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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think it is totally counterproductive of teacher to give homework way above level?

20 replies

PureQuintessence · 17/01/2013 22:32

My son has been working really hard, he has done his homework, he has struggled with some. Teacher has been really on his back about it, saying she is not sure that he has put the effort in, and wants me to comment on his homework to say whether he has put a fair effort in or not.

I was like this but nevertheless smiled and concurred.

His latest homework is WAY above his level, and she knows he is sitting various exams this month. It has totally thrown him. I took the homework to his tutor (I know, not really the thing to do) hoping that she could explain the points which not even I understood. Tutor glanced at it and said "I am not going to bother because this is so above his level that it is a waste of time".

Not to drip feed. There is another name on the homework sheet, which has been scribbled out, and my sons name written next to it, so I think the teacher knows the other child is working on another level and just thought "lets try this for a game of soldiers".

OP posts:

manicbmc · 17/01/2013 22:36

May be she wanted to push your son? She might think he's lazy though obviously that doesn't seem to be the case.

Also some teachers are lazy buggers so may be she didn't have some appropriate work set for your son?

Either way, he's given it a good go so it seems the teacher is at fault.

Original poster

PureQuintessence · 17/01/2013 22:41

I did not even know where to begin explaining half of it to him. Fair enough calculating the area of a circle, you apply a formula and there you go, but the rest?

OP posts:

cumfy · 17/01/2013 23:09

How strange.

So will his tutor be having words with her ?

Original poster

PureQuintessence · 17/01/2013 23:20

No, she wont. Monday is the last time. We only got her on board to cover the gaps in his education after spending 3 years in backwater Norway. I just wrote a note on the homework sheet saying that he gave it his best, but it is too tricky for him.

I am not concerned what his teacher thinks, but that it rocks his self confidence when he is set work that he cannot do.

OP posts:

BlackholesAndRevelations · 17/01/2013 23:47

Sounds like he just lost his sheet and picked up someone else's, or picked someone else's up by accident. YABU.

Original poster

PureQuintessence · 17/01/2013 23:48

No you are wrong Blackholes, I was with him (together with HT) when he got his sheet.

OP posts:

BoneyBackJefferson · 18/01/2013 06:49

Toomany pieces missing too say.

Age?
year?
set?
what was the HWK?

StraightTalkinSheila · 18/01/2013 06:52

His tutor "having words with her"! FFS. Honestly.
Best thing - discuss it with the teacher yourself.

noblegiraffe · 18/01/2013 07:20

Area of a circle is level 6. How old is he and what level is he working at?

complexnumber · 18/01/2013 07:21

I know this may not be particularly helpful, but all the students I have come across who have been taught maths in Norway are way behind their peers (I work in an International School)

I don't know why this is true, but I have colleagues who have worked there and can back me up.

Can you give some examples of the kind of stuff maths he is struggling with, along with his age or KS.

(And tutors do not 'have words' with teachers!)

jamdonut · 18/01/2013 07:29

There is a lot of pressure on teachers to show they are stretching their pupils. It may be simply that the pupil progress data has been looked at and it has been decided that your son has not made enough progress and needs to be pushed.

I would discuss it with the teacher directly, if I was you.(You haven't said whether your son is primary or secondary age).

fluffyraggies · 18/01/2013 08:52

We have a similar situation at the moment with DD3. Yr10. She is very troubled by her physics homework.

She's been asked to create a simulation of a ripple tank to measure and compare wave phenomena as interference, diffraction, refraction, resonance, phased arrays, and the Doppler effect.

She doesn't get it, i don't get it, DH doesn't get it.

She's taken it back to the teacher and asked for another explanation on how to complete the work. Still no clue. She's not the only one. She's a bright kid, average in her class, so this has been presented badly by the teacher. It's knocked her confidence.

Original poster

PureQuintessence · 18/01/2013 09:19

My son is 10, and in year six. He is working at level 5A. so KS2. The exams I refer to are for 11+ entrance to secondary.

I think the teacher is a bit unfair in her assessment of him as lazy. We had a mix up where his homework went missing at the start of the school year a day a supply teacher was teaching the class. He says he gave it direct to the supply teacher. He was meant to put it in a tray, but he did not realize this. The supply says he never gave her the work. I know he had done it, as he was sitting next to me doing it while I was supervising both sons in their homework. More the younger one, tbh. And he was also away with tonsillitis and did not hand in homework. He had asked for his homework sheets when he returned, but she did not have any left.

There is no way I will "confront the teacher" with what the tutor was saying. She is a learning support, she has been helping my son catch up with the British kids who have been educated here. Being in Norway was a real disadvantage to my son, as he ended up really far behind. We did not realize just how far behind until we got here. Son literally jumped from Y3 in Norway to Y5 in the uk.

I just think the work was so high above his level, he should not have given it.

I think it is counterproductive to give children the stress of homework that is so difficult that they have not got a chance to complete it.

Gosh I was just now reminded about doing Physics in Year 10 (or was it 11?) and wave theory.

OP posts:

noblegiraffe · 18/01/2013 09:30

If he's a 5A, then area and circumference of a circle is not high above his level and is actually a pretty reasonable step up. However, it would be unreasonable to expect him to do homework on a topic he hasn't studied - does the teacher think he has been taught this? Check his books to see what he has been working on at school. Bright Y6 students (and he sounds like one) should be doing level 6 work in maths and I'm surprised that his tutor thinks this is unreasonable, unless he thinks your DS is actually working at a much lower level than a 5A?

Original poster

PureQuintessence · 18/01/2013 09:36

He had not been taught area and circumference of a circle, but as soon as I explained the method and formula, he completed those without a problem.

The exercises causing most problems were some graphs with strange lines in a sort of paralellogram, if that makes sense? And some fractions with unknowns he was to put in a sequence. To be honest, I cant now explain what it was, because I did not quite understand what to do.

OP posts:

noblegiraffe · 18/01/2013 09:45

Straight line graphs are also level 6, not quite sure what the fractions are about.

It sounds like miscommunication here, both with the teacher and the tutor. The work doesn't sound way above his level (although it's hard to tell without seeing how straightforward the questions are), so the tutor needs to give more detail on why he thinks it's not even worth attempting to explain. Similarly, the teacher needs to explain the purpose of the homework - is she thinking he might know how to do it already from Norway/tutoring/classwork and simply wants to see what he's actually capable of, or is she expecting him to do some independent study to learn these topics himself and push himself further in order to smooth his entry into selective education?

Original poster

PureQuintessence · 18/01/2013 10:00

I think she meant that trying to explain something she said he was not going to feature on his upcoming exams would just confuse him now. She is currently focusing on literacy with him, as he has never had to do a single text comprehension in his life before he came back to London.

Maybe the whole idea of selective education for him is a waste of time. Maybe he is just too far behind, having had 3 years in Norway of no homework, and doodling. He is a bright boy, he has worked his socks off getting from pretty much nothing to "above national average" in just a year. Maybe we are just setting him up for disappointment. The secondaries around here are just "satisfactory" and with lots of police presence on the streets around 3pm.

OP posts:

noblegiraffe · 18/01/2013 10:08

Ah, I see, I assumed it was a maths tutor, I can see why a general tutor would be more concerned with literacy if that is an area that needs work to bring up to speed.

So I don't think it is unreasonable of the teacher to want to push his maths, but it's also completely reasonable for the tutor to want to focus on literacy. Perhaps you can tell the teacher that once the 11+ is over, then you will have more time for the maths work, which will be important come SATs time in May.

complexnumber · 18/01/2013 11:42

"The exercises causing most problems were some graphs with strange lines in a sort of paralellogram"

This could have been a Vector worksheet, were there small arrows on any of the lines?

I think it's a little unfair to blame the teacher for setting homework that is appropriate for those entering the 11+. Are of his peers struggling as well?

cumfy · 18/01/2013 15:16

His tutor "having words with her"! FFS. Honestly.
(And tutors do not 'have words' with teachers!)

Thought Quint was referring to year tutor at that point.

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