To think that most UK secondary school children do not work hard enough

[ReallyTired]

My six year old daughter who is year 2 has far more homework than my 13 year old son. My inital fear was that my thirteen year old was simply not doing his homework, however the parents' evening has reassured that he is in fact doing all the homework set.

DD seems to have a bit of homework to do every night. I find it insane that we push six year olds so hard academically, but allow teenagers to get away with doing very little. Frankly my six year old is tired after a day of school and doesn't always want to practice her spellings, tables, reading or do her learning log.

Last year my son had half days for sports day, fun run and spent a week doing activities. After the end of year exams there seemed to be very little meaningful learning. Some of what my son did in activities week were meaningful but other activities were nothing more than a jolly. I feel that more would be gained if school trips were spread through out the year and linked directly to the curriculum.

Children are only at school from 8.35 to 3.30pm. It really does not hurt them to do some study after school. None of the UK education systems do spectularly well. Surely there is a happy medium between the chinese approach of 12 hour days and asking UK students to work a little bit harder. A lot of countries achieve better results than the UK with poorer resources. They do it by sheer hard work of the children.

Your 6 year old is having too much. Should be a bit of maths or literacy (alternating each week), spellings and reading every night with you. So 2 bits of very short hw and reading daily. At 6 any more is unnecessary.

At this point I'll question the value of school academic results.

I know people with excellent academic results who don't go very far in life, and people with average or less academic results who do very well, and I'm talking research level, PhDs and above.

There's a lot more to success than school results.

Also beware of giving your children the impression that their worth is about school results.

Personally, I prefer the UK approach in general of having thinking students who are able to research and think for themselves, rather than learn things by memorising them.

'A lot of countries achieve better results than the UK with poorer resources. They do it by sheer hard work of the children.'

You CANNOT make a sweeping statement like that without linking it to a proper peer reviewed source, which I'm guessing you won't be able to do.

"Personally, I prefer the UK approach in general of having thinking students who are able to research and think for themselves, rather than learn things by memorising them."

So why are british people having their arse completely kicked in the work place by immigrants? Students need to know a few facts before they can "research and think for themselves". Infact plenty of foreigners are more effective at researching and thinking for themselves. In fact I think that too much internet learning prevents children from researching and thinking for themselves.

Do computers really raise results?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34174796

I would be more worried about the time spent in secondary school being "a jolly". We didn't get much homework as the school struggled to enforce it anyway, but refusing to have any sort of expectations for learning goals and behaviour during school hours was the real issue. Felt like I was wasting my time going, but went anyway. (Wish I hadn't.) My ideal would be that kids get some proper learning done during the school day and don't require reams of homework (that's instead of lessons rather than for revision). Agree that the amount of homework given at primary sounds overzealous, though!

'So why are british people having their arse completely kicked in the work place by immigrants? '

WHERE IS YOUR SOURCE FOR THIS SWEEPING STATEMENT?

I'm pleased that my 11-14 year olds don't have enormous quantities of homework. They have a lot of free time for extra-curricular activities, clubs, music, sport, hobbies etc.
Now that 2 of them are in the GCSE years, they've got more homework and more pressure, and that will be with them for the 14-18 years. Plus university, postgrad qualifications etc.

There's plenty of time for serious study post 14, IMO.

I was also surprised by how little homework my DC got last year, which was year 8 at a grammar school. She seemed to have very little to do, yet still got a good school report. Did most of it in the lunch break.
My experience of primary school is different from yours, though, with almost no homework there - just something once a week which is so negligible that I never notice my DC2 doing it, and that's in Year 6.
I agree that some kind of homework club after school is a good idea, for those schools that don't have it. Or at least access to the school library for an hour after school. It's easier to motivate yourself that way, than by going home to what for many is an empty house (till parents return from work).
I also agree that exams are currently far easier than they used to be. I thought that that was widely accepted? I know someone who has marked A'level papers for several decades, and she says that the exam papers are now hugely easier.

My 17 year old has two hours travel a day to get to and from school. Quite often she stays late to do study three evenings a week as they have tutors on site. But those three evenings she has activities and volunteer work so is home for maybe an hour before going back out. The other two evenings she works.

She's an A level student, much of her day is made up with free periods for study time. So she has no homework, only study, coursework and research to do.

I'd be unhappy if she was expected to be marking work for students in lower years as a)she's not qualified b) she's at risk of accusations from those pupils for marking them wrong and c) she should not be doing the job of a teacher.

The argument for extending school hours rears its head regularly and I'm against it because 7 hours a day in school is enough.

You are forgetting that children can be doing an hour or so of travelling to get to and from school. We do and we go to our nearest schools - infant and junior.

It proper pissed me off the other day when parents at the school were clamouring for more written homework for their four year olds. That needs a grip.

Then my son gets detention if he doesn't do a poxy work sheet. We live in one room with no functioning light. My opinion is fuck homework until yr 7.

How are children supposed to develop into well rounded adults without the opportunity to explore outside interests in their own time because they are too busy doing homework?

My Y2 DS has only had reading homework this term, so I disagree with your statement that we push 6 year olds more than 13 year old. Maybe you need more than anecdata to be able to form a conclusion about the relative amounts?

Most schools have homework clubs. I'm glad you value the skills of a teacher so much that you think they can be replaced in terms of knowledge and understanding of the curriculum and the steps needed to improve children's work, by a sixth former who has their own homework to be getting on with.