What's Normal for Reception?

[DrPimplePopper]

Hi can anyone advise me on what is a normal level of homework and communication for Reception year please?

My son just started school (about a week-10 days later than other local schools started) and his school now only do a 4 and a half day week. I am concerned how much work they'll be trying to cram in during a shorter week and how much they'll need to be putting down for homework to make up for it so want to keep an eye on it right from the get-go.

He's been in full time about 2.5 weeks, 1 week was just part time, and since the first full week has had a phonics homework sheet each day, plus a weekly reading book, plus another picture book with a word wallet and we write a reading diary about what he's guessed from the pictures. I would love to know from others if this a standard amount of work at this stage? I wasn't expecting a homework sheet every day.

We have had no letter or emails about what the children are working on this term or half term. There's no communication at the start or end of day. I could make an appointment but I don't want to make a fuss already. He was at the nursery full time and it seems very different, there each week there was a display on the door with info about skills they were working on, and parents were always welcomed in for discussion.

I know a few other schools' Receptions have sent out newsletters, but we've not had anything like this other than leaflets asking for donation, money, Macmillan cakes etc. I don't want to be one of 'those' mums always on the teacher's back (ex-teacher!) but also I don't want my son to be getting too much or not enough work, and me not to know what he is doing.

Thanks if anyone can give me details about their Reception so I can compare!

The EEF has collated the evidence about homework and concluded that, apart from reading, there is no educational benefit to doing homework in primary school.

I wouldn't be impressed with a sheet to do every day. A reading book would be enough.

My DS2 is in reception, so far all he has is a weekly reading book (just pictures just now, and a list of phonics sounds they are working on). It is normal not to have the same level of communication as a nursery, it wouldn't be practical. Parent's nights are the main point of contact unless there is an issue.

Thank you both.

I'm also not impressed with homework generally so am trying not to be biased! When I was teaching myself I always set a creative 'project work' task over a term rather than death by weekly worksheet/spelling list, and only that because the HoD made us. It was always the same story - those who completed the work in class did the hwk, those who really needed to catch up via hwk didn't bother, so it was pointless. This was high school though, and I don't want to undermine my son's teachers with my own views. I'm prepared to support him as much as possible but I don't want the school just shoving all the work into homework and saying a 4.5 week is a success.

Just collected him and found as well as the 2 books and daily sheet he also has a booklet of words that says 'practise every day'. So now that's 2 weekly tasks, reading, and 2 daily phonics tasks. Surely that's OTT for 4 and 5 year olds?

Hi ime experience the lack of communication is pretty standard. However the amount of homework does seem a little excessive. My fourth child has just started in reception and so far all we've had are letter and number formation sheets and a learning journal which they can write about any wow moments they want to tell their teacher about.
My third child was in reception last year and I remember everything really ramped up after Xmas and we had two reading books a week, spellings and spelling sentences, sheets once a week and they were really encouraged to write in their learning journals once a week.

My
Daughter does 5 full days a week.

Reading books are changed on Mondays and a Thursdays.

On Thursday they have 1 page of comprehension and 8 spellings to practice to be handed in on Monday.

They also have access to online reading there is no set time or amount but are expected to access it at least once a week.

Pressed send too soon!

My
Daughter does 5 full days a week.

Reading books are changed on Mondays and a Thursdays.

On Thursday they have 1 page of comprehension and 8 spellings to practice to be handed in on Monday.

They also have access to online reading there is no set time or amount but are expected to access it at least once a week.

That is for year one.

In reception she had one activity per week in her learning journal, two reading books and online reading once a week.

We get a new reading book every day. After half term we’ll be getting lists of ‘tricky’ words to learn and then after Xmas they start with homework. (They get a homework sheet for the term and choose one activity to do every fortnight.)

If you and your son feel like doing homework, you can... but if not, don't stress. It's all optional in reception. Whatever reading and counting you do at home will be great.

That sounds like way too much. If your son is making progress (and I realise its quite early to know if he is yet!) I think I would not do all of that. A reception child wont be punished for not doing HW and I don't think it makes much difference, it's just a box ticking exercise.

Thanks everyone, it's really helpful to hear your experiences. It does sound like he's getting quite a lot by comparison. He's shattered by the time I collect him so I'm not going to force any of this on him if he won't be told off or have consequences. But I think I need to find out from the school if he'll have any break time or golden time taken away and figure out my stance on it all.

The marking is so far a 'good effort' stamper, even on something that was obviously not his best work, so I'm not sure if it's at all productive.

We get one of these each week and a reading book

No homework here yet.

DS has just started bringing a "choice" book home for us to read with him. He'll start getting a weekly reading book after half term. I think there might be a weekly task later in the year.

The school are communicating well via a noticeboard app. There's also another app they upload photos to for parents to see what our kids are up to.

The lack of homework is deliberate on the schools part. There is more as they move up though.

Usually if you tell them that you’re a “conscientious objector” to the homework (other than reading), they really won’t mind for YR.

No homework at all here yet. As DS is barely four, I wouldn’t be too impressed if there was - he’s got enough on staying awake until bedtime.

You don't have to do the homework, I never did homework with my three in KS1, I don't agree with it

I DID read with them every night, help them any time they showed interest in reading, sounded out letters etc whenever it came up (on tv, road signs, reading a cereal box, whatever)

In reception we got an update sheet each week with what they'd been focusing on, this was good, we found out about school and could ask them questions.
Letter sheets every couple of days, cut out phonics words in a little envelope. They got a book that we were supposed to read with them. I did this sometimes, if they wanted to. I never pushed it on them.
I've never written in a reading diary.

That's my approach, it works for my kids. Don't worry about any kind of prescriptive homework at this age. As long as you read together, you're good.

The only homework we have had so far was an optional task to do a family and friends picture. We are also supposed to record in the diary listening to stories 3x per week - not yet bringing reading books home.
Otherwise not a lot of communication but we do have parents evening just before half term.

No homework yet after 3.5 weeks & at information evening we were given an overview of the full year & advised there would over the course of this term be reading books as and when the individual was ready. By the end summer term 2 books a week.
We were invited to classroom early this afternoon for a performance a song they had learnt and to see a craft project they have done.
Very different experience to yours OP.

Thank you everyone, it's been very interesting to see how it varies. We've had no info like a lot of you have had, and no calendar so we can see if there's parents evening coming up. The website is poor too with nothing useful online to speak of

Dd has just started reception, she gets a couple of sounds a week to practice saying and writing, a homework task (last week was to draw everyone special to you) once every couple of weeks. then every week she gets a book of her choice from the school library, a book with only pictures which she has to tell me the story by what she can see and a reading book for her to read.

My DD has homework just once every 2 weeks. it's just drawing animals or vehicles and trying to write letters. She has a reading book all the time which I help her with mon-fri after school. That's it.

Dd 5 has started reception in Sept. So far we've had a meet the teacher eve where they give an over view of the terms topic and show some examples of dds work.

We had a letter from school detailing what narrative emersion they were doing and what outcomes they were after and how we could benefit this learning at home.

We have a daily journal to communicate any issues and a reading journal to log reading. We have 4 a week minimum (but dd has grasped phonics very quickly and is devouring the books)

No homework as such other than reading

No homework as of yet picture book with hard words to learn gets changed mon weds fri. Get weekly updates on school activities on something called 'parentmail' can be very useful but annoying when you get messages 5 times a day!they send us everything on this like school clubs activities within the area, child progress,what they're learning that week and even book parents evening via this too!

My infant school asks that children are listened to reading regularly, ideally each day.

In key stage 1, at the request of parents for homework, we send home a home learning menu at the start of each half term linked to their topic. It has a handful of activities which the child can complete. It is entirely optional and it is all unmarked. If a child wishes to they can bring their work in to share during their 'show and tell' tune.

Reception we used to get a phonics game to play fortnightly (just a cut up the cards and try to make the list of words relative to what they’d been covering) and then some kind of practical learning task to do as a family fortnightly (something like get two plates and objects and count them in sets and then altogether type task with an explanation of how it linked into what they were doing in class), plus reading books changed up to daily whenever they’d read them a couple of times.

There were meant to be weekly updates on the classroom doors about what they’d been doing, but these migrated to online and dwindled somewhat - but the general school newsletter always had a couple of lines about what each year group had been up to that week on it.

We get an outline calendar at the start of every term with pre-arranged dates (things like parents evenings and provisional sports days etc on there) for the remainder of the year that’s fleshed out every week into an upcoming events weekly summary via email. The communication in our infant school in particular is very very good and there’s a very helpful office staff, and a very welcoming attitude from the class teachers before and after school for quick queries (or good availability to make an appointment for a longer chat) - actually means things don’t tend to build up to become “big things” and need more time devoted to sort messes out.

If it helps as a contrast/progression - they don’t do much in the way of formal “homework” even in the juniors - my Y3 child has to do mathletics tasks once a week (or more), spelling shed list of the week once again (hugely competitive league table for who can do it more though), and then read 4+ times a week... that’s it apart from the odd pre-learning video they post on the google classroom feed. Our schools seem to have moved away from huge homework tasks that were just being done by the same handful of parents and more toward stuff the kids actually DO themselves and enjoy (thank fuck)!

We have had no letter or emails about what the children are working on this term or half term.

We have half termly information sheets in eyfs and key stage 1. These go out in the first week of half term. They say what the topic for the half term and a brief outline of the key focus in each subject area that half term. These are also posted on the class learning blogs.

Eyfs class blogs also get a weekly overview - shows a brief outline of English and maths (inc the number and shape of the week) focus, phonics sounds for the week, the main book being read by each class, the phse focus, the 'understanding the world' focus, and any special events - this week would include a teddy bear picnic, a non uniform day and a science morning focus.

There is a termly (3 a year) newsletter sent out with an overview of the past term from the headteacher. This is also posted on the website, social media pages and the class blogs.

We also use the class blogs (password protected and photo permissions applied) to post photographs of the children at work and play, star of the week pictures, notes from the teacher and copies of any letters sent home. Each class posts new photographs at least once or twice a week.

Social media (Facebook and Twitter) is used regularly for more general information and news and some photographs (again following our photo permission allowances)
The school website is more general information and updated far less frequently. It includes all the links for blogs and social media though. It also includes the school calendar which we include dates of key events, especially those requiring parent involvement, as soon as we can.