not enough homework!

[smoochypoo]

hi my son who is 11 in nov has bearly been getting any homework since yr 4 and is moving up to yr 6 in september ,i have been into school several times not just at parents evenings to check he is doing ok they seem to think he is but i am not convinced.
The trouble is that next sept he will be starting high school and am really worried that he wont be able to cope with the amount of homework that he will be given as at the min if were lucky out of a 6 week term in school if we get homework for 4 weeks and this only consists of a badly photo copied maths and spellings sheet.
Does anyone else have this problem? and are there any websites i can go on? to do the work with him myself to get him ready for high school.

Please don't worry.

Most primary schools don't give out much HW once nightly reading tails off.

Your DS will soon get in to the hang of doing (or not doing HW) when he gets to high school.

Which depends totally on his temperament and whether or not the school chase efficiently.

All you need to provide is a daily reminder to check his HW diary, somewhere quiet and a watchful eye that he hasn't got a computer game on instead.

Don't nag, HW is important, but it is more important that he enjoys school and is engaged in what he's learning.

I'd celebrate the last year of freedom and fill the time with activities he enjoys.

Maybe parents complained there was too much homework, so the school eased off?

At my secondary school, we take into account that most new year 7 pupils are not only not used to much homework but also not used to getting lots of different pieces of homework from different teachers.

We ease into homework slowly over the first half term. Hopefully your new school will do a similar thing.

I couldn't consider that a problem - more a cause for celebration.
In Yr 7 they will assume that dcs have not been used to doing homework, and will work accordingly. Unless he's going to some sort of selective school, I suspect he'll get less homework there than you are anticipating too.
He's 10 - let him play and enjoy other interests out of school.

smoochypoo

I suppose the question is whether you understand (via the school) or know instinctively that your son is doing well. This is sometimes very difficult to gauge - the school can give you the impression they work to the highest possible expectations and many children pass the 11+ only for a parent to then discover that in fact those children that pass the 11+ have had all sorts of support at home/ extra tutoring that they were completely unaware of. I've just seen this scenario play out with a friend of mine who's devestated to be sending her DD to a school she'd rather not for senior school.

So - I'd advise examining the contents of the draft national curriculum and treating it as a checklist. Look at the contents of the Y5 curriculum documents for english, maths and science and literally go through and tick off the ones you're confident your DS has mastered.

Draft national curriculum English: media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/d/draft%20national%20curriculum%20for%20english%20key%20stages%201%202.pdf

Draft national curriculum Maths: media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/d/draft%20national%20curriculum%20for%20mathematics%20key%20stages%201%202.pdf

Draft national curriculm science: media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/d/draft%20national%20curriculum%20for%20science%20key%20stages%201%202.pdf

If there are a lot of gaps then my advice is to do more at home.

Some things you can consider to supplement learning at home:

use resources on BBC Learning [beta] website: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/ - just select curriculum topic in orange box for KS2 tab and there's a wealth of worksheets & games to help at home.

If maths is very work - consider joining some form of on-line tutorial (mathletics/ Mathswhizz/ Mathsfactor/ etc... - lots out there to chose from - ask around or try free trials).

If reading/ vocabulary or comprehension are week - consider joining a library and really getting more reading going on at home. Try 11+ practice books in English (very good for really identifying weaknesses and lots of comprehension practice).

But basically as others have advised if your DS is doing well or even above expectations - then relax and just accept that from Y7 you need to help foster a homework routine. My personal advice is make sure there's a nice snack available and somehow snacking and doing a bit of homework doesn't seem so bad.

HTH