Opinions please - is this an appropriate amount of homework for a 7 year old?

[Orlandointhewilderness]

My DD is 7, in year 3. Her birthday is on the 31st of august which means she is the very youngest in her year. She has just moved into year 3 and frankly we have been shocked by the homework increase this year. would you mind casting your experienced eyes over this and let me know your thoughts?! Apologies - my caps lock sometimes doesn't work btw!!

ok spelling test every friday. 12 spellings. this weeks include inaccurate, immortal, illegible, immature, irrelevant. easy ones this week!
times table test fridays. currently 3 x.

reading - children are expected to do this every day.

Monday - write out spellings. 4 times each word.

tuesday - write a well constructed sentence for every spelling word using it in the correct context, grammar

wesnesday - practice spellings. practice times tables, mixing up and writing down in homework book.

thursday - maths work sheet. normally takes 40 mins to complete.

friday and over weekend - a thorough homework diary OR rewrite a poem or limerick.

homework is supposed to be 1/2 hour a night but adding in spellings, reading and times tables it is usually an hour plus.

DD has afterschool club on monday, swimming tues, brownies thursday and riding sat.

Way too much.

Dd1 at that age had:

10 spellings, test on Mondays and up to us when she practised.

Maths or English piece over the weekend.

Topic piece over the weekend generally craft or drawing based.

Times tables test once a week, we decide when she practised.

Reading 10 minutes a day with an adult.

Now in year 5 it is similar except maths is now weekly and completed online so she has a literacy piece every week.

DD is Y4 but got the same homework in Y3... read every night and write 3 comments a week, on Friday they have spelling test, 20 spellings, times table test and another maths test all this is to be practiced during the week. She has online, My Maths, homework to complete once a week and a comprehension sheet every Friday for the following Thursday. Plus we have half termly topic homework to complete which is choose from 6 projects linked to their topic!!

123 - we had a brilliant system in her class last year with spellings. we used to do a spoken test every night then if she was struggling with any on thursday then she would copy them out 6 times. she loses confidence really easily as she hates getting them wrong and feels a lot of pressure to get things right (not from us). this system worked well and she always got them all right. with the new system it isn't going in!

i was also beyond furious tonight when she got back from school as she had been kept in after lunch to write them all out. she was exhausted last night so we didn't do them. BUT she has been kept in by herself every tuesday to write them out as we have been doing our method and not the copy them out 4 times. the teacher has never once said anything about the issue and certainly hasn't informed us of this. no other children are ever kept in.

Sounds a lot . My year 3 daughter has a spelling test once a week ( we usually practice a couple of times before).
A word search and write some sentences with the words in . Then one or two pages from English / maths book . They get a merit if they read 5 days a week but she reads to me every night as part of bed routine so that’s fine .

Seems over the top, she can learn those spellings without writing a sentence for every one.
The maths and English sheets should be for the weekend, that would be reasonable. The craft topic thing sounds completely pointless, I wouldn’t be doing that.

And times tables are normal homework at that age. I would also expect most children to be reading every day, can’t she do it in bed before she goes to sleep?
Have a chat with the teacher about which homework is most important/ really matters.

We do one go at spellings, one go at times tables in the week and dc reads aloud every day. That's it.

Well over the top! DC at same age had 10 spellings and one maths or English worksheet per week.

Plus reading each day

If you are saying an hour a day that is more than my 14yo (year 9) gets.

(Did you pick the school because it gets good results?)

That is a lot...but if you are otherwise happy with her school can l suggest doing the toughtest bit before school?

My ds is always up at 6.30 and he doesn't leave for school untill 8.15, so l make sure l am up and redy by 7am and then he does most of his homework and l can check.....the big advantage is they are really fresh so tend to whizz through it.

Have you thought of dropping her down a year due to her birthday, it can make a huge difference...

As an ex teacher... This is too much. Also, why the hell does a 7-year-old need to know how to spell irrelevant and inaccurate? Education in this country is a bloody nightmare for children.

I don't think that's too bad to be honest.

Spellings, times tables and reading are all pretty important in my view, so I'm not sure which of those you'd want to drop. So those three plus a couple of extra worksheets a week is pretty par for the course in my opinion.

That sounds like Michael Gove's curriculum to me!

It is a lot of homework, but I think reading every day is important, especially at that age when they're consolidating that skill.

I like the writing the spellings out in a sentence because that will help the children understand the meaning even if they forget the correct spelling. So I think that one's important too.

And knowing your times tables is a basic skill too

And the homework for the weekend isn't too arduous.

So, yes, there is a lot but I'd say a lot of what your child is given is useful to children that age.

thank you everyone for your thoughts. reading wise, she does about 20 mins here, reads at school every day then i read to her for bed. she wouldn't be impressed reading the terrible school books instead of harry potter for bedtime!!

school wise, it is a small prep school. we picked it because we moved into the area and the state option we all awful and we loved the holistic, none pushy approach this school was apparently about! we have never had anything to do with the private system before and to be honest the last 2 years she has been here have been wonderful. it is just moving up class!

re the meaning of the spellings - i'm not entirely happy that they have these spellings but they aren't discussed in class at all. they have to do the sentences but that is the first time their meaning is discussed with the child. if the teacher is setting them, shouldn't she ensure the children know what the word they are spelling means?! what is the point of knowing how to spell 'subconscious' and 'irreversible' if you have no clue what it means!?

My 7 yo dts are late august birthdays too and in y3.

They have x12 spellings a week, tested on Friday

1 x tested on a Friday

Reading every night - we have to sign the number of pages read

Maths and / or SPAG worksheets, usually 4 sides a night

I think it's ridiculous. At least they don't have to write the bloody sentences that they did last last year with the spellings in.

Was speaking to a neighbour and her reception new starter in the local private school is getting 25 spellings a week!

The 1 x tested was meant to say times table tested on a Friday - it's x4 this week.

There’s no way my 7 yearnold could do those spellings - she’s slightly delayed in fairness but I don’t think her class mates would cope with those either.

My DC school has massively pulled back on formal homework this year, my P1 DS has writing and phonics and my P3 DD has some literacy based activities on a bingo card to work through, eg reading a bed time story to her toys, rewriting the end of a favourite story. We pick a couple of activities to work on each week. I think both their learning is better for having minimal homework. Tbh I would refuse to have my DD do that amount of homework each week - far too much.

Sadly I knew that this would be a prep school. That is what you have signed up for. Most prep school parents expect this level of homework.

hope we didn't have much choice. the schools around here are awful. and we were assured very firmly that pressure on the children is kept to a minimum and they don't believe in pushing them. luckily we are actually moving next june at the end of the school year and she won't be going into another prep. it has been so amazing for her confidence and honestly i couldn't fault it before she started back this year.

and actually i think it is a little unfair to say most prep school parents expect this level of homework - my friends who have children just starting this year with DD certainly didn't either. it is a huge jump up from what they were doing last year.

That's quite a lot! DD (9) has 10 spellings per week to practice but no set format of how to practice them - we just tend to test her. Reading to us at least 3 times per week.
Using a times tables app twice per week (although they give out prizes in school for the best scores so she tends to do it more often)

My 9 yr old son has just gone up to yr 4 and has had those exact spellings to practice the weekend just gone.

He reads every night and gets 1 to 2 worksheets to do on a Friday to be in for Tuesday.

That's a ridiculous amount.
My DS has just gone into year 3. He has a spelling test on a Friday ( given on the Monday before) reading every night and one homework given the Monday and to be handed in on the Friday.

@HopeClearwater it's nit just prep schools. Mine are in a bog standard primary and have the same amount. The next door school has none. There seems to be no consistency to it at all.