To think 16.5 hours a week homework for GCSE is ridiculous?

[Southernisle]

My dd has bought home her year 10 handbook, and in it states homework will be 1.5 hours per subject per week = 16.5 hours per week = Nearly 2.5 hours per night 7 days a week.

This seems like no down time - factor in instrument practice, sports and cadets, and she will be full on 17:00-22:00 Monday to Friday and 6 hours of school work on Saturday and Sunday.

What happened to the teenage years?!?

Sounds about right.
I did 11 GCSEs and we had a couple of hours a night at least. Weekends were always the worst - Sundays were dominated by homework.

E-mail the head with a breakdown/ timeline showing that what is expected is unreasonable. Ask for his/her feedback next term!

Taking 11 GCSE's does not allow for outside activities. 1.5 hours per subject per night is a guide and it might only take half that time.

If she wants to sit the exams she has to do the work.

A Levels require more time and are much harder.

YABU, I easily remember doing that much at GCSE and more for A-levels. If she's bright she'll probably find things like Maths take less time than allocated. Essay subjects which hopefully involve some reading around the subject take easily the full hours. The things to watch are 'project' subjects like Art or HE (Whatever the heck they're called nowadays), where it's easy to spend hours fiddling about without actually banking any marks.

YANBU I think it is too much too. All very well saying it sounds 'normal', that doesn't necessarily make it right. You're right, teenage years shouldn't be spent slaving over the books (except maybe in the revision weeks), there's a whole lifetime of long working hours ahead of them.

I think its about right, I certainly had at least that and did similar subjects. One of then was art though which would often take up most of Sunday as well..

jennifer surely its better to spread the work over the 2 years than have to spend weeks cramming for exams instead?

I really dont think its an excessive amount. The amount you do will depend on the person anyway as a lot of it will be coursework so self directed to an extent with it being up to the individual how much they put into it.

It is possible to balance 11 GCSEs and other outside activities, as long as you have good time management.

We have done a rough timetable together:

She gets home from school at 4:55 :

5 mins to breathe
30 mins instrument practice
30 mins dinner
2 evenings a week 4 hours of cadets/band
1 evening a week 3 hours of sport
1 evening a week 2 hours of sport
No homework on Cadet nights
4 hours on no activity night
1 hour on 3hr sport night
2 hours on 2hr sport night
3.5 hours on Saturday
6 hours on Sunday

We'll have to see whether Cadets can viably continue.

Your looking at it far too logically. At 25 I can still just about remember homework for year 10. She will get set some that has to be handed in next day so will therefore have to do it on cadet night if that is the case. She will get set other homework which she gets a week to complete therefore she could do it any free evening or at the weekend. We were also told about the same as your dd but in reality it wasn nearly so much.

Doesn't actually seem very much to me. I was at boarding school for GCSEs and prep/homework was timetabled 1 hour between 4.30pm and 5.30pm, then 2 hours between 7pm and 9pm - so three hours each night. Then three hours on Saturday morning so that would be 18 hours per week. I managed to take a viola exam that year, complete my silver Duke of Edinburgh and take part in a semi -professional performance of Macbeth.
I have to say I thank everyday now that I did slave over my books and gave me the foundation I had to get two degrees and now run my own business.

It might not be that bad initially, but there will be weeks when coursework takes over everything else. Wouldnt be unusual to have 4 lots of coursework in one week at certain times of the year I don't think, and tbh I never had time for anything else. A lot of the heavier coursework may well be scheduled (hopefully) over half terms and holidays, to give her enough time.

Look at it this way, she'll be very good at time management by the end of it :)

Is there anything that can give? Does she need to spend 5 hours doing sports (no way would i have had time for that), could she do 1 day a week at cadets at exam times for example? My sister only did 1 evening a week and eased off some of the weekend commitments, especially in her GCSE year.

yanbu

our kids are doing more hours than would be allowed under the European Working Time Directive

its nuts!

rebel!

Unless she's a perfectionist, or not very clever, it's very unlikely to take that long in reality.

She needs to be able to differentiate between what can be 'got through' and what needs more time and attention (i.e. coursework).

Fabbychic; I think 11 subjects allows time for external activities. DD fitted in County Orchestra, Choir, swimming and Ballet. DS found time for ACC and swimming. They both fitted in lots around their 5 A levels as well, although that is when the work really starts to pile on.

PMSL Indaba.

DS does a 55 hour school week (as in, hours at school) and he is Y4

Take a deep breath.

I did 10 GCSEs and had plenty of free time. I also had a full extra curricular timetable.

If you are worried perhaps she could cut down on some of her sport? I'm sure she loves it, but we have friends who are practically killing their children with the amount of sport/music/scouts/guides/homework/extra tutoring they have to do. Some of these children (1 9yo in particular has multiple activities on one night and sometimes doesn't start her homework until 10!).

I think she'll be ok, she sounds bright and committed.

I did 11 GCSEs alongside Guides, Dancing, Youth Theatre and Orchestra and school clubs and it was fine.

Yes, it did mean that most of my time, including weekends, was spent either at school, at activities or doing homework but imo that is a good way to structure the teenage years. Keeps them out of trouble and, as long as they enjoy the activities, then they count as relaxation and leisure time just as much as tv, wii and hanging around in parks/on street corners!

I did 12 GCSE's and certainly never needed to do that much work.

Im sure in our handbook it would have stated similar though

i seem to remember that a lot of homework was to 'finish' what was started during lessons so that everyone ended up back at the same place for the next lesson. If this is the case, she should work hard during lessons and there won't be so much homework.

0y dd has just finished year 10 and has done nothing like that much homework! It sounds far too much. I reckon she's averaged about 7 hours a week, apart from 2 course work deadline weekends

2 nights a week she has activities which leave her not much time for homework. and one day every weekend is taken up with horses.

One word of warning, though, Don't fall into the trap of thinking that the core academic subjects will be the ones that take the hours. In my dd's case, Expressive Arts and Art have been the time-eaters.