can't be 'polite' and good any longer....

[swallowedAfly]

ds goes to a village primary with all the subsequent over-reliance on parents wealth, education, time, etc. re: assuming sahms are the norm, money is plentiful for fanciful trips and activities, we all know how to sew up costumes at the drop of a hat etc.

that's fine. i chose to live here. however....

homework is way over the top in terms of quantity and right from day one of school. one part of homework (there is loads) is the 'learning log' which is pretended to be something children could do indepndently and consolidates learning. except in reality it is not, by a long shot.

i've put up with it and put up with and felt enslaven to doing it until today when i've had enough. this week for ds (6yo and one of the most able in his year) it says, "show me what you've learned about number bonds up to 20 and what patterns you can see". then there's a blank page.

i don't know why (because this is far from the worst that's come home) but today i've had enough and found myself writing on the page that i have no idea what the learning objective is, what outcomes they're hoping for or how the hell they see this as differentiated. i've also asked how they think a parent with numeracy or literacy problems would tackle this task and whether they would actually set this as a task in class to 6yos and expect a meaningful outcome.

there is no context, no structure, no literacy support, no prompts nothing. same as ever. sometimes the tasks don't even relate to anything they've been learning.

am i totally unreasonable or would you after a year or so be fed up too? i am (if it's not obvious) an ex teacher and i know what education is supposed to be about and this is not it. homework should be meaningful. how could a 6yo read that question and face a blank page and do something a teacher could look at and assess to see what they've learnt? they couldn't.

on top of this learning log (given on a friday and expected in by tuesday) daily reading and signing of reading book is expected plus other bits and bobs. he's 6! he's been getting this since 5 at a point where some kids couldn't even write let alone face a blank page and an open ended task and produce something yet they'd get in trouble if they didn't. this is just a test of parents surely? and an unfair one given it assumes knowledge and literacy that some parents won't have?

sorry for long random rant but help! i'm not playing this game anymore and i'm ready to speak up. it's a joke.

Ha! SwallowedAfly just read about The Faraway Tree - my dd is currently reading that whilst studiously avoiding the scheme book she's been given - and Roald Dahl. That's how to foster that love of reading, I think.

It's sad that some teachers are too fearful to think (and act) outside the box. Years of criticism and demoralisation is the reason, I reckon...

@ KeepOnKeepingOn1: " I don't know how to instil a life-long love of learning in a 7 year old"

On my planet most children are born with that, the trick is to keep it alive.

PiqueABoo Some 'educational' practises are in danger of killing that love off if you are not careful.

Op, I agree with you - the question is far too open ended - at that age any homework, if given at all, should be quite closed questions and preferably fun. Also agree a lot of parents won't know what number bonds are.

The teachers themselves should find out in class time whether their pupils understand number bonds.
MIL is an ex-infant teacher - she disagreed with setting HW for that age group, bar reading.

yep they are ancient. hence i think i'm going to learn to say fuck that, we're not doing it and we'll do something less boring instead (keep chanelling why don't you of late)

DS1 is not an alien but was born (on this planet) with SN and SpLD. Same undifferentiated homework whilst in m/s though.

Your children's school does sound a bit anal, swallowedAfly.

swallowed. I am totally on your side here. As a KS1 and foundation stage teacher, I am appalled at the amount of homework DS, in year 1, is expected to do. Something for English, maths, reading, spellings, and "suggested" activities, usually mental/oral maths. . He is 5 ffs. What are the school on?

We do 4 x 10 min sessions of reading (he needs this) and looking at/sounding out the words that he needs to learn for his spelling test that's a whole other rage and 1 x 10 min of whatever work he has been set. If it can't be finished in that time, it can't.

swallowed - i think you've got it spot on, personally.

Ignore their silly requests and every time you do homework with him, record that - and exactly what you've done with him.

and the reading - yup, get your own books suited to his level and record those, not the silly ones they set.

I was fuming when I read the the bit about labelling the children. How humiliating (and definitely against the human rights act)

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/1868070-Homework

Have you seen this thread? Similar things going on here with homework too.

I'm another homework hater,it just sucks the joy out of our weekends and results in tears,sulks,shouting and all round misery.Our DDs go to a small village school,and whenever I have questioned the amount of homework,I am told that the majority of parents want more homework,not less.

I'd love to know who these parents are,because I've not spoken to one yet who doesn't resent spending family time on pointless tasks.I wouldn't mind so much if a note was sent home highlighting what aspects the DC were struggling with and we could address that at home.For instance,DD1 isn't great at maths,but is great at literacy,she very rarely gets maths homework,and as we don't know how they are supposed to work maths out these days,it is difficult to try and teach her ourselves without confusing her.

My DD is just 7 and knows her number bonds to 20. In the spirit of experiment I gave her a blank piece of paper and told her to " show me what you've leaned about number bonds up to 20 and what patterns you can see." She was in a good mood and humoured me. She wrote the numbers 1 to 20 in a pretty spiral pattern down the page and then decorated it with stars, suns etc. she told me the numbers looked pretty now.

To my mind she did a good job given the instructions!

Milk Your school is doing a good job then of teaching your daughter. What do you think they do differently?

Milk Just re-read your post...oops!

we don't have any homework yet really for Yr1. reading book, suggested 20 mins every day which is easy, books are a bit rubbish but short enough that she reads 3 of them a week and has 4 days to read her own books which is fine. and then 10 spellings to practice but so far that has been very easy too.

I don't mind reading, I do mind rubbish books but she can read chapter books now so no concerns with her reading ability. spellings are all phonetic groups of words which I actually think is quite good practice so no complaints so far here.

am tempted to ask her at the weekend to try this task like Milk did - she would probably do something very similar (if she didn't have a strop, throw it on the floor and shout she didn't understand - and she is very good at maths, english and reading)

@ancientelm

"Extensive psychological testing has shown that the mysterious quality called 'creative imagination' seems to exist in all people but is severely diminished by the time an individual reaches the age of six. The environment of school ('You mustn't do this!' 'You mustn't do that!' 'You call that a drawing of your mother ? Why, your mother only has two legs.' 'Nice girls don't do things like that!') sets up a whole screen of blocks in the mind of the child that later inhibits his ability to ideate freely."

That quote, one of my favourites, is from ~50 years ago and I think the mysterious quality called 'enthusiasm for learning' is in roughly the same boat, diminished by rules and constraints in an environment with too many tests.

Meanwhile we both work full-time and from the start of Reception often didn't get DD back until 5-5:30pm when chat, play etc. were a much higher priority than box-ticking homework. She's a 10yo now and I still favour unstructured childhood, DD doing any activities she wants to do over school-stuff (we keep passive TV etc. in proportion). Interestingly some recent behavioural genetics research appears to be on my side:

"a genetic way of thinking about education is to foster genotype-environment correlation, giving children opportunities to select, modify, and create educational experiences in part on the basis of their genetic propensities, which include appetites as well as aptitudes."

I have been following this thread with great interest, PiqueaBoo do you mind me asking where those two quotes are from? Thank you!

This thread inspired me to let dd aged 6 in yr2 decide when to stop with her reading book for school tonight. We didn't finish it, but I think she read enough. She and her older sister then spent an hour choreographing their own dance routine for fun. Finally, they wrapped up their evening with a duet of "Hot Cross Buns" on the violin/recorder.

Feeling quite light of heart and content at the moment.

@Uppatea

The first is a provocative and classic design book, much of which is still quite relevant: Design for the Real World, Victor Papenek.

The second is a research paper Literacy and Numeracy Are More Heritable Than Intelligence in Primary School and you can get the full PDF for free from here: pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/08/30/0956797613486982.abstract

thanks everyone.

i am really glad i started the thread and shared my frustrations.

love that someone tried out the task on a child a year older than mine and able and she came nowhere near to the presumed desired outcome either

this has bolstered my confidence to just stop doing this mindless shite and the freedom of that has made me realise that i do want to work with ds on his learning but i want to chose how according to his and my needs/abilities etc rather than have it prescribed.

ooh i want to share one more frustration and find out if it is common place:

ds's school bag is used as a sales point - constant advertising in there and recently advertising in an envelope with a lable printed on it saying this must be filled in and returned to school even if you have no interest and the form (from a private tuition company) asked for your name address and contact no. obviously i wrote on it that i wouldn't give out my personal details to a private companies database and i hoped the school did not either.

'choose' not chose

Advertising in book bags justifies a formal complaint. It's completely inappropriate unless it's a specific communication about the school or local authority.

Advertising in the book bag! Although I'm shocked of course why wouldn't they? I do think one way to challenge these insidious trends is to become a Governor and start to challenge the Emperors New Clothes. Or lobby the existing governors and get like-minded parents to do the same. Clearly the governing body is currently weak/lazy or just looking at academic scores.

Put it in the recycling. Is this stuff really all you have to worry about?
Clearly the governing body must put flyers in book bags right at the top of the agenda.....

Thank you PiqueABoo