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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

yr 2 - age 6/7 - how much is reasonable to expect of them?

12 replies

welliwouldnt · 12/02/2013 20:58

We are happy with 'our' primary school and think the staff are great. However, am a bit concerned DD may be becoming a little jaded with the "work, work, work, work, work". English is v good but she is struggling a little with the daily maths test (and associated problem questions). Test is mental addition and subtraction. Mostly numbers within 20 and sometimes adding 3 numbers together. Sometimes addition of coins/money mentally.

I don't want her to fall behind. Her scores are still good, its not total disaster,but sometimes I jut want to tell her not to worry and go and play!
Is this an average level for this age (oldest child)?
We have reading, written, spelling and mental arithmetic every week night.
thanks.

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Original poster

welliwouldnt · 12/02/2013 21:24

any advice, please?

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plainjayne123 · 12/02/2013 21:32

Homework once a week is enough in yr 2

Mutley77 · 12/02/2013 21:33

What you have to do all that at home every evening? I think that is a lot. In year 2 DD had spellings once a week and she was supposed to read every day - I consider her school to be quite pushy....

I certainly couldn't have fit in doing anything else (nor could we now she is in year 3) as I work 2 afternoons until 5.30 and on both of those days she does an activity after I finish work - she has a different activity on one of the other days after school, then she sees friends on at least one day usually, which only leaves us one "free" day - homework is done on Saturday morning and I wouldn't ever consider it appropriate for this to take longer than an hour as she does 2 activities at weekends and we "need" family time and social time.

She does read every day though - and before she was competent she was reading to DH or I most days. I also like her to do piano practice most days (does this before school) and I am more interested in her socialising or doing fun/active pursuits after school than homework at her age. So she does do five activities per week outside school (swimming, synchro swimming, drama, piano and Brownies) - which I suppose means that I am pushing her in other ways but I do think their brains can only cope with so much school work in a day.

Original poster

welliwouldnt · 12/02/2013 22:18

thanks, yes, every night (4 nights).

To be honest, it all takes about 20 mins and she is reading well above the school books that come home. I am getting the vibe we should be doing a bit extra to bring the maths up to the english level.

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Original poster

welliwouldnt · 12/02/2013 22:21

it isn't just the amount though which she manages. I was wondering what you thought about the maths content?

thanks

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blueberryupsidedown · 12/02/2013 22:39

yes year 2 they are now doing partitioning, so say 84 +12 is 80+4+10+2, so it's equal to 90+6=96.
They have homework such as Jenny is buying three sweets which cost 45p each, how much will she spend? And also working out change. they have started times tables but they are working on understanding multiplication. They have done reading the time, on quarter and half hours, counting in ten from any number, and counting in ten backwards from any number. Writing two and three digit numbers.

harryhausen · 12/02/2013 23:20

When my dd was in Y2, we had reading every night, spellings once a week and maths/english/history homework over a weekend.

I think all that every night a week is excessive.

According to our teachers my dd is achieving well above her age in Y3.

Mutley77 · 15/02/2013 15:00

I am not sure on the specifics of the Maths - my DD was doing a similar mental maths test every morning in Year 1 - don't think they did it in Year 2.

You will know about levels when she sits the Year 2 Sats later this year so I shouldn't worry unless that flags an issue.

redskyatnight · 15/02/2013 16:16

Homework wise Y2 DD has reading every night and then mental maths OR spelling every night. Plus 1 piece of longer writing homework and a week to do it. If you're finishing all the homework in about 20 minutes I don't think that sounds particularly like too much (DD would happily spend more than that on reading alone!).

They also have mental maths every day (or most days) at her school - I don't think it's a big thing, more to get them used to it as they have to do it as part of their formal SATs tests.

If teacher hasn't flagged an issue I wouldn't worry.

Wafflenose · 15/02/2013 16:23

My Year 2 child gets no homework whatsoever. None. We have never even had a list of spellings to learn!

colditz · 15/02/2013 16:33

We get a reading book home occasionally, and homework once a fortnight.

This is the most they will ever get out of the kids at that school because parental support for homework is very low. There's a high proportion of single parents and we just do NOT have the time for pointless projects that teach nothing.

Rollergirl1 · 15/02/2013 17:04

DD is in Year2. She has her school reading books changed 3 times a week. But she reads every day anyway (her own books, usually Horrid Henry or Rainbow Magic). Then she gets Maths and Spelling/writing homework back on a Thursday that have to be in for the following Monday. I think that's about the right amount of homework.

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