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Original poster

Homework for year 3 ds

24 replies

ChunkyKitKat · 21/10/2009 22:33

I am interested to know what others think about the amount of homework their dc are given.

My ds is given homework each week, and he is also told to learn spellings. The school are following guidelines from the DCSF that it is 1 and a half hours per week. IMO it is too much, after a day at school he would rather relax and play.

The worst thing I can do is turn him off education by pushing too hard. I didn't have homework until secondary school, and certainly didn't have to learn spellings at 7.

OP posts:

seekinginspiration · 22/10/2009 09:20

Lots of people agree with you and in reality the quick children will be able to do the work in far less the one and a half hours per week. My experience is they start off with masses of home work at this time of year and it tales off. We always did all the home work and more besides and as you will see from my query today DD1 still did not get the C in the English GCSE. Despite being predicted B grades for both English and getting B in the mock exam, which makes no sense to me. It is worth doing the homework with your dc because you hopefully can make school work fun. My DD is a brilliant speller but hated and still hates poetry.

ABitBatty · 22/10/2009 09:25

My DS2 is in year 3 and he gets loads of homework IMO. He had 25 spellings to learn for Friday, really hard words like 'responsibility'. He also has a maths book that they have to work through on a Wednesday and topic homework on a Thursday. Two reading books on top of that. We struggle fitting it all in as he is at the After School Club til 5.30pm/6pm then when we get home it's straight into tea and then bedtime. It seems far more than what DS1 had at that age too.

clop · 22/10/2009 09:45

Parents at our school revolted and the homework was dramatically slashed after that. DD (also yr3) did all of hers for the week in about 20 minutes yesterday.

What happened is the school did a questionaire consultation with all parents about how the school was run, any general concerns they had. Following on from that the school set up a parents' forum which met (or maybe still meets) termly to discuss issues related to parents' concerns. Homework was the topic for the first forum (and heated the discussion was). Uniform was the last topic.

Anyway, just laying that out process, if anyone wants to stage a revolt at their own school! I imagine you'd have to get the governors on board to get the consultation process started.

stressystressed · 22/10/2009 19:30

just for comparison - my yr3 ds gets one mini project type task (show me what you know about......) linked to what they have done during the week, plus spellings, plus times tables. And reading every day of course. He copes.

Hulababy · 22/10/2009 19:41

DD is in Y3. She gets homework every night.

Monday: spelling - 14 words to learn; so far not been difficult; test is the following Monday

Tuesday: French; normally 3 or 4 small tasks; takes about 10 minutes

Wednesday: Maths homework; again 10 minute task at most so far

Thursday: Engligh; 10-15 min at most

Friday/Weekeend: general knowledge type task - takes a bit longer sometimes, no more than 15-20 min though to date

DD is also expected to read for 10-20 minutes per night. Part of this should be out loud to a parent to pratise fluency and expression when reading aloud to an audience and he rest can be to herself.

DD also gets weekly homework from her literacy support teacher (she has some dyslexic tendancies linked to writing) which takes about 10 minutes max.

This all seems very managable so far and fits in fine with her music practise and other activities.

Takver · 22/10/2009 19:42

My dd is in yr 3 - so far she has had homework 4 times

2 x written tasks that took about 15 minutes (and would I think have taken many of the children in her year about 5 mins, but dd really struggles with writing)

twice tasks that involved collecting things, she spent quite a while on them but having fun IYSWIM, she could have completed the task much more quickly had she wanted.

I don't see the need for more - surely they spend enough hours in school already . . .

She also brings home a reading book each day, but I must confess that we rarely read it (she reads fluently, and has eyesight problems, so is meant to be doing as little close work as possible out of school time).

Last year she had no homework beyond a reading book home, and the occasional 'project' ('make a castle out of cardboard') which was fine by me.

stressystressed · 22/10/2009 20:54

takver and hula - private or state?

Takver · 22/10/2009 21:04

State and in Wales - much more chilled than England from what I hear, no KS1 SATS, more learning through play and they seem to put less focus at least in dd's school on early reading and writing, probably because most of the children are coming in from English speaking homes so have to start out by learning Welsh.

carocaro · 22/10/2009 21:37

Year 3 here too, they get projects to do in the term, from a soil experiment with a write up, story writing, a combination of a few things inc maths sheets, a book each day and weekly spellings.

I like the fact you get all the main stuff at the start of term and you can work at your own pace.

Hulababy · 22/10/2009 21:38

stressystressed - private; in England

stressystressed · 22/10/2009 21:46

Hula - did they get homework from reception class??

Fivesetsofschoolfees · 22/10/2009 21:53

I have a DD in Year 3 and she gets loads of homework.

She does 45 minutes of prep in school every day, but usually still has work to do at home.

She has English (reading, spelling, comprehension, composition...) and maths, and then on top of that, history, geography, science and French.

She does, on average, 30 minutes at home.

I don't mind my DD having this much homework. It is better than endless episodes of Just Carly and H20.

Hulababy · 22/10/2009 22:17

stressystressed:

In reception here was daily reading and weekend homework. Weekend homework was a "busy book" where they could either draw a picture or write about something - their weekend, a book review, a story, etc. (their choice)

In Y1: weekly spelling (6 spellings, week to learn), daily reading, one Maths and one engligh homework a week - 10 mins each.

In Y2: weekly spelling (8-10 a week); daily reading; one other homework most nights - took 5-10 mins max. (spelling counted as one homework)

Hulababy · 22/10/2009 22:18

Fivesets - 1 hour 15 mins of homework a night at age 7!!! There is no way DD could ever fit this in, as well as other extra curricular activities.

Takver · 23/10/2009 10:46

I much prefer my dd having only small amounts of homework - my feeling is that the other stuff she does out of school is at the least equally valuable to her development/education than more of the stuff that she's already doing all day in school.

DailyMailNameChanger · 23/10/2009 10:50

I feel strongly that homework should be for secondary school with a concession that having a small amount in year 6 is a good way to ease them into it.

At 7yo it is still a very long day of formal learning and I see no reason why they cannot be taught what they need to know within those hours. I don't mind reading with them - but I do that anyway. What possible justification is there for taking up their own free time doing more of the same? I cannot see what purpose it serves.

DailyMailNameChanger · 23/10/2009 10:54

Fivesets, instead of it being 11/2hr homework or iCarly couldn't it be 1.5hr or dancing/gym/brownies/friends house/horse riding/golf/time with mum/baking ....erm, well, just about anything else. The options are not as opposed to each other as you think and all of the above options have their own value, watching tv is under your control. Variety is the spice of life - especially for a 7yo. It is very important IMO.

FrightsMonth · 23/10/2009 11:05

"Children should spend 20-25 minutes on homework every evening" is the Y3 approach here. Maths twice a week, 15 spellings and an English comprehension, plus geography/history once a week. And reading, of course.
DS1 knocks out the maths and english in about 10 minutes, learns spellings over the weekend (I have whiteboard in kitchen with everyone's spellings, and randomly ask the DC to spell something). Tend to spend a bit longer on history/geography because it may involve some research or activity, and is usually quite interesting.
He rarely reads the school books though, because he is a total bookworm and reads in bed every night anyway.

Fivesetsofschoolfees · 24/10/2009 17:15

Hula,

My DD does most of her prep at school - with all the other prep school kids. It's just normal to her.

At home, her siblings are doing their prep, so again, it is just normal life.

What is the alternative for her? She gets home at around 5.30pm and goes to bed around 8.30pm (probably late for her age, I agree). In that three hours, she has prep, supper, chores, piano practice and personal hygiene. Plenty time for 15 - 30 minutes of prep, and still time for TV and play.

I do wonder about the expectations of homework haters of children who are home shortly after 3pm. Is it really better to watch TV than do reading? Why do these parents value passive activities more.

Certainly when I was a child, a thousand years ago, we have very limited TV, so homework was what we did in the evening.

Fivesetsofschoolfees · 24/10/2009 17:19

DMNC,

My DD does Brownies - but it is just once a week. She does a lot of activities - ballet, modern dance, piano - at school, during the normal day. She also has a full programme of after school clubs. She does, however, help me at home with cooking and other chores. She has so many siblings that she doesn't need to see the people she is with all day long in the evening too.

She is still unfazed by homework. It is an expectation that she simply accepts as a part of normal life. Fortunately, no one has told her that it is a drag, so she doesn't feel that way.

foxinsocks · 24/10/2009 17:20

ds (yr3) gets one worksheet a week (so maths or literacy). Normally takes him about 15 mins

then he has spellings but it's just him having to look up 5 words in the dictionary and then write a sentence with the word

and that's it

it's a state school with good results but they don't seem to believe in a lot of homework which is great

foxinsocks · 24/10/2009 17:21

actually, it's not only maths or literacy. Last week he had to write about something he found fascinating to do with the Egyptians (which he loves!)

foxinsocks · 24/10/2009 17:24

(oh and it's all given so that they get around a week to do it)

ProfessorLaytonIsMyZombieSlave · 24/10/2009 17:25

At DS's school they have a reading book to take home every day but apart from that they work on the basis of Y1 hildren getting 20-30 minutes of homework once a week, Y2 children twice a week and Y3 children three times a week. So in Y3 it would be reading plus somewhere between an hour and and hour and a half homework a week.

I don't really approve of homework but at least this doesn't sound too bad.

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