Homework routine in the UK

[Iceddecaflatte]

Hi All,

My DC will start school soon in the UK. I haven't grown up in the UK and I don't know the schooling system.

Is one hour a day maximum enough time for homework, which is what I read in most threads?

When I was a kid in my home country, for example around year 3-4, I used to come home around 3pm and then I had to study language/grammar and do exercises on it, then spelling exercises, writing practice, maths exercises, then I had to memorise the history session, environmental awareness exercises, maybe study the religion session, plus English exercises , music practice and any other sport activities on top. I studied from 3pm to around 7pm. Then, I had dinner and bedtime at 8pm.

Is just one hour homework sufficient? It sounds so weird to me!

What age is your child?

In primary, my dc is doing an average of 15 minutes a day, secondary averages at 25 minutes a day in y8

How old is your child?
At primary school, I'd be surprised if there was an hour day of work after school. 10 mins of reading, 10 mins of spelling. Then maybe an English and maths sheet once a week.

Some primary schools have a no homework policy. Some set more project type work to be done over half a term.

That is not to say if you want to do other things with your child, you can't. DH spends a couple of hours over the week teaching his language to the kids (it's written form is very different to English). They also have music lesson/practice and other after school activities. But very little formal work from school.

ds had very little homework in primary, some spelling/reading in the very early days, but after that nothing really. His school didn't really believe in homework. It will all depend on the school he goes to.

Many primary schools are now no homework schools, as there is no benefit in anything other than reading pre secondary school.

As others have said, it varies between year groups and schools. My yr1 DC only needs to read to us for 15mins each day. The yr3 has reading as above, weekly spellings to learn, a weekly worksheet (about 30mins), a fortnightly topic project that takes anywhere from 2 to 4hrs, and she is supposed to practice her timestables tables. The yr3 gets far too much IMO, particularly as most of it requires a parent to sit and listen/help/check.

Did you not do any extracurricular activities when you were at school OP? If you did, how on Earth did you fit them in? Both my DCs do various sports after school plus Beavers/Cubs, and the yr3 also sees a maths tutor for 45mins a week. Both swim with a swimming club as one of the sports, and that alone is 1.5hrs/wk (yr1 DC) and 2.5hrs/wk (yr3 DC).

or example around year 3-4, I used to come home around 3pm and then I had to study language/grammar and do exercises on it, then spelling exercises, writing practice, maths exercises, then I had to memorise the history session, environmental awareness exercises, maybe study the religion session, plus English exercises , music practice and any other sport activities on top. I studied from 3pm to around 7pm. Then, I had dinner and bedtime at 8pm.

Age 8/9? Blimey! Is this from a country that has a reputation of hothousing the children? That is way too much for a child that age. I doubt that DD did 4 hours a day even for GCSEs, and she passed them all with excellent grades. Those are the kind of hours you would expect an A level student to do (age 17/18).

The UK school system is so different from school systems abroad. We live in Germany and I can't get my head around what my eldest needs to actually study because when I went to school in the UK as long as you turned up to class, listened, did exercises in class and did homework as asked that was absolutely sufficient and would likely get you good marks.

Here it seems so self directed and I can't figure out how to help him so it's much trickier.

DS is 8, he does homework club in school three days a week for about an hour a go. On top of that he has music practice.

The school is known for it though, other places do nothing.

@RampantIvy Well we come from Greece and this is how the system is there.

At school time we are thought the basics for example timestables but then at home we had to do many exercises to practice them.

Then, it was also grammar a big topic. You learn how to spell and read but then you formally get taught tenses (future/past) etc. or voices (active/passive) etc.

Then, we were taught about our history and we had to study it at home, answer written questions on it etc.

Of course, on top of that we had the odd exercise about global things like recycling, lifecycle, earth topics etc.

Plus English exercises

Plus music practice on an instrument

Plus sport (if there was time for it)

It was really exhausting at just the age of 8-9.

Then, around GCSC, A level stage we had to study until midnight to fit it all in… really tiring! The worst years of my life by far! But Greeks are so well educated when they enter in University, they know very advanced maths, very aware of grammar, physics, history etc.

I can’t bring my head around how all this knowledge can be absorbed by a kid without practicing at home.

For example timestables are not a matter of just memorising the sequence. You need to quickly calculate equations and this comes only with practice…

I am equally very happy but at the same time very surprised/doubtful that what is done in the Uk is enough!

DD had to practice spellings and timetables at home. Is the school day shorter in Greece? DD was at school 9 am to 3.30 until 11, then 8.20 until 2.50 from 11 to 18.

Your schooling sounds quite brutal IMO.

I'm not familiar with the Greek education system but a quick Google suggests it's not the gold standard you seem to think it is, OP...

gpseducation.oecd.org/CountryProfile?primaryCountry=GRC&treshold=10&topic=PI

Thanks for the link!

We used to be at school from 8.30am to 2.30pm and then all this homework ... exhausting !!!

that sounds like a lot of cramming from a young age.
what about creativity.
and why does one need to quickly do equations ?
what for ? unless you are going to be an engineer or mathematician etc, and then you can probably use calculators for much of that.
it sounds like learning lots of stuff just to be competitive.
are you very good at quizzes, OP ?

"@alexdgr8 I don't disagree with you... It's a very brutal education system and I don't think it's right.

My only worry is that the UK's schooling system sounds like at the opposite end of the spectrum, where there is no homework or just spelling/reading.

Maybe a middle solution would be the best? It can't be only reading and spelling at primary school or memorising the timetables that a kid should know... maybe I am wrong!

To be honest, at GCSE level we are taught Maths in Greece that are tought in UK universities in year 2... so maybe it's too much knowledge for no reason.

In Greece there is no creativity in school, no things like debates, drama or much critical thinking. It's all about exercises, exercises and exercises until exhaustion. Oh and memorising things by heart...

But maybe in the middle is the right solution?

What do you mean by quizzes? Like pub quizzes? Not really, I am not good at them or enjoy them, but I am not raised up in the UK and the questions are a bit too British!

I have a primary school (year 6) and secondary school (year 7). Same school as it is an independent, so goes from age 3 right through.

Primary- they used to have 20 minutes a night plus a mini project each weekend. This year they scaled that right back to 20 minutes Monday, Wednesday and the weekend.

Secondary in Year 7 they have 50 minutes nightly which is 2 subjects 25 minutes each. Work is not set at the weekends but there is always something due Monday so my DS chooses a 'night off' during the week and makes it up at the weekend.

Oh and in terms of school day our core school hours are 8.15 to 4.15. So the day is alot longer which might be why the level of homework set is smaller.

When I was at school in the 80s, we had no homework at all in primary school apart from spellings (and purportedly times tables but I can't remember spending much time on that). I still managed to pass my 11 plus and get an Oxbridge degree, so I don't think no homework held me back there.

My kids (now 12 and 14) only had reading (and possibly some spelling) at infant school (up to age 7) and I think that is just how it should be. Instead of homework you might find the school encourages you to support them with everyday learning - they will say when you are out and about get them to recognise words and letters in signs, cook with them and get them to measure things and read recipes, talk to them about prices in shops, and what the time is, and how many pieces do I have to cut this cake into so everyone has a bit etc etc. You might also get some "we have been learning about birds - why not see if you can spot any at the weekend?" type stuff.

Personally I think this is the only appropriate approach to home learning at such a young age.

Your child will likely get a lot less homework than an hour a day in primary school. The school day is the time when they will do the bulk of their learning and after school is a time to play with friends, participate in sports, attend art or drama classes, read for pleasure, explore their own interests, etc. Or just relax. We did do some extra work with ours but only 10-15 minutes a few times a week and only because we were applying for selective secondary schools.

Urgh, wrote a long post and it failed to post!

OP, you can choose your own 'middle ground', there is nothing to stop you doing more learning with DC than school set. A lot of families do this, or will go on complimentary outings eg when DD1 was learning about space we visited the National Space Centre. However, I would think the time is best spent mostly on activities that are enriching or follow a particular interest of the DC. There are plenty of choices: sports, art classes, music school, dance, musical theatre, Scouts etc. We also choose to learn about things as they crop up and pique an interest eg when DD1 was reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books to me, and it became clear a few pages into book 1 she knew nothing about American settlers or Native Americans. We bought some books and learnt about it alongside the novels. This is better than spending hours hunched over books cramming at 8yo, no?