Teacher setting homework and revision for the next day!

[monarona]

Do you think a teacher setting urgent revision and homework for the next day is reasonable? My child struggles with tremendous anxiety around tests, and frequently the same teacher says "test tomorrow" and sets a good 45 minute revision to be done that evening. I personally think it's unfair and causes great anxiety and stress in my y8 child. They have test and exam anxiety in general anyway, and it just makes things ten times worse (crying, meltdowns, paralysis - ND btw). Would welcome thoughts from other parents on this. I want to speak to the teacher, as I think its unfair, at least 48hrs is fairer, as some kids have after school commitments as well. What do others think?

Homework which will take time to physically produce, like "make a poster", should definitely not be next-day because of after-school commitments.

But how much revising is required to remember something from one day to the next? If they are currently studying it, shouldn't it be pretty fresh in their minds already?

I think the issue isn't the teacher, it's your child's anxiety. This needs to be dealt with - help/strategies put in place. The teacher can set work they want to.

You need to be helping your child with anxiety around tests, not blaming the teacher. 45 minutes of revision, do test, look at what they didn’t do so well in lesson, move on. You’ll have to help your child see that these are low-stakes tests, not GCSEs. In effect, this is just practice and an exercise to help them consolidate their learning. Other parents would tell you that two days’ notice would cause an extra day’s worth of anxiety in their child. The problem is with your child, not the school.

And kindly, short in-lesson tests after 45 minutes of revision are not the hardest things life will throw at your child. He/she needs to develop some resilience now. This won’t happen if you keep blaming the school for setting perfectly reasonable tasks.

Some kids with anxiety would suffer with 48 hours of anxiety if there was 2 days notice. 45 minutes of revision is a fair homework to set assuming that he doesn’t have 5 other subjects with the same homework tonight.

Isn’t this a sign to do more studying than just homework especially if this is a private school where you pay for academic pressure? Your point about after school commitments is fair but this is the age to start thinking about if commitments can continue through the exam years. Does he leave his homework to the last minute? This might be a sign to get him to do homework on the day it’s set to offset things like this.

As a school, we aren’t allowed to give homework for the following day, in case of commitments etc. But, yes, the anxiety will also need working on or a proper exam period will be a nightmare.

I can't see the issue with this at all.

You can talk to the teacher it might not make any difference.

Or ask your child if they want to do the revision or not and go into the test flying solo?

As a teacher I think it's pretty poor practice if it's regularly happening - IME schools have homework timetables so that kids know which day each subject will set work and it's due for the next week. Whenever we've done tests/assessments they've been planned in advance, kids should get advance warning too. Why set them up to fail by not giving them a decent amount of time to revise, especially when they're juggling a range of subjects.

Very normal but busy kids cope much better than those who aren’t use to juggling.

Im so lost, is that a think in the UK not to get homework/revision for next day?

Ours get homework every day in Ireland, none on weekends for primary mainly.

We also have busy kids, they just get the work done.

This is more to do with your kids anxiety, what are you doing to address it?

I would imagine that this is just for end of topic tests. Which they now do all the time in high school. There is also the possibility that children have been told previously but the teacher is just reminding them that they have a test tomorrow and that it would be a good idea to revise.

I don't think either of mine ever did much revision for these tests until aat lest year 9, as it's normally stuff they have just done in class. You certainly need to try and help your child with their anxiety as testing just gets more intense as they go up through high school.

1 1/2 hours homework tonight was standard when DD was in secondary school. Definitely in year nine they put up the pressure so I think an hour a day or a bit more is a good way to learn to do daily schoolwork.

Yes they are commitments after school and some appointments can't always be influenced from the parent. But we also saw that some commitments fell aside because of too much school work and others naturally move to more towards the end of the day 7 to 9 pm slots so there was plenty of opportunity beforehand to do the school work after coming home at 3 pm.

But it would definitely be a good idea to speak to the school, make an appointment with the Senco, to address the anxiety. We had good experience that teachers would accommodate notice period for especially for tests for DD. They move to a fully online calendar anyway at one point so that the pupils could see all the tests and all the homework deadlines. But there are always some teachers who will throw in some extra work due the next day.

One of DS's teachers has a habit of doing this. It's very annoying as two nights a week he has back to back groups that mean he doesn't really have time for homework - he does nothing after school the other days so there's plenty of time to do the homework so long as he has more than one day.

That’s not the teachers fault though is it? If you’re choosing to fill your DCs full evenings with activities a couple of times a week, then that’s on you.

Interesting range of responses.

I wouldn't mind so much but my kid has such a long day. the school bus leaves at 7.20am (for an 8.45am start, which is bloody ridiculous), and they don't get home until about 4.15pm. As you can imagine they are absolutely exhausted. I don't drive and there is no other way to get to school. And doing homework on the bus they find impossible. So basically school, home to flop, sleep, with little time for relaxation if there's extra homework on (there also seems to be heaps of it).

We are addressing the anxiety with school, luckily they are making some adjustments around exams etc. But I just think its unnecessarily OTT to do it for the next day, as a pattern. I actually think this teacher is a bit of a sadist, as they have form for it. They also appear to enjoy telling the kids that only a few of them will make it into the limited number of spaces in the top set for next year and they can already is good enough (to do the higher GCSE), which makes my kid extra anxious about this subject in particular.

Not ok. I’m a secondary school teacher and I don’t set anything for the next day. I usually allow a week as students are so,pressured and busy.

I think they should give more time.for the homework.

Next day isn't enough.

Edited as read op wrong.

Speak to the school. Our school had a policy of not setting homework for next day. It was generally set weekly, occassionally there would be something sooner but always at least 48 hours. For end of topic tests there was usually a weeks notice given.

I've just checked the homework policy, and it says explicitly that it should not be set for the next day.

Just call them. Explain your child is struggling and highlight their own homework policy to them. If you’re reasonable, they usually are too.

I would get your child flagged to the pastoral team and hopefully they can provide him some help with his anxiety. It’s really common and he might feel better if he can talk it through and get some support. Hope he is ok. Secondary schools can be difficult environments, often more so for ND children.

Absolutely agree with this, although the language of your child being “the problem” is perhaps poorly chosen. This is the teacher trying to gauge how much of the most recent topics the children have absorbed in class and from doing their regular homework. I suspect the teacher is deliberately only giving one day’s notice because s/he doesn’t want to know what your child could do after a week’s hard studying or revision, but how much has sunk in through regular teaching, with the benefit of a quick 45 min re-read through the notes/textbook the night before.

you say these are 'low stakes' tests but this teacher in particular goes on about how there are only a very limited number of 'top set' places next year and they can already tell which children will be likely to get into it. So I actually think they are using it as a gauge towards this decision :( which puts a great deal of unnecessary pressure on anxious but able children. I have really noticed my daughter who is usually very able in this subject struggle with tests and anxiety about this subject this year, leading to a drop in her performance.

thank you, we are trying on this already. it's hard. but I am seeing some resilience developing as time goes on.

We looked round a private school who said their USP was their understanding of anxiety. They said they took the kids who couldn't cope with state school.

They set every homework for the very next day. I was amazed all these allegedly anxious kids could cope with that - mine could not - but it seems completely normal to them.

On this occasion for your child I would not go into battle with school, I'd council my child that they can only do what they can, and that is good enough. If they get a lower mark so what? It's a good way to internalise that their worth is not defined by their marks.