How much homework should my dd1 get in Yr1? Weekly spellings tests?

[startouchedtrinity]

She gets wretched flashcard things, plus spellings each week, to be tested on Fridays, plus a school book to read each night. I roundly ignored the flashcards in Reception and let dd1 read to me whatever she wants, but I can't get round the spelling tests. As far as I am concerned at 5 her time at home should be spent playing with her siblings and chilling out, not worrying all week about a bloody spelling test.

How do I handle this? I am totally opposed to homework for a 5 yr old but her teacher is very strict and I don't want dd1 to get it in the neck b/c of me.

HMC - I wondered that too. There are a some girls in DD's class in similar positions I think. The 6 words given this week for us where all simple phonetical ones - cat, mat, all ending in AT, etc. Not sure if the phoneic aspect of it would be ok for those children???

Life is unfair. My ds gets TWO books per night to read. Literacy on Mondays to be handed in on Thursday and spelling on Fridays. NIGHTMARE!!

TBH HMC I am not sure that will stop them. Although I think they had differentiated spellings, so my friend's DS who is the youngest child in the year and not reading was getting words like to, an, it etc. Other children would be getting more advanced words and often based on a particular sound.

Not fair to either your dd, her teacher or the rest of the class if she doesn't follow the rules like everyone else. Perhaps you should think about sending her to a different type of school (Steiner schools don't teach reading at this age).

My ds had all the things you mentioned and they were really great for him. He loved practicing his spelling and then doing well on the tests.

DS 6 spellings this week were strange.
I
Get
Shop
am
shut
and another I can't remember
I take it it's from their group reading book.
Still waiting on the Maths homework. He will get another reading book tomorrow, the one he brought home on Monday he had had at the end of last term
TBH, it only took two minutes for the spellings and we have done them again every day on the way to school. The book took 2 minutes sitting on a bench in the park then I sent him off to run around.
Wondering what to expect from the maths homework, in reception it was number based games.

Never thought of that unquietdad about recording other books he has read , suppose i could do that with him until his books is changed then he wouldn't get bored Bozza. Thanks for the tip, also a subtle hint to teacher too.

andyrobo i would speak to the teacher and ask her if she could explain about the homework. We got a letter at the beginning of the week explaining all the homework , when it's due in. The way they learn the speliings and general info like p.e day etc.

If you send your DC to an academics-oriented independent school (so not Steiner, Montessori etc.), or state school with high SAT results and "Outstanding" Ofsted reports... Is this perhaps the price you usually pay: a certain amount of hot-housing, including lots of homework in KS1?

Does anybody have lots of homework for their Yr1 child, and still have their DC at a primary school with "only" a "satisfactory" Ofsted rating and bog-standard average SAT results?

But there is NO evidence that homework makes the slightest difference to the results achieved at this age. Apart from reading books, that is. I reckon if you gave most teachers a few glasses of wine, they'd admit that primary schools only give homework because they get earache from pushy parents if they don't!

I don't know what rating our primary has - it is the village school though, so it would be "the price I have to pay for a school we can walk to and where all his friends are".

lljkk - reading this and talking to RL friends I think my DD gets less homework at her (very academically successful - well at Y6 age anyway) prep school.

Ours does have "outstanding" in all but 2 categories, but it is our nearest walking distance school too. And the SATS results are 2nd highest in our LEA. I never really went into the Ofsted report too much prior to applying, I spoke to parents who all said their kids were happy there.
I think I am just a bit surprised by how focused they are at this age. Back at home DS would only be going into primary 1, and not really be expected to be doing as much.

my kids primary school (small village school) has a policy of no homework except for reading. They are of the opinion that they are tired by the end of the day and would benefit more from relaxing and getting some fresh air and exercise. They have recently been ofsteded and got "satisfactory" which seems a poor reflection of the work the teachers do - and although the pastoral care was praised and got a good it didn't seem to help tick enough boxes for anything more than satisfactory. They did mention the parents were all very happy with the school.

Other friends I know who go to other schools have had lists of words to learn weekly from reception - I am not sure it means they are any further forward than my kids though.

I didn't get homework until secondary school (and in the age old phrase - it didn't do me any harm !).

Throckenholt -where do you live - am thinking of relocating and your school sounds perfect!

See, that is what really annoys me, I have the idea that all this pushing of dcs so young by the school is simply to suit OFSTED and to keep their place in the league tables (like the totally pointless home/school contract which we refuse to sign - another box to tick to keep OFSTED happy.)

So many replies, thank you. Sofia, I would dearly love to send the dcs to a Steiner-type school but we couldn't afford the fees, and the nearest takes an hour and a quarter to get to at peak times. Part of me would like to home-ed but dh said to give dd1 a couple of yrs and she loves school - besides, with two others at home I don't think I could give her enough time and attention.

UQD, I tried writing in dd1's reading record book the books she read at home and was roundly told that they weren't interested.

Dd1 got her first lot of spellings tonight, she has ten in five phonically similar pairs. I asked her how she felt about doing them and she says they are terrific .

My kids go to an academically succesful school - I have just moved them there from one also with a reputation for being academic. We have just had the parents meet teacher session and they will be getting very little homework in Year 1 or Year 2, just reading books and occasional spellings that they do not know in Yr 2.

I am very happy as dd got lots of homeowrk plus 10 spellings a week at previous school - here it seems she will enjoy herself and develop into a more rounded person. They do not do SATS either (another reason I moved them). The transition into Yr 1also seems much more gentle - ds is having a ball and still playing lots, much better than the sudden jump into work, work work at the previous school.

startouchedtrinity - south Norfolk. I think it is pretty much down to the head - it is a small school so often the year groups are under the threshold for the sats tables - so they don't have to obsess about them so much. Having said that the school is now so popular that year groups seem to be climbing over that threshold - 15 in the intake this year (8 when ds started 2 years ago).

I am very much of the opinion that the emphasis of ofsted is wrong - at least for primary level. It should be about confidence and social skills, with the academic ones blended in as part of that.

Our school is very interested in the whole child rather than just their academic prowess. Obviously they do learn the academic stuff but not to the exclusion of other things - for which they are rewarded with a "satisfactory" from ofsted - which reads very much as unsatisfactory with some pressure to improve. I really hope the head has the confidence to maintain her strategy. All the parents say what a nice atmosphere the school had - and that is why they chose it over other local (also small rural) schools in neighbouring villages.

If homework doesn't make a difference at KS1, then why do some schools set so much of it?

Nat - thanks for your post on here. Actually is making me think more about what ds does. So far this year (yr 3) he hasnt come home with spellings. He reads to me when he gets home and also does a few simple sums out of a book at home. Literally about 6 of them. I do feel that he works hard at school but I do think helping him at home has built his confidence, especially with number work as he found that hard before and now enjoys it.

However, he is due to have tonsils out and will be out of school for about 2 weeks to recover. Prior to op e is having 2 days off (friday and monday) as needs to avoid children with colds. Spoke to his head, she wants ds to be set work for time he is off so they can put him down as being educatd off site! I agree that for the first 2 days that he should still do his school work but post op he should be recovering not doing school work, else why have the hospital/doctors signed him off. I will not be enforcing the head teachers wishes on this count.

My dd has just started year 1 and just does reading everynight so far and to be honest I would be quite shocked if she was to get much else. Its a lot for them just coping at school and with learning to read let alone much else. Not that I would be-grudge an odd work sheet or something but anything to demanding at this age I would feel to much. Reading with her I dont seem to be able to do until near bedtime as she just seems to need to wind down after school.

some of you have vast amounts of homework. Far too much. I don't think we would have the time to do it all (and my children aren't the self motivated homework type so I'd have a battle on my hands).

Trinity, I would have a word with the teacher. Surely, if nothing else, she doesn't need to read the school book every night (especially if she does other reading anyway)?

Ds is in yr1 and only gets a reading book, I think twice a week, not sure.

Dd in Yr3 has a book to read (not sure how many times she's supposed to do it - we just do it when she wants to) and I think 1 piece of homework a week. We've not had any spellings yet but those are probably coming.

DD1 gets a 'homework project' per half term. And a reading book. Which we've not done much with. I am not even remotely bothered. She appears to be doing splendidly, and loves school, no doubt because it is a cheerily non-pressured place.

Hi .. My little peeps has just gone into Year 1 and gets a reading book 3 times a week, fiction book one night, non-fiction another night .. plus maths homework once a week and spelling homework once a week .. All in all I guess this sounds much along the lines of what other little 5 year olds are getting .. I can't remember back that far to recall what I got, but I don't think we used to get homework at this age !..

None. The national curriculum states that children should read for I think it's 35 minutes a week at that age?

I never had any til I was 10. I didn't get where I am today...

Up to mid yr 2 my DD was at independent school in small Cheshire town. She got reading every night, spellings once a week and maths at least twice a week. She left because of bullying and went to local school where it was spelling test once a week including writing sentences containing each word on the list and 1 sheet a week of very simple arithmetic.

part way through her first term in year 4 we moved to rural France and as her birthday is in October she had to jump into year 5 in a small village school. She has a deskful of textbooks - thank goodness no more worksheets and has homework every night - including grammar, comprehension, maths and English. Her reading books given to her by the head are comic strip style and feature a little boy who is obsessed by his willy and is always getting into trouble! A million miles away from ORT which we all hated.

At her age, admittedly 40 years ago, I had Latin, French, Maths and English homework. In thest testing note, by the time I left at 11 we had fortnightly positions in class, exams at Christmas and summer and a Latin grammar paper after break every Friday morning.

None of us minded at the time, and I managed to pass both my Latin and French 'O' levels on the strenght of what I had done at primary school!

We live in france, and I am always jealous when friends tell me how much homework their kids get back in the UK. DS had just started reception year equivalent in a small school in rural France, he gets homework every single night and double at weekends. It seems that as the teachers here are non vocational they expect parents to do as much work with the children as they do!