Work life balance for kids. How much hw is toomuch

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Dd is 14 in year 10.shegoes to nearest state school. School bus leaves a 8am and arrives home at 4.45 pm. She then is supposed to have 4 subjects homework of 30mins.this adds up to nearly 11hours per day.
Given the school bang on about the importance of extra curriculars, it seems a lot!. Outside school Dd does gym 2-3 times a week, drama school and hockey which I don't think is excessive.
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My DD is the same age and has a similar schedule. The school say that's how much homework she should have, but in reality she has a lot less (no more than an hour and often none) so does get a lot of downtime. If she actually did two hours a night she wouldn't have any time to switch off before bed.

DS1 is Y9 and they've started GCSE's this year. The amount of homework is unliveable and he's exhausted by the end of each week.

However, he also chooses to play sport every evening after school, so although the mental tiredness hits, by the time he heads up to bed he's physically tired enough to fall asleep immediately, so it seems to break up the incessant grind of homework - school - homework - school that he'd otherwise have.

2 hours a day, that can be over the week-end too, so 1:30 mns M-F, and over 3 hours at week-end. It is a lot, but not massively.

My experience is that it is possible to do the required homework in less time than teachers say is required, and also spread over the holidays.

DD is also y10. She gets 2 or 3 pieces of homework per week of an hour each, but then also has regular revision for tests (which of course is as long as a piece of string).

It seems a long day for a state school (our school is 8:45-3, so 4:45 home seems late)? Or is the journey long and tedious? Can she do any homework at lunch or on the bus (eg vocab/revision)?
If car would be faster, is there any way she could be picked up by car a couple of times a week to save the journey?

So does the school day extend until 4pm?

From that age I think I did 1.5- 2 hours a day, plus swimming once a week and music school on a Friday. About normal. It was hard but it’s really only for a few years then they are either at uni or work. Was fine, in the end.

As an ex-teacher turned private tutor, I think the amount of homework that GCSE students get is ridiculous. And then they wonder why so many students suffer from anxiety and burnout.

Do you live very rurally or does the school do a longer day?

Does she actually get 2 hours worth of homework a day?

I don't actually remember getting any homework in my GCSE year because we were just expected to take the initiative and revise (or occasionally read a book for English) which is fine if you're the organised sort but not at all for people like me who were incredibly lazy!

I remember the same with DD. She trained 3 mornings a week in school for her sport activity (went in at 7am) played competitively two after noons per week, had loads of homework and was generally just exhausted. You can imagine my rage when her end of year report came and it said that she must join extra clubs to proof her commitment to the school.

School finishes at 4. The homework is of ten due for the next day, and often in reality is going to take much longer than it us supposed to, it is often things they haven't covered yet

Dd2 at indie has an hour a day prep and two hours of sport. Home at 8pm. She's thriving on it.