How much homework is normal?

[LondonGirl83]

Just that really? I’m trying to gauge what’s a normal amount of homework for secondary school students in either state or the independent sector. I’ve heard some numbers recently that really shocked me but am curious what is typical.

Depends on the year.
Maybe 45mins to 1 hour in y7-9
Up to 90 mins in y10-13, but not every night. Less some nights.

I'm when we toured local grammar I think was 1.5 hours a night in y7. In terms of further up school an Acquaintance said her daughter had to miss family days out at weekends cos she had so much.

My daughter in a comp - Nowhere near so much in y7/8. Has ramped up in y10 but she doesn't seem to spend too many hours on it.

Disclaimed she's quite bright so I don't think she found homework in earlier years that taxing and probably rattled through it quite quick.

We got maybe 30 mins a night inY7, but that seems to have dropped in Y8, and quite often there isn't any...

It can vary even within a school. In y7-9 DD2 in lower sets got distinctly less homework than the daughter of my friend who was in top sets.

When I was in high school we had a homework timetable so we knew how much time to spend on each subject, each night. Unfortunately none of mine ever had them.

I was hoping to see year 9 ds sitting over his desk writing essays some evenings,but nope,all he seems to get is the odd online quiz which takes 10 minutes.

My yr7 is supposed to have what equates to 30mins a night but in reality he doesn't get that much (state)

My year 7 probably 1.5 hours over the week, year 9 about 2.5 hours over the week.

So much is online and in a quiz format which makes it much quicker I think

Year 7 DD gets up to 30-60 minutes a day, but everything is set to be handed in a week later, so she can manage the workload around activities.

Sometimes things don’t take that long, sometimes she is told to do as much of something as she can in 30 minutes.

I used to be a teacher and the HW I set (which was often something much worried about by parents) was not often done, except by the most diligent students.

I taught MFL and HW would be learning 10 words or writing three sentences, so would take only 10-15 minutes, once a week. If you are bothered that your DC is not getting enough, try going through with them what they learned that day for 30 minutes each night. That might actually be useful - more useful than random 'research' tasks which just involved ppl trawling Wikipedia for info.

OTOH if they are getting so much they have no time for anything else, then raise it with the school.

DD (Y7) is supposed to get around 60 mins a day (she had a homework timetable) but she rarely seems to actually get that. She is quite efficient though and gets it done without much faffing. Quite a bit seems to be finishing off something they’ve done in class.

My DD at grammar school would frequently be doing her homework from 4pm until 11pm, and she always had at least 3 hours a night in years 7 - 9. When the GCSE courses started in year 10 I was absolutely dreading her workload but surprisingly it drastically reduced and the work was much easier, she only had an hour or so each night and sailed through the exams.

DS is in year 8 at a state grammar school and gets about an hour a night and a good few hours at the weekend. The amount isn’t an issue but they often set very short dates for it to be due in such as a full page of Latin translation in for the next day on top of the homework he already has. That makes outside of school clubs or activities very difficult but I guess it was his choice to go to a grammar school!

Varies hugely.

DD's school don't have a homework timetable, with the idea that teachers don't set homework for the sake of it. They usually give a week to do it, so fitting it in is not an issue. Theoretically I think it's supposed to be 45-90 minutes a night in KS3.

However, in practice, very little is set. In year 7 and 8 it varied from 13 seconds (we timed!) to a couple of hours per WEEK. Admittedly, that is for an able student who will have had less to do if it was "finishing off". There seemed to be more art than anything else - which at least got the message across that art GCSE is time-consuming!

Now in year 11, and there's still only a few hours a week of "hand-in" work, although obviously revision is now ongoing. There are revision sessions most days after school.

On the one hand, it's been very difficult to establish any good homework habits, because it's been entirely possible to do it all on Sunday evening. That has a knock-on to good revision habits, too.
On the other hand, they seem to be doing pretty well without it! In DD's case, there's one subject where I think more written work might have made a difference.

I loved a comment I saw once from someone who said that their kids and the neighbours' had come out of primary school with the same results. The neighbours' kids went to private school, their kids went to the local comp. They emerged from secondary with very similar grades, but the neighbours' kids had done a lot more homework.

It depends on the child too. I have one organised September born DD at a superselective grammar school and she seemed to always do most of her homework on the train all the way through. She would also write revision cards for Latin and languages which she would revise in short bursts. She would only ever spend a few hours on projects and usually these were teamwork so she would do those on screen whilst chatting to her friends.

My DS, on the other hand, who is far brighter but far less organised than my DD (he has ASD) and was at a selective independent school always dragged his feet over homework, leaving it to the last minute/forgetting about it. I actually think he got less than my DD but the whole thing seemed like far more due to the reluctance to engage with it efficiently.
So if a teacher says it should take 30 minutes it can take a DD type 10 and be neat and immaculate and a my DS type 2 hours in tears and tantrums and result in a few scruffy lines.

The amount of homework is also variable by the child. DS used to do the minimum possible on his. DD is more diligent and spends more time researching and on presentation and on revising her notes, so she can easily spend an hour doing a piece of homework that would take DS 10 minutes.

My son is in year 9 and gets virtually none and when he does it's maths, MFL or revision for a science test.
He got more homework in primary school. But homework set just for the point of it is in my view a waste of time.

If a school is setting lots of homework it means that they are not getting through enough work in lessons. Teachers know the value of HW is low - what counts is in school learning.
Us adults don’t like to bring our work home either, so no surprise children don’t like being burdened with 3 hours of homework. They need a chance to come home and enjoy being children, and rest and relax and go back the next day with a learning head on.

DS is at a SS London grammar and there has been a homework schedule so far in years 7 and 8.
2-3 subjects can set homework each day, 30 minutes maximum per task, so max 1-1.5 hours a weekday. In reality it is less than that if they got through it in class. Homework can't be set for the next day either.

The DC are all at grammar and have a strict homework timetable. DC are expected to do a certain amount of work each night whether that is homework or revision- evidence has to be shown as to what has been done.

The expectations are:
Year 7- 1.5 hours a night, 2 hours over weekend
Year 8- 2 hours a night, 3 hours over weekend
Year 9- 2.5 hours a night, 4 hours over weekend
Year 10- 3 hours a night, 6 hours over weekend
Year 11-3.5 hours a night, 10 hours over weekend

@RocketFire7
Your poor children

@RocketFire7- Your children’s schedule is quite reasonable for my memory of private secondary school, though Year 11 shouldn’t have that much until after Christmas. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Independent school, Home work is mostly build into the schedule, in that they have assigned ''prep'' period through the school day which admittedly does not end til 6pm. year 7 was ~ 9 hrs a week plus a few hours at the weekend. Year 8, 11 hours a week plus a few hours at the weekend, on a heavy week it may be 4-5 at the weekend. Next year, I expect ~ 14 hours a week + some at the weekends.

While term time is intense with a 6 day week the longer holidays offsets. The homework is crucial imo to consolidation of learning + enables extension tasks for those who wish to go beyond the basics. It's monitored and truthfully DD's has thrived.. by comparison her state primary did 30 mins a week of homework if you were lucky..

Blimey, when do they get a chance to do stuff?

S1 apparently used to "do all his homework at school" - though quite how when he had groups every lunchtime and hometime I'm not sure.

S2's 6th-form experience - admittedly a bit weird because of covid - was a bit heavier on the self-directed study due to choice of subject.

Pretty sure neither of them was anything like 3.5 hours every night as normal...

@BaggingTheWainwrights

My DD at grammar school would frequently be doing her homework from 4pm until 11pm, and she always had at least 3 hours a night in years 7 - 9. When the GCSE courses started in year 10 I was absolutely dreading her workload but surprisingly it drastically reduced and the work was much easier, she only had an hour or so each night and sailed through the exams.

What about clubs / sports / music etc That leaves zero time for anything else. Mine tend to do a school club til 4 then an evening sports club / other extra curricular most nights. We get 2-3 hours absolute max a week. KS3 Tend to do a bit in the week and finish rest on a Sunday