Summer homework between Y6 and Y7

[Willyoulistentome]

Do kids moving up to secondary school for Y7 get homework to do in the summer holidays from the new school??

What do you actually want from the school? And have you asked them yet?

No not round here, but some have "activity day" which are a waste of time as most of the kids know each other anyway and if they don't will do in September.

Don't fret. Remember they have to differentiate, if they don't it's disability discrimination.

I'm sure they will understand and come up with a workable solution. Most schools will have had a few AS pupils through the years and should have links to outreach to advise them about this stuff.

I've asked his current school to be very clear in what they expect and to ensure that he understands the homework, but that I understand too. He has been known to tell me there's no homework, when there is. They are being very good about it.
It's next year in worrying about. I will have a reaally long talk with his SENCO and and form tutor when we know which school he gets, about the issues we face at
home. I'd like him to do homework at school with support. I work FT currently and have another child. I don't have the mental energy for a 3 hour fight every night. Ds2 is suffering because of all this.

.... and if there IS any summer homework, then please can it be something to boost his confidence (maths) as he is already scared about next year. If they give him some huge project to do he'll spend the summer being desperately nervous and melting down on me.

I meant his secondary school, but I'd forgotten that you didn't know which one that would be yet.

Who do you want him to do his homework with at school?

What I'm driving at is that you should really try not to worry and just wait until you can talk with the school and outline all of your concerns and what you want.

Cross-posted with this, If they give him some huge project to do he'll spend the summer being desperately nervous and melting down on me.

He's going to get lots of long projects over the next five years isn't he? It's one of the life skills secondary school will be trying to teach. Would it be worth asking them for advice on how you can support him and them?

Ds has his homework recorded in his diary by the a TA (he doesn't have 1:1) then explained in greater detail in a contact book.

The contact book came about because he was given a piece of maths homework that just stated 'do the question in your book'. Ds panicked, insisting there wasn't a question in his book. Then when we eventually worked out it was a question in his text book that they'd discussed in class, he insisted it meant he had to answer it in his text book - because that's what the diary said. That was about the third lot of confusion in about the first week of term.

We also have email addresses for the SENCO and TA, so we can make sure they are aware of any issues before he arrives in the morning and sort out any homework queries directly. That has been by far the most useful route to getting problems sorted. Some schools let you email individual teachers about homework and my nephew's school allowed my sister to email his homework to the teachers directly because he kept losing it and/or forgetting to hand it in - and he doesn't have AS!

I do understand your worries - I was the same last year. In fact I'd been worrying about secondary transition since he started juniors. Most schools are pretty good though and should differentiate. They also tend to be pretty understanding for the first half term or so.

Re project work. It really depends on the school and how they plan their curriculum. Academies etc can set their own curriculum.

Ds's school doesn't do project work for homework, but they have an unusually large cohort of pupils that have ASD, dyslexia and dyspraxia.

Projects were the bane of our life in primary.

Does your ds type well? If he does, it might be worth asking if he can type homework assignments. I found ds a lot less resistant if he doesn't have to physically write, as he finds it so difficult and uncomfortable. He now uses a laptop in class and all homework, except maths is done electronically as well.

I have no idea who would help him. Someone to pin him down to the task I guess. I mentioned earlier he had trouble focusing. He just screams at me or DH if we notice has has zoned out and try to get him to actually lower his eyes to his books. He wouldn't scream at a teacher or a TA.

I know he will have lots of projects to do. The thought fils me with despair.

Moose's post is interesting about academies not having to set projects, presumably this includes course work for GCSEs, so that should be reassuring OP.

I think that open communication with the school is vital - far better to discuss your concerns and make suggestions rather than worry about them. You'll also be sharing with them the things that work for your son - for example, what they can do to avoid the screaming! For example, if you explain why it's better for your son if he does his homework at school and identify the teacher who can do that every night.

Hang on, I misread that - do you mean he'll scream if you ask him to do something, but he wouldn't scream at a teacher?

Moosemama. We've tried typing. We turn our back for 10 seconds and find him on youtube.
I guess I need to work all this out once we have the school allocation.

Thankfully we have excellent schools here. My top 2 choices both have great reputations for special needs.
I'll appeal until he gets a place at one if he doesn't get in on the first round.

That's right Logg1e. Very common with AS kids apparently. He can keep a lid on his response to his anxiety at school, but lets it out in spades at home. He literally wouldn't say boo to a goose outside the home. Different child here.

Have you tried Typing Instructor Platinum? It's game based so holds their attention better. You can set it up to do games as rewards or all game based training. Ds could type at 45 wpm when he finished the course and can now get up to 60 on a good day. It really helps gets the school on board re them using technology for school/homework if they see they can already type well.

Logg1e, it's called masking. Many kids that have ASD go into a sort of shut-down zone-out at school. They use every ounce of their energy masking massive anxiety and panic - and often as a result miss out on vital information and instructions, which obviously impacts massively on learning and achievement. Then, as soon as they're through the front door at home and feel safe again, all that pent up anxiety and upset comes flying out - often quite spectacularly. That's where the autistic meltdowns come in.

I know it can be quite hard for people who don't have experience of children who have ASD to understand. We often get accused of poor parenting because our dcs are so reactive at home but seemingly passive elsewhere - it's why schools frequently miss the signs that indicate probable ASD in so many children and it's why so many of us have to fight our way through being told we just need to be firmer and being sent of parenting courses before anyone actually gets it and sends our dcs for a full ASD assessment.

One of the worlds' leading experts on AS once said that if you put a child who has AS in his room on his own - he effectively no longer has AS, because once you remove all the social/communication rules that are so hard for them to understand and allow them to just be, in their safe place, they are fine. It's the effort of trying to act 'normal' and 'fit in' that is so draining for them and ironically also what often ends up making them stand out as different.

I got that moose and I found what the OP wrote just before really thought-provoking and informative too.

DD1 didn't, and DD2 will be going to the same secondary so I sincerely hope they haven't changed it. DD1 got nothing from Yr7 into Yr8 either, and has nothing like an hour an evening homework even though she is in top sets and doing really well. To me that is a sign of an effective school - getting the school work done mostly in school time.

Do you think that's the reason schools have homework pointy? Because they are inefficient in getting through the work during school hours ?

We are a couple of years ahead of you as ds2 now in y9 bit I was petrified of the whole secondary transition process and tbh couldn't see how it could possibly work ...

However it's been so much less stressful than I could have ever imagined. Ds is in the 'grammar' stream of our local school and thankfully for him the streaming is based primarily on maths ability - his class is chock-full of other bright, geeky boys many of whom occupy the blurred space between ASD and NT so although he is less socially aware than the other boys he doesn't stand out nearly as much as if feared. There appears to be very little homework and certainly no projects (phew). We'd stopped song homework in y5 as I told the primary school that it simply wasn't worth the hours of meltdowns which were affecting the whole family and if they wanted to tackle the issue at school they were more than welcome to do so.

Homework in secondary appears to be mostly acceptable and he doesn't get stuff every night (double phew) - his lsa is now very on the ball about checking that he's understood the h/w set and has written it down correctly - we had a memorable instance in y7 where the only thing he'd put down for his English homework was 'do thing' - we never found out what 'thing' was

I would second moose's suggestion of getting him typing - that has transformed ds's output both at schol and home - he has dyspraxia as well so his handwriting is slow, painful and virtually illegible. He now uses a laptop for all homework and extended writing tasks

He is miles happier in secondary than he was in primary - his days are much more predictable and they don't have dressing-up days or themed cross-curriculum days so far fewer unpleasant surprises as far as he's concerned. We had several instances of school refusal in y6 but so far that's not happened at all

Definitely talk to the senco at whichever school he gets offered - we were able to take ds on for a couple of extra visits in the summer term which helped the school become more familiar - good luck

Thank you two so much for understanding. Hardly anybody with no direct experience of ASD does.

Moose, that is exactly what we are up against. Mainly ds2 and me right after school ( my FT hours are flexible allowing me to start v early and finish for pick up), but any transition point really. DH coming home from work will cause outbursts.

I'm going to investigate that typing course you mentioned. If it's a game, it will hook him...obsessively.

Typing instructor ds did it a couple of years ago, so we had to download an app - but apparently you can do it online now.

They do a kids version - but it might be a bit young for him.

You can download various versions of the software for use offline here if you prefer.

It has been worth every penny in ds's case.

Thanks again Moose. I'll be buying the softwares for sure. I'm sure if I get ds2 doing then too they will go down well. They'll probably fight over it .. Actually they'll definitely fight over it.
You are right about the shutting down at school. His school had no incling at all. Just thought he was a nice well behaved quiet boy. I even went to speak to his Y3 teacher when he broke down and told me kids were calling him weird. I told her about the meltdowns at home and she was shocked. She told me he was fine at school.

No!!!!!'

?

logg1ie yes and no... I think that there are schools which rely on parents to do their work for them and so set stupid amounts of homework. Then there are schools which get the balance between fostering independent learning and effective teaching broadly right. Some homework in secondary is fine, but hours of it in year 7/8 is not.