How much homework does your Year 1 child get?

[confusedofengland]

DS3 has just started Year 1. He will be 6 in February. He loves school & does well academically, according to his last report, so he is not struggling particularly with the homework.

However, I am finding it really tough to keep up with the amount of work he is given. We are supposed to read with him each day, then at weekends he also has 6 spellings to learn (including the word 'complaint' this week), Bug club (online reading) exercises to complete & written work to do (4-5 facts on a subject, presented in a style of your choice). We have done all of this today & it took well over an hour! That, to me, seems a little excessive for a 5-year old.

His brother, in Year 4 (8 years old) has similar amounts & has SEN so needs lots of help. His brother in Year 6 (10) has just taken his 11+ so was doing lots of studying for that, which I set up & went through etc, but otherwise doesn't need much input on his homework.

During the week, I struggle to hear him read every day, as we are out taking him & his 2 big brothers to activities every day except one day. I have to do it all as DH leaves home half an hour after the DC get up & rarely gets home before bedtime.

Is this amount of work typical for children of this age?

That does sound a lot
So far dd1 in year 1 has had a maths sheet that she can do independently. Another sheet about pshe stuff.
4 reading books a week.

Primary Schools tend to give homework at the insistence of parents, it depends heavily on the type of schools (Schools which attract parents keen for academic results tend to give more homework as they have more parents who demand it)

Good schools react to the parental pressure for homework by giving optional homework, have you checked it is expected to be actually completed?

Outside of reading and discussion with your child, homework has very poor evidence to support it at the primary level.

They do expect most of it to be done, although I guess the written work can be done to a very simple standard, if necessary. The Bug Club they have told us is not compulsory, but the programme will no longer be funded if we don't use it, so we feel obliged to.

DS2 (Year 4) has to do all the work he is set, if he doesn't he is kept in to do it over lunchtime (even though his SEN requires 32.5 hours per week 1:1)

Not much so far. She has a reading book and and one worksheet that comes home each Friday.

An hour’s homework at 5?! Do not do it, do not participate in this absurd regime. Primary schools cannot insist on homework being done and six hours at school is long enough without any homework.
My 5 year olds were tired out and in bed by 6.30 with a bedtime story. They did no homework until secondary school and all went to university.

10 mins reading a day. That’s it.

Dd has almost the same but not bug club.

I also have 2 others who are here there and everywhere. Because DD reads quite well she might read to me in the car it when I'm cooking or waiting for one if the others. I also get her to read to her older sisters (10 and 12)

Also I don't take it too seriously, you can bet other kids are doing far less. It's not compulsory if you'd rather have a family weekend then do that!

I'd try to skip reading and spellings one day on the weekend when you do hw.

Ps I wish my daughter had harder spellings but complaint?????

Per week:

Three reading books
One maths sheet
One list of about 8 spellings
One library book to read together

They have only been back less than two weeks though. I'm hoping it doesn't increase! I also find it hard to fit in a lot around numerous after school activities.

5 year old DS in year 1
12 spellings & spelling test every week
Writing homework (takes about 45 mins over two days) given on a Monday to be back on Wednesday
Maths homework - about 35 mins, given on a Wednesday.
Small project over the weekend, teacher says it should take 20 mins.
Usually takes 60-90 mins (split over the weekend to do)
And 20-30 mins reading a day.

That seems like loads. My daughter has a couple of reading books a week so far. I expect she'll get the odd maths sheet too. I think that's too much, tbh. I'd prefer no homework at this age.

That’s far too much. There is no evidence that homework for primary aged children is beneficial to them, so sack it off. I’d just do the reading (every other night, perhaps) and screw the rest.

WOW that's loads. We have 1 open question to do which we receive on a Weds and is due back the following Tuesday as well as either 1 grammar sheet or 1 maths sheet (alternating weeks) due in the same time. My DS is year 4.

Dd is 6 in October so in Year 1. She so far had had her usual aim of 4 reads a week but we do nearer 5/6 anyway. She has had a phonics sheet - about 10 mins worth of work, this week was same again plus a maths sheet about 5 /10mins worth

In year 1 It was 2 books a week and 1 piece of homework each month along the lines of ‘talk to your family about public transport’ so we never needed to fill in the homework diary.

The homework is surely more for the parents than the kids at that age?

Y1 we had weekly spellings - common except words and months, days of the week etc - and reading.

The school gives us a log in for online maths games but dd just gets angry so we don't do them!

Shes Y2 now and gets one piece of homework a week, last week was maths based, this week is writing. But I'm never going to force her to do it, not at this age.

My DD has just started year 2
They get the same homework as in year 1
English sent home on Monday to be completed by Friday (usually comprehension or a worksheet)
12 spellings on Monday to learn for a test on Friday
Reading books changed mon weds fri
Maths homework given on Friday to be handed in Monday

Once they get to year 3 they actually get less
Homework is given on Thursday to be handed in Tuesday and is maths every week and English as well every other week. They still have to read 3 times though

DD has the following;

Reading every night
10 x spellings
Maths task
English task

Homework is given out on a Friday to be returned for the following Friday.

Y1 DD (at an outstanding primary school so obviously doing something right) gets as many reading books as she wants, 2 at a time but can change them freely and 10 spellings. Plus a TT rockstars login if they want to do that. No sanctions or anything if they don’t do it. No idea why they’d need to do more than that.

We're encouraged to read the book that comes home in their book bag at Yr1 but if we don't, it's no biggie.

Nothing else.

@ColdToesHere is that a state school in the uk? Even when I was in secondary school they tried to give us a week to do homework to allow for any other commitments. My son is in year 2, on Mondays he is at after school club until 6, home for dinner and bed at 7, Tuesdays he has football training and beavers, home at 7 after Beavers and straight to bed. There is no way we would ever get homework completed if they gave it on a Monday to be handed in on Wednesday.

It does seem excessive OP, my son is nearly 7 and they still don’t have spelling homework. He has one reading book a week and a piece of written homework which he gets fortnightly. He did that this morning, independently, and it took him about 20 minutes.

Surely going on bugclub would count as his reading for the day?
I'm a teacher and don't agree with homework but have to give it as it's school policy

My DD has a maths and English homework each week, out on Friday in on Monday. They expect you to read 15 mins each day, and the book is changed whenever it's finished. 5 spellings to learn each week, simple common words at the moment said, were etc

That's more than we're getting. We get one book per week, expectation is that we read it a couple of times. No spellings yet, we had a sheet about journeys to fill in last week, and this weekend were a couple of simple tasks about the weather than were 10 mins max and didn't need to be recorded.

I'm keeping an eye on what we're being set, and if it's too much I'll be saying so. IMO homework isn't appropriate for infant age children, except reading.

My dc in yr 1 has:
-Reading every night
-6 spelling a week
-Write a couple of sentences with the spelling words
-A literacy task
-30mins numeracy

As it's still the start of term DD1 gets a sheet of words to learn to speed read a week, and reading books which are changed whenever she has finished them and remembers to chuck it in their book basket. Last week she read 4 school-issued books. In time they will also get a sheet of spellings a week. Every year group has a half-termly craft/construction project to do, plus there is a (very optional) school-wide termly crafting homework. They also get sent home with worksheets in the holidays which last year equalled around 2 - 5hrs work per holiday (depending on the length of the break).

We do read the scheme books, although this has meant we often don't get time to read to DD now. It's a shame as it limits the kind of books she is exposed to. She used to be read 2 or 3 books in the time it now takes her to get through one school book. She is becoming much more fluent at reading now though, so I hope we will be able to sack off the book bands and get back to enjoying regular books again soon!
The speed word sheets are rarely done.
The half-termly project is either delegated to DH to do with her, or I set her up with what she needs and let her get on with it. Her project tends to look far less polished than her class mates' as a result (not a bad thing!).
She did one of the three whole school crafts last year.
We do most of her holiday homework. Usually 1/2 enthusiastically in the first couple of days, and the other 1/2 in a panic in the last few days!

Class wise, all the kids seem to do the project but a significant number rarely bother with the rest. School can't enforce it.

Your DC sounds like they are getting an awful lot OP. If it's becoming a struggle then miss it out. I think reading/being read to is important, but they need time to play and relax too.