Is it really worth spending a whole half a erm recapping last years work. What a waste.

[RandomIdiot]

DTDs (Yr3) work at school at the moment is a recap of what they did in year 2 (and even Yr1).

Some parents have obviously complained about spelling groups etc. cos we have had a letter home today stating that they will be revising until half term.

I appreciate that children do forget over summer, and there needs to be some for of recap etc. but half a term???? surely that is such a waste of time, and surely it is a major argument for a shorter summer holiday and more een holiday's though the year?

Oh and is it really necessary to recap work which was covered in Yr1

I think it's important - not sure how long DS1 is going to be recapping on work done at infant school (just moved up to Juniors). But IMO it gives the teachers a chance to see exactly where the children are at.

I struggled terribly at school, especially in maths, once I reached about 9/10 years old as I hadn't fully grasped some of the basics when I was in my first years at school, and because it was never recapped no-one ever knew!

Presumably this is in maths and literacy rather than history say. I guess it depends on whether as a whole the class does need to revise. It is amazing how quickly knowledge of grammar seems to vanish when children are asked to creative writing etc. And as for spelling: in Ds1's homework diary tonight was written "Eglies storry sequcs". Thankfully I already had an idea that he would be doing an exercise on sequencing sections of stories in English.

I do think that the long holidays don't help. Ds1 kept reading but have to say he is a reluctant writer.

I expect the teacher has assessed what the class needs before deciding to do this.

Yes I am thinking about literacy and maths.

DTD2 - who was on free readers (sprinter style) has gone down to a series of books which were teh equivalent of ORT7ish. I have raised this and this has been adjusted slightly.

I am not even bothering to do spellings wih them because I test them on first day and they get 10/10 9/10 without practising.

They had learnt 2, 10 and 5 times tables. They were being encouraged to learn 4 timestable. They had learnt number bonds to 5, 10, 20 & 50, learning to 100.

They have spend the last week learning and recapping the 10 times table. and number bondsto 10.

I fully acknowledge why there is a re-cap and teacher assessment. but 6-8 weeks and from so far back?

Surely the time could be better used learning new things, or school calendar restructured to facilitate this.

It should just be for Numeracy and Literacy. As a teacher, it is really important to see what the children can do after the long holiday as many do regress. I good teacher should quickly determine the different abilities in her class and differentiate accordingly.

The OP exemplifies how state children are taught at the speed of the slowest child in the class.

The odd 'extension group' aside - more able children are just left to grow bored while this goes on.

Maybe it is the last bit which is lacking.

One of DTDs have told me that they have been tested (and passed) a number bonds to 50, adn timestables for 2, 5 & 10 test but they are still being sent homework based on the 10 times tables.

Spellings they have explicitly said they will recap until half term. This I have found particularly frustrating as DTD2 did 11 spellings per week plus 2 big tests of about 40 spellings each in the whole of last year. In that year she only got 14 spellings wrong total. I was explicitly told at parents evening that she had exceptional spelling ability. She has been moved down a set for spelling compared to last year.

Don't get me wrong I am patiently waiting for the teachers to do an assessment . But I can't help but be a bit frustrated by the amount of duplication.

How long have they been back for, and are they definitely going to be doing this all half term?

Ds1's spellings was easier than usual but I'm not bothered as it has eased him back into the routine. And he was tested on his 2x timetables but they threw in questions such as 75x2 and 25x2 to check understanding. The reading seems odd, but all of ds1's class are free readers and basically they are allowed to read anything so long as they do read. But they are concentrating on using punctuation to inform their reading and using expression in their voice as they read aloud etc.

I guess that I'm not bothered if they drill in the basics as if you haven't got those building blocks right then everything else is more difficult. if they were redoing history etc then that would be daft. Equally if every child knew their 10x tables inside out then I would have thought that the teacher wouldn't press it much further? Or would at least try extending it?

actually thinking about this more I'm basing this on the fact that DS1 has moved schools - was at infants last year and now in YR3 is up at the Junior school up the road. So apart from the information they get sent from the infant school they have nothing else to go on wtg each childs individual ability.

I guess if it's a primary school (Reception-YR6) they should be able to easily have got more complete information about where each child is, and may even have been able to look at some of their work from last year before the end of term (if teachers do that - I don't know)

'The OP exemplifies how state children are taught at the speed of the slowest child in the class'
Definitely not in my experience. It's actually the opposite that usually happens.
Op - you don't know exactly what they'll be revisiting in literacy and numeracy. There has to be a reason for this. And spelling tests are a waste of time anyway.

They were the earliest on MN to go back. They went back in august.

the reading is very strange. There seems to be no structure ATM as is very random and chaotic. I am less worried about this cos they will continue to read the same books as tehy have been reading all so=ummer from teh library.

They were sent home a letter today whcih states that spellings will be recapping until half term. No comment on numeracy though.

The 10 times table homework just goes up to 10*10.

Last weeks homework for one of them was partitioning 2 digit numbers which they were doing confidently in Yr1.

As a parent it is just frustrating.

RI - I can understand it's frustrating - but as a "capable" early learner (my school reports were excellent - I was doing "well" at everything) the lack of recapping as I got older set me at a serious disadvantage - I still find it frustrating now struggling with many of my times tables, and other "simple" arithmatic, which I@m sure wouldn't have been the case if my teachers as I went through infant/primary school had bothered to recap......