To not want to spend time at weekend doing this sodding homework?

[eleflump]

I know I probably am BU...

DS is in Year 7, and has to do a project on castles. He has to do research on various types of castle - do labelled drawings, write about them, all ok.

Except the last task - to make a model of a concentric castle. Which needs to take at least two hours.

I work full-time, DH works full-time, and next weekend I am also working Sunday, which leaves me Saturday to do everything I need to do. And Christmas is coming.

I was crap at art projects at school, thirty-odd years later, it hasn't got much better. DS is crap at art projects and won't have a clue without me trying to help him.

I am going to need to go and buy all the stuff to make the bloody model...which will take up more time.

I thought I had left all this behind at primary school!!!!

Oh - another thought...how the bloody hell is he going to get it to school on the bus?????

Why don't they do this stuff at school where they have the time, the resources, and (presumably) people who know how to do it?!!!

Yanbu, school projects were the Bain of my life although dd likes doing arts and crafts, the projects used to stress her (and me!) out to the point of meltdown. In fact any homework that requires hours of parental input should be outlawed. I lost count the amount of homework that was set In primary at a much higher level than the the abilities of the then age group.

Once they get to year 7 they should be working indepependantly, if they cannot manage with minimal parental input then they need to ask teachers for extra help or explain to them why it hasn't been done. Thankfully dd only had to do the cell thing in year7 which took about 10 minutes and admittedly it was a bit of a bodge job as it had to be handed in the following morning.
It may have not the best but it was done.

I'm long past the stage of pva glue and cardboard boxes, I've done my bit and I'm neither a teacher or teaching assistant. I'll help if needed but I won't sit for hours on end doing bloody homework!

Well said Statesman

If the lack of house model building was likely to result in detention then I would support the drawing or written description of a house by my DCS instead. The teacher could take up any concerns they had with me.

I remember having a very frank conversation with my dc's Year 6 teacher following a detention about the quality of his homework and she was completely and utterly shocked that the "fun" do a poster homework caused enormous stress - dc would spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to come up with an original idea but the final outcome dc produced suggested a hastily put together 5min job (his fine motor skills were poor) - he received a detention for lack of effort and he was devastated.

I can remember DD having to make a mote and bailey castle for homework (this is 30 years ago) sorry to read that somethings don't seem to have changed.

I hope you didn't do it. I would object and explain why. There is enough time taken up by school and homework. The school should also provide the materials. What if some families can't afford it? We certainly don't keep empty cereal boxes lying around!

Can any educational professionals out there confirm that this kind of craft stuff is mandatory to the GCSE curriculum (other than for art or design/technology type subjects)?
Because if it isn't, how can a school justify detention for failure to complete a task unrelated to (and not necessary for) the curriculum?

I can understand the value of pupils doing projects in groups in class (learning teamwork etc) and being marked on that. But what part of the curriculum for say, history or French, requires gluing bits of cardboard together at home? Or playing computer games (Minecraft has many good points and its impressive when kids are adept on it but it's still a computer game)?

Previous posters have raised very valid points about children with less resources and support at home being penalised. Why would any school turn a blind eye to that when the vast majority are very aware of it?

I can see I'm going to be one of 'those' parents but rather that than swallow this codswallop.

All three of mine had to make motte and bailey castles in Year 7 much to my horror.

I left 'em to it. Secondary is about learning to think and do for themselves

I think teachers must think craft type homework is more fun - newsflash! - it really isn't!

No. I'd rather do pages of algebra and verb conjugations. I am not practical at all. Never have been

I'm really crafty, I love to make things. I do not want to make things for no purpose at all other than to tick some Ofsted/School box, when we could be doing hundreds of other, more interesting things. Model making homework needs to be wiped out.

Probably been said previously, but most teachers hate these HW projects too.

Very difficult to mark, (how much parental support/money involved) and where do you display 30 plus 3D castles in the average classroom?

Usually imposed by the subject co ordinator, who has no children.

Sometimes an attempt to cover D&T/Art assignments in a cross-curricular manner.

DD, at her French primary, made a few models in history but they were always from cardboard kits provided by school. At least they were accurate.

I agree with million. I would be writing to the school to explain why the dc is not doing the homework and to take it up with me too.

I just don't get why parents put up with this kind of thing.

Wow. Ds has had to label a diagram of a motte & Bailey castle but to actuslly make one? No way.

In our house you wouod struggle to find a cereal box (cereal is decanted into containers & the cardboard recycle bag is kept outside so wouod get sopping wet.

I see absolutely no learning value of that type of homework.

It's a sad day when a parent can't find a couple of hours to build a castle with their DC.

You miss the point ManorGreyhound, perhaps deliberately. Most here are saying that this sort of thing is taking time away from other activities we'd much rather be doing with them. It does in our house. If i make a model with them, it will be something we want to make. Not something the school want us to make because they think it's a 'fun' way to do homework.

If a school gave my child detention for missing a piece of ridiculous time-wasting "craft" homework, even though all the proper (written) homework had been done as instructed, then my child would be missing that detention on my say-so. While I had a meeting with the school and explained to them exactly why my child would not be attending that detention. And would be fully prepared to be "That Parent."

I spend plenty of time teaching my child, hearing her read and doing educational activities with her, and making sure she goes into the classroom at an excellent academic level and willing to learn. I am a damn good parent.

I am not prepared to have my child waste hours on time-wasting crap that has no educational value.

I feel your pain OP.

Dd is also a new year 7. We had to male a paper mache globe the other week to label the continents and oceans on. Took all weekend waiting for shit dry

I wonder if this has anything to do with the requirement, in many schools, that teachers tick the visual/auditory/kinaesthetic "learning styles" boxes in their planning. (Castle building being presumably for "kinaesthetic" learners.)

This has been a big fad in education for a while now, despite there being no real evidence for it:

www.tes.com/article.aspx?storycode=6451360

In secondary it isn't just a couple of hrs on 1 piece of homework. It's one piece smongst 15 other pieces of homework set that week.

Times that by more than one child plus any sport/dance activities they do/need taking too it means you get no family time.

I hated making models. I was already shit at pe, art, do, it was just another thig I was shit at. And it took ages. I had to make a model netball court - wtf?

Geography was the worst one though.

Adds this to the list of stuff to worry about when dd goes to secondary school. My dd has a missing arm, academically no problems but sticking and sellotaping and scrunching are not easily accomplished without a lot of help from me. I have a job and it isn't model making. So she gets detention for not doing it or a low grade. My dd is an extreme example but lots of children have hyper mobility, dyspraxia or are just not crafty.
My cardboard recycling is stored outside so it is wet, we don't eat cereal and we don't read any paper newspapers. We haven't got any craft paints - used to when she was preschool/infants.

kesstrel - that's a good point. But wouldn't an easy solution be for children to be given a choice of homework to address different learning styles (and to address differing home lives)?

Do it in plasticine. Tiny. They didn't say to what scale - or what materials. Easily transported.

Oooh! Or!! Do it in plasticine. Paint it with PVA. Let it dry. Paint it again. Over and over.

Peel off PVA and pour in plaster of paris. Leave to set.

Hey presto, a mini castle statue!

I'm going to make one for myself now...