If your primary child has no live lessons, how long does it take them to complete the work set?

[KeyboardWorriers]

My son (10) had usually finished all the work set (including all the extension tasks) within an hour of starting.

He is bright and usually finishes first in class too, but I don't know whether to ask school for more or accept I need to provide the rest?

He has a tutor 2x a week plus Jolie Ronde for french. And we top up with interesting Outschool classes and do extra workbooks together. But it isn't quite enough (he loves learning!). He reads books /plays board games and silly games and we go out for plenty of walks too. But it just feels like his school is such a tiny part of his day!

A waffly question and not sure what answers I am looking for but any helpful suggestions /ideas welcomed (DH and I are working full time and have 2 others to support with home learning too);

DSS is 8 (nearly 9) and finishes his school work in about 1-2 hours. Similar to your son he is bright and would often finish first in class as well.

We top up his school day starting with Joe wicks in the morning then he does his school work. Then some my maths, oak academy, independent reading or a project untill its roughly the end of the school day.
You could always ask the school the worst thing that will happen is they will say no.

It's so hard to know what is reasonable to expect!

I wonder whether it just is a consequence of him grasping what is needed so swiftly etc.

But then I always felt that in class he should have had more extension work too. The teachers would get him to explain things to the struggling children instead, which is fine to a degree but actually I can see that he would much prefer to have been getting work that stretched him for some of that time.

I can understand him finishing something like maths early, but is he also finishing say, English early by knocking something out quickly that could do with editing and improvement?

Surely depends on the amount of work set by the school? Our school trips lessons throughout the day so it takes all day with a few good breaks.

@noblegiraffe the English is all short questions to answer.

When there have been the occasional project type bits of work he has spent ages on them and really got into them

DD is 10. The expectation at her school is that the set work should take around 4 hours to complete.

At the beginning of the term she was finishing everything within 1 - 1.5hrs. The teacher could see what time the work was submitted and that DD's answers were correct. The teacher very quickly added more challenges and links to the Oak Academy for specific lessons, including ones from higher year groups where needed.

I'd let the teacher know that the work is being completed quickly and ask what they suggest your DS should do next. That way you're flagging up the fact that there's not enough to keep him busy for long enough (even KS1 are expected to have 3 hours of work each day) and might get something else.

That sounds a bit rubbish if he's not doing much extended writing - he needs to be maintaining his writing stamina. Have you looked at the lessons on Oak Academy?
He could pick some topics that interest him and work through their lessons?

classroom.thenational.academy/

Yes good idea.
The thing is, I can find all kinds of other stuff for him to do if needed but I am not an expert and would prefer the support of school (plus it is gone midnight and I have only just finished catching up on my own work!)!

My 10 year old probably spends about 2 hours a day. That's maths + English and a bit of Spanish. The school has set a whole load of other subject areas, but with no actual requirement to complete them. We don't as she'd need adult input to get much out of them. We both work full time and have a 6 year old who needs constant input for any school work. For every parent who is concerned that there isn't enough work set, there's another that can't keep up with the volume set. There's huge variation in parental time available, ability to teach and type of child.

@noblegiraffe yes that's what worries me, it's all comprehension quizzes with one word answers etc. No actual substantial writing.

Although he does write heaps with his tutor in their sessions

@Justajot yes I totally get that. DD 7 is quite a different child and doesn't always get through everything because she would rather be off making up songs or playing with her toys!

School do differentiate the work into mild /medium/spicy and DS always does medium and spicy for everything.

Some days it takes 90mins.
Another day it took six hours.

My elder DDs teacher sent out a message to them saying it was ok to stop each subject after an hour or so, as she became aware some struggling children were taking two hours over a maths worksheet or similar.

If they getting through school work quickly Why don’t they complete the work school set then do a project involving writing that they interested in. I think school can’t really win some kids will complete work quickly but others prefer to do some work take breaks do more etc.

@Avidreader12 that is the kind of thing he does in his own time. And reads plenty, plays board games, and plays outside a lot, and we use Outschool and tutors to supplement what he gets from school. But I think it is fair to question whether school are setting enough work, as we are both working flat out and supporting his siblings too.

One of my kids gets no live lessons and the other child gets a full timetable (different schools). It’s so difficult because we need to try and make it seem “fair” - neither of them actually want to do anything!!

We supplement our younger child’s school work - he tends to finish stuff set by school by about 10.30am - so we give extra so he ends up doing a fuller school day like his brother. We’re working so don’t have much time to help either of them so we supplement with stuff that is educational but doesn’t really require our input. He has a documentary per day, a history comprehension style activity, some colouring (he’s yr2 and I think colouring is good for handwriting/ pen control) and some reading.

I haven’t asked school for more work for two reasons really, firstly because I think it would annoy them - they’re quite defensive when it comes to anything that might be perceived as criticism, and secondly because I need to make sure the extra activities are things that don’t distract from my work day and a lot of the school work tends to be designed for families where a parent is around to explain the tasks or participate in some way.

classroom.thenational.academy/units/macbeth-narrative-writing-9566

There you go. Lots of lessons for year 5/6 on MacBeth. Sets him up well for secondary to have studied some Shakespeare. There are good options to watch in film, and frankly it's an ace story.

I also thought that doing the Year 7 French wouldn't do any year 5/6 child any harm either. I watched the first few and liked them.

classroom.thenational.academy/subjects-by-key-stage/key-stage-3/subjects/french

That'll keep him busy.

Schools are having to plan and deliver stuff for the middle kids. We don't have a choice in that. We also have to provide for what best suits our community in terms of how we deliver the work. I'm sending bits of extension work based on our own planning, but I've used some Oak units for some kids as additional work - got a few who just want to learn the whole time, and are doing the same even when school is in session. They go home and work. We're also sending 'bits' for SEND children, but mostly what works for them doesn't suit remote teaching at all.

It's hard. And temporary.

I don't really see what the problem is here. So he does 1 hour of school work a day, then has multiple tutors and enjoys doing extra work he finds for himself. And you think thats not enough?

My Y6 spends an hour on Maths - White Rose video then a worksheet. Never finishes it all within an hour.
Maybe an hour on English - usually a video and/or powerpoint, sometimes there are shorter questions sometimes a bigger piece of writing.
Reading comprehension is usually about 30 minutes.
Some days she also does a "topic" lesson - another 30-60 minutes - but to be honest we don't always do it.

@superduster - we are both working very full time keyworker jobs from home (lockdowns are particularly frantic) we have other children to support too, and paying for the tutoring etc is a stretch. So yes I think it is fair to check what I can expect from school.

We have done a bit of oak academy in the first lockdown but found them very mixed in quality. I will have another look.

Oak Academy had significant funding and work over last summer, a lot of the original lessons were redone and lots has been added.

Oh that's really good to know @noblegiraffe we will give it another try

Each day my year 6 has two lots of maths (minimum hour), comprehension (answers in sentences), geography and science. Expected to top up with reading and spellings. Each week there is a 500 word essay to write or a powerpoint to create. This week they have dropped off some sewing to complete and are designing hats as well. She tries to get it done quicker than 4 hours so she can play with younger siblings. Last year she was barely given anything (20min maths and 30min SPAG) so she worked her way through Bitesize lessons and could complete the year 8 maths. She researched Victorians and Vikings. She started her family tree and participated in some Zooniverse research.

www.zooniverse.org

My 10 year old takes 3-5 hours to do his school work, no live lessons. He's quick on the maths, about half an hour to do White Rose and an extension set by the teacher - I think it's meant to be an hour of work. The teacher sent a small group of them an extra maths booklet last week.

He has about an hour of English - always reading and spellings as well as grammar or written work. I'd say he's about average at this, I'd guess the more able students probably turn in longer written work.

He then has an hour or so of topic work - art/science/history, etc which often involves having to produce a poster or some other piece of work.

He also has one of French, music, PE or RE, which are often a video by another provider.

I don't think even the most able students would be able to finish in an hour. Maybe 3 hours on some days.

I have bought him another pile of novels. He's writing a story and is on chapter 12 now so that plus tutors and Outschool classes are filling out the days (plus a v long walk/play in the woods)...

I tried asking school for more but got nowhere.

DfE expectation is KS1 pupils do about 3hrs and KS2 4hrs. Disagree with pp about setting work for the middle achievers - I set completely different maths for 2 children in my KS2 class as one is at YR level and the other KS3. I also have to set work for two year groups as it is a mixed age class.