Homework in Y3 - is this normal?

[suecy]

Y3 homework in our school appears to be:

1. Read with Mum/Dad for 20 mins each night - given target page to reach in the book by the end of the week. They earn house points for every entry I put in to say they've read.

1. Spelling test every Friday - words sent home to learn - around 12 words. They're supposed to practise them 3 times during the week before the test on seperate occasions

1. Literacy homework each week - individual assignment in volving either preparation or research at home and then complete at home under timed conditions (20 mins)

1. Maths homework - 30 vaired questions. This week it took DD 1 hour to complete.

This seems like a really big leap from what was happening last year. Is this comparable with other schools or is our teacher over eager? (new)

I'm finding it quite a lot to fit in, what with 2 kids, after school activities and just trying to let them chill after 6 hours in the classroom!

Please share what your kids get and what you think, and thanks in advance

dd just started Y2, and has reading every night (flexible period of time), list of about 10 spellings, a few written exercises (maybe equivalent of 3-4 sentences in all), and a couple of pages of maths. She has all week to get it done, and usually does it in about 4 evenings of half an hour each.

Some parents complained about the amount/difficulty of last week's homework, especially parents of younger children - so this week teacher has changed to half the amount given out on a Monday, then a second lot given out on a Thursday for those who want it: amazingly, there are lots of takers

ps the list above refers to the new 'half' homework, not last week's!

This is about what my Ds1 got in year 3. Personally I think it's too much for a 7-8 year old but I'm afraid it's about the norm at least round these parts.

I guess one of the things that has really riled me is being told they should read EVERY night and that DD won't earn as many house points as others. Also being told what page to get to. I have a DD who reads a wide variety of books for pleasure, has excellent comprehension and is an expressive, free reader who adores books.

I fail to see why that enthusiasm should be dulled by being forced to read out loud to us from the book the school sends and failure to do so resulting in less house points.

Surely at this age the point should be to encourage a love of reading, not to reward people for trotting out 10 pages a night under duress?

Also, prectically speaking, with 2 children with different interests and a husband who works away a lot, there are some nights where to meet their targets I would either have to 1. send my kids to bed 30 minutes later than normal, 2. Have to feed them crap rather than cooking a proper meal, or 3. Not let them have any time to chill.

She's 8!

Rant over!

Suecy, DD is in year 3 and her homework is comparable to what you listed. She goes to a state school. I expect competitive private school do quite a bit more.

Year 3 here - we get 10 spellings, times tables to practice, reading every night if you can and a one piece of other homework which will vary from week to week. It's enough for us...I certainly wouldn't be happy with any more.

We had a stupid amount of maths homework at the weekend, I was away and Dd3[7] refused to do it for OH, we had to do it really quickly last night. I stuck a postit note in her book saying "this was a lot of homewrk for Dd3". Don't suppose it will make any difference though.
We get 2 reading books week,
numeracy on friday for tuesday
literacy on monday for friday.
Grrrr hate homework in this house.

Normal I think...my DD gets the same but she is in year two...we get less maths but a LOT of writing. We have homework every night. This eveing it was reading 4 pages and then completing 12 maths problems.

We get a spelling test on a Monday for whch they prep on the weekend. Usually we have a writing project and some maths to do too.

Seucy...my DH i wrking abroad and I also have a DD aged 2....I know its hard to get it all in...my DD does her reading whilst I cook...if she gets stuck I nip over to help...if yur DS loves reading then it won't harm him...he will only improve with practice...

In y3 so far we have a literacy and a maths worksheet, a reading book with no targets and ten spellings with a week to complete. Also a times table card for them to learn at their own pace.

There were lord of complaints last year about too much homework in y3 so I suspect they are giving us an easy start. Also, the reading books are so shockingly bad I suspect they mention them as little as possible! I don't agree with reading aloud every night I find it demotivating. My Nephew had to put his book bag in a sad face box if he hasn't read, this seems so sad to me.

Sounds pretty normal - actually I am the sort of parent who asks for more homework for my DS - he has recently moved to a new school where they give very litte homework besides reading - I get worksheets off the internet - evil mother !

Last year in 3 DD had approx 10-30 mins a night/over weekend.

She had a week to learn spellings, approx 10 a week, each with similar spelling pattern.

DD was expected to try and read daily at home but only expected to read aloud to a parent a couple of times a week, to practise "out loud" skills and check fluency, accurency and comprehension is ok.

So it seems the 'norm' is to do stuff EVERY night then. No accounting for when life or brownies or swimming or family or just being knackered and chilling is the normal thing a kid of this age wants to do?! I don't think at the age of 7-8 they should be coming out of school expecting to do extra work each night - no way!!

Don't want to single her out, but don't want to sign on to this regime! So what to do?!

Not here. Spellings are quite easy so only practise once a week. Literacy and numeracy gets done weekend (no time for that kind of stuff on weekdays).
Reading book, uh, well she ends up reading it herself when she gets the chance. If it is an interesting book, I'll read it as well and we chat about it afterwards. (She reads loads and loads from the library so I can't be too bothered anymore..)

Believe it or not, in Y3 (and now Y4) my DS1 gets MORE homework than my 12yo DD in Y8 at secondary school! In fact it's a close run thing as to whether DS2 in Y2 is now getting as much as DD!

Homewor for primary school children 9apart form readig practice) is a complete waste of time and schools only set it because parents like it. For some reason there are a lot of parents who judge a school by the amount of homework set. Completely ridiculous.

Thre are governement guidelines somewhere. I think no more than 30 minutes in Year 3 IIRC.

Dd in Yr 3 homework consists of

1/ Reading every night approx 10 minutes+
2/ 12 Spellings each week
3/ Either a piece of literacy work or maths. Maths is usually a game.

Usually try to get item 3 done on the night it is issued and it usually takes a maximum of 20 minutes.

Dd loves reading and is currently reading Mrs Pepperpot stories (40+ short ones) - she'd do this whether it was homework or not.

Spellings are something we do daily in the car to and from school and then thats it - fortunately, dd is good at these and hasn't been taxed with any yet.

suecy, that's similar to what ds1 (now Yr 4) was getting last year. I think it's too much. He got several projects to do over the year as well.

Suecy, your school sounds completely over the top and if I were faced with that situation for my year 3 DD, I would definitely be rebelling!

My DD gets weekly homework in numeracy and science plus about 10 spellings to learn and a request to read at home with a parent for 10 minutes three times a week. We have been told that each piece of homework should not take more than 20 minutes and to let the teacher know if it takes longer than that. So far, my DD has found it possible to complete the homeworks within 20 minutes. Re the reading, realistically we don't do that three times a week, although when my DD does read she may well do so for more than 10 minutes at a stretch. There are no sanctions for failing to write in the book that we have read three times a week.

If I were in charge there would be no homework for primary school children other than reading practice. When I was a child my primary school gave no homework at all. Didn't stop me getting good academics and taking a career path for which good academics are very important. I know the same is true for many of my contemporaries.

We dont get homework - the school doesnt believe it is good for primary children, they learn enough at school.

However, they do expect them to read every night and do maths as part of their daily routine, whilst shopping, baking, playing, etc.

Homework is for the parents benefit, not the kids (so that we can see how well they are doing - or not).

The school understands that children do sports and socialise after school and this is just as important as the academic learning

I used to want homework, but it was just too stressful so I am glad about this new policy nowl

Our school rewrote its homework policy last year, using academic research, pupil questionnaire, parent questionnaires and a parent meeting to inform the policy.

The conclusion was no homework in KS1 (other than reading) and a single piece of homework a week in KS2.

I'm with nonickname and RoadArt on this - there is no place in a primary life for homework. Too much playing to be done! (and other after school clubs, family life etc.)

And I speak as someone who did no homework until secondary school but did exceptionally well academically.

With regard to the reading, I also have a dd who loves books and reads a lot at home but the books she brings home from school are very easy for her. I get her to read aloud about twice a wee, but she reads her school book to herself in bed at night. That way I still fill in her reading record (saying she read to herself). This wouldn't work with ds because he'd lie through his teeth, but dd2 is honest and a rubbish lier.

AStrix
"I expect competitive private school do quite a bit more."

ctually DD is in a highly academic, top ranked prep school and she gets 20 mins homework per night.

It gets ramped up as they get older but academic prep school = tonnes of homework is a myth in my experience. DS1 has never had loads of prep school homework in the early years either

Sounds pretty much what my older two dcs got at that stage. I've two younger ones so also had to work out how to fit it in.

As for the reading, I got them to read aloud to me when I was making supper or in the car. At that age I didn't need to always follow the text as they were both very competent free readers. They also enjoy reading to their younger siblings which kept them all out of my hair for a little while!

Similar to ThumbWar I also let them read in bed then tell me the next day what they'd covered and asked a couple of questions.

Both their schools emphasised the importance of reading aloud as a skill to be maintained and worked on, especially for the more able readers.

The maths sounds too long but was that because your dd didn't understand it? It's certainly worth a note to the teacher if it was foxing her.