Just been thinking about ds's year 7 homework- interested in people's views.

[seeker]

Ds goes to a school where most of the children are middle to low ability- only 8-10% high ability. Humanities is taught in a mixed ability group. They have had no homework so far- but this weekend have been told to write a police report on a famous crime from history. Ds says (and I realise that 12 year olds are unreliable witnesses!) that they got no further guidance, and the homework was undifferentiated.
It strikes me that this is a very big ask for most middle and low ability children and would just be incredibly demotivating and end up not being done. Is there any good reason for setting homework like this?

Just to add that I have just become a governor of the school, so I do have a broader reason for asking.

Just a thought, but a possibility: your son may not be aware of the differentiation. a good teacher IME will be discreet about providing scaffolding so that lower ability chn don't feel singled out and self-conscious.

Can your son do this homework? If so, all is well.

However, you cannot really be sure what the other pupils have been set/ supported with...... unless you do don your governor's hat and start probing!

I thought (hoped) that, snickersnacker- but he is very aware of the differentiation that goes on in class- and, bearing in mind the class make up- the differentiation would be aimed at the very few higher ability kids, wouldn't it?

Yes, he can shipwrecked- I now know more than I ever wanted to about the death of Martin Luther King- but homework is one of the things I want to raise as a governor- and I want to make as little of a fool of myself as humanly possible.........

It sounds to me that you have general concerns about homework and that this is one example?

DS, in Year 7 at a comp, is taught in mixed ability classes for all subjects except Maths.

Longer pieces of homework come home with tables as tiggy suggests - clear guidance on the expectations for each level.

Shorter pieces I do not know, though I suspect that there are different amounts of scaffolding rather than differentiated tasks in the main. I do know that if there is an optional extension, he (as a HA child) is expected to do it.

Tbh, DS is in charge of his homework. He gets at least 1 piece per night, usually but not invariably due in for the next day, and as he is home before the rest of us, he completes it before we get home. If it's not done or badly done, he gets the flak.

Hmm. Yes, this comes with no scaffolding at all- just a slip of paper with the task on it.

I just think that, unless the is more to it than this, it would be completely beyond many children in the class, and so absolutely counter productive. And it does see very odd.

So you know in detail what work they have had leading up to it then? Sounds a fair enough homework to me, allowing pupils to produce something to their own ability. Differentiation doesn't always have to be by task you know!

My ds has SEN this would have been a good homework task for him in Yr 7 . He understood the concept of a crime and whilst it would have been a simple description he could have written a couple of sentences about it or maybe a para .

My HA ds3 would probably write a book ! But the point is both would have been able to approach the homework at their own level.

Lower ability does not mean no ability , the thing is if you only have HA children it is sometimes difficult to see how a lower ability child would approach a topic until you have one IYSWIM.

Have you completed your governor training yet, it seems to me that you have a slightly misguided role of the governors in school.

If you as a parent have a concern about your child's homework you raise this with the school as a parent.

Governors do not get involved in the day to day running of the school, that is delegated to the head teacher and their staff. The governos are there to maintain the strategic direction of the school and support the head to do so.

I don't see that it would be beyond most Y7s; DS did something like that in Y5, they were part of a project that was on display at the open day, and ALL the children had made a good attempt at it.

I do take your point about differentiation of homework though. DS had "project" type homework, where they list the different results they need to produce for each level...of course it is to some extent the child's decision how far they go, but they don't point out to Ds that he should be capable of far more than the bare minimum.

Seeker.

I can remember my dss having homework along these lines. In the end I googled /used tes to get level indicators nd guidance. Sometimes teachers only have time to give slips out and provide a small amount of guidance. I found my ds didn't always remember.

Trinity, one of the governors' roles is to approve the school policies, incuding the homework policy.

Seeker,

A little like other posters, I am not quite sure about where your issue lies with this homework.

As a parent, yor child can do it - and there is enough 'meat' on it in terms of historical research and in terms of planning and writing skills for him to be challenged by it (if he choses to be callenged). The only possible issue is the lack of detailed guidance about what is being looked for rto achieve higher levels in this homework - ie if he chooses not to challenge himself, then there is nothing in the homework to force him to do so.

As a governor, it is too small a sample to extract useful data about homework policy from. Yes, you may have a concern about how accessible this homework is, and may also have a concern about the setting of homework per se BUT as a governor you need to take a much broader view - starting from the policy and if appropriate working as part of a team to hold the school to account about how the policy is implemented. Homework may or may not be a strategic priority for the school (a school I know of in a very challenging area sets no homework to take home - as so many of the pupils are vulnerably housed and have no capability to do good quality homework e.g. in the corner of a bedsit or when 'sofa surfing' - but instead timetables structured sessions for the work normally set as homework within e.g. the school day, immediately after school, lunchtimes, at half terms etc) and if it is not, it may not be a priority for you as a governor to become involved in it.

7'years before the governor mast, trinity, man and boy!

Seeker, I am that this is the first piece of homework he has had. In DS's comp they get a piece a week for each humanities subject.

The homework would be fine for the more able pupils, but those in the middle would need more guidance about what to choose and at least some bullet points for information to choose. The least able should have a fully scaffolded sheet which they just fill in (probably about a straightforward, pre-decided, easily researchable crime). IMHO

I don't think it is too big an ask as homework goes, even for the poor ability. Some will write a simple newsreport style of one paragraph, others will get several neat structured pages out of it. A large % won't do it at all mostly because they can't be arsed, but you knew that already.

I teach mixed ability English to the same age. This sort of homework would be "differentiated by outcome" ie the higher ability children would show their ability in what they produce and the lower ability might show their needs. As this is the first longish piece of homework, it may well be what the teacher does with it afterwards where differentiation will occur. Some, for example, might focus on improving their structure, use of sources and vocabulary, while others might have the target of writing at least 6 sentences next time. The teacher is using the work to assess the pupils (formatively, to inform furniture teaching and a pupil's needs, not summatively, to produce a result e.g. A grade etc.

Also, as it involves research skills, something pupils find hard, she might be wanting to see how pupils go about the research to inform teaching of this in future. A skilled teacher could learn / do a lot with a task like this. A bright pupil will enjoy doing it, as will many of the weaker ones as it involves choice and some freedom as to how to interpret the task.

It is not a governors role though to try and judge the quality of something directly to do with teaching and learning, governos are not qualified or trained to do that ( and even if they are because of another job they hold it is not appropriate for them to do so).

If it is something that you as a governor feels strongly about you should ask to join the curriculum sub-committee (or similar) so that you can start to understand what goes on in school to do with teaching and learning.

I have spent years as a governor and parent of secondary school DCs.
I have learned that no one ever agrees about homework. Parents complain endlessly that there is too much homework; too little homework; too easy homework or too difficult homework . Everyone seems to have different expectations and of course all DC are different
Often those who complain of too much have a child who is spending much longer than they should because they have either misunderstood how much is required of ignored the teacher's guidelines.

Differentiation in marking is perfectly possible in a piece like this but the first homework in year 7

I don't see that this is too much for a Year 7. Like tiggy says, their brief always outlines what they have to do to achieve a certain level. It sounds to me like you should discuss it with the teacher if the brief is unclear.

This morning DD wrote up a "diary" of an imaginary week's holiday in Italy, which took quite a lot of research - Venice, Rome, and the Bay of Naples/Amalfi/Vesuvius/Pompeii). I helped her with some suggestions about Venice and Rome but the rest she researched herself.

She recently completed assignments where she had to write about her life as a medieval peasant!

Her school sets a lot of homework - pointing out that it is equivalent to an additional year of learning at secondary school.

In Y6 of her primary school they prepared them for the secondary homework regime, culminating in a minimum 10 page project on a topic of their choice, which they had 3 weeks to complete and there were prizes to be won. She ended up doing 15 pages on Diana, Princess of Wales! Most of the parents understood that they have to do this with their children. How else can they learn how to do these things? There simply isn't time at school.

Well, what do you know. Trinity- let's play guess the sub- committee!

The brief wasn't unclear-'it was virtually not existent!