Worried we made the wrong choice about grammar school

I'm sure grammars vary as much as comprehensives. Lily2007, it sounds like perhaps your daughter's school isn't a good match for you as a family? You seem to disagree with the ethos, which will make it difficult for you to support the school in future. If you think your daughter would do just as well elsewhere and she's not particularly enjoying it/making good friends, perhaps it would be sensible to move her?

My son's school also seems to set huge amounts of homework, but I can see the progress he's making and he's getting to grips with it. A lot of it is online and marked instantly which is more satisfying I think! And they've lots of opportunities for earning merits by getting 100% which still seems to be motivating him! He's least motivated to do homework which he thinks won't get looked at - only one subject really - and quite understandable!

One difference for him is that he was home educated before so he has no primary friends at different schools to compare notes with. Also, he was used to doing work at home!

My son is also loving the opportunity to play table tennis in the playground and at the after school club so this is a major upside of that school in particular, despite the long journey.

If you don't think your daughter is thriving in any way or benefitting from the experience, maybe you should change course?

I think they get less homework at grammar schools because they are expected to be self-motivated learners and do more on their own initiative!

My son is at a top 100 grammar (though not super-selective) and got huge amounts of homework in year 7. Since then, it's been pretty low, and far less than I'd have expected. Year 8 was practically none most days. I expected it to ramp up in years 9 and 10, but it didn't. He's in year 11 now. Last night, he had 30 minutes for just one subject. The night before, he had none.

Looking on the online system, there are homeworks set, but they''re usually "finish the worksheet from class", or "finish questions x,y,z from the text book". DS usually tells me that he's already done that in class!

Self motivation seems to be a problem for many there. My son won't actually do a "homework" unless it's formally set. So, he won't take it upon himself to revise, or read the next chapter, or whatever. It sounds like most of his classmates are the same. But if a teacher does set a homework such as "revise for test on xyz", he'll do it and get good marks in the test. There's quite a divide in the teachers. The "old school" style teachers who've been there years/decades tend to be the ones who don't set homeworks and then do the ranting and raving when the class don't score well on a surprise test. The more modern teachers, who are more likely to have recently joined, are the ones who set specific "revision" homeworks.

So, there may well be an "expectation" from the older teachers that the kids use their initiative, but I think society is changing and the modern reality, as seen from the more recently appointed teachers, is that there is less initiative being shown generally, so more intervention is needed.

I think they get less homework at grammar schools because they are expected to be self-motivated learners and do more on their own initiative!

Mine's at a very successful grammar and has an hour a night, often less. I certainly wouldn't want more, especially with travelling time included. But I do wonder if teachers really get how challenging juggling all the different times and requirements is. I would mess up every day if it was me!

Gosh Lily, that does sound like a waste of time homework. A lot of effort for the whole family!
My year 8 gets little homework. Many nights none at all. The school he is at has a small high ability cohort and larger than average 'lower' ability.
[However, with school support many do well as much disadvantage in area and barriers to learning to overcome].
The home work tends to be rather clever I think as worded in way that can be accessed at many ability levels. Not worksheet/ pointless homework but meaningful and sometimes rather exciting as a child can go as deep as they like. With maths, there are challenges for more able and extension work in class.
A school such as my sons has to work bloody hard in school hours and not rely solely on parents and homework.

My least favourite homework she's had was one were she was asked to put photos of herself in order, one for each year of her life each showing an achievement. Then the kids had to compare with one another. I just take normal holiday photos for the most part and tracking those down was more than the 30 mins, I certainly don't have lots of "achievement" photos.

Do your children play instruments or do any sport?

DD has a singing lesson but did piano and drums lessons before at primary but just for fun. Currently she has gymnastics on Saturdays which she loves and badminton club on Fridays at lunch which she also loves. So 3 clubs a week but its quite hard to fit things round when she has 2 hours a night homework. School day is 8.30pm to 3.30pm but we take her there which is 20 mins but she gets the bus back and tends to not be home until 4.30pm. I think the teaching in the day is fine though its all set at a very high level. The English seems to be old English and words averaging 10 letters.

I do wonder if its really necessary. She is certainly learning a lot but she's energetic and its wearing her out. Its possible its due to parent pressure. School is around 95% Asian and they value hard work. Though I do suspect there have been complaints about the volume as we got a letter round saying if your y7 is spending more than 1.5 hours on homework a night please contact the school. After that the homework has gone down a bit but is still at 1.5 hours a night. She's not a perfectionist and the tasks are just big. There's 3 subjects a night, occasionally 4.

DD did get top grades with 20 minutes per subject. Never spent 90 mins until she was older. If you are bright you can whizz through it provided you are not a perfectionist.

Mountford: a small correction - it’s Norman Stanley Fletcher. You obviously have not done your homework! 0/10 for tonight’s effort!

Well that escalated quickly!

And I have no idea what a "national award winner' is in school terms!

"Suddenly 75 minutes a night looks quite reasonable amount doesn't it Bertrand..."
Nope. That looks crap too. There is something very odd this "the better the school the more homework it sets" mantra.

mountford100 Well the school is a national award winner

I bet it is, given the huge amounts of extra work the kids are doing outside of school hours.

Do you children play instruments or do any sport?

mountford100 Suddenly 75 minutes a night looks quite reasonable

I'd say 75 minutes is more reasonalbe than 90 minutes at least.

Well the school is a national award winner ....

Dd2 is at a very excellent girls independent. They expect an hour a night prep in year 10. She's predicted top grades. But the teaching is excellent clearly unlike your grammar Mountford

Suddenly 75 minutes a night looks quite reasonable amount doesn't it Bertrand...

Any school that sets 2 hours homework a night for year 7s is either not teaching them properly during the day OR is trying to impress parents. Neither scenario is good.

I used to tell students to come find me if they were spending more than 30mins on homework! And my year 8s I'd encourage to write down time spent and to see me of it was getting too much! It was a while ago and cultures changing but I will actively avoid that sort of school for my kids.

Mountford: so if your point is that hard work gets better results why mention the type of school?

Hebenon I also would actively avoid any school that thought that.

I would certainly avoid a Grammar school that thought that. Why on earth would the brightest DCs need to be doing massive amounts of homework? Surely the amount of work and effort required should reflect the ability of the child?

This idea that more homework is better homework is nonsense IMO and I also would actively avoid any school that thought that. I went to one of the most selective schools in the country and we had no more than two pieces of homework a night and frequently just one. If either homework took you longer than twenty minutes, this was taken as a sign that all was not well and you needed some extra help, either in the subject or in personal organisation skills. There is no benefit on just spending a long time doing make-work.

And to the OP, like your son I struggled massively with the transition to secondary and in fact I am not sure I really got to grips with the whole thing until the GCSE years. I was constantly leaving my homework at home, my violin on the bus, my glasses at school etc etc. However, somehow I managed to get all the exams I needed, go to (two) good universities and have a decent career doing something I like (and I no longer struggle with organising myself). So don't stress. He is still very little! He will get there in the end!

Our grammar sets about 2 hours homework a night for y7, the comprehensive friends claim they get 15 mins so quite a difference. On the whole I would say she's learning a lot from the homework but it seems excessive to me and makes doing clubs as well difficult. The grammar gets around 76 percent A/A star and both GCSE and A Level, the comp around 50 percent 5 A to Cs. However, its difficult to compare as the grammar just takes the equivalent of the top girl from each primary. My son will be going to the comp as boys grammar is an hour away so I will see for myself soon. The grammar is much more traditional and much lower staff turnover.

mountford my DC have not had anything like an hour and a half in Y7 indeed it's always been the case that the nearest comp sets far more homework than the grammar, certainly early on. I don't think there's any evidence to show a correlation between time spent on homework and GCSE results.