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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

Homework for reception class

28 replies

Btfly · 08/01/2014 23:37

Hi mums, my dd is in reception class.. Her teacher has not sent any homework yet... Is it interesting? I plan to to with him.. What do you think? Should I talk with class teacher?

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Danann · 09/01/2014 00:58

I don't think many reception teachers set anything other than reading this early in reception, DD does get a work sheet every week but none of her friends at other schools do.

It's all stuff like what number comes next - 4 5 6 ?, colour in the pictures that start with a c or colour the squares red, circles blue and rectangles yellow.

mrscog · 09/01/2014 01:01

I would be seriously pissed off if my reception aged child came home with anything more than a reading book. In fact I feel this way up to yr 4/5.

MrsCakesPremonition · 09/01/2014 01:25

I don't think you'll get any homework in reception class.
Just new reading books and maybe something very small to do in the holidays (draw a picture or find an object starting with a certain letter).

leelteloo · 09/01/2014 03:36

Mine gets homework all the time. Reading, plus proper work in a book. Feels a bit much to be honest but she seems to be getting on with it with me and feels very proud if she gets house points or good comments.

2cats2many · 09/01/2014 06:26

My DS is in reception and gets homework. Quite frankly it feels more like homework for me than him. I hate it.

3bunnies · 09/01/2014 06:57

Reading is plenty for most reception children. It is probably the most important thing they can master at the moment. Some of the children in your dd's class will be struggling to stay awake to even read without the expectation of homework on top. If YOUR child is needing extra stimulation then there are loads of games you can play with them, there are downloadable worksheets or I usually buy a batch of books like this and use those - admittedly that was for dd1 who was struggling with some concepts but I know parents who have used it because their child was bored.

Some children going into reception still can't read so homework for them would be too much. It will all begin to level out, dd1 has now caught up with the early bloomers and can hold her own in Juniors. I know that I may need to do extra work with ds when he starts as he has already achieved reception goals and he hasn't even started yet but I would rather do that if he wants it than enforce extra work on everyone else. Be warned though - homework might not necessarily be what you are expecting - e.g. yr 1 building a medieval village, yr 3 make a researched model of the great barrier reef.

noramum · 09/01/2014 07:13

We got homework in addition to the book. But it was more the line "find different shapes or pattern at home". "Draw a picture of a scene in your favourite book"

Everything else would be too much for Reception in my opinion. Year 1 was a bit more writing and now in Year 2 we have proper homework but DD is ok with it.

Meglet · 09/01/2014 07:19

The DC's school sends home one book and a word list a week.

I usually top it up with some extra reading and a bit of handwriting / maths practice when we have time. I'm glad the pressure doesn't come from the school though.

my2bundles · 09/01/2014 07:24

Just enjoy this time, homework will come soon enough.

itsahen · 09/01/2014 09:01

Our school gives just bit of reading if anything - general policy is little homework at all until yr 5-6. Better to focus on family time and other activities etc ( our school is very high performing). Just read lots

Gileswithachainsaw · 09/01/2014 09:03

IMO it should be just reading they get. They don't red homework in primary school.

Enjoy not having to push shattered kids to do pointless work!! :)

meditrina · 09/01/2014 09:05

Our primary only ever asked for 10 minutes reading a day, and didn't mind if you skipped days if your DC was tired, or had an activity, or you just chose not to do it sometimes for whatever parental reason (as long as it was mostly done).

I think there might have been the odd bit of project related work (eg can you draw/find pictures of a castle) but that was so casual I can't remember exactly (might have been year 1).

hels71 · 09/01/2014 18:38

when DD was in reception by this stage we had 5 spellings, reading, some maths and some literacy every week,.....

SapphireMoon · 09/01/2014 18:41

Spellings?! In Reception?!!!!!

Danann · 09/01/2014 19:04

we are getting spellings from next week too I hate spellings and it was always a real fight to get DS to learn them.

Gileswithachainsaw · 09/01/2014 19:06

It annoys me they aren't just free to play :(

TheNightIsDark · 09/01/2014 19:10

DS gets things like write some sentences from your key words, who is the oldest in your family and who is the youngest etc.

He loves doing it

nonicknameseemsavailable · 09/01/2014 19:54

we are asked to do reading at least 3 times a week but ideally a bit every day. At weekends they get a bit of phonics practice based on what they have been doing that week so draw pictures of things beginning with s t p or whatever.

simpson · 09/01/2014 20:23

DD was in reception last year and got 3 reading books a week, spellings (for a test), a literacy exercise and a numeracy one too.

I am in a reception class this year (not my DC school) and they have a reading book, and one other exercise to do which varies from drawing fruit (had been studying Handa's Suprise in class) and trying (but not expected) to write the first letter of the fruit they have drawn to practising handwriting (sheets with each letter and following the dots) or a basic counting exercise.

SapphireMoon · 09/01/2014 20:29

Tests in Reception? Actual spelling tests?
I really am shocked and view our primary with more respect as Reception seems FUN!!

lilyaldrin · 09/01/2014 20:31

I wouldn't do anything beyond reading with a Reception child. The teacher has enough time with them in school, there's no evidence that homework does anything for the child.

I think a lot of teachers only set homework in infants because pushy parents complain otherwise

simpson · 09/01/2014 20:36

DD did have a proper test but not all the kids did. Maybe DD is a bit of an odd kid as she views learning academic stuff as fun and quite liked doing them.

Having said that she did her share of "normal" reception stuff too (and always came home filthy!)

hels71 · 09/01/2014 21:51

Oh yes, spellings and a weekly test.......

Danann · 10/01/2014 11:27

yup, spelling tests and numeracy tests every Friday (we don't do anything at home for the numeracy tests though)

herbaceous · 10/01/2014 11:59

Our DS's reception class also sets homework. Each week he'll have a sheet of words to sound out and write, or a wordsearch, or gets asked to write a sentence! I think it's a bit much, so just let him do it if he wants to, but don't push it.

He'd taught himself to read by 3.5, so finds the 'reading' homework bafflingly easy. I just let him write the words out instead, or indeed not at all. Though that does elicit the odd 'please complete' comment from the teacher.

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