To think that 1-2 hours of revision A DAY is too much for year 7s?

[AsIfIWish]

I've just got a letter from our secondary school, stating that students should be revising "1-2 hours every day, in short 20 min bursts, using the techniques mentioned above." (Honestly, that last bit makes it harder!)

IABU to think that this is too much for year 7s? (Not to mention SEN kids. Mine are undiagnosed, but still.) I'm just not sure when they are supposed to find the time!

(Our circumstances won't be the same as everyone else's, but they are:
They get back from school at 4pm. They are encouraged to do lots of extracurricular activities which they do a fair number of and these take up time on three days after school. They also get a fair chunk of homework that they are expected to do during the week (at a guess, 3-4 hours a week on average, but it takes my kids longer). So there are only two days where they get a full 2 hours between school and tea time, and they can't go straight into school work once they get home, and after that they are often trying to do homework. So, I'm not sure when in the day they are supposed to revise, when they also require a family mealtime, and wind-down time before bed (they still go up at 7:30 but read for 20 mins before going to sleep).)

I'm not ever going to prioritise revision over good sleep or taking time out to de-stress or whatever after school... so I'd be interested to know what other people do at this stage of school.

Mine is only doing 2-3 hours right now for his A-levels and that includes his study periods! In Yr 7 he did no revision at all only any set homework which was maybe a couple of hours a week. He got mostly 9's at GCSE and is predicted A/A star's for A-level.

Do the homework and drop the revision - as long as they understood what they were doing in class. Revision in Yr7 unless they have a test coming up is a waste of their time, they should be out doing extra curricular activities, seeing friends, having fun, chilling, eating and sleeping.

What a miserable life to be at school all day and then doing homework and revising for 2 hours in the evening. Is this a state school?

Seems unreasonable to me. And yes, miserable.

But I would say a 7:30-8pm bedtime is rather early for a Y7 child. My Y6 child reads before bed but has the lights out between 9pm-9.15pm and it’s been that way for at least a year.

Crikey that sounds a lot!
My dd is in yr 8 and I think was only encouraged to do a tiny bit of revision the couple of weeks before yr7 exams
Also she only gets about 2hrs/week max of homework (she does work fairly quickly when she gets down to it but it is rare for her to even spend 2hrs on homework)
perhaps she is getting more that I don’t know about but She’s never received behaviour points for not doing homework so I believe she is completing it all

That just isn’t going to happen OP I wouldn’t worry about it ! If they are doing the homework that’s enough and they can do a bit of revision for any upcoming test . Mine who are yr9 and 10 only do an hour the night before a test but do always do their homework . The bright one is predicted 7/8/9 the less academic 6s

I'd say an hour at the most, but even that seems excessive every night for Year 7. (Also fascinated by the early bedtime though, mine are infant age and often up until 8.30 or 9!)

If it’s just for May-June in prep for exams, not all year round, one hour sounds reasonable. It’s an important skill to learn, to revise independently, to prioritise unpleasant things over fun/relaxing sometimes, and also to pace work and not cram things into the last minute.
(Speaking as a night-before-deadlines person it is a stressful way to live.)

YANBU!

homework for 30 mins to an hour (max!) an night for year 7 - fine. But 1-2 hours revision? What the hell?

Surely being involved in extracurricular activities are much better for them at this stage?

I remember we had to revise for our end of year exams each year of secondary school but that was only for a few weeks in summer. Wouldn’t be expecting 1-2 hours per night every day for the whole year though. That’s nuts 😳

I read this as GCSE revision first, and thought yeh, that's not too unreasonable. But then I realised it was for year 7! That's a lot. 30 mins to an hour on weekdays I would say is fine, but more than an hour is harsh.

1 is fine. 2 is probably a bit much. I've found when they have exams coming up there isn't really much homework - the homework is revising. The end of year exams don't really count for anything at this stage, but I do think it's a good idea to get them in the habit of doing some revision for them, building up to GCSEs

I can't get that much out of my son who has his first GCSE in 2 weeks. That's a lot for year 7

Our year 7-10 are on revision only for homework now their exams are approaching. Year 7 at my school have 1 hour homework allocation per night (usually 3 x 20 mins pieces). Teachers have been told that all homework (since we returned from Easter holiday) is now only to be revision focussed for these year groups until they’ve sat their ‘end of year’ exam which for us all happen prior to May half term. Essentially revision is now their homework, not in addition to homework.

My DS done nothing like that and in year 10 he doesn't! Wouldn't say he has much homework either tbh but some nights there would be zero time for that!

This. close to exams homework often involves doing practice questions/revising for the tests.
If it keeps them off their phones/gaming, so be it. If it's detracting from productive extra curricular activities, less so.

Revision should be the homework. Not on top of normal homework. 1-2 hours a day is normal during assessment week, not on the regular though in year 7.
Even though the assessments don't matter in year 7, it's good for them to practise revising before GCSEs.

My kid is 9 and does 1 hour per day after school. He's done this since reception.

When did all this become the norm? When I was a kid in the 90’s me and my friend would sometimes get shipped off to the local youth club of an evening or be at a friends house for tea (as before/after school wrap around was not a thing back then) Now kids barely have an evening free on a school night.

There was homework but nowhere near 2 hours a night until GCSE years and how much of it got completed was fairly meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

We don't do homework here they spend 6 hours a day 5 days a week at school when they come home that is down time they get home 3:30 ish and go to bed between say 8/9 pm no way am I making them do 2 hours of homework

Wow. this is ridiculous. The transition to secondary is hard enough for most of them, without having this amount of homework/revision. 30-60 minutes per (week)day is enough

DS is year 7 and probably does an hour a week homework? Maybe 2. He has ADHD so any attempts at revision are a real battle but he’s doing ok at school and scoring well in his tests etc. so I am not getting worked up about it. Even an hour of revision a day sounds insane to me and way too much pressure in year 7.

I think they have worded that wrong, the home work should be part of the 1 to 2 hours a day at that age and it doesn't have to be after school. For example if they have homework set for a particular subject on a Thursday and it's not due in till Tuesday it can be done at the weekend if time is tight.

Our geography teacher was great, she used to set us our class and homework at the beginning of the lesson and was up front saying if we did it all in class we had no homework, if we chatted all lesson we would have it all for homework, I never did homework at home from this class. I also used to utilise my lunchtime to get other homework done so I didn't need to do it at home.

There isn't anything to revise for in year 7 unless they set end of year exams as a check on progress....

I really don’t understand why people challenge schools so much. The schools are trying to turn children into successful, well rounded people and must get so fed up of being moaned at all the time.
If my kids get set homework they have to do it ….. simple. Are they mentally damaged by this NO have they gone from bottom sets to top YES!!! Will they turn into happy, well rounded, hard working individuals with a great quality of life when they are older… YES! All thanks to the school system and following their guidance.
I work with young adults a lot with SEN who struggled at school and were allowed to miss homework to play video games instead… they hit 18 all support stops and they have nothing. It’s awful life with very poor outlook often on minimum wage, homeless, drugs, severe mental health.
I would never want my children to experience that life so have to work hard as a parents to support the school take their advice and keep pushing the kids into a comfortable future.

Thats a pretty early bedtime. My ds is 7 and goes to bed at 7.45.

I work in a selective independent school which does end of year exams. If they have these and are expected to revise for them they shouldn't get homework really this half term. So they can use their homework time to revise. They should be making a revision planner in school which takes into account all their extracurricular stuff, but if you also have specific family plans to take into account you might want to help with this.

As a few PP have suggested, it does help them a lot when they get older if they have practised revising and planning their time before exams. I teach a non core subject (which does require a lot of exam revision) and tell them in Year 7 they should revise my subject for 1-2 hours which would be their homework allocation for it anyway that half term (half an hour per week x4). Some do lots more some do lots less - it's all fine.

We can't win with the parents. Some want details of the exams in September with a revision checklist. Some don't want the exams to exist. I'm on the fence!

It's nothing to do with speed. If they say 1-2 hours a day then it's 1-2 hours. Not 20 mins