Year 6 :split English, one group gets HW highest, other than doesn't what hw would top group be getting?

[TheLeavesAreTurningBrown]

What hw would top group be getting?

Sirzy, don't you think teachers do know?..personally I'm sure they do..
I'm just wondering what work there top set are being given.

Why are you concerned about the work others are being given? Surely all you need to worry about is your own child?

My child's Year 6 class didn't have sets and everyone got set the same homework.
Which was semi optional.

Is your child not even encouraged to read regularly at home? If they are, then the view might be that that is enough for them and I would have loved no homework to persuade my child to do

If you think your child needs more stretching, then best to talk to the teacher and not randoms on the internet.

Thanks redsky unfortunately with mum sent you can have one thread one day and another another day and have totally different responses usually I've had very helpful responses I obviously posted at the wrong time.

Also what mumsnet can be really useful for is arming one with for knowledge to take to a meeting or make a request on, anything.

Anything related it can give great Ideas.

Dd school y6 was writing say subjunctive. Or other grammar. Then from jan cgp books with exceeding kids getting the exceeding books. However i note that kids doing the standard books did just as well.
Our school annoyingly did extra classes for exceeding maths but not those meeting expectations.

@AnySoln.. Thank you!

It's strange isn't it I can imagine top dc perhaps need stretching and I don't necessarily think hw is always effective. However I'm confused as to what extra hw top set would need.

One of my dc years ago was top set and she got it... She didn't need extra hw if that makes sense?

Do you know what these special exceeding books are?

Your OP makes no sense. No one here can possibly know what homework is being given to pupils at your school. Just speak to the teacher or Head.

It really depends. Homework in primary can cause issues. Most kids struggle to complete it. The parents don't have time or the skill to help. Some resent the intrusion into family life. The teacher may think they are best placed to work with the children in school. They may think it will add little to the achievement of the children. If you are determined to have your child do homework buy some workbooks or do some extra reading. Talk to the teacher about what the child finds tricky and do some extra bits yourself.

The children probably weren't exceeding until they had the extra support. The point is to get a bigger group of children to exceeding than otherwise would have. There will always be children who will securely get over the expected line but who won't get GD. They don't need extra support to get Expected and would slow down the pace of a GD group.

My daughter is in y6. She is currently working at greater depth across the board so would be in the 'top set' in your situation, her school only has one class so the whole class gets homework although I think only a small number complete it every week.

She gets a comprehension exercise worksheet. This week it was Julius Caesar, I was a bit shocked that Marc Antony's Brutus speech is deemed of year 6 level but who knows?

She also gets 2 or 3 quizzes from SPAG.com. The comprehension and these quizzes have a week to be completed.

She is expected to practice spellings and times tables, and read every night too.

It doesn't matter what anyone else is doing. Concentrate on your own child. If you think they would benefit from some English homework and the teacher isn't setting any ask the teacher what you could do at home to help DD if you get nowhere with the teacher there are loads of workbooks etc available.

Strange question, but anyway ...
It makes sense to me that children who might be ticking along at the expected level wouldn't need to do homework, and those working towards expected level might struggle with the extra workload. So the only ones getting homework would be greater depth children being stretched.
But like many PPs have said, ask the teacher!

If you are year 6, I would think the children in the lower set are the ones getting the homework, as they would need practice for the SATs. That is all the school cares about (if you are state school). We did not do much hw in year 6 bc we were busy w 11+ and the homework was too easy, so it was not really beneficial. It seemed the children who needed extra help were the ones given extra help during school and extra work at home.

@TheLeavesAreTurningBrown you have my sympathy. Schools and teachers can be the most secretive places that say they want the parents onboard with the learning, but only if they don't question anything ever. This has been my experience of 2 schools anyway.

I have some sympathy too , it's a shame the school won't have an open conversation with you.

Is tutoring an option? I have used it for all our children (2 very bright , 2 less academic) as I think every child can be stretched and supported.

Our school sends homework with 3 levels, so the child picks the level that is right for them. It means my daughter usually picks to do all 3 but if she is tired or less confident she can just do the middle levels. I like this approach it feel really transparent and child led. (Of our very academic children one had to be nudged towards the hardest level and the other did all 3 levels for fun)

@cansu blue@BlueIgIoo interesting points

My dd has done really well in her past few English tests I suspect she's definitely border line between bottom and top set.
I wouldn't necessarily want her to do extra hw and I don't think it should be given because what's what people expect.

But I also want her to be able to achieve the marks she's capable of.

She gets a little bit of maths each week and that's it. But she needs to over learn.
I also think them focusing on the gd children for sats makes sense to the school, sadly.

I do vocab work with her just a few words every week but I couldn't get her to do much more than that. I've got loads of books here from older dc and covid but I won't know what to get her to do.

@User18273645 @WrongSwanson

Yes unfortunately our school hasn't treated parents well at all and held us at arms length.

I do hope this culture will change at some point generally in the UK.
I completely understand how hard it is though when some parents are an absolute nightmare but some teachers are as well.
However it would be good to find a middle ground.
My dd has had some sen issues and I've had to sort it out and solve alot if it myself.
I've found trying to get anything from there school exhausting but they have got a little better.

If my dc would let me I could definitely boost her grades, but I'm her mum she doesn't want me too!

I can tell you that schools do not focus on the gd children for sats. They focus on the just below and borderline as these make the most difference to the school's figures. Having two sets may well be a way to allow the school to target the skills the lower group need to pass.

Dd school had extra maths for dcc from 105+.
They were very wrong about the relative ability of kids. Probably due to sen they had ignored.
I personally wouldnt ave borhered sending kids getting close to full marks. But that effects the sets they go in. And dc1 secondary school seems to have more than 22% with sats over 118 or over. And 44% over 110.

Personally i think lots of meeting expectations kids can be pushed up to exceeding from jan of y6.

But.. It doesnt reflect how quickly they pick up new content.

Can you not ask another parent? Just get chatting to one in the playground, ask your dd to point out a top set kid and clock which the parent is then pigeon hole them next drop off!

I agree with @cansu my dcs school seem to set upto yr six and then it seems to completely change so that the children guaranteed to pass are sat with less capable ones in order to help them...this is obvs my interpretation of what seems to happen as the school tells you nothing, but my DC have been surprised at who has been in their 'sets' in yr 6 and it has happened with all my DC.

In our school, the focus seems to be the struggling dc for the SATs. The GD children do not get anything additional or extra. If your dd is doing well, maybe she is not getting the extra homework because of that? If you feel you want her to learn more, try signing up to Atom learning, as that will challenge her more then the typical SATs prep. Or you could get CPG books to get her to work on maths and comprehension (or whatever you are looking for her to be stretched on). In my experience and from what I hear from other local parents that have their dc in different state schools in the area, is the focus is not stretching the GD children, but help supporting the struggling dc. So if you dc is average or GD, they are left to their own devices (or in my dd case, paried w dc struggling in class so she can help them).

Hi OP.

I'm a primary teacher, but not year 6.

Personally I think that it is unfair that only one set is being given homework. All children should have equal opportunities, so if one child is being set homework then they all should.

Saying that you could give your child extra work to do yourself, isn't really the point. If some children are being given work, tailored to their needs and set by a qualified teacher, they need to do it for them all. I've never known a school to only give homework to a chosen few.

And I say this as someone that would scrap homework in primary school if given the choice.

@QuietDragon thank you.

I wasn't really saying its fair or unfair. I was trying to work out rationale behind it and what students in a top group would gain. My older child was years ago top set and just got it.
I think it's true that perhaps they want to focus on more greater depth students to boost grades.

It's very hard to get dd to work with me

Quiet I agree on hw being given for the sake of it, pointless.