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Original poster

School hours and homework.

32 replies

Year11Question · 09/10/2024 17:25

My youngest is in year 11. She generally likes school and is doing well but they're really piling on the homework so wanted to know if this amount is normal. When my oldest was in year 11, there wasn't anywhere near as much but that was pre covid and school are saying it's still catching up due to lockdowns.

School is 8.30am til 4pm. She gets home just before 5pm. Then the homework, which school have said should take between 2 and 2.5 hours per day. Sometimes it's only 1.5 hours but sometimes 3 hours.

She's doing it, she's predicted good results, she's a good kid but she's tired and feels like she doesn't have much downtime. On top of this, they're also obviously expected to do separate revision for upcoming mocks which are obviously important so has to be done.

Is this the norm now? It seems such a lot for GCSEs.

OP posts:
TickingAlongNicely · 09/10/2024 18:03

Can she do revision on the way home, or is she walking? Also any breaks at school? (And how many lessons do they have, its more than an hour longer than the standard day at DDs school)

Original poster
Year11Question · 09/10/2024 18:00

Sorry, that sentence needed commas.

OP posts:
Original poster
Year11Question · 09/10/2024 17:59

noblegiraffe · 09/10/2024 17:56

When are the mocks? Generally the homework will become revision for the mocks rather than be on top of it.

Next month.

When my son was in year 11 homework was a lot of revision but now they're still issuing homework and telling them to revise/setting revision tasks on top.

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Original poster
Year11Question · 09/10/2024 17:56

Octavia64 · 09/10/2024 17:47

Ex teacher

Homework amounts vary massively between schools and also between classes.

I taught maths, and a top set who are mostly heading for grade 9s don't need a massive amount of homework.

A middle set who are in danger of getting 3s and not getting into their college course are going to get much more.

We usually integrated revision into our homework through - students were asked to buy a revision workbook at the start of year 11 and one homework each week was doing a page from it, with a schedule so that over the year they revised the whole course.

If she's exhausted there's not much point doing extra on top. She needs sleep and down time.

Thank you.

She's in top set for all subjects and predicted minimum 8s in everything. She achieved 8s and 9s in every subject in year 10 mocks so she's very capable.

Maths homework is on Sparks maths and takes anything from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on topics. Then they set revision tasks on top as mocks are next month.

She's so tired and fed up and we're only a month into the school year.

OP posts:
noblegiraffe · 09/10/2024 17:56

When are the mocks? Generally the homework will become revision for the mocks rather than be on top of it.

Octavia64 · 09/10/2024 17:47

Ex teacher

Homework amounts vary massively between schools and also between classes.

I taught maths, and a top set who are mostly heading for grade 9s don't need a massive amount of homework.

A middle set who are in danger of getting 3s and not getting into their college course are going to get much more.

We usually integrated revision into our homework through - students were asked to buy a revision workbook at the start of year 11 and one homework each week was doing a page from it, with a schedule so that over the year they revised the whole course.

If she's exhausted there's not much point doing extra on top. She needs sleep and down time.

Original poster
Year11Question · 09/10/2024 17:41

Just in case it matters, it's a state school, it does better than national average apparently but not massively.

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