Extra work for year 1?

[Amidlifecrisis]

Had our first class party of the year at the weekend and one of the parents mentioned that they do extra work with their child most days after school, in a totally offhand way as if it was normal/expected. Their child isnt struggling in any way as far as I know.

I suppose I should have questioned them further but the conversation moved on and now wondering if I should be doing the same? DS didn’t have any homework (other than reading) last year in reception but this year will be getting it once a week.

It hadn’t entered my mind to do anything extra because DS is doing well at school and is very happy there, plus DH and I both work and feel like we don’t have enough downtime with the kids as it is. But one thing that has crossed my mind is that because he is doing well he might get less attention/be less stretched than some others, and also if other parents are doing this then I’m doing him a disservice by not?

Interested to know what the norm is!

My son got a homework sheet each Friday in reception last year and we tried to read 3 nights a week.

He is in year one now and still gets the homework sheet and we try and read 4 nights a week now.

I do extras like science with him and maths in a day to day setting as he’s very curious but other than that, I don’t enforce anything on him

Thanks @UpUpUpU. I meant to say that we do lots of reading with DS as well all enjoy it.

I got the sense that this other parent was sitting down with her child getting them to do workbooks or worksheets or something, so that was more what I was thinking of in terms of extra work. Eg there is a massive gulf between DS’s reading and writing ability so I guess I could get him to do some extra writing practice, but he’s a youngish (May birthday) boy so I had assumed it would even out soon without any effort on my part.

It's not the norm, but some parents are aiming for competitive schools at 7 or 11 so it would be a way to get ahead. I've considered it for my DD who is just starting Year 1, but decided to relax and let her do more hands-on/physical after school activities and general play time. We read daily (her choice) and will be getting homework once a week.

Ok maybe that’s what it was. I wonder if I can find out if it’s the norm in our school or whether it’s just this parent?

I have no interest in pushing DS ahead but equally don’t want him to suffer or fall behind because everyone is doing it except us! I’m not from the U.K. and he is DC1 so really have no idea. The school is a state school in a middle class area of London so I could well imagine that at least some of his classmates will be applying for selective private schools. I don’t think we will be able to afford though so not really bothered about that.

We started doing extra math in y1 after some comments in an early parent teacher meeting that implied there might be challenges but maybe those challenges were linked to other known reading challenges. I realised I had no real visibility into this part of their learning (unlike reading which we practice daily) so started doing 10-15 mins a day of practice (very much NOT pushing ahead) in order to get a better sense of how they were doing and preempt any issues. I think they have really benefited from it - much more confident about math now (currently y2), and will happily do a couple of pages after dinner together.

in principle I support no homework, but in practice I think it can form an important linking mechanism between home and school. At this age there does seem to be a big expectation for parental engagement in learning. Not having older children to reference, nor teaching experience, Ineed workbooks linked to the national curriculum as a framework for providing that support.

Unless you are aiming for 7+ or 11+ exam into a selective school, no need to do anything beyond what the school sets. But I do think there is a benefit in doing a little bit most days just to get them used to the idea of homework before it matters. They learn that it's quicker just to get it knocked off rather than have 30 minute tantrum/moan/procrastination instead of just doing the ten min work. Also, doing a tiny bit at home can help them feel more confident at school.

That said, if your DC has started year 2 I would think they'll start having more this year? Mine has daily reading, ten spelling words a week and this year they start properly on learning times tables. If you want to do anything at home, a little bit of that sort of thing each day doesn't take up much time.

Thanks @Labraradabrador that’s really helpful and I can see all the benefits of that. Even if you’re just practising what is done in the school it must really build confidence.

It’s tough isn’t it - I don’t remember my parents doing anything with me as a child but I also didn’t do any extra curriculars after school until I was in secondary - whereas DS has swimming and football had music already (some of this at the weekend). Conscious of not impacting his playtime but at the same time 5-10mins really isn’t much!

My friend has a Year 1 daughter and she has a private tutor two evenings week for Maths, English and French.

The family are not French and have no desire to move to France, they just think it will educationally benefit her daughter to know a second language.

Regarding the Math and English tutoring, her daughter is well within the range of normal and doing well at school, but again her mum just thinks it will be of more benefit to her child in the long-run if she is pushed academically to be at a higher level than her classmates.

It’s a little bit too much in my eyes for a 5 year old child but all parents have their individual takes on what they think is best for their child…

It probably isn't the norm but equally it won't be unusual in a middle class area in London. Quite a few will probably be aiming for selective independent schools for secondary.

I do a little bit of extra work with my primary aged children most evenings. I wanted them to be confident with spelling, times tables and number bonds.

I also chose a few educational games across the weekend. As this went on I had them help with lists, counting fruit, or crisps, asking if we ate X bags on movie night how much left etc.

Learning can take place organically. And a lot of children that age like to help.

My daughter’s school does the White Rose maths books and I keep a copy at home. The way we use them is to fill knowledge gaps. They tend to do four pages a day at school and she gets along fine for the first two or three pages. She will then tell me where she got stuck. I will say ‘Did you not put your hand up?’. She’ll say ‘Yes, but the teacher was busy with those who can’t do page one’.

The class had no TA last year and 30 children at different maths levels to one teacher. So she shows me at home and we go over the questions she couldn’t do together. It isn’t a case of ploughing through extra maths pages, but gap-checking. Sometimes she likes to look ahead at ‘tomorrow’s work’ as she doesn’t like the unknown. Looking ahead gives her confidence. I think it has to be child-led as much as possible and this encourages autonomy over their own learning. But I can see that this depends highly on the temperament of the child.

There is a concept of education being a three-legged stool: pupil, teacher, parents. All three have to input else the stool collapses. The teachers can’t do it all. And they certainly can’t in the current education system.

I was surprised to find this out too. Growing up dc got tutors if they were struggling in a subject. Here they get them to get ahead! I never did extra work with my dc, because like you say they were doing well in school. It did not cross my mind to do extra unless they needed help. I found out others do extra work and I only started now that we plan to do the 11+ (ds in in year 5). In the younger years I would not do anything extra unless they were doing the 8+

Maybe it was just my children's classes, but they had an inordinate amount of children whose parents were teachers (especially primary). If you have any I would see what they are doing with their children as usually teachers know what to expect in terms of curriculum and standards and will recognise areas they feel need attention and why...although on the other hand, they already knew what would put their DC ahead before even starting school, so I found their children far better prepared than mine!

I will happily admit that I do 5/10 minutes work at home with my DDs most days. My 4 year old might say her phonics sounds and my 6 year old might practise some times tables, for example. I work on the principle of little and often so that the concepts get repeated frequently and therefore embedded. We've also never had problems getting the girls to do their homework because it's part of our routine.
My girls also read to us every night and they are read to every night as well (I still do this with the 6yo to model fluent reading and to extend her vocabulary beyond what she might read herself).
At my girls' school lots of the parents do bits and pieces at home. It's not necessarily expected, but not surprising. It wouldn't work for all families I wouldn't think, but at the moment, it's working for us and my DDs are doing well at school, so we'll carry it on.

Thank you, lots of helpful comments.

In general I’m very happy with his school but I noticed when I applied that the progress scores for boys are a lot worse than those for the girls. I think this may be a thing across all schools but I don’t want DS not to realise his potential. Like I say, I think he will probably be largely left to it in school because he’s doing fine and has engaged parents, so if the school is putting all their focus into the kids who are struggling on the assumption that we will pick up some of the slack, I need to know that and make sure we do it!

Yes I found with my dcs schools if you were either going to fail sats or be a shining star they paid attention to the children (maybe 1/2 teachers excepting) else they didn't appear to be concerned about potential.

I do "homeschool" with my son in yr2. This is because he has ADHD, and I'm terrified that he isn't performing academically. For each 5 pages he does in his book, he gets 25 mins on his switch.

When my Ds was this age he'd find things online like numberjacks etc which kept him busy for hours and taught him loads at his pace and kept him interested

So he was learning although it felt like a game to him

Alphablocks and alphabets he went on actually

I think numberjacks might have been a website from the TV show I can't remember now

There's probably much better sites now but he loved navigating it and learning

DD reads to me at home every day, sometimes twice a day, and I read with her before bed. Most days she spends 5 minutes or so on the White Rose one minute maths app, usually on my phone while we’re waiting for the bus or similar. I have some maths and reading work books we do sometimes at weekends or holidays but that’s more sporadic.

They’re about to start getting spellings homework from school too, so we’ll add that into the mix.

We don't do anything extra after school, but did keep a summer diary/scrapbook, which was actually a ploy to get DS to practice his handwriting. But I think learning opportunities happen all the time, and lots of mini learning embedded in everyday life is more effective then a worksheet.

Extra 'learning' might be explaining weights or conversions when baking, reading signs/info boards on outings, looking up things their interested in together, doing craft projects. Pretty much any activity becomes a learning opportunity if done with an engaged adult, so I'd rather spend my time and energy properly engaging with DC, then looking up worksheets and learning objectives.

There's no homework until Year 3 at our school, and no reading books until late Year 1. We're in Wales though where the curriculum is different and SATs don't matter. We also don't have grammar schools and very free private schools. I don't know any parents who regularly do work with infant-age children, outside of occasional reading.

I’m not sure what the norm is, but I’ve always had DD read to me every night as part of her bedtime routine, then do her spellings and maths homework set by the school and I test her on her spellings once a week and she also goes on numbots/TTRS 10 mins a day. Never done any more than that, though. Obviously will have to when she enters KS2.

We do extra work every evening. DD reads at least one book. I read two chapters of larger books. We do phase 3/4/5 letter sounds, tricky word practice and handwriting/spelling practice of 5 different high frequency words. I do this with my new reception child as well.