 7 at a comp, currently seems to get roughly 2 pieces of homework one week, three the next, and they rarely take more than 1/2 hour.

On the whole they also seem sensible consolidation tasks (practice using this maths technique, draw item X using the skills you learnt in class, etc) where it is obvious why it makes sense not to use up class time.

"It could be a case of easing them in gently to allow transition through first term but if things don't pick up from a homework point of view after Christmas I will be Having Words."

Why?? if she's at a private school, presumably she doesn't get home til 5ish- why would you want her to have another 90 minutes work? When will she have time to do anything??

DT 1 gets 3 subjects a night. The homework is fascinating, thought provoking and you cant cheat and look it up on the internet.
I am very happy with the standard and the amount. DC is at a non selective independent.

DT2 (twin) goes to a top 10 independent and gets 3 boring extensions of classwork homework per night. DT2 often asks to do DT1 homework instead of his own.

Same as OldBeanbagz.

Selective Indy, should be 3x 30min per night. Often 1 or 2 pieces that take 45min in total. She had more in her last year of prep (which was the 'feeder' to her current senior school).

It could be a case of easing them in gently to allow transition through first term but if things don't pick up from a homework point of view after Christmas I will be Having Words.

I agree..as most are done by the parents...

I'd be intrigued to know if there was any research done which showed a direct link between amount of homework done and GCSE success.

Is is one and one equal's two, and therefore, the more homework completed over the years, the more successful you are because of the sheer amount of work covered and or, it gets the children better able to study loads leading up to GCSE.

Or, does it not make a blind bit of difference and I'm slogging my poor kid unnecessarily.

Just a thought.

duchesse you are correct....yes curlew it was getting beyond stupid..9 pieces of homework a night...some that wasn't taught very well I may add...Which made working out what the teacher wanted a virtual minefield...

On top of that you had the music lessons and swimming lessons....

She loves boarding in the UK...maths to her is P4 maths so she is always top of the class...Her English is what we call formula English so although she does not write in a very contemporary style. It at least is not grammatically incorrect.

She is able now to relax and enjoy school as it should be...Homework is no good if its just repetition. She finds prepping for the next days lesson more fun now as the teacher engages her when she asks questions.

I'm relieved to see that hours spent on homework is not necessarily a sign of good education (although it might be).

Before DS went to this school, we were told the kids did 2 hours a night. He's never done 2 hours a night!

Its great but occasionally I feel nervous, like the OP I presume, when parents of kids from other schools talk about the massive amount of work their kids are doing.

curlew I think that Kenlee is living in a different country with a very tough education system, and that her DD is now at school in the UK (sorry if I'm confusing you Kenlee!).

curlew, nothing wrong with the teaching afaik. I can see clearly that DD is 'learning' as she applies herself to her homework. Sometimes a concept will become crystal clear to her or in a subject like philosophy religion and ethics (PRE) she might learn something new about herself. She learns many new facts when researching for history homework etc but in all of this she is learning how to learn. I feel that it is a good use of her time.

At least it taught dd very young what pulling an all nighter felt like.

Phew. I want to get t shirts printed. We are still traumatized as a family 2 years later.

He's already asked when he can give it up!