To think two hours homework a night is not excessive for a year 10 pupil

[Challenger5]

DD 1 is adamant that two hours a night homework, is against her human rights. She has been stomping around, refusing to start her homework. DD 1 is being exceptionally rude to me swearing at me for sending her to a prison camp and claiming to be-having a nervous breakdown due to the schools expectations.

I am trying to calm her down and reason with her, that two hours a night is quite proportionate for a year 10 girl at a Grammar School. This especially as the school as stated her target grades are 7-9 in all ten GCSE subjects.

She has also informed me that her head of year as given her a after school detention, today for calling her English teacher a 'mean cow' for a poor homework mark. DD denies calling the teacher that, saying she was misheard when she pulled her face at the teacher.

DD is saying the detention is unfair and against her human rights because it is grossly an excessive punishment even if she had accidentally muttered 'mean cow' when the teacher spoke to her. DD argues that her face pulling was justified because someone has to stand up against the schools unrealistic and unreasonable levels of homework demanded.

Ten hours of homework a week on top of full time school is excessive IMO.

There’s a difference between ‘little work’ and the hours and hours described on here.

@DuckBilledFattypus I don't think it's down to luck.

I did work hard, but effectively. Forcing children to work for hours a night on top of a full day of school (plus clubs, extra-curricular activities and travel) isn't effective or helpful long term 🤷🏻‍♀️

A child with burnout isn't going to be successful or happy.

It’s also about the child working out how they learn the best. They can’t do that with a helicopter parent standing over them demanding 2+ hours of homework a night.

I worked. I did enough homework but I learnt very effective ways to revise which meant I did well in exams. (Probably also because I wasn’t stressed or pressurised). Unfortunately I also discovered I produced good work at the last minute! But some people don’t. We all learn differently. The child needs to work this out for themselves and be self motivated.

Your DD is right. 2 hours a night is ridiculous.

It is normal in some grammar schools (which you choose to send her to) but not everywhere.

I have two friends who work in grammar schools. They both say that the vast majority of the kids are self harming on a regular basis, due to the stress and pressure from home.

You need to start listening to your daughter and think about what is right for her as the whole person that she is - not just the two dimensional academic you'd like her to be.

I don't think children should be forced to work no. I think they need to have personal sense of what they need to do in order to achieve and work towards that. I also don't think the average child will get outstanding results with minimal effort.

Maybe you should give people here tips on how to support their children to achieve highly in minimal time, if you don't think it down to luck / high ability. Share just how that is achieved...

I think 2 hours is outrageous. When do they have time to switch off and relax (teacher here)

Homework is a ridiculous thing In my opinion and makes life unfair for a lot of students who's home life isn't good. , Some don't have space , are looking after siblings , caring for relatives.

Schools finish around 3.30 give or take. Even with two hours they have plenty of evening left. I take it as a teacher you don't bother to give the students homework then? Or don't you actually teach secondary.

I’m a teacher and I absolutely hate homework!

I think 2 hours every night is way too much and young people should be encouraged to go outside and get exercise instead of sitting down all day at school and then at home too.

However, it sounds as though this is the schools policy and simply not doing it is just going to get her into trouble.

I would encourage her to stay and do it in the library after school.
She could ask her friends to join so there’s a social side to it too and it means that when she gets home she can completely switch off from school and de-stress.

This is excessive. Quantity of time spent in the classroom (home or school) does not equal quality of education. The proof of that particular pudding is in the way the Scandinavian countries, for one example, are eating it, as well as in educational theory.

Two hours of homework per day is a sign that something either in the curriculum, its delivery, or both, isn't working, and that the kids are being expected to compensate. The joy once derived from learning is being sucked out of it in today's compulsory education system. By the time kids arrive at university they're burned out (and many still can't construct a proper sentence).

Your DD is quite right, and I say this as an educator.

Sounds normal to me. Both my DCs were at selective London indies and were timetabled 1.5-2 hours hw each evening. Crucially though, they were normally given at least 2/3 days to do the hw, often longer so it was down to them to organise themselves.
Also, how wasn't always set, and sometimes was just a finish something started in class type thing. But I think he is important in practising skills and techniques. They have to learn how to write an essay without a teacher telling them each step, learn the skills for answering different styles of exam question etc. Hw is an excellent way of learning those skills. Frequent topic tests to revise for help set that knowledge so making revision for bigger exams easier.
Both managed lots of hobbies etc after school by shuffling hw, and doing a few hours over the weekend. I think it fit them into very good habits for A levels which were a massive step up from GCSEs.

A majority of children self harming in one school is statistically unlikely and wouldn't be due to just doing some homework.

Delatron I could produce work to a high standard last minute all the way up to postgraduate but would I wish that on my year 11 not really. He has the same ability to do so and has realised he can get high grades with not much effort but he is revising at the moment for 1.5hrs a night on top of homework as mocks are in November. In all honesty I think it is superb and I'm really impressed as his social life dominated the whole of year 10. Personally, it starts to set you up for learning in a way that is necessary for enjoyment of university. Unless you reallly are passionate about giving time to understanding subjects you are not really going to stretch yourself intellectually! He manages to play football after school at the park, went to a party at the weekend on Saturday evening so he's not exactly missing out!

2 hours every night is ridiculous. 30 mins to 1 hour should be sufficient.
I didn’t do homework every day at secondary, certainly nothing like 10 hours a week! I got all A’s apart from 1 B at GCSE.

Could she do some of the homework at lunch time / on the bus (if she gets one) that way it wouldn’t feel like it’s eating into her time as much?

She’s not wrong to complain about the volume but she is wrong to be rude to the teacher and deserves that detention.

I wonder how many of people here would handle 8-12+ hour days in the investment banking industry, etc

It's been a long time since I was at school. Part of me was thinking that as schools don't start massively early compared to a "usual" office, but finish earlier that 2 hours of homework a day is equivalent to a working week.

However, I've just checked one of our local schools who has an 8.30am start and a 3.40pm finish, so just over 7 hours in school each day. Yes, there's breaks, etc (85 mins in the day), but a normal office would only expect 8 or 8.5 hours a day in the office. Given that these are children, while there is an element of preparing them for their future working lives, making them work more than someone that works full time seems rather unfair.

(I do agree that you DD is going in to full on drama queen mode about it though!)

Well, honestly, I have; and GCSE homework was a piece of piss in comparison, I can tell you.

People on here are acting like school is some kind of Gradgrindian factory! A bright year 10 kid who’s capable of getting 8s and 9s at GCSE is not going to be worn to the bone by a couple of hours writing a book report or drawing and labelling a diagram of the nitrogen cycle or whatever.

My own (university) students do far less work than ten years ago and boy do they whinge far more about what is actually a pretty light workload compared to a job! You would think it was toiling down the pit for ten hours a day with all the complaining about mental health, when actually they’re being asked to read an interesting book!

I’m all for resisting the imperatives of the capitalist grindstone but honestly, we need to get a bit of perspective here. School homework is not putting a presentation together for the board of directors at Citibank. It’s answering a few questions or writing a short exercise. Perfectly doable of an evening even with getting to watch a bit of television too.

Well no, it's not a choice is it , if the school requires it? Are you talking about self imposed work?

Doesn't matter what you all think - this is the homework she's being set (although how long it takes tends to vary per person, surely?) and the choice is either do it, not do it and be in continual trouble, remove her and find a school which isn't bothered about homework (let us know if you find one).

They may be working more hours (just) but it's a different style of work to a paying job isn't it.

I'd love to have an hour or so built into my paid day at work to play rounders with the team and paint and bake some cookies. Which is once a week for most secondary schools if not twice. Sit and read a play and talk about it? Great! Easier than most tasks I do now.

No customers, no pointless training sessions, no meetings where everyone starts at you til you make a decision, no risk of losing your home from the company going into administration, no potential patients dying while your in charge.

Both.

2 hours every night is excessive. Would YOU want to do 2 additional hours of work at home, after a busy day at work? No, you wouldn't.

That being said, the after-school detention is completely justified! She was obviously caught being really rude to the teacher (even if she denies it), so that's tough luck really. She's got an attitude, and needs to stop it.

Personally, I'd sit her down, tell her you're prepared to help her manage/reduce her workload, BUT she needs to do the detention in good grace, and fix the overall attitude.

Difference is, this is a 14 year old kid that you're comparing to an ADULT.

I don't finish work until gone 6. So no. Although I have done when I've had exams. But if I finished at 3.30 then obviously it's not a problem.

Perfectly excellent perspectives