Year 7 homework quality expectations?

[Spud90]

Hi all!

My son has started in year 7 and has had some bits of homework including 2 pieces of written homework. It wasn't hard homework but the quality of his work seems so poor. He didn't get much homework at primary and when he did it was online maths so this is new for us. He's a bright kid and got greater depth in his SATs but his presentation and handwriting has always been a struggle. He's suspected ADHD and I'm trying to get him assessed. We're also on the waiting list for testing for Irlen syndrome at a university.

Here's a photo of his Florence Nightingale timeline so you can see what I mean. It's creased because I made him do it again and I fished this out of his paper bin. He said the first one took him 30 minutes. I had to talk him through it including drawing boxes with a ruler even though I did the same on his last piece of homework. It took us 10 minutes to redo it and it looked so much better and he was really pleased with it.

Did I do the right thing making him start over? Should I be expecting better quality homework? Is it laziness or possibly due to additional needs? Should I just leave him to it?

Thanks!

In Year 7, I'd be trying to leave him to it as much as possible and let him crack on with all homework himself, unless he asks for help. If the teacher thinks it's messy or needs re-doing they'll ask him to do it again!
Just remind him his teachers want to see his best work - not the quickest piece of work he can do.

I don't have any experience with ADHD though so not sure what effect that could have on his work / being able to manage his homework himself.

I work with this age group and that would be at the lower end of quality I would expect in terms of presentation.
I think you were right to go through it again with him - a lot of children especially ones with additional needs just do not understand what is being asked of them or expected . You have shown him now about using a ruler etc you can make it look much better so hopefully he will have learnt for next time .
I agree it's important to foster independence with homework at this age but alot of children (sen and nt) will need abit of support and guidance in year 7 - it's a big change from primary and they need help with the organisation and skills required .
Also it's great he was then pleased with what he had produced - being proud of his efforts is so important to build confidence rather than being handed back a piece of work that the teacher will say is not up to standard .

The teacher, who probably teaches multiple Y7 classes and has only been teaching them for less than a month wouldn't necessarily identify that that is well below what your DS is capable of doing. A good question to ask your DS would maybe be 'What would your Y6 teacher have said about that work?' as he would be very familiar with their expectations of him.

Y7s are getting to grips with a lot of things at the moment, including lots of different teachers. I would expect them to need a bit of handholding with homework and organisation at home to start with, just because it's all so new to them.

I found with my ds he took the easiest possible rroute at that age and got into a lot of trouble until he finally copped on. He genuinely couldn't see why the teacher cared about presentation if aallthe information was here. He did have traces of dyspraxia and worked far better on a laptop. Drawing lines and making it look nice was actually quite stressful for him.
My dd on the other hand could have spent an hour making that look amazing.