Homework in Year 1

[queenqueenqueen]

I love my dds lovely little School and generally have no complaints but I'm getting really fed up of the very boring worksheet homework that is coming home... Tonight was highlight the missing punctuation and capital letters in sentences and then rewrite them correctly (there were 10 of them - long sentences too!) Really felt for her! 😔 want to support the school and also my child at home but this doesn't feel right, said we'd finish it tomorrow but I don't actually think I want to - thinking of popping a note in her contact book but not sure what to say as don't want to be "that" parent - still quite new to all this school stuff any advice really appreciated!

She’s 6? It’s a vital skill, OP. It’s going to take half an hour or so?

Not all schools do work sheets in year 1.

Set timer for twenty minutes and see how much she can get done

She's not 6, she's 5 and was only 5 on 28th August 😐

Doesn't sound particularly excessive yo be honest. What is your particular objection - not all homework can be super exciting

Objection I suppose is the volume I suppose, there was also a 2 sided maths worksheet , spellings and 3 reading books through the course of the week. It just seems a lot to me 😕

3 reading books is obviously a lot, but some sentences and spellings, plus some numeracy, is pretty much what I would expect at 5. If those basic skills aren’t in place before secondary, they are rarely in place at all, in my experience.

As a teacher and a mother to a five year old, that does actually seem ridiculously excessive!! Way too much. We get reading and five spellings each week, and it is a very high achieving primary school (grammar school area so lots of pressure). I would definitely get time and stop after 20 mins...and jot a note in the reading diary to that effect. It is NOT usual, nor is it helpful or conducive to learning. Definitely not something to worry about with regards to secondary school!!!!

I know I’m not going to be particularly popular saying this but I don’t think there is a place for homework in primary school. Children need a balance and time away from school, not every child is academic and for some bringing school home with them is a huge amount of stress.
My son is in reception and we don’t do the homework, the teacher is fine with this. I support him outside of school and we read together every night, we have family meals, we talk about a variety of subjects, I encourage him if he tries to read/ write etc. We do not and will not do homework for the next couple of years at least, unless it is something he would like to do.
There have been many studies on the value of homework for younger children, they may be worth a read.

Is the maths and punctuation worksheet for the week? If so ,it's not that excessive really.

And 3 reading books might sound like a lot, but depending on her level they could be only 10 pages long(if that) with one sentence (possibly very short ) per page.

We get a reading book each night, 5 high frequency words to learn and one bigger peice and that's reception. I don't think it's too much if we have aspirations for our children tbh

Way more than my year 1 gets.
We get a ‘homework menu’ each half term relating to their topic, and they have to pick 5 tasks to do. They come under the headings ‘literacy’, ‘numeracy’, ‘our world’, ‘expressive art and design’ and ‘healthy living’. Other than that it’s a weekly spelling test and 2 reading books (she’s a strong reader so they’re 2 chapter books). No worksheets. DD is doing really well and is ‘above expectations’ across the board.

We get three books to read and some maths across the week. Spellings are done in class. We don't get much formal "writing" homework. My 5yo (in y1) would take a very long time to write all of those sentences.

We get told to do 20 mins then stop. The homework is intended to stretch some students so some won't finish it iyswim.

Far too much for year 1! Poor kid!

DD's primary school has scrapped homework entirely for YR & Y1. They very strongly encourage lots of reading on a daily basis, not just school books, instead. They reckon at that age it's counterproductive.

We used to get the menu system which was great. Any thing we had no time for was never done and our teachers have always been fine with that.
Now in year 3 we have reading, spellings and 1 short piece of homework per week.

makirocks I agree with you. When I was school age, homework did not start until secondary. It was introduced gradually through the first couple of terms of Yr 7 and hey presto - it was fine. And we all managed maths and literacy because we were taught those things at school.

Research suggests there is no educational benefit to primary school homework. It's parents who expect it and drive it.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2019/01/03/why-homework-doesnt-seem-to-boost-learning-and-how-it-could/amp/

This is an interesting read.

I agree that sounds excessive for a 5 year old. At my DC's 'Outstanding' primary, Year 1 children have reading plus 6 spellings per week. Year 2 additionally have one piece of homework per week, alternating between maths and English. That's plenty IMO.

Writing ten sentences is a lot for a five or six year old

Why should a young child spend half an hour sitting down working when they have been doing that all day ???

Primary school children are already to sedentary ..this is just more examples of our over formal over obsessed with reading and writing school system

In most European countries a five or even six year old would be in a kindergarten environment learning through play.

I teach Year 1 and I find we have two camps of parents. Those that hate the homework set and those that want more. So hard to please everyone.

I tend to differentiate the homework I set and set according to ability. I may add an optional extension too. I also mix it up and sometimes set creative/craft type stuff to do as well as written homework. Again, some parents hate it, others love being creative.

Homework over Christmas is a Christmas treasure hunt where they have to find 12 things linked to Christmas e.g a piece of tinsel, a gift tag etc

If I could have one wish it would be that parents read to their children and hear them read as much as possible.

I have a summer born year one. She is absolutely exhausted when she gets home from school and needs to play and switch off. Luckily she doesn't get any homework at all apart from reading.

That doesn’t sound like Year 1 work to me. At that age I think they should be doing a lot of reading and phonics practice at home, nothing additional to that needed. I would ask how long they should be spending on homework and as pp said, set a timer. I wouldn’t spend hours trying to finish it.

Agree that’s a lot. 10 sentences to be copied out would take most year ones a while and would be almost impossible for others, particularly at this point in the year. Not sure of the benefit of copying out either, if they’ve already highlighted the errors. This smacks of the school having a policy that homework must be set so the teacher quickly setting a task without much thought (been there, done that I’m sorry to admit).

Please do let the teacher know how long it took, it was only from feedback from some parents that I realised that some tasks I was setting were inappropriate/far too hard/time consuming.

Most primary homework is pointless. However schools can’t win, as some parents want more and some want none. Either way they get complaints.

We send reading/phonics work. If children would benefit/parents ask we send more. Nothing will switch a child off from learning more than forcing them to do excessive work at that age.

I’m in the no homework camp. DD is only year R, but I spoke to her teacher and said I wasn’t going to make her do any school work she didn’t want to do at home. Her teacher agreed and said if she wasn’t interested then don’t do it.
I appreciate I’m not there yet but that sounds loads for year 1.

What does your DD think? I can imagine that highlighting a few things (especially in different colours) would hold her interest long enough but rewriting sentences sounds pretty dull.