Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Fucking Primary School homework.

346 replies

YippeeKayakOtherBuckets · 19/11/2019 09:46

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.

OP posts:
DontbeaBabs · 19/11/2019 12:57

BillieEilish

You are making that up completely!

Kids in Europe are just the same as Kids in this country, some consider reading a "chore" in any country!
I have no idea what you mean about the "weather", the continent is not in a perpetual summer, isn't half or parts of South of France covered in snow right now, and even the army had to help out?

just the example of the no "half term", I don't know what you mean by that..

Autumn holiday (Herbstferien) - two weeks
Christmas holiday (Weihnachtsferien) - usually two weeks
Winter holiday (Winterferien) - between a few days and two weeks
Easter holiday (Osterferien) - two to three weeks
Whitsun holiday (Pfingstferien) - between a few days and two weeks
Summer holiday (Sommerferien) - six to seven weeks&

or
All Saints’ break: 20 October – 5 November 2018
Christmas break: 22 December 2018 – 7 January 2019
Winter break: 16 February – 4 March 2019 (Zone A); 9–25 February 2019 (Zone B); 23 February – 11 March 2019 (Zone C)^
Spring break: 13–29 April 2019 (Zone A); 6–23 April 2019 (Zone B); 20 April – 6 May 2019 (Zone C)^
Summer break: 6 July – 2 September 2019

None of your statements reflects the reality of state schools...

CravingCheese · 19/11/2019 12:59

That was to the poster saying 'don't schools on the continent start later, at 7?'

NO.

6 would be standard where I'm at. 7 or 5 not particularly uncommon either.
But counting, maths, graphomotorics and also other subjects (like the natural world around us => biology, geography...) etc are also taught before school / in kindergarten.

CravingCheese · 19/11/2019 13:02

Btw, shouldn't wrap around care offer a space for homework as well?

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

?

ivegotthisyeah · 19/11/2019 13:02

I agree with you and it's the same in our school. Ridiculous amounts of reading, homework projects it's never ending. It really gets me down as I am a single mum to three kids who do hobbies and sports too, I don't have the time to sit down with them all individually every night. It's a battle to get the oldest to do it we spend more time arguing and falling out about it that doing it. At October half term she had a massive world war project and I mean loads of different things to do and make which we did some of them but not all. Most of the class didn't even bother and to be honest I can see why. I would gladly pay for a homework club once a week at school for them to do it with a teacher as working parents just don't have the time and sadly energy to do it all.

Mumdiva99 · 19/11/2019 13:02

Is that a LA school or a private school? Do they have a MH policy? Why are they setting so much every day? I would be following this up as a complaint that it is too much. (Imho reading 4 times a week, 1 list of 10 spellings, write them in sentences, a piece of maths (think times table practise or a worksheet) and possibly 1 additional project piece would be loads). You are right that if you work full time there isn't so much time - and once you've done swimming or beavers that's 2 evenings out. It sounds crazy to me,

churchandstate · 19/11/2019 13:03

No 8 year old has to be taught to lie they do it naturally. It is therefore pointless to carry on the pre-tense that adults are absolutely honest in all their dealings.

That’s utterly amoral, but feel free to raise your children how you wish.

InACheeseAndPickle · 19/11/2019 13:04

I think 20 minutes reading should be easy at that age but shouldn't all have to be to an adult. The rest is clearly overkill. I'd complain. Even if you were a stay at home parent with no other children there shouldn't be an hour of your evening wasted on homework which is probably pointless anyway.

DontbeaBabs · 19/11/2019 13:05

I would gladly pay for a homework club once a week at school for them to do it with a teacher

My kids school has a daily (apart from Friday) homework club, half an hour at lunch time. It's free, and a drop-in, so kids chose if they need it once or often.

howabout · 19/11/2019 13:05

We live in an amoral World churchandstate. I would have thought someone with your username would realise this fact. Confused

BillieEilish · 19/11/2019 13:06

Babs, honestly, I do not know where you are talking about or what you are talking about. Why the hell would I lie about DD's curriculum?

You are now derailing the thread.

I have said I have never taught in Germany. But well done for finding all the different zones, I wouldn't have wasted my time on that.

My DC gets no half terms at all, another poster in Spain has confirmed this, I didn't say she didn't get and Christmas Easter holidays Hmm Of course she does.

Most people here have a pool/access to an outdoor pool due to the weather, that is just a fact. IN SPAIN

I was giving my viewpoint to the discussion, that was all.

Doggodogington · 19/11/2019 13:06

That sounds like a lot of homework! My DS yr4 gets one piece of English to read and answer questions and one set of maths questions. They are given on a Friday to be returned on a Tuesday. Then 4 times a year he has a project to do which he gets a couple of weeks.

yoursworried · 19/11/2019 13:09

That's ludicrous have a meeting with the head. My DD is in the same year group at an overseas private school. I think she gets a lot of homework but it's 20 mins reading a day plus 1 hour of spelling and math over the course of the week. 1 hour a day is ridiculous at 8 and he def shouldn't be punished if the diary isn't filled in.

stickerqueen · 19/11/2019 13:10

It only gets worse when they start high school dd 11 gets loads of homework they need to spend 45 minutes doing each piece set and they set 11 pieces of homework a week.

They expect them to do 1.5hours homework after school each night.
Dd has autism and i have to sit with her to do the work it' s taken over our life. some nights shes still doing homework come bedtime.
If i didn't sit with her the work would not get done þen she would get detention.

LolaSmiles · 19/11/2019 13:12

CravingCheese
The OP clarified earlier that their DC isn't actually in wrap around care after school. He's just attending normal after school clubs.

The wrap around care is in the form of various clubs, before and after school (not every day) so unfortunately not the setting he can do homework in.

So he has school, plus after school clubs, plus multiple evening clubs, plus home want him to do 20 mins of piano a day because Dad is teaching him, but there's no time to do some reading and spellings.

If he was in a proper wraparound care then he'd have time to do some fo his homework there, but it sounds very much like he has a packed schedule of lots of clubs and there's an expectation that homework can just get dropped because it's not convenient.

Flatwhite32 · 19/11/2019 13:13

Gosh @YippeeKayakOtherBuckets I'm a primary school teacher (part time, Y3) and that's ridiculous! However, the teacher will just be following school policy, and unfortunately won't be in a position to change things. Is there a lower junior or KS2 team leader you could speak to?

DontbeaBabs · 19/11/2019 13:16

I am not derailing the thread, BillieEilish I just pointed out that all your statements about schools in various countries are absolutely incorrect

and gave a few examples to show that you were absolutely wrong.

not sure what you think you are bringing to the thread when you make up untruth about other countries...

I

churchandstate · 19/11/2019 13:18

howabout

We don’t live in an amoral world. Some people in it are amoral. I hope not to add my child to their ranks by bringing her up without knowing the difference between right and wrong.

PinkyU · 19/11/2019 13:18

My dc’s school has not done set homework now for around 5 years (there is an optional A4 sheet sent home once a month with ‘learning suggestions’ on it.) This was an initiative due to the ‘evidence’ that homework at primary level gives no academic benefit.

However, over the last 4 years the secondary school which our primary feeds into has found that the intake from our school are performing at a lower level than that of their other intake schools - across the curriculum. For the last 4 years the number of our pupils placed in the top two sets for English and maths gradually fell, culminating in NO pupils being in the top 2 sets this academic year.

This may not necessarily be because they have been placed at an academic disadvantage due to lack of homework, but perhaps the lack of experience in managing extra curricular learning, time management etc.

For my own children we do 1-2 hours work every evening and weekend. We do reading, essay writing, maths, vocabulary, handwriting, languages, geography, history, art etc over the course of the week.

It is time consuming but honestly I view it as essential for their education.

BillieEilish · 19/11/2019 13:18

Ok Babs

You are right, I am wrong and a total liar. Smile

tootiredtospeak · 19/11/2019 13:19

I would speak to the head and actually I have done this as I have a DS7 in YR3 to make quite clear that if they ever punish my child by keeping him in at breaktime because I as an adult have been unable to find time to do this with him. Then I will complain to the governers and LEA and refuse to do all homework. You cannot punish a child its inappropriate at primary.
We have to read 4 times a week one homework project 10 spellings and handwriting practise. Most weeks we get it done if we dont, we dont I have made it clear no punishments.

CravingCheese · 19/11/2019 13:19

Lola

Oops. Thanks.

So he has school, plus after school clubs, plus multiple evening clubs, plus home want him to do 20 mins of piano a day because Dad is teaching him, but there's no time to do some reading and spellings.

If he was in a proper wraparound care then he'd have time to do some fo his homework there, but it sounds very much like he has a packed schedule of lots of clubs and there's an expectation that homework can just get dropped because it's not convenient.

This doesn't seem particularly sustainable to me tbh... It actually sounds incredibly stressful.

DontbeaBabs · 19/11/2019 13:20

BillieEilish

just re-read your post, of course you were wrong, and this was what I was replying to.

Beveren · 19/11/2019 13:22

If other parents are unhappy about this, can you get them together for a meeting with the head to discuss this?

LolaSmiles · 19/11/2019 13:23

CravingCheese
It does.
I see the older versions of this type of set up in y7-11 and it's quite stressful for all concerned.

If OP's child went into proper wraparound care then he could probably get most of his homework done there (whilst I think on the whole there's more set than I would, I'm not sure it's that's unreasonable to learn 15 spellings a week and read daily for example).

Equally, if he's doing after school clubs straight from school then does he need to have daily piano for being taught by his dad?
There really needs to be some float planned in so that the approach isn't "we're too busy to...".

And then if the policy is unreasonable then it needs raising with the school.

ScrimshawTheSecond · 19/11/2019 13:25

That sounds really over the top as far as homework goes.