Year2 given less homework than class mates

[JET11]

Hello my dd is a young year 2 and has been sitting on the bottom table for year 2 and most of year 1. She has had the same teacher for both years. Her literacy has not been great but she is good at numeracy (its a family trait). I discovered last term that she is not getting all of the numeracy homework. I asked for it and she got it for a while and could do it. This term she is back to half the sheets again and the teacher refuses to give us the other sheets. She says they are too 'tricky'. Am I wrong to want her to be able to have a go at it? I will support, it wont place extra work on the teacher and I wouldn't push it if dd can't cope. She needs a boost as she is aware of her place in the class and I think succeeding in maths could help. Any ideas/views please?

The only thing I can think of is her teacher would like her to spend more time on the literacy side of things. Does she get the full amount of that homework?

If your DD like and can do the maths then it seems strange to be holding her back. Could you ask again if she can try it out or if there are certain bits the teacher thinks she can't do?

DS1 is in Yr2 and also at the young end of the class (July). Even though he's not strong in maths or literacy, they all get the same homework - though it tends to be written in a way that each child will do their own best.

My year 3 son's homework is supposed to take no more than 20 minutes. (once a week last term, a little more this term) Sometimes we've been asked to sign where they've got to after 20 minutes (or write how long the work took) - clear instruction that they expect them to stop when they've spent long enough working.

You could turn that idea around - ask the teacher how long she expects them to spend on homework, and if your daughter is needing much less time than that, let the teacher know she could do more without a problem.

Reading and maths skills are so often separate, grouping a child the same for both is really less than ideal. Admittedly though, reading skills start interfering with mathematics when you have to interpret the question.

Good luck.

JET11:

The teacher has claimed the homework she is witholding from your DS is too tricky and I'm afraid you have to abide by this. My solution would be to ask the teacher what targets for maths he's working on and then find on-line resources or APPS to help support that.

My experience was a school which initially would claim weekly homework at the start of the school year, and then would forget all about it. We've also had serious problems with DD1 getting math concepts during her time in KS1 - so we've gone it alone at home.

Many here have written about the on-line tutorials (myself included) - Mathswhizz (www.whizz.com/), Mathletics (www.mathletics.co.uk/ or mathsfactor (www.themathsfactor.com/). I think all of them offer either free trials or first month of tutorials at a discount. All of these will assess your DS and start from where he's at.

I was personally concerned about how maths was being taught (which seemed disjointed - i.e. in mid Y2 DD1 had a good grip of fractions (1/2, 1/3, 1/4 & 1/8ths taught by trainee teachers) but couldn't subtract 1 from 10, which struck me as odd). School was less than helpful so we went our own way and have never looked backed. DD1 has improved beyond recognition and securely knows how to add, subtract, multiply & divide - which was our aim.

If English is the weakness - than really work with him on the homework - try and ensure he avoids shortcuts and really discuss/ target problem areas. For DD1 its vocabulary - so when she reads to me whilst DD2 is having her bath with DH, I'm constantly saying what does this or that word mean. It's slow going, but there is a noticeable improvement in the range of vocabularly (certainly an increase in >2 syllable words in use now).

Some really useful websites for maths:

Coolmaths www.coolmath.com/

Woodland Junior School Maths Zone resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/

Table trees (multiplication practice) from ambleside primary: www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/tabletrees.html

Coxhoe primary numeracy links durham.schooljotter.com/coxhoe/Curriculum+Links/Numeracy/

BBC Bitesize KS1 SATs numeracy practice: www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/maths/ - also offer practice in English & Science.

BBC Learning - has games/ worksheets related to maths at KS1 here: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/keystage_1/topics/maths_ks1.shtml

BBC Learning is in general just a really nice resource to get additional materials in subject areas (link here: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/) - select appropriate tab KS1 or KS2 in orange outlined box at mid left of opening page and then select the appropriate area of the curriculum. It takes a bit of exploring - but there's all sorts of great stuff there. Very useful when suddenly presented with a topic like research about Roman Army and not sure where to begin.

HTH