How much homework should my DD with SEN's get in year 3??

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, my daughter has just gone into year 3 and the difference in homework is huge! In year 2, she had a book home once a week and once a week she'd either have a bit of maths or a bit of English, according to her level. This year she's been given the same homework as everyone else, and she's having a book every day, maths, English and a project! It's just too much.
She has a full time one to one helper in school and when she comes home, she just wants to let off stream in her own way, which is imaginary play, on her own. Then it's dinner time, then she'll have a bath, I'll read to her, or we'll do puppet shows, then it's bedtime at 7pm. She does really seem to need this time to do her own thing, unwind and enjoy being with her family. It's really stressful for everyone, trying to get her to do yet more school work when she comes home. It's not as if it's just a little bit anymore.
I'm going to see her teacher next week, so I'll mention all this.

I should mention that she is 8.5 years old and has severe learning difficulties giving her a mental age of approx. 5

Any work your daughter gets should be properly differentiated.

All that sounds a lot for an average child of her age.

Definitely mention this to the teacher.

I thought so. She's been given a maths sheet that says to find out if even numbers when added together always give an even answer and the same for odd numbers, then to write down their answer and reasons for it. Lucy doesn't know what an odd or even number is!

She's also been given a list of key words she has to learn at home.

Homework is entirely voluntary and it should be tailored to a child's needs. For my ds he never did any homework because like Lucy he needed time at home to regroup and I would never take on any battle over school at home. In secondary he had gaps built into his timetable to do homework with his TA, in primary he didn't do any at all either at home or school.Dd does homework now in y6 but it has always been her choice, I wouldn't be getting into a battle with Lucy to even try to do homework that is beyond her.

My dd1 (nt), who has just gone into yr 3 would find that too much work tbh, and I would probably have words with the school.

Boy has just gone into year 3 and has had no home work at all so far.

Teacher did say home work sheets were available IF parents wanted but I didn't want so no home work beyond daily reading.

It is really voluntary?? Wow! They don't tell you that now do they? Well in that case, I opt out!

Yes our HT writes a letter every year advising that it is voluntary and parents can opt out if they choose and there will be no consequences for the children such as loss of playtime/ golden time etc.

I've read that although it is not compulsory by law, a school can make it compulsory. It can enforce it by loss of break time to complete the work which isn't required by law.

I don't mind her reading books coming home. I read to her all the time anyway. That's just part of our normal life.

If the school are going to punish Lucy for not completing homework then I'd kick up a stink that the homework isn't in keeping with her level of ability. If you insist she gets homework that is differentiated to meet her needs then chances are the teacher will either tell you not to do the homework set or will provide homework on Lucy's level which will be a similar amount to what she is used to considering she functions at about five years old.

I think it is great you are meeting the teacher - just discuss it then. It might work best if she / he just gave you upcoming broad topics so you could tailor some of the reading and puppetery you do at home around that and leave the rest. Or I have known children with SEN who got sent home a couple of video links to check out each weekend, so they have some knowledge of a topic in advance of the next week - might that work?

I wouldn't set that even for a child of that age without SN. There's usually very little value in busy work being sent home. I do have to set some homework though as my school requires it (usually ongoing projects that the students choose for themselves), plus reading of course, but I tell parents at the parents evening that once their child has done x amount of time (age appropriate) that the child should stop. I don't want any child struggling with their homework, if they can't understand the topic enough to work independently, then they should be doing that work in the classroom.

Talk to the teacher, and perhaps you could set the same agreement with her - your daughter works for 15 minutes on the set homework and does what she can in that time. Plus you will continue to read to her before bed. That would seem like a fair compromise to me.

DD1 moved to special school last May. Their policy is that the only homework any of the children have is reading each night and on a Saturday. It makes a big difference to her not being pressured into doing "hard work". At her mainstream school she was regularly sent home with work that was supposed to be an extension of the work they were doing in class and that the children should be capable of doing. Most of the time I had to teach her how to solve the work and quite clearly her work was not being differentiated to her needs.
Are you happy with the 1:1 support. Their role shouldn't be about just sitting there with the child but also about looking ahead to lesson plans, working out how to differentiate the work to your daughters level and that really needs to include homework too if the school really insist that she do homework. I would perhaps look harder at the role the 1:1 is taking this year with her. Is your daughter happy at school otherwise? Inbox me if you want to talk more - we chatted a bit in the early days when L was struggling at her first school.

Thank you beautifulgirls. Yes, she is happy at school, but does say she'd like more time at home too. She thinks the school days are too long and she doesn't get enough time to play. She loves imaginary play!
Her one to one lady is lovely, but I don't think she sets any of the home work.

I presume Lucy has a statement? Her 1:1 support person should be detailed in the statement in terms of what level of experience etc they should have. It could be the statement is not well worded or the school haven't got someone with appropriate experience in, but really to be effective a 1:1 SEN support should be looking ahead and planning ahead for that child. They should have lesson plans ahead of the class taking the lessons and should know what work will be covered. The 1:1 should then look at ways to make that work accessible to the child in their care, be that writing out some of it for them, be it reducing the amount to be done, taking the concept back to the basic principles only until the basics are grasped etc. This also means understanding that homework sent should be differentiated too.
I think you need to speak with the school ideally with the 1:1 there and find out exactly how support is being given and see if there are any external advisors who might be able to come into school and give them some guidance on how to go about things too. It is a hard one to tackle with the school I understand esp when you like the 1:1 lady and clearly your daughter does too, but there is little value in having someone by your side all day but finding that answers are spoon fed, the child zones out because they no longer have to think or want to think and ultimately the child fails to really make any measurable progress.

Hmm, interesting. She does have a statement. She did make a lot of progress last year. She went from not knowing all the letters of the alphabet, to being able to read some 3 letter words, after careful sounding out. She's having a go at writing too. She was writing about a scarecrow and meant to write "He has a flower in his mouth" but she wrote "he haz a flaw in he maf" So she is learning well.

Aww bless her! Sounds like she has come a long way for her in a year. She had such a difficult start with school as I recall and being happy in school is a big part of things. My DD (now in yr 4) was doing ok in m/s school with support until year 3. She then had a statement and 1:1 support but it was really badly done with her and she started to hate school. She made no progress at all for most of the year, but cutting a long story short we appealed her statement (issued before yr 3) and changed the appeal late on to include her placement too. We had to go to tribunal in the end, but she was moved to in indi special school. It has made such a difference to her where the staff as clued up as to how to teach and I can see the improvement with her in every aspect since the change. It is however so hard to know what is right for them as individuals. A lot depends on the resources available to your school and also available elsewhere too. It was a big decision to move her - I had it in my mind we would stay mainstream for at least the whole of primary and then have a better idea about secondary as time went on. Things changed a huge amount in year 3 for her and whilst many tears were shed considering the move I know feel so sure we made the right decision for her. Also hard to ensure we kept a good relationship with her old school as she has siblings...thankfully so far so good!

We plan to let her finish primary school then either a special school or home ed. There is no way I'm going to put her into a regular secondary school. It will be a hard decision to make, but it's a several years away yet. If she becomes un-happy at this school, I will take her out and either find a new school possibly the special school or even home ed her again. I wouldn't rule anything out. I want her to have a wonderful, happy experience of school and develop a love of learning. She is so good and well behaved in class, she deserves to reach her full potential.