Y7 homework

[bigTillyMint]

So DD is getting loads of homework. Well, some of it is manageable "exercises" like for maths/Spanish/French, but is also being given "project-style" homeworks in other subjects. Several of the teachers are also saying that the homework counts towards assessment.

Today she spent 2 hours finishing a history essay - assessment.
2 hours finishing the introduction to a geopgraphy topic (which she had previously already spent at least 2 hours on) - also an assessment
20 mins doing a maths exercise

She now has an English assignment to do which I reckon will take about a couple of hours.

All this is in addition to nightly homework and after-school clubs, etc.

I have spoken to the school about how long homework should take. They say 30 mins per subject, stop if it is not finished. But she is a bright, well-motivated child who wants to produce work to the highest standard possible, and she doesn't want to give in half-finished work. And if it's for an assessment, then how would that work anyway?

I've heard on the grapevine that the amount of homework given to Y8's drops significantly. Do we just soldier on for 2 more terms in the hope that she can get her life back?

Our Year 7s have a maximum of one hour's homework per night (3 x 20 minutes). They are perfectly within their rights to stop when they have reached the maximum time.

You should record how long her homework is taking her and feed that back to the school. The teachers may not be good at pitching the right amount of homework, or need to differentiate more, and give clear instructions as to the standard required.

Or your DD could have slow processing skills which need to be recorded and managed.

Or she's just a perfectionist :)

DDs school is same as MmeBlueBerrys

Sometimes it ends up as lots on the weekend but thats only if she's not done an hour every night in the week.

Some of the work is for assessment but its typically given as homework to be completed over the next week/fortnight, instead of nightly homeworks for that subject.

Is she getting this much consistently BTM?
I find with the boys (yr7 and yr9) these sort of longer project-style homeworks do tend to bunch up in the middle of each term and also prior to report-writing, but then they do ease off.

My boys are high-achievers too and highly motivated. They do spend longer than my preferences on homework, but it's mostly manageable.

Last year ds1 got a bit stressed and I did have a chat with school about it. As a result this year they have set him word limits on essays and shorter deadlines. We plan quite a lot of 'other' stuff to do and I discuss with him in advance what time he has available to spend on the homeworks and he has to stick to that.

Personally I think they learn far more from this sort of extended homework than from the littler box-ticking exercises, so I'm hesitant to complain too much.

Mme B The problem is that she wants to get the best grades possible for everything she does I agree, she should stop when she has done the allotted time, but she son't as all the other hard-working pupils will hand in finished work (even if that means their parents have sweated blokkd helping them to get it finished ) I have already fed-back to the school, but DD is desperate for me not to say anything as she doesn't want it to look like she's not coping. She is fine in lessons and getting really good grades.

Grimma She does her homework as she gets it, though she was given 2 weeks to do the geography, but even then that would only be an hour in total.

Roisin it varies a bit week-to-week - I thought it was getting much better till this week! I guess it'll calm down again now we are nearing Christmas, and then be full-on agin in Jan! My DD sounds like your DS's and it is a mad juggling act to fit in the copious amounts of sports she does too And you're dead right about the learning from doing the homework, that's another reason I don't want to complain as it is worthwhile.

Would it take you a long time to do it, btm? Do you have any concerns about her working speed?

If she is being given extended project work, this is a very hard thing for a Year 7 to manage. She will need really tight specs to ensure that she is doing the right amount of work, and then to break the project down into tasks. It can be hard for a child to do this if they haven't been taught the research and study skills already.

If she is willing to work with you, you can discuss the task together before she launches in. Work out strategies for doing the research and think about how she is going to present it.

I know a lot of kids will prioritise the fonts and backgrounds, rather than the content of their work, and this will take a disproportionate amount of time.

It wouldn't take me as long as it took her, but that's because I am more experienced at researching on the internet, finding appropriate information and then rephrasing it quickly in my own words, findng appropriate diagrams/maps, etc. I don't think there's anything wrong with her working speed and she is doing it all on her own (with just the odd bit of support / reassurance - particularly discussing how she will do it!) and is not cutting and pasting, which is what some of the others seem to be doing.

To be fair, they have given them a good spec on this Geopgraphy one for what to include and also the level descriptors (she keeps checking that she is meeting the criteria!) She has great ideas about how to present it and it looks far more interesting than anything I would do! However, they haven't taught them how to research and the associated study skills - they are learning them as they go along.

She does faff a bit with the fonts and background, but to be fair, the content is usually very good too. Hopefully with all this practice, she will get faster!

I think it will always be an issue in this house. The boys both have history essays at the moment, both worship their history teacher and want to do a phenomenal piece of work.

I called a halt at about 4.30 pm today.

They both do quite a bit of extra-curric stuff at the moment and we insist on family time too (eg had 24 hrs away Fri/Sat).

I predict stress this week as they both have a lot on - ds1 has got 8 hrs of film/sound editing scheduled in the next two weeks and ds2 has oodles of choir rehearsals and concerts in the next 3.

But I think this teaches them to manage their time carefully and wisely and can't be a bad thing.

I do find it helpful to talk to them before they start a homework on how long it might take, what they are envisaging, etc. If you jump in half way through when they've launched into some ridiculously ambitious approach, it doesn't go down well!

dd was like this in yr 7 - yr 9 is so much better, more relaxed and organised/does most of the work at school.

Yr 7 might be a bit young to try and point this out, but as well as perfecting a task, a big aspect of being able to cope in the big bad world of work (which is what school is preparation for) is being able to do tasks to the standard required (and this isn't always 'perfect') in a given time. Maybe you could discuss this with her? I definitely found that the biggest shock between education and work - I'm a perfectionist and have found it really difficult to provide work (at work) that's 'good enough' and not perfect. (To the detriment of my performance reviews etc.)

If they have to evaluate their work, this can be a get out clause for being perfect.

They do what they can in the time, and in the evaluation, they say how they could improve it.

Thanks, some very helpful and reassuring posts!

I will definitely make sure we discuss what she is planning to do for homeworks in some depth before she starts, discuss how much time she wants to allocate to the task (taking into account everything wlse she has to fit in!) and then what is reasonable to manage within the time!

DD1 does not seem to have that much daily homework but she does have long projects for English and History.

We had some drama yesterday when DD4 deleted all of DD1 Roman project that she is due in two weeks and has spent the last 8 weeks doing She has to start it all over again.

DD1 does not have much at home but she told me that some tasks are very short and she sometimes does them in school in the morning as she get there 45 minutes early with her bus.

I think planning and allocating time before hand is a good idea. I was not aware that they had to evaluate their own work, indeed it might make them think that they have to give back something absolutely perfect. I thought they were sometmes evaluated by their pears which does not ease the problem either.

It might be worth asking the teachers how much time they would think the pupil shouls spend on one item of work?