How does your secondary schooler manage homework/revision at home?

[evtheria]

Have a DC going into secondary school, coming from a primary that had no homework besides spelling lists and a reading (for leisure) record.

I’ve googled ways to organise homework, how to instill good habits etc. But what has genuinely worked for your kids? How do they organise their assignments?

I personally got away with doing everything last minute when I was in high school (excepting manually elaborate things like art projects, of course) and getting top grades, but I can’t tell my child this! This is also the reason I feel I don’t know what a realistic healthy routine is.

Specific details that may affect situation are: a late arrival home on weekdays, a child who can’t self-regulate screentime*, who flourishes under the eye of other teachers but hates me helping/explaining anything, and has poor timekeeping and executive function. Sounding familiar to anyone? 🙏

Thanks in advance to anyone who can share their experiences, and hopefully this helps others in a similar boat.

* I mention this in case someone has a foolproof method of using it as a straight-out bribe incentive. We have strict screentime limits but I worry hearing “everything will be on apps”.

Almost all of the homework at my son's secondary is online quizzes, My Maths, spelling tests, comprehension and a science based website. He's literally has two pieces of homework that he had to produce a physical piece work for this year. There are knowledge organiser sheets to fill in for Science sometimes.

One of my dds is at the end of year 7. She also got very little homework at primary school.

i allow her to self regulate homework as much as possible. If she messes up and forgets she might get detention but it’ll make her much more likely to remember next time! We limited screen time on her device to 30 mins. She can request more via our phones once homework is done.

I also only let her go out with friends to the park if homework is up to date.

It may seem quite strict but I’m hoping all this will mean she’s reasonably self disciplined by the time it gets to exam years!

Edited to add that all her homework is on an app so both she and I can see exactly what hasn’t been done. I don’t actually know what most of her homework is though as I leave her to it unless her grades slip

You provide a suitable space for him to do it, give him a snack 2hen he gets home and then send him ONCEe to do it and then let him get on with it. If he doesn't do it let him take the consequences. Let him take ownership of it!

The best method is to let your child find out for themselves what works for them.

I had one child who did homework meticulously every evening, generally going above and beyond what was required and filed it all off into separate folders.

The other child did the bare minimum, unless it was a subject that interested him and generally left it until the last minute. After the first time when he found you can't do 4 pieces of homework and go to a 2 hour club all in the same evening, he also got better at forward planning.

Any schedules/systems I tried to impose went out the window.

I agree with other posters saying it's most important to make sure they have a suitable space and all materials needed. And keep an eye on the online planner - if they do seem to be missing homework, that's when you can have a chat about why and how to improve.

We had a homework time slot. which was agreed with them before they started secondary. I was home and able to guide them but basically they came home, got changed, snack and drink with a chat about their day then homework. If they didn't have any homework then they had to engage in widening their knowledge so whatever was taking their interest in the myriad of subjects they could learn around that. This was basically Youtube content. No tech until that time slot was over because it would have been rushed shitty homework to game their eyes out.

They had a noticeboard with their homework written on the day it was due in with a date too so they could prioritise homework that was due in first. We could see it, they could see it as it wasn't just hidden in their planner.

School also did a whole evening on good resources and shit ones (wiki) and how many they expected them to look at to confirm facts or get more information from. Plus how long each piece of homework should take and if they were struggling with that there was a homework club they could attend every night after school.

After homework they were then allowed tech (gaming) until they were needed to help with dinner whether that was prepping food or just setting the table. Then some family tv/board game/cards and then off to game again. Worked well for us, high achieving children in top unis for their subjects.

My advice, homework to be done where you can keep an eye and without their phone and you to guide them if needed, read over what they have done as you are signing their homework diary. They never took their school pencil cases out of their bags at home, we had everything here they would need and as the school pencil case has essential equipment in it which they are punished if they don't have, that never happened. They also had a second pencil case in their school bag with coloured pencils, maths equipment and spares for all their essential items that way when some tosser nicked their coloured pen and put in a commercial sized bin whilst telling your child they had done it your child doesn't get in trouble for not having that pen in the next lesson.

Timetable printed out where they do their homework and on the back of the front door. Bag emptied on return from school and all books into drawers/folders/ magazine files. That way they can grab Tuesday's books check them against the timetable and are sorted.

Carabiner hook to attach their PE kit bag to their rucksack so they don't leave it under the desk in any lesson. Set them up for success and regular table chats where they could ask for stuff, air any grievances and negotiate too.

My Dd is also starting in September, I have made an agreement with her that once she gets home at about four(She finishes at 3:33). That will give her time to get home, she can have 15 minutes to get a snack and a drink and then she is to do any homework between 4:15-5ish . Once she’s done then she won’t have anything else to think about, she seems to like that idea, as she doesn’t want her homework hanging over her for the week. But…we’ll see…

I ask if she's done her homework each day when I get home but otherwise I leave it up to her but she's been trained since the beginning of primary as she always had homework nearly every day. She actually says she gets less homework in upper school than she did in primary. When she was in primary and started getting homework I let her have a snack first when she got home, then she had to do her homework before she could do anything else but not sure that would work with a secondary age child (though I do remember a friend having that rule in secondary school and abiding it, even when she had friends over). A bad grade in one exam helped reinforce the need to study properly too.

Wow - there’s a lot of great advice here, and some tips I feel would definitely suit us. Thank you!

Routine is important.

When our DS first started secondary, we imposed a rule that he did his written homework on the dining table straight after our evening meal. Once it was done, he was "free" to do whatever he wanted. At first, that was fine as he wasn't getting "big" homeworks like long projects etc. He basically did his homework on the day it was set, regardless of when it had to be handed in. For test revision, we'd quick-fire questions at him in the lounge afterwards, i.e. MFL vocab etc. For longer projects/essays etc, he'd usually get a week to do them, so we tended to do them over the weekend - again, we'd make him sit at the table and "just do it" whether half an hour or a couple of hours. It was ALL about getting him into good habits right from the start.

After the first few weeks, we pulled back and let him do his own thing, set him up with his own decent desk in his bedroom with laptop, printer, etc. He still mostly did all the short/written stuff on the dining table after tea, but would do the longer projects in his bedroom, and he'd set up his own "quizlets" on his phone for test revision that he could do say sat on the loo or on the bus to school in the morning etc.

Right through 7 years of secondary, he "self regulated" and didn't need us to push or prod him after those first few weeks - he'd just got into the habit of doing it, and he had somewhere suitable to do it. He still tended to do the short homeworks on the day he got them right through to sixth form, leaving weekends and holidays for the bigger/longer stuff.

@evtheriajust wondering how your child is getting on after all these tips? I’m currently at a loss with my son. He’s moved from getting nothing (except reading) for homework at primary school to now getting lots of (not massive pieces, but probably 30mins a night worth) homework at secondary and it is painful getting him to do it. He has long days - where he has high level sports training after school 3 out of 5 days and while I don’t want to do this to him I’m thinking might have to say he can’t do as much training anymore (despite it being his dream to get to national level and he has a chance) as he’s just not getting into a routine for homework as he’s not actually home until about 9pm those days. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to ‘punish’ him by taking away training but I also don’t want him to do less well than he’s capable of as he’s too tired when he gets home to do a good job of homework. He has what are akin to toddler tantrums about even looking at it after training 😔.

I have long suspected he is slightly ADHD (the training helps with this) which means he struggles with focusing on homework. My DH thinks it’s just typical 11yo boy…but other kids I know their parents say they just do their homework, they don’t have to cajole them. When he focuses he can do it, he was one of the top of the class in primary, but his secondary school is a lot stricter and it’s a different thing when you have lots of subjects isn’t it…? He just seems to find anything else to do but the actual work most of the time…🤦‍♀️

@losingthewillarg
Wow - that is a lot of training! Do you know any parents of the other kids there, perhaps they have advice or a similar schedule you could emulate? I completely understand your reluctance to turn less training/more energy and time into what would be, to your child, a punishment, but he does need to understand (even if not agree) that at this age education is just as much of a commitment (and requirement). Does he have any downtime at training (eg sat on sideline or in the car eating/waiting) where you can say “we’ve got 15mins, you can make a start on an assignment”? Sorry if that sounds completely naive, I’m just trying to imagine when else during a training day he can fit 15minute sessions, kind of like a Pomodoro-lite technique.

My DS is not in that position - he has several weekly clubs but they’re just regular ones, not massive commitments, although he also has a much longer commute than all his friends so less time at home/earlier wake-ups and bedtimes/more tired after school. He has done “okay” with homework so far, but we are still establishing a routine of writing down set tasks, and actually doing them instead of leaving it until last minute……..! The school uses a phone app to set tasks, but I found he wasn’t checking it unless I asked him about it.
Had one day of a massive tantrum and tears (instead of the usual huffing and grumbling), him angry at me strongly suggesting he get an assignment done, me utterly fed up. I predict tears will happen again at some point, but I am no longer re-reminding/asking a second time, both for my nerves and so that he stops relying on me to get a move on.

So far our habits seem to be:
Homework done at dining table, with lots of space and easy access to materials/stationery nearby. And importantly: less things on hand to distract him, compared to bedroom, like books or games or Lego…
I tell him when it’s homework time, depending on our commitments that day or what time he has managed to get home, after unpacking and having a snack etc. He is responsible for looking at what tasks have been set or are due, then carrying it out. I’m considering making dinner earlier, so that he can have a routine of doing homework afterwards, then he can easily pack his bag for next day when he’s done.

It’s definitely not all smooth sailing at ours, and I dread when they start setting more work, or he has to increase sessions for his sports hobbies, but we’re trying to see what works for him.

I really sympathise with your DS’s situation - come back and let me know of any updates!