A thread to exchange notes about year 6 holiday homework

[AChickenCalledKorma]

DD2's school never usually sets homework over the holidays.

Today she has brought home a one hour reading comprehension past paper, 30+ pages of maths and grammar revision exercises, several tasks on Mathletics, several sample online SPAG tests aaaaaaand ............ a cheery message from her teacher telling her it's very important she has a good rest and enjoys her two weeks off!

Oh, and a revision timetable which breaks each individual day of our holiday down into five handy slots.

Please help me calm down! We have been having a conversation with school about how pressurised she is feeling and how they are blowing the significance of SATs out of all proportion. This is not a helpful response.

Nothing here.
Some children been invited to 2x mornings in school over hols.

We have two SPAG booklets and a maths booklet (lots of pages). He'll be doing it in stages over the next two weeks.

This is rediculous. Ds is only in Y4 and already I'm dreading Y6 for him.

Mrz, I've noticed you've set none. What's your opinion on those teachers setting vast amounts?

PollyPurple I have a Y4 child as well as a Y6 - I honestly don't think it is worth worrying about as it is SUCH a farce, there will never be another Y6 like this one. Though I feel even more sorry for this year's GCSE-takers, they are the really truly shafted lot.

My poor old Y6er was in tears this afternoon, struggling with the maths and asking me why he is so dumb. He's really not at all dumb, he's a clever lad, but the questions are so narrowly focused it's a test the majority are set up to fail. Except of course no one has decided the pass/fail mark...

We haven't got any!

I probably wouldn't make him do it even if we did.

Luna I'm wondering why you say the maths questions are narrowly focussed?

I don't have much of an issue with the maths, (apart from the fact that DD can't do word based questions that is).

I think pupils have been working hard and need a break

And how beneficial is doing SATs papers? They are useful for familiarising the child with the format of the test but beyond that 🤔

A whole pile of SATs papers.

Im actually very impressed at what DD can do.

I'm even more impressed that my 17yo can answer a lot of the English questions I can't.

I'm not sure we'll get through them all though.

We have some too. Ds has never had holiday homework before but now he has a book of "brain training exercises" SATS shit and he has to do about four pages per day. And record how long it took. It's such bullshit but I feel sorry for the teachers. They've had the goalposts moved to the far side of fuck and they're just trying to meet their pointless targets. This fucking government are twats.

My dd says she's only going to do the SPAG practice paper, not the others (as they are all optional) because she actively enjoys the SPAGs! Yr7 ds demanded to have a go at it first though. Dd hates the Reading Comp - it's soooo boring. The maths papers look pretty sensible to me. I've always been in favour of teaching more grammar at primary, but I must say the SPAG papers are pretty unrealistic considering how little time they've had to prepare.

*Oops - yr3 ds, not yr7.

Being devils advocate I wonder if anyone will mark them 🤔

Well- my ds going to do bugger all.
Bad Mum alert?!
Some children doing well in SATs is pure hot housing...
Maybe I should hot house too but school not asking us to and feel all will come out in the wash as ds gets older.
Naive? Maybe.....

My year 6 dd just has to write a holiday diary. That's it!

My ds might need to do something to jump through SATs hoops.
Just, we are not going to.
If I wanted to push SPAG would be the way to go with him....
Heaven knows how he will do...

DD's maths HW has covered all core topics. I am sitting with her while she does them (low confidence) and checking she understands stuff as we go. So I know it is all correct as I'm effectively marking and getting her to correct as we go along. She has one arithmetic paper to do which will be unaided at the end of the holidays to check independent progress.
Actually it is being quite helpful. She's always reluctant to do stuff just for me, but if the school has set it then she'll have a go. A bit of solid 'maths with mum every day' is helping clarify things for her I think.

Well some parents do hothouse!!
Their choice of course.
I sometimes panic a bit and think I should be.
Hey, I might well be letting my children down by not giving them more school type extra work at home.
Time will tell.
It's a long game....

Ignore it - you are the parent, you know best what your child should be doing when he/she is home with the family. The teacher knows best what he/she should be doing in school.

The SATs are just a stick to beat schools with. Half the stuff they do in year 6 they repeat in year 7 when they move up.

Reclaim your family life!

Thanks Mishaps. .