Fucking Primary School homework.

[YippeeKayakOtherBuckets]

Ds2 is 8, yr 3. His teacher is new this term, I’m not sure if he’s an nqt or just new to the school but he’s a keen bean.

DS is expected to do homework every evening. He needs to read for twenty minutes to an adult, do his fifteen spelling words and do twenty minutes of maths. So an hour an evening. There are also two spelling projects to complete every week, ie write them with your left hand, recite them on a tape recorder (?!), write them in squiggly letters.

I think it’s complete overkill. Not to mention we just don’t have the time. We both work FT so he’s in wraparound care most days, he also does Beavers and swimming, I have one child in college and one doing GCSEs so they also need support and it’s just all too much. I don’t want to spend what precious little downtime we all have doing (IMO) unnecessary homework. We do read together and do his spellings and maths but not every single night.

I’ve been collared this morning again to query why he hasn’t had his various diaries filled in every day to show he’s done it. I said well he hasn’t done it all. We are busy. It’s too much. The response was that I really need to make time to do it as otherwise he’ll be behind.

I kind of think if he needs that much extra work outside of school then something is going very wrong with the teaching...although I haven’t said that to the teacher.

WIBU to escalate this? I know I’m not the only parent feeling this way. Is it worth taking a stand?

I should add that DS loses playtime if we haven’t filled in his diary so obvs there’s a lot of pressure and guilt on us as parents and we do honestly try to fit it in but sometimes it just doesn’t happen.

@Ribbityrib
I'm not sure whether you are aiming your comment about being glib at my post?
Just to clarify, in case you were, I wasn't saying my child learnt spellings easily. In fact, it was the complete opposite, she was a terrible speller!
My point was, that at her new school, she responded well to the structure I described, and a little and often approach throughout the week on a daily basis worked well.

My child is 5, has 10 spelling words and encouraged to read as much as she can, plus, she has homework too. It’s all I’ve ever known so I work flexible working hours to accommodate. We usually do half an hour a day though and that’s about it.

It's good that the system of formal spelling learning worked for your DD. It doesn't for all kids, my DS can look at those 'cover look repeat' sheets for hours and still be none the wiser about how to spell the bloody words on the list, and even if he does by some miracle remember, he won't the next day. For some kids this kind of rote homework achieves nothing but to wreck their confidence, add stress to relationships with parents, and put them off learning. I think academic learning is important but there needs to be a balance.

Whereabouts are you OP? Homework in Primary isn't compulsory in Wales.

I have an 8yo and due to some specific learning difficulties, any school work out of school is a battle. He's very bright but with literacy, co-ordination, sensory and working memory issues, his brain is burned out by the time I pick him up and he is close to meltdown.

Fortunately our homework expectations are much more modest than OP's but even then it can be a struggle some weeks. We prioritise reading, and fortunately despite dyslexia he does read for pleasure, based mainly on his love of Minecraft, Star Wars, Lego and fact books, not ORT or anything texty and "worthy" that are horrendous for visual stress.

We do a variety of out of school activities. His PE over the last year has been 30 minutes of swimming per week. Fortunately years of tortuously slow progress in weekly swimming lessons have paid off and he is now capable of swimming lengths and gets use out of that PE time. Without those hundreds of hours hanging around the pool, he'd still be struggling doggy paddling around the shallow end (and if 5 years of school lessons failed to teach me to swim, 1 year was never going to do the job for him)
The other activities we do such as the martial art and scouting are important in helping him to develop a balanced range of skills, particularly when a Govian education system is so focused on his difficulties.

Moderate amounts of homework have some benefit in helping parents be aware of what children are learning in school and how their children are doing, but homework also reinforces privilage, those who are able and motivated, have the resources to do it (time, space, materials) and parental support.

School is not a complete education and children need time to learn through casual, unstructured experiences and alternative activities as well as good old play and chillout time. Battling excessive homework can be very damaging to little potential benefit.

@CravingCheese i re read and saw that - sleep deprivation this week!

I went to a private prep school and we got 30 mins of homework a night from age 10. Your poor son x

Perhaps you should keep a diary of your evenings for a fortnight, take it to the teacher and ask her to tell you where the hell in this schedule you can fit all this homework in.

That is far too much homework for a child of that age.

I get the point of some reading practice, learning some spellings and some basic maths exercises, but other than that I think it is far too much.

Cut it right back to what you feel is reasonable. Personally, I would just sign the diary even if the work hasn't been done. I'd also send in a note saying that it is far too much and could they please reconsider. Especially with regard to the writing with the wrong hand and in squiggly writing. What the fuck is that all about? I can't see any benefit to that at all and simply wouldn't do it even if school continued to ask for it. I would tell them myself categorically that my child would not be doing that because I could see no benefit to it.

Honestly, when do children get a chance to be children these days, and to wind down?

My DDs school set homework every night from yr 1, yr ones usually get one small task (maths or English) every night, reading every night to be signed in reading record (usually takes 10mins) and spellings (6 per week atm) but spellings are given on Monday to be learnt by Friday usually takes us 20minutes to complete each nights homework which I don’t think is to bad. It’s gradually builds up as the kids get older.

My son learns spellings fairly quickly and gets 100% every week but if he has to use the word the next day will spell it completely randomly. That's why I don't spend alot of time learning spellings, seems so wasteful. He needs to learn them in context for it to stick.

If the teachers can't teach the curriculum in the given time, it says something about the school.

Write to the Chair of Governors and cc to the Head.

If the teachers can't teach the curriculum in the given time, it says something about the school.

Write to the Chair of Governors and cc to the Head.

Ah yes, the moment when logic goes out the window on a school thread.

Doing spellings, times tables and reading at home doesn't suggest a school can't cover the curriculum.

And MN bingo for going to the chair of governors.

The thing that is often missing from these threads is the sexism of it all. The excessive primary homework is generally a burden for the mother (with a few honourable exceptions). If you told schools they are exacerbating the gender pay gap they'd be surprised, but they are with this and all the non-necessary school events.

Solidarity. I have a (possibly non neurotypical) DD in year 2 who fights homework and reading. It is exhausting. The weekly homework is just about doable (we both work - longer hours than you but only the one DC). But the holiday homework burden is ridiculous. The amount of trips I've had to drag a pack of homework along on, plus scissors, glue stick, 100 square...

But when I've pushed back (politely) with the school they've been helpful and reasonable.

It's just all so one-size-fits-all. What one child and family takes in their stride, another will struggle with.

And as these threads always make clear, the variation between schools is huge.

You shouldn't have to apologise for needing or wanting to work.

I'm a teacher by the way. My 6 year old is set more holiday homework (in terms of realistic time required to.complete) than my A-level students.

Quite a few year 7s have told me secondary homework expectations are quite a relief after the gruelling year 5 and 6.

Sounds way too much to me. Mine had less per week than you have a night, and they did really well in their Sats, so it can't have done them any harm!

For comparison - 'Mandatory' in our school for Y3 is:
Per night:
Spelling (6-10 words) - tested once a week
Mathletics - assignments set per term
Time tables - currently 3, 4 and 8's
Reading

Above, aside from reading, takes 20 mins and then reading at bedtime. Reading diary is checked in as much as kids get a sticker each week first entries, spellings marked by the kids (not even sure teacher notes marks!!), mathletics who knows?? We probably do the daily mandatory homework about 3-4 times a week and reading every day and there has been no comment from the school. The school head even admits studies show additional homework has no benefit in primary school.

They also get per term:
2x extension fun projects
Quite fun and diverse list to choose from and don't take long over a weekend or school evening. Although I do think they need too much parental involvement so not actually about the kids...

Your 'spelling projects' seems nuts....

If the teachers can't teach the curriculum in the given time, it says something about the school.

That it’s like almost every other school?

Perhaps you should keep a diary of your evenings for a fortnight, take it to the teacher and ask her to tell you where the hell in this schedule you can fit all this homework in

I really do not get this attitude. The OP has created a schedule that is packed to the gills with non-essential things. How is that the teacher’s problem to solve? The school are setting as homework what they believe is required for the child to progress. All they can do at that point is give the parent the choice of doing it or not.

Study after study shows that homework in the primary school years yields no advantage to children long term. When a young child's homework gets in the way of family life, something has gone very wrong.

Can you ask the HT how the homework policy came about? Who was consulted, when it was written etc? It may be outdated and in need of an overhaul. Do many families at your child's school have two parents at work full time? Might they feel the same as you and if so, can you work together to bring about change? Schools have to listen to their parents and I'd be challenging the school to evidence why they think this amount of homework is beneficial.

My children's school recently made homework much more flexible in light of the fact that families were struggling to get it done. As a result I've played bananagrams and twister with my kids tonight instead of trying to get them to do homework after 10 hours out of the house, which was much better fun for all of us. So I would say pursue it if you feel up to it!

Failing that - lie in the diary

I'm glad someone else has pointed out the ingrained sexism Phineyj, all of this overload (& the last minute dress up days or poorly communicated cooking ingredients) assume that one parent is at home, available at a moment's notice... Instead of stressed out to fuck with her own job to worry about and shitty commute on top just to be able to afford rent or basic bills...

Which is odd, as teaching is female dominated by women with solid education & career track.

It's an interesting puzzle to me how poorly UK schools are set up to get the best from children whose parents, you know, work.. despite the heads and teachers mostly (statistically likely) being parents too.

That sounds normal for our schools. A minimum of 45 minutes each night. It sounds like you have a lot to do and you just don't have time to prioritize his needs. You may have to do lunches and laundry and walk the dogs after he is in bed. Or get the teenagers to help. They can listen to him read before you take them wherever they want to go.

If the teachers can't teach the curriculum in the given time, it says something about the school

I think it says something about the curriculum.

FWIW in primary school in the 60s I remember the teachers used to say their job was to make sure everyone could read and write. Everyone should be able to do their times tables and basic maths.

It was up to secondary to expand on that.

We didn’t have any homework apart from 20 spellings per week in what would be now year 6.

I try to do my bit, @Only. I teach year 13 labour market economics this time of year. I try to ensure they won't be blindsided by these issues later.

The whole thing is very annoying. My DD would benefit much more from extra exercise than all this pointless stuff that she fights (I'm sometimes grudgingly impressed by her creative avoidance techniques).

She works hard in school. I know because we get to see all the work done (private school - very into showing us the books).

What Orangeblossom78 says is the norm. I'd ask to see the school's Homework Policy and see what it says for year 3. Daily maths tasks seems a bit much and most teachers would hate to have to resource, administer and mark that much. Maybe maths is a focus on the school's improvement plan? Reading, spelling and X tables are usually the basics for primary homework (as regular practice at home supports the child's learning)with alternative English and Maths.