How long are your primary kids spending on school work each day?

[Juk3]

As of yet we have heard nothing from dd2 primary, I checked with one if friends mum to make sure I wasn't missing something and she confirmed she has heard nothing either. I'm hoping there is something going on behind the scenes that we are unaware of and will get something soon but if last lockdown is anything to go by it will be TTRS and reading. So how much are your primary children doing each day? Dd is year 4, I purchased scholastic workbooks for last week but not sure how long is realistic for her to work on each one.

My son probably does about 3-4 hours at the moment. My daughter the minimum she can get away with. It can take 2 hours to get through the maths as she can struggle with the concepts, and then she drags things out. For example, on Friday she had to write six sentences using similes. She spent a lot of time slumping on her desk and whinging which made it a long-drawn out process. So far we have focused on Maths, English and a bit of French (DS does Memrise), will probably skip RE and try and do a little science or knowledge.

The school upload separate lessons for each day. There is a short video explanation from the teacher, a PowerPoint presentation and some worksheets or suggested activities/tasks.

Thank you so much @RuleWithAWoodenFoot that is extremely helpful. I am hoping that we will get some form of contact from school this week otherwise it really will be a poor show. I think another week of no communication/work set is possibly acceptable under the circumstances but after that my patience with be wearing thin with them. Of course there could be a valid reason such as the teacher being unwell with covid so unable to upload lesson etc but if it is something like that I think it should still be communicated to parents as the class has no idea what's going on and possibly even paper worksheets distributed to the class or another staff member could upload something.

peachcherries

You need a weekend! The school has sent out enough to make sure no one will run out. That's not to say every child is ready to do it all. Children get through different amounts at school and home is no different.

RuleWithAWoodenFoot

OP, sorry to jump on the thread with a question for this poster.

Singapore Maths and White Rose Maths-are they basically the same thing?! We've gone for Singapore as it's similar to our online learning programmes but I've just looked at the links you've helpfully posted and they're so very similar. I just wonder if we've missed a trick as Singapore doesn't have the lovely videos. Thanks.

As other pp said, remember, they don't do solid back to back learning in class but also, your 1:1,help when they need it, is bespoke learning.
It's high, high quality it really is.
So don't panic too much, keep wheels turning.

We are year 3 and probably doing an hour in total, that's 20 min reading thing they post from oak academy, maths, her school reading book, spellings. We do little bursts in the day when I can as I am wfh also.

Not much work at all been given here for my youngest dd in yr 5 at state primary. I have resorted to asking my DS 's A level maths tutor if she can spend a hour every fortnight with her, I can't afford any more tutoring for her at the moment. No live lessons-3 quick things set each morning on google classroom, nothing to hand in, no feedback, marks it herself. Takes dd roughly 10 mins to do each so half an hour in total, not sure this is what the D of E were suggesting at all for this lockdown. To be honest theres not much point in even bothering-rather pissed off as other years are getting live lessons. Youngest dd and her classmates are very unmotivated and spend the morning face timing each other. If things don't change next week I will have to e mail the school- most of the other parents in dd's class have already but I wanted to give the teachers a week or so to sort it out.

DS 5yrs in year 1

School upload a timetable of lessons at 8.30 each morning, phonics, reading, writing, maths, pe, topic and then a video of a teacher reading a story. We start at 9am do phonics and reading then have a 15min break, do writing, 10min break, maths, PE then stop for an hour to have lunch. Do the topic work and watch the story video then finish at about 2.45pm

Reception child doing up to about 1 hour per day- she's not really engaged to be honest. Spends the rest of the day playing with her Legos or helping out around the house. I really worry about her falling behind academically.

Full school day have to be logged on at 845 and finish at three following normal school timetable, all 'live teaching.

The school have stepped up massively from first time round where they got a couple of twinkl sheets a week.

DS is in year 1 and they get set an English, Maths and Topic (art, PE, RE, DT, Geography or History) lesson a day. He has one phonics live lesson a week plus another live lesson which is usually just a chat with the teacher. We try to do spelling practice and reading every day plus a bit of reading eggs and a bit of Numbots. We try to get it all done in the morning as younger son is only in preschool until 1/2pm.

Singapore Maths and White Rose Maths-are they basically the same thing?!

They both are about 'mastery', so sort of similar - fluency, reasoning and problem solving in the same lesson. Personally I like the White Rose stuff - we're using the videos for when a child can't attend a live session. The explanations are great on them. For my class I'm talking over the same powerpoint, but giving them time to go and try stuff so we can discuss it if they haven't got it.

Over the last lockdown we bought them all a work book and then made videos and did marking sessions linked to those work books. White Rose is better. They can do it straight into a squared paper book, no need for loads of printing. Doesn't look as pretty, but the maths is there.

Should add that my year 1 child is getting 3 videos and a live morning slot and afternoon slot a day. We're not doing the maths video they are sending, we're doing our own thing because I made it all posh looking for her. The rest is fine.

This isn't 'homeschool', this is 'emergency education', loads of kids are going to miss out, and by making all schools keep up to a curriculum, the gaps are going to grow even wider. We won't be able to repeat this stuff, so what happens to the kids who had two parents WFH, two siblings and no time?

@peachcherries

My yr 2 daughter has a ridiculous about of work to do, probably enough to last from 9 - 3 everyday, but there is no chance I can do that with her and remain sane. I've decided we will spread the work over 7 days and do 3 hours max a day.

That’s mad - you don’t need to finish it all! Do three hours a day Monday-Friday.

RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Thanks for your response. I teach phonics so this is a fascinating look into the other core subjects! The videos are wonderful. I agree this is so hard for children who aren't recieving receiving help. I can only think she hope the material will have to be repeated.

My 5 year old is in year 1 and her school aren't providing any live or pre recorded teaching sessions. We've just got a programme of work for the next 6 weeks with suggested activities, links to lessons with Oak academy and have been told to look on twinkle or Oxford owl for ideas. It's very much down to the parents and I don't feel it's good enough, as we aren't teachers at the end of the day. I feel they should be doing more.

Weve got 4 lessons a day. Each has about 20min talking (but they reepeat so much and some of it she knows already) then an exercise. I cant face 4 hours of "school " so she just answers some of it out loud rather than writing.

Im not sure this is the best use of time but I dont want to miss anything.

Last lockdown we focused on reading and keeping up with mymaths but otherwise did our own thing and she wasn't behind as she luckily picks things up quickly.

This feels a bit trudgy.

We are watching dr xand and chris live at 2.30 each day with accompanying video. She's learning lots!

And a daily walk which take a couple of hours by the time weve sorted loo, hats, faff etc.

Dd is Y2 - we have a 30/40min long phonics lesson via Zoom every day. Then maths, English, and something else (such as science, geography etc) every day. Probably around 2 hours work set on top of the Zoom each day.

Meant to say mine is yr 4.

I think if I had an infant school child I'd focus on play and topics we were interested in, some reading and some simple number. And any social zoom. I wouldn't worry so much. But that might be because I've been through that stage so am confident I could actively "homeschool" by having fun rather than worksheets!

I'm astounded that you haven't heard anything at all from your child's school.
How can that be?!

My DD is 4 and in Reception. She is young in the year (end of july). I manage maybe an hour to two hours. We play with play doh, do drawing, I also let her play cbeebies and reading games on my phone. I have a 10 week old baby too so it's not easy to balance. I just hope I'm doing enough and she doesnt fall behind.

Mine is y4.
Been set White rose maths spring week 1
And oak the borrowers

Both free

1 English 1 maths 1 phonics/reading 1 topic session each day with the odd other task thrown in. My y6 dc sessions and work set has been longer than my Y1 dc but that's to be expected given the age difference. Y1 is also having at least 1 1-1 reading session each week with the teacher or TA over Teams

@CallmeAngelina

I'm astounded that you haven't heard anything at all from your child's school. How can that be?!

I was thinking the same?? By Tuesday night we'd had work packs dropped through the door, log in details for Teams provided and a million dojo messages informing us of what will happen from the following day. Lessons or tasks set on dojo started 9am the next day.

We have a full day's timetable and lots of work but nothing live and not set up for the kids to access it or do it alone so the onus is on parents to be involved, really.