Homework for 5 year olds Year 1

[Flumpf]

I saw that there was another homework thread, but I wanted to discuss year 1 homework specifically. Am I the only one who thinks that it is completely mad? We read a book and have to write in a reading record book everyday. I think that this is good and has really improved DS's reading. We also do enjoy it and I can definitely see the benefits of spending 10 minutes reading.

We also have 10 spellings to learn every week. He is only just learning to write and is being given spellings such as 'purple', 'nurse' and 'surprise'. His friend had the words 'quick' and 'quit'. I asked him if he knew what a magic 'e' was? Or a silent 'e'? He said that he didn't know.

I thought that these words were too difficult for a 5 year old. I would expect smaller words for them to start with. He does the spelling tests and scores 1/10. How is this supposed to make him feel? He might think that there's no point trying because he's never going to get them right.

Last night, a new homework book was sent home. We have assignments to do with deadlines. He has to design and make a puppet. One of the assignments is to research the history of puppets online and make a time line with dates and pictures. He's 5 years old.

It is becoming a real source of stress for me, and I do not feel equipped to support a tired, frustrated 5 year old with his homework after school.

Is this the normal amount to get? Do you see the benefits in so much homework in year 1?

Sorry for the long post, but I think it's madness.

The worst homework we receive is a prepared 2 minute talk - these start in Year one - dc is allowed props but is not allowed to read from a script, parents pull together all sorts of jazzy PowerPoint presentations. So child has to practice over and over again....they are terrified of screwing up in front of their class mates....the stress involved is hideous.

Your son's spellings are based on the sound /er/ (spelt ur in the words you list) which is fine provided he has also been taught the spellings for the other sounds in the words - if he has been taught is a spelling for the sound /l/ (as in purple) and is a spelling for the sound /ie/ (as in surprise) and is a spelling for /s/ (as in nurse). They aren't difficult words if the child has been taught what they need.
I asked him if he knew what a magic 'e' was? Or a silent 'e'? He said that he didn't know. I would hope he isn't being taught either of these.
Having said that I don't belive in homework in primary but believe it or not teachers are under pressure (to give homework )...from parents!

My DD is in yr1 and so far we have had 2 word searches, 1 research and write 1 A4 sheet about a historical figure, a crossword and math games. Their books are changed Monday,Wed and Friday but we read every night 5 pages or 10 minutes whichever is shorter. They currently have a reading challenge where every time they read at home we sign and they get a stamp, get 30 stamps and you get a prize, get 4 prizes and you get a certificate and mention in assembly.

We have had no spellings yet and no spelling tests that I know of.

Reading nightly ideally (but only do about 3 x/wk)
One short maths sheet a week - get 6 days to do it.
Seems a good amount.
Ds y1, summer born but same for whole class I think

My dd1 is in yr1 and we get 5 spellings a week and a short worksheet each week.
They also get a sheet at the beginning of each half term with several activities (something to make, something to write or research etc) and they are supposed to work alongside an adult to do it and hand it in on the last Monday of the half term, the projects are then put on display in the school hall.
She also gets a new book each day but they just replace the book as and when the child has read it - my dd loves reading so in our house its daily.
I find this a good balance of work, anymore and I wouldn't be too happy.

Some child, OP's son included, are having way too much homework for Y1! Much of it doesn't even seem to be chid based or age appropriate - more like homework for parents.

FWIW I work in an infant school. Our Y1s have reading homework - they have a reading diary and are encouraged to read at home. Even this is only encouraged, not enforced, etc. Our Y2s have reading, and occassionally a research thing - see if you can find out about.... - linked to the topic. But nothing actually enforced, and if done can be written, printed, made or verbal.

The HT has asked us to come up woth a more defined homework policy because parents are requesting it - argh! Why?! I'd love to know what the actual purpose is for and how it will actually directly benefit the children.

And I hate spelling homework too - it doesn't teach a child to actually spell ime, and much education research upports that too.

Thanks for more responses. :) Who are these parents who are asking for year 1 homework?!

In my original post, I didn't even list all of his homework, because I thought that it would make the post too long.

We've made the puppet and read his book this weekend. We really do love reading together, and it only takes 10 minutes.

The puppet took a good 45 minutes I'd say. Luckily, my mum is very into crafts, and so she had plenty of felt and googly eyes around. Ds did some sewing, sticking and drawing. My mum and I really enjoyed it, but when he was finished ds said "Can I go now?". He doesn't really like crafty things.

His other assignments are to make a story board for Jack and the Beanstalk, write 10 words to describe Jack and 10 words to describe the giant, make a maths game involving lengths, make 2 more puppets out of different materials...I can't think what the others are right now.

It's on a sort of grid. He had to make the puppet, and then he has to choose 2 other assignments to do. They all look too much to me.

I agree with the other mums who say that it is an intrusion on your family time. Especially as my ds does not enjoy arts and crafts.

Puppet thing without timeline and research would be fine. With research, it's better suited to Year 4 and beyond.
Spellings aren't being appropriately differentiated if he's scoring (a demoralising and demotivating) 1/10. You're spot on. Make an appointment to see teacher / Head of year Group about this - and stick to your guns.

Research does indeed suggest that homework at primary (other than reading and a few spellings) is not particularly beneficial.
Unfortunately, many parents insist on lots of homework, and the current SoS is a big fan of homework (and ignoring research).
I went through primary pre-NC (just). It was lovely we had reading and spelling homework every week. And occasionally project work, which I loved, as I could get really geeky about it.

Dc1 and 2 went to an 'outstanding' infants school, and, together with about 1/3 of their year groups, each attained level 3 at the end of KS1. They never had this much homework. There was a reading activity of some sort every week and suggestions for numeracy games every half-term. Phonics flash-cards were added later in the YR, followed by high-frequency word cards when the child was ready. The HFW flash cards turned into 10-word spellings lists part way through Y1, again, when the child was ready. That was all.

Any extra homework was always clearly optional.

Personally, I would refuse to do the amount of homework the OP describes. Homework is for reinforcing school learning, not replacing it. How can you expect a child who id not yet reading or writing with ease to doresearch? it becomes homework for the parents and does mot benefit the child. Spellings such as the OP describes should be given if the child has mastered many HFW and has a good sense of the various spellings rules, or if they are a prolific writer and have chosen to use these words in their writing.

I have gratuitously name changed for this post. I'd never normally mention that DD goes to a high performing selective private school consistently judged in the top 20 nationally. I do think it's relevant for this post, which is why I've name changed and mentioned it.

DD, in year one, has the following homework:
Reading, changes book as often as required, roughly 3 to 4 books a week.
Spellings, 10 of these, grouped phonetically, tested in sentences.
One other piece of homework a week, usually playing some sort of maths game, once a small family tree, which involved drawing family faces and writing names.

So no, Flumpf, you are not the only one who thinks the level of homework your DS is doing is 'mad'.

Is your DSs school a very high performing school and/or have their results gone down? Are they worried about their SATS performance? I can't help wondering whether all of this homework is to make up for a teaching deficit - what is their justification and can they demonstrate that this level of homework is producing better results than schools that do less?

They did get a "Needs improvement" Ofsted report last year, so that is probably why. The head teacher is new and has obviously been brought in to improve the school. She's changed the name of the school and the uniform, which was a complete waste of money IMO. It's a shame, because it used to be a good school.

Of course it is far too much homework for Y1. I don't think you will find any conclusive research to back this up but I am sure common sense does. The only real research I have heard of suggests that sending reading books home is a good thing.

The spellings given are all contain the 'ur' sound (so far, so good) but if the children haven't learned the other sounds in the words, it seems a bit pointless. There are plenty of simpler words that have the 'ur' sound if the school feels that DCs have to learn them for a test. Getting 1/10 sounds really demoralising and may lead to a DC itentifying themself as a poor speller when they are really only at the beginning of learning to read and write.

The puppet making and the history of puppets timeline really sounds like homework for parents and it is possible that they will get some impressive looking parent-made examples to display around the school.

DS gets:
Reading - 10 mins a day
Education City - 10 mins Phonics, 10 mins maths once a week.
Weekly spelling test - Streamed by their phonics group. DS gets 10. We go through them once a day.
Number bonds - They have to recite the "story of 2" etc and when they know it they can move up to the next level. As and when.
Half termly spellings - 25 words to learn verbally. This was brought in as extension work in reception once they learnt all 300 key words. (I'm going to ask at the next parents evening if he really needs to do this now.)
Comprehension worksheet once a week now he's on a certain book level.

Do I win?

We are on week 2 of this. They gave them the first half term free to settle in to year 1 before ramping up the homework. DS has had a couple of meltdowns over the weekend....only just twigged it might be related to the extra homework.

OMG -this sounds scary and too much. What do you do if you work and have other children ?

My DS is in yr 1. We have a reading book and log -it is checked but is optional. I love reading and hope to impart this to my son so we do read every night. They have a sticker system at school for reading and get small prizes when they have readcx no of books. Last week we got a words book with 6 words in for him to familarise himself with and that is all.

Flumpf, your last post says it all I think. Sounds like the new HT has been tasked (and probably wants) to make a big, quick impact on results.

I'm amazed at the amount of spellings some schools are giving year 1s, my DD has not brought any spellings home but does get homework every week, sometimes drawing, making things, maths (money, subtraction...etc), sometimes writing linked to the topic in school e.g. looking at a picture of a 1940s house and describing how it looks different to modern home interiors. All interesting, stretching without being onerous and enjoyable.

It almost always takes longer than the 5 to 10 mins the school say it should take but hey ho. She does the best she can and we try not to stress over it.

Between my 4 children (twins so only 3 different classes).

First teacher in year 1 just reading, no spellings or anything else. It was fine DC progressed well. Second teacher, similar to the OP and it was terrible, lots of tears from DC until we decided to just not do it, then a very difficult meeting with the teacher.

Third teacher, this year, DC have 2 lots of 5 spellings and a star word, one set of 5 words is always frequently used words and they are repeated every few weeks so children are absolutely solid in those. The other set are 'fun' words according to DT1 and 'choice' words to DT2. They don't have to do them but almost all children do apparently. They will relate to the work they are doing, so they have been looking at the seaside and, last week they had sea, beach, shell, wave, tide. Yesterday they brought home fish, crab, lollipop, pebble, seagull. What's really nice and different though is that during carpet time the children make suggestions for the words for that week from their topic. Then the teacher chooses the best words (am sure she'll have influenced the suggestions!) and explains how the words are made up so f-i-sh and reminds them of the phonics rule. I find my DC (twins) talking about how they need the 'ea' e sound and a 'ch' as if they're working out a puzzle. The words are all around the classroom for a week before the test too so there's plenty of time for them to use them and practise them in their writing before the test.

With the latest approach even my child with learning difficulties doesn't need as much time on spelling practise as the previous two, and they seem to remember the words in their writing more than when they were just handed a list of words, learned them and forgot them the next week.

Then they have a star word each week, this week it's weather. Even DT2 has started trying to learn the star words this term. I love this teacher.

Sorry that was long, I'm such a fan of this year's teacher!

We just get reading books and 5-10 words off the Yr1 list.
Zero else is required and our school is outstanding and has been for a long time. All kids do well without tons of home work

This is one of the Zombie threads, but I think if you think homework is too much in KS1, they must have option not to do it.
Reading books daily and spelling test each week is fine in yr1, imo.

Hi Everyone,

Really interested in this conversation as I am in a similar situation.
I have a 6 year old boy and since reception he has homework for the whole week (MondayTues,Wed,Thurs, Friday) , so his homework book comes home on Monday and goes back in on Friday. He gets something to do everyday from maths to science to RE etc. and the big write stories or poems for Fridays. plus he has spellings and timestable practise along with reading for 20 minutes everyday.
I am a single working parent so must say it does become a struggle however I've always felt scared to bring it up as school will think I am just being lazy, he normally stays at school from 9am till 6pm, soon as I finish work I collect him from school by the time bath and dinner has been done its so hard to get him to concentrate.

would you guys mention this to the school ?

Forgot to mention he is currently in year 2.