Amount of work at home (Y1) seems unrealistic

[ProzacDad]

Just wondered what levels of homework people did. We're currently getting 20 spelling words a week with a test on Thursday. This includes (for example this week)

Sound, ground, pound, around, find, counter, eat, again, than

(All the "ound" ones are ok, he hits a roadblock when it changes to "find" for example but if we start with "find" he's ok and vice versa)

Now spelling isn't currently his forte and I'm literally pounding them into his head each week so that he can at least do the test. One week he got full marks, the next he completely fell apart and got 3/10.

20 is an awful lot of words to remember, and for Year 1 some of them are a bit much.

On top of this in order to achieve a Bronze certificate at Mathletics he needs to score over 1,000 points a week which in fairness he can do more or less by himself now but it's still another 30 minutes or so a day on that.

If that's what it is, I guess that's what it is but I feel like he (perhaps them all) are being put under a ton of pressure with all this rather than enjoying school. Perhaps it's ofsted driven, I really don't know.

Combined with other after school activities - swimming lessons, gymnastics etc I feel he's left with little time to do anything else (particularly weekdays).

Sorry for the long drawn post but I would just like to gauge other peoples experiecnes.

Thanks.

Is earning the certificate on Mathletics required or an additional extra that he enjoys working towards?

I don't think expecting a child to learn 20 words a week is too arduous especially when he has all week including a weekend to practice. If he is finding it too much I would look at lessening the amount of out of school activities he does.

year 1 I think that's way too much! Most children will forget those spellings the week after the test anyway. At this age it should be daily reading only in my opinion. Some of them will be just 5! My children may have had 5 spellings a week and daily reading at this point. Even now not that many spelling in year 6!

Such demands on little kids these days. Cut back on after school stuff if he’s exhausted. Build the word practice into car journeys and other activities. But don’t sweat it too much if he doesn’t manage to get full marks.

Forget to mention, he's one of the youngest in the class so still 5 which makes it harder as others are almost a year older than him. I'm told this starts to even out in year 2 but at the moment it's still quite apparent.

I'm loathed to cut down on his activites (swimming, gymnastics etc) as first he loves them and second I think they're as important as the school stuff.

We do do reading before bed too (probably 10 minutes or so)

Parent of a Y1 here. We get 10mins reading every night, 5 spellings a fortnight (we have the list of all words they need to know up to year 4 and they progress at their own rate. We're told that spelling is all about long term memory, so no cramming for a test at the end of each week, then forgetting them). Once a fortnight we get a choice of homework from the homework matrix - and are told it should take no more than 30mins. School results are well above local authority and national average.

What you are getting is way too much IMO. Are the school doing "fun" stuff in school and leaving the consolidation to parents? Evidence for homework benefits are tenuous at best. I would be telling the school that it's taking too long - set a timer and when it goes, that's your lot.

Are you in a 7+ pre prep?

Hes 5. So has a lifetime to do ‘activities’. His mental health should be #1 and well ahead of skills and abilities and experiences. It’s a fine balance and you’re the best judge but don’t get caught in the trap of thinking he’ll be left behind at football etc if he’s not getting stuck in now. Everyone in my generation played sport well and seriously into adulthood after only formally doing training well after the age of 8. If not 12. Can you speak with the school to ask for a discussion on workload and if they can’t change it, how they can support your son more. Younger kids have a real disadvantage and this should be recognised and accommodated to avoid causing a small child actual stress!

in ours its reading every night, ten spellings once a week and weekend homework

mathletics starts in Year 2

Gosh, I wouldn't be doing all that.
We had 1 maths activity (we usually did similar on paper/with toys rather than the online one) PER WEEK. DS now actually does that in homework club and I do an app with him instead as the app is better than either the school online maths or using pencil and paper.
We had 5 spelling words (20 WTAF!) but we hardly ever did them (DS has writing problems so if we did, we used magnetic letters etc.). We skipped these when we couldn't cope with them. DS has some SEN but even if we were doing OK and it was something he could cope with, we still skipped it and didn't feel guilty.

Actual homework is always talk homework (and that's the same in Y2).

Reading daily though we didn't manage every day. We were doing this before school in YR and Y1 though now we are doing it after school (routine is after school club pickup, home, tea, reading, then pyjamas/bath/teeth/medication/story and 1 thing on the TV) and I'm so glad we switched as it was really stressful in the morning.

The Infants School (ages 4-7) my kids go to in England have zero official homework. I love it.

They encourage parents to read with their kids three times per week, and have 3-5 spellings to write out in a little book if they want to. No pressure tho, and no tests.

Yr3 onwards at Juniors is a different kettle of fish tho...

We also have this spelling test thing which is a new thing, although ours is every couple of weeks, but they have two quite long books to read every week, plus other homework. Ds is finding year one very draining, he's exhausted after school and wants to switch off, he does have other health issues though. I do think they expect too much of them. Most of his class won't be 6 until summer.

Don't bother "pounding" the spellings into his head, go over them a couple of times and then leave it. Research has suggested that spellings learned for a spelling test are not necessarily remembered when writing, so it seems to have.limited value.

My childrens school (DD Yr 5 and DS Yr 3) also don't give them any weekly set homework, apart from their reading log and spellings/times tables to tackle over the half term.
They prob do about 30 mins a week of spelling/TT, but they're both avid independent readers so read themselves every day.

I love it, and I really don't think homework is needed for infants and young juniors.

That sounds like too much to me. My summer born dd who is also in year one gets 7 words to learn per week along with reading, they occasionally get maths as well. The advice from the teachers is not to worry if they are too tired, just try again the next night. They are so little at 5, I would let him continue with his activities if that’s what he enjoys. Keeping fit and active is just as important as school work. Don’t stress about his homework and spellings, there is no evidence that it’s beneficial anyway. Loads if kids that age will spell a word right in a spelling test after learning it and then spell it wrong in a sentence days later

That sounds like a lot for Y1. Mine at that age got 10 spellings, reading every night and maths at weekends. Mathletics from Y3 here, they did Education City in KS1. If it's taking your DS 30 mins every night (2.5 hrs a week?) to get 1000 points on Mathletics then that's too much for him as well. Agree with PPs, speak to the school. At 5 it's simply not worth so much stress.

I think you need to be realistic when it comes to the spellings. Perhaps just pick a few of the spellings each week, focussing on a particular sound. Just spend a few minutes, a few times per week. Reassure him that you, and the teacher, aren't expecting him to get 20 spellings right per week.

Speak to the teacher and explain that that's what you'll do, as 20 spellings per week is way beyond him at this stage.

It does sound a lot - my daughter is in year 1, she gets about 5 a week on a Friday to be learnt for a test the following Friday. Then they also get a new book to read a couple of times a week.

I have 2 children, the most spellings they've ever had to learn in a week is 12, when they were older, 20 seems a lot for year 1.

Mathletics, I'd aim for 15 mins each night or a few times each week.

I think trying to read each day is of more benefit. I bet not everyone is putting in 30 minutes + each evening, yet some will be putting in more. It varies so much between schools as well, some primary schools don't give out any homework. Just do what you can without feeling under pressure.

My daughter has just gone into Y2

But Y1 was 10-15 spellings the list would be based on the sound they'd been focussing on that week. These were supposed to be practiced at least 3 times with a test on a Friday.

Reading ten mins every night.

Then each half term they wanted a project piece based on whatever their class topic was. And this could take the form of whatever the child wanted. But obviously and annoyingly at 5/6 years old required a good amount of parent input

I feel your pain about the projects thismeansnothing. Our school did a homework survey a couple of years ago and dropped them completely once all the parents pointed out they were doing 90% of the work! Ironically though they were torture with DD1, DD2 would have quite enjoyed a project. But I was very glad to see the back of them.

If you're prepping for one of the selective independent schools, that is the norm. There is no way of getting admission otherwise. Even the top pre-preps will see half their kids fail to get their first choices.

So, we've all been there! Second half of Y1 and first half of Y2 should in all fairness be the worst time of your life! Otherwise you're not getting your money's worth!

The only solace is that it does not get harder, if anything it gets easier. Once they're through, Y3 is almost like a repeat of their work in Y2, so you can maybe not relax, but at least enjoy the feeling of being prepared for everything thrown your way.

We're not prepping for anything to be honest, will be speaking to the teacher next week so hopefully get a bit more information on why the workload is such.

Ten minutes reading as many times a week as able

I teach Y1. We give them a reading book and 3 words a week to spell - that's it!
Their other homework is to go home and be '5' or be '6' and play!

We do set up a half termly project linked to our topic but it's homework heavily advertsied as being family orientated. More often than not we get some delightful homework submissions lovingly done by parents

Speak to the class teacher about it. But, it is far too much.

Question: Is this an academy? Outstanding school or RI/Inadequate? Often find this of academy schools and those struggling to maintain a high status OR get out of a low one! Usually by SLT who mistakenly believe progress can be achieved by working kids and teachers into a frenzy.

... sounds like a pre prep to me!