19 pieces of homework!

[breward]

DS just turned 13 and in Y9. The amount of homework that his school has set each week since the start of term is ridiculous- 19 pieces last week. Family life has gone out the window.

It is not just the number of pieces, it is the difficulty. Yes, DS is at Grammar School, but he was only Level 4 writing when he left primary 2 years ago (Level 5 and 6 for other areas). ONE of last week's English homework was to write an essay: 'How does Jonathan Swift satirise religious thinking in the novel Gulliver's Travels?' Not a 10 minute task. This is like an A level title not a homework for someone who was working at Level 4 two years ago.

Sorry, just had to rant!

breward - the amount of German homework for a Yr9 sounds bonkers and why on earth are they entering for GCSE in Yr9? Did he do any German before starting secondary? My daughter is also in Yr9, doing German and she would really struggle with 150 words on environmental initiatives. She's just managed a few sentences about a German pop group she found on the internet, but it took a lot of googling and furrowed brows!

In your position I would be very inclined to get him into Air Cadets and support him in working out how he can do the bare minimum homework necessary to avoid getting into real trouble. Unless he's aiming for a career that needs art, three hours on art homework is ridiculous. Does he need to learn when it's OK not doing his "best work" in the interests of doing something else that will be better for him in the long run?

I'm certain DD1's school would be supportive of that approach if we discussed it with them. They are very big on the value of extra-curricular stuff. But only you can tell whether yours would be at all accommodating.

You have my genuine sympathy Breward, actually make that empathy! DD gets bogged down by the sheer amount of rote memorisation required by 2 MFLs and a Latin class and anything involving drawing, decorating, or designing spirals way out of control.

Luckily she is enjoying the core subjects and sciences. I don't think all this effort in the MFL will yield much useful knowledge in the end. I think it is a high effort, low reward situation. On the upside, if she gets through this she will learn to juggle, satisfice, and her perfectionism will be knocked on the head.

Artandco - " most of the 11+ exams are multiple choice anyway so you have a 25% chance of passing it blindly by just choosing a,b,c,d at guess."

Perhaps you should google some basic probability.

Posted too soon - you only have a 25% chance of guessing ONE question right (or a 20% chance if there 5 answers to choose from) but not a 25% chance of passing the whole test by guessing every answer!

I would suggest OP to let DS do homework himself, so this won't become the whole family's stress. Then I agree with the above post, you can help your DS work out which is the core subject he need to put the most effor in, and which subject he can use minimum effort if without enough time. I am sure he will drop some subjects for GCSE.

It is important to choose a right school for DC. One friend's DS is really good at playing an instrument, he got into national youth Orchestra in Y7. Then they found they have made the wrong choice of the school. As the current school is very academic, although it has a very good Orchestra, but the pressure on academic is high. Also this school finish at 4pm everyday. So there are not enough time left for him to practice his instrument after all the home work. They now would prefer another school which finish at 3pm, and is more relax overall. So they are thinking about moving school if their DS has decided to go down music career.

If there is 1 in 4 chance of getting 1 question, right, then it is 1/4 x 1/4 chance of getting 2, 1/4 x 1/4 x 1/4 of getting 3.

If a test of, say, 250 questions has a pass mark of 50% (ie 125 questions right), then the probability of getting those 125 questions right by random guesswork alone is (I think - long time since Maths A-level)

1 divided by (4 to the power 125) - or 100% divided by (4 to the power 125)...

which is a lot, lot, lot less than 25%!!

DS is in Y7 and gets 19 pieces of homework a fortnight (so half as much as your DS). He gets about 1 hour of homework per subject a fortnight. For example, he gets 2 30 minute pieces of homework per fortnight for English, but 3 20 minute pieces of homework a fortnight for French, and 1 40-60 minute homework for Art a fortnight.