Homework and children with additional needs.

[User6447482684755]

DS is 11. DS is autistic, has anxiety, ocd and emerging disabilities, he has an EHCP.

he's just started mainstream secondary, we are re considering this already but not just as easy as moving him to a sen school.

our problem is homework. Not had much set until this week. Some of it is way too complicated.

he cannot access homework independently with out help from us

he has strong associations - home is home, school is school.

it often ends in tears for me and him, meltdowns etc.

but despite this he does not want to get into trouble for not doing it.

he has differentiated work at school, working at a much simpler level than his peers, even though he is already in bottom sets for maths etc. the homework is simply too hard. They need to set easier and quicker tasks for him at home and interactive as paper work is not good.

Do schools tends to have an understanding of this?!

worried sick he'll get detention, it will really knock his confidence and stress him out.

any advice?

He's also so rigid with routine after school, a partner who works long hours and a younger child with sen. I don't have the time to sit down with him for long periods of time.

If he can’t manage the homework how can he manage math in school? I’d be asking to see what he has done there so far

why can’t they give him homework that is appropriate to his learning stage?

My autistic DD did all her homework in school with TA support. She dropped a couple of subjects so had free periods in which to do it. This was a reasonable adjustment for her disability. Also they should definitely be setting achievable homework.

I think they are still finding their feet at school with him. He gets support from staff at school who he responds well to but he doesn't respond well to me.

i am going to email the school as the homework set online does not seem right to me. It seems way too hard!

I have told the school homework will be a struggle. They did not respond..

There was talk of he'd have a free period at school each week to help with homework within school but I think due to lack of staff this has not happened.

I've just posted about this. It was in the pipeline to do this.

I have a meeting with the senco next week so I'm hoping to suggest it. There are lessons he could drop. I don't believe learning French and Spanish is beneficial for him when he is struggling so much with other things.

I will email them - again and speak to them in person next week!

Good luck, I hope you get something sorted.

Thank you 💗

Definitely push for homework to be done in school, perhaps dropping any homework that is more of the filler type. Do the school have a homework club? At the next AR it’s worth covering this and having something about homework added to the EHCP.

They should be adjusting his homework. It can be difficult to tell unless you see his peers' work. Whether they are or not, it's clearly not enough.

I ended up emailing the teacher every time DS was set something that caused more than a few tears. 90% of the time this got a great result, and I've rarely had to ask the same teacher twice. They don't know how difficult the child is finding it unless you tell them, and they have been fantastic at making adjustments once told what the problem is. I expect they find me annoying, but needs must.

I think having a TA help and get it done at school is the gold standard, but it's not the only route.

We've also had a "bye" for homework towards the end of difficult terms. This works with DS because he's so conscientious and will only leave things where he has to. However if we get to needing that, then it shows his needs are not being met.

Also an exemption from the usual sanction for homework not done - detention, strike or whatever, and lots of reassurance from the teacher that those rule do not apply to him.

At our school, undone homework isanctions undone homework, as long as the child has let her know there's a problem. My DC was not able to do that himself, so it became my job.

sorry hit post mid-edit. Undone homework is not sanctioned in practice if the child has contacted the teacher etc