So, what do we think about homework in year 1?

[gallicgirl]

We have parents evening coming up so I'm trying to order my thoughts and points around homework before meeting with DD's teacher.

DD currently reads every day at home. She has a reading book from school which is changed as frequently or infrequently as she remembers to change it.
She has spellings once a week (around 5-10 words) which aren't particularly challenging for DD but I appreciate other children might struggle to learn them.
DD has just started being set online maths homework but this has only been set twice this term.
The whole school has creative homework to complete during the holidays, the theme of which is set around the topic for that term.
All of this homework appears to be optional.

I understand that if work is completed well in class and the child is making progress then homework might not even be necessary. However, I feel the right kind of homework can be good to challenge a child and help them to progress further.

I think my main issue is a lack of feedback. I don't know what topics DD is covering in class so it's difficult to support her and foster interest in topics. I'm capable of encouraging her to undertake additional study when she shows an interest but it would be nice to know that this is going to tie in with school work.

What are your thoughts? Should I just accept that parents don't need to know anything about what their child is covering in school or how they're progressing? What works well in your schools?

Tbh, I wish teachers don't spend so much time trying to inform parents and rather spent it on teaching. Our school's results are dire.

Yes you can get information from your kids - but it's usually who was on the sad side!!! As far as topics go you might get "tudors" for example.

We use to way a break down in primary too.for example topics they are doing in maths (tables/data handling etc and then what times table and bar graphs or tally charts etc). We then got what they were covering in literacy (speech marks/similies etc) and then their topic, science etc.
It helped to ask the right questions about school to avoid the inevitable "nothing" or "I don't know!"

Perhaps I'm in the minority but I think the less homework the better in year 1 (I have a DC in year 1). Definitely reading. Anything else, if it is set we will do it but I don't go looking for extra (DH does sometimes though). Our newsletters are full of info about clubs and fun stuff - that's how I personally like it. Currently DD likes school and thinks learning is fun and long may that continue. From what I have seen it ramps up in Year 2 a bit and turns into making models etc (most look as if they are made by the parents but I can't be sure of course).

My DD2 gets more homework from nursery than my DD1- we hardly do any of it. Learning should be fun at that age IMO.

Lots of other parents disagree with me and frequently ask the teachers for more work.

To clarify DH is not one of those asking the teachers for extra, just that he might look stuff up and do worksheets with DD if she is interested in it (I do that too before I am flamed!).

I bet that if you asked your child what he played at break or who got told off today, he'd tell you in great detail.

Our school posts a half-termly academic newsletter for each year. It mentions the topics that they are going to learn as well as any school trips , dress up days etc. I like knowing the topic that they are doing just because I'm curious and it's a chance to brush up on my knowledge too.

I have no clue on targets in writing and maths. Schools say that they want parents involved but seem to keep information like this close to their chest. If a child's target is to use full stops then many parents would be happy to gently prompt their child to add a full stop to their writing homework and hope it's the start of an automatic habit

If you ask me, the target is likely to be EXTREMELY low, reason why the information is not shared.
AFAIK, full stops and capital letters is the ONLY target that my P3 child has EVER been set, since P1.
How she spells and how she writes seems to be pretty much irrelevant.

I am not keen on anything apart from reading as the evidence suggests it's of little to no value in early primary. And, I also think it allows weak teaching to be masked, at least in the case of advantaged kids whose parents are engaged with and help them with their homework.

Arkadia.
We get targets together with reports at parents' eve.
But once I questioned my ds' targets because I knew he was already able to do it. Teacher's answer was, "we haven't cover that yet"

You sound like a bright parent - lots of books around to help with work - you don't need school to do it for you

I never got even a hint at what targets might look like (except the aforementioned "capital letters and full stops" and the ever present dart board.)
Every time we go to a parents' evening we are told that everything is honky dory, you couldn't ask for more, etc. etc. But, if you ask me (and even if you are not, I am going to tell you anyway), you could ask for PLENTY more, without being in the slightest unreasonable.
As I said, my eldest is P3 (Y2 for those south of the border), so I was expecting to see something, nay, ANYTHING by now, but so far, no joy.

It's really useful to see all your thoughts on this.

I don't particularly want homework, merely recognise that this is one way of judging progress. We tend to be quite child led in our parenting, in the sense that if DD shows an interest in something, we try to foster that. I've taught EFL so although it's nowhere near a full teaching qualification, it's a huge help when it comes to phonics and guided learning.

Arkadia, that sounds very much like our parents evenings which is why I wanted to be a bit more prepared this time. I wanted to get a sense of how pushy to be and in which direction to aim my energies.