Is anyone not going to do the homework primary schools set?

[M0recakeplease]

I have two primary aged children (5&7). Before the Easter holiday a little bit of work was set and that was manageable.

Now they know that schools are closed for the foreseeable our school has just sent out a big list for each year group to get through weekly with daily activities for maths and English (less so for reception - just reading, letter formation and a few bits).

My DD is a summer born year 3, and more of a creative than academic child. She’s also very sensitive and quite young for her age (sucks her thumb still and very into princesses/role play). Whenever we do work, as soon as she gets one thing wrong she starts to cry and wants to give up. She also is not very good at listening when I try to explain the task - I lose my patience and then feel guilty.

I don’t want her to fall behind but it seems very stressful for her (& me), & does it really matter at this age?

She misses routine, friends, GP’s and school so much this just seems to be another stress that could be avoided.

[Mumalu]

I'm not doing "school work" we haven't been sent packs just ideas like reading cooking etc and the obvious apps/sites we are reading always doing arts and crafts puzzles etc where we stand right now as long as their brains are working on something that's not a screen and keeping up basic skills that's perfectly fine

[M0recakeplease]

Thanks for all of your replies. and @Year6teacher754 - thank you for sharing that too!

I think we are all just having a bad day. A month in and no sign of let up yet....tmrw is another day!

We start with Joe most days which is a good way to begin. I think I’ll just have to take each day as it comes and make the most on when she’s having a less emotional day. Luckily she’s always been a strong reader, it’s more maths and spellings. As soon as I see her getting frustrated I’ll change what we are doing. Hopefully normal life will be able to resume soon.

[barnabybenny]

Focus on work which she finds easy and praise, praise, praise. This time shouldn't be about teaching and learning as such, it should be about building confidence so that when schools resume our children feel enthusiastic about going back and able to tackle anything.

Don't do anything that makes your DD feel like she's a failure, school work can wait.

[Carlislemumof4]

There's a lot of pressure coming from my children's primary which I really don't need tbh. Trying to keep that at arms length and ensure we keep up a good daily routine with some Maths, English and Science plus plenty of reading every day (books to pass down between four DCs so lots of reading material for the next few months, Harry Potter, Famous Five and Worst Witch at mo!)

Start off at 9 with PE with Joe live every morning then go out in the garden for a short time. Do another of Joe's five minute move workouts after lunch to start the afternoon.

The websites their teachers set short tasks on include Developing Experts for science (love that site), purplemash for English Maths and Science, Spelling Shed, TTrockstars and Numbots for Maths. They're completing all that, taking it in turns on the laptop they share.

Youngest brought some Abacus Maths workbooks home for the summer term we're working through, eldest two using White Rose Maths home learning page (brilliant) which they follow in school. They have reading comprehension and SPAG set, we're doing some of it. Quality over quantity, trying to ensure they understand the basics of a topic and really learn something rather than rush through.

School are setting a topic each week (Spring, local city etc.), we're choosing an art activity for that each time.

I'm very interested in the BBC Bitesize homelearning that's just launched, planning to look at particularly the Science and History lessons alongside again doing bits of what school are setting but not all. It's too much!

[Winter2020]

I think to make the best use of the time without stressing everybody out your daughter could use this time to learn her times tables (using games/apps so it doesn't feel like work) and lots of reading for pleasure - taking turns with her to read out loud from her favourite books (even better if you can chat about what you read). I think if you only did those things but did them (nearly) every day then she would feel the benefit later.

[PhantomErik]

I've got a yr6, yr5 & yr3 & it's pretty hard going.

The yr6 works pretty independantly but because we only have 1 laptop (they have kindles but not easy to work from) I have to print the worksheets & resources first.

Yr5 is very academic but is hard to engage at home so needs more 1-1 to stay motivated.

Yr3 is summer born & it really shows with him. He is below the expected level at the moment & needs 1-1 to do the work but is fairly keen.

DH is still working as normal (essential services) so it's mostly down to me.

It takes about an hour to print & organise the work everyday & then it's a juggling act to support all the DC.

I'm marking or checking the work & then photographing it & messaging it to the appropriate teachers.

We're doing the maths & literacy first where possible & then french, science, topic work etc

I'm finding it hard to squeeze in housework & feeding everyone! I'm VERY glad I don't have to try & work myself as well. No idea how working parents are coping!

I was loving lockdown (not the reasons obviously!) but I feel like it's getting harder.

[Livedandlearned]

We're just muddling along doing what we can, like we always have done. None of mine are academic but have done well nonetheless, they are more practical than studious.

If the school don't like it they can come along whilst I'm doing my 12.5 shifts and take over.

I actually think learning at home in their own time has been more effective than learning in a classroom situation, obviously this is only based on my dcs school.

[TubereuseNordlys]

As a Year 6 teacher, I can tell you that the levels of engagement in my class differ wildly, and I don't mind at all. Everybody's in different circumstances, doing their best.

[ChiaraRimini]

It's really bloody hard to be suddenly thrown into home Ed. I am readjusting my expectations to think this is not home school, it's just like longer homework. DD (year 4) can't concentrate for very long and gets really stressed if she can't do something, she seems to take it really personally...I don't get the impression she is like this in school at all.

[DICarter1]

I’ve got a year 6, year 5 and year 2 child. The year 5 and year 2 child both have autism. My year 6 child is doing a lot of work on his own, year 5 child is struggling so we’re doing a mix and year 2 child is in a specialist school so we’re doing some stuff but it’s not typical work like the mainstream send home. I’m also working and my dh is little to no help between 9-5pm and is working his typical hours. I’m just doing my best. I do feel guilty that we’re being rubbish but I’m doing as much as I can.

[GinAndTonicNeeded]

This is the message sent by our fabulous Head teacher. The school is outstanding in every way. We are so lucky and feel supported and understood.

We are doing bits, but this made us feel so much happier.

[Stellaris22]

@Year6teacher754 that's a fantastic response and made me feel a lot better.

Our school (mine is Y2) has only just started sending out activities and stressed not to worry about completing it.

We're going to do what we can, but mostly I love having activities set by her teacher as I'm clueless as to what we should be doing.

[BriefDisaster]

We are doing the work that is set but I think it is a reasonable amount and DS thrives with routine (whether he know is or not!).

We still manage garden time, screen time etc.

DS is 6 and lots of the tasks set are 'fun' learning like wordsearches, word snap, multiplication floor lines etc.

There are lots of videos on BBC bitesize and lots of educational apps available that she might prefer if she doesn't like the work that school sets?

Failing that I really don't think that a couple of months off will have too much damage at that age.

[bingowingsmcgee]

No. No intentions of getting mine to do school-set work. They have workbooks for 11+ prep, which we're working through, and as and when they find something tricky we will give it some attention. The work school have set is clearly fillers, which is understandable and fine, but I don't feel it will harm them at all to be doing something different so long as their brains are still working.

[LoisLittsLover]

I'm picking and choosing as the work being set is not differentiated as just being published on the hr generic school website (not a moan, just stating what ours are doing) as such, most of it is far too easy for dd so I am adding extension tasks or trying to extend it in other ways. I do think that all children should be reading daily as well as attempting some of it as at this stage we don't know how long the schools will be off, and expecting them to do all the catching off because you haven't done anything is unreasonable imo. Yes your child may be creative but you can still use this to teach her things

[Thesispieces]

I work from home. My year 6 and secondary children are set work in line with normal school timetable (by the school). We follow timetable. Break for lunch. Continue in afternoon; I mark work at set intervals (Between meetings) and try to be on hand to answer questions / help with research. It’s exhausting; but I do believe it’s my duty to educate my children and keep up with curriculum and beyond. We are BAME so (sadly) it has always been instilled in us we have to work twice as hard in order to get the same result. We don’t have the luxury of falling behind or even staying on par with our peers. We also are very sporty and normally highly competitive in chosen sport; so DH job is to maintain our fitness which we do in the form of games/ cycling/ weight training etc in the early evenings. The kids seem to be enjoying the structure.

[Aroundtheworldin80moves]

Maths yes. Reading- doing our own instead with books we have at home. Guided reading- elder DD has been set a book she read last year at her old school, so might chose another. Younger DD might enjoy hers.

Topic work.... Younger DD seems to be repeating a topic she did at her old school, so might do elder DDs with both.

Both quite liked Bitesize daily this morning.

[mindutopia]

Ours haven't asked for any specific work to be done, though are sending through learning resources and asking us to keep in touch about anything we're doing. We are doing what we can on our own and I've organised work for her to do every day and we mostly keep to that. But school has been incredibly flexible about expectations and also understanding that most of us are also still working full time and have young (nursery age) children and babies at home too. If they sent specific work and it looked interesting, I'd have her do it. But no way would I be stressing about their deadlines. I am a lecturer at a fairly elite uni. Even we are being more flexible and understanding of our students than that and can use a lot of discretion in marking and setting work to be done this term. I honestly can't be bothered to stress about my 7 year submitting school work. She's fine. She'll get back to it when everything gets back on track, but in the meantime, my goal is just to keep things ticking over so she doesn't lose ground and still learns a few interesting things. But I'd rather no one be stressed about it.

[Pluckedpencil]

The headteacher who sent the original message on this thread is fantastic. What a great message. We are both WFH full time and the way they are sending the work is so un-user friendly, loads of pieces of handwritten text photographed they have to just copy out in a really boring format from a mobile phone screen. They are being real Nazis about deadlines too and only communicate the deadline on Sunday night at 7.30pm and we have to upload specific pieces of it from a child's email address to three different teacher's email addresses by the next day at 5pm. Meaning working parents have to do it after 7.30pm on a Sunday night. This is all as they are worried we will only do the work they ask to be sent though. I.e. no trust. And this is for an 8 year old. We have been told if they don't do it, we will be reported to the governors or some such nonsense. Two three hour online lessons a week, badly planned and dull. A whimper of complaint is met with histrionics. I could scream.

[BadgersBum]

Our head (who I don't especially like but that's another story) has said it's compulsory on the letter which was sent through the post, along with his exercise books and details of how to download an app. where they'll be posting work starting today.

DH and I are both still working and juggling childcare between us so we'll just see how DS (Year 6 so not much longer to put up with her) gets on with it. I don't think the SENDCo is too impressed by how things have been done.

[catsandlavender]

Also can she try teaching you some of the stuff she knows at school? Sorry if this seems like I’m saying you should be doing work, I really don’t mean that. I just mean if you want to keep things ticking over there’s lots of fun and positive ways you can do it without the formal homework and keeping stress low for both of you as long as she’s feeling happy and safe though I would honestly not fret.

[catsandlavender]

I’m putting together home learning packs and personally I think there’s too much in them. I’m a trainee currently, nearly qualified so I’m doing what I’m told by my mentors basically.
You know your DC best and honestly do what you think is best. Sounds like she needs a lot of TLC and time to play. Do some role play with her! KS2 children need a lot of this and none is offered at school.

Obviously I would say as a teacher do try to maybe practice her times tables in a fun way, why don’t you do it too and get it wrong and model dealing with the mistake, “oh DD I got that muddled! Times tables can be so confusing, let me try again...” etc.

Does she enjoy writing? Can you do some practical maths together like adding up the shopping list? Would she write a princess story?

In term of formal homework though.. I wouldn’t worry.

[Makeitgoaway]

The Director of Education from our LA has sent a letter to parents today that says all the work parents are doing to support the Covid effort is greatly appreciated. If parents can keep their children physically and mentally safe and a bit active they're doing a great job. Not to worry about not being able to compensate for the closed schools and that schools will work tirelessly to close any gaps once reopened.

[museumum]

We are both working so school tasks are good as we don’t have to plan or organise. Ds benefits from a bit of time that’s not just free play. Our school is on inset today but prior to the holidays just sent spelling words for the week and daily a suggested numeracy game, a writing prompt and a creative project idea. Maybe an hour or two at most per day.

[Year6teacher754]

@RoseGoldEagle

Yes I agree. It was a fab message. He's a very involved headteacher, not one of those who just hide in their offices.