Just opened dcs schoolbag to check for homework (Sunday night so organised as ever!) and was surprised to find two 2 times table worksheets in there. I’m surprised by this as dc is in year 4 and at parents evening last week I was told by their teacher that she has no worries about the new times tables check they’re doing because dc is confident in all their tables up to 12 in any order and can recall them quickly. I agree with this as dc practices at home and has known 2’s since reception!
Anyway I asked dc to get on with the homework and said I didn’t think it would be too hard as it’s only 2 times table stuff.
Dc then says to me ‘We only got them because Thomas (not his real name!) couldn’t answer his question’. After further discussion it seems the teacher was quizzing the class randomly and told them that there’s no excuse not to know your 2 times tables in year 4 and if anyone gets a 2 times table question wrong the whole class will be practicing them for homework. Well Thomas got his wrong hence the homework. Apparently another child said that they didn’t need to practice because they already know their 2’s and the teacher said ‘well you can all thank Thomas!’
I wouldn’t actually be bothered if they were straight question and answer worksheets that would take about a minute to do but one of them is a colouring by numbers that is going to take a fair amount of time that dc could be spending on stuff that would actually be useful to them! Surely the teacher shouldn’t be wasting everyone’s evening just to put some peer pressure on one child to practice their tables?
Dc is doing the homework btw and it’s not something I could be bothered speaking to the school about but it’s a bit shit isn’t it? And surely a child who doesn’t know their 2 times tables by year 4 has a maths issue that needs support beyond getting their classmates annoyed with them?