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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Year Nine Parents/Teachers

33 replies

hennipenni · 21/01/2009 14:37

How much homework should a yr nine pupil be getting? My DD seems to get very, very little if any at all so, before I complain/query it again, I wondered what the general aqmount was/should be. TIA

OP posts:
twinsetandpearls · 21/01/2009 16:59

I set homework once a week from my subject (RE) from memory it is supposed to be between 30 mins per subject. Some obviously do it in less and some do it in more. For my top sets I tend to always set an extra homework as well. They should have at least 2 subjects a night.

scienceteacher · 21/01/2009 17:48

I would say about 1.5 hours per night.

twinsetandpearls · 21/01/2009 17:51

What ability set are they in? That will also affect the amount of homework, but there definetly should be homework set.

herbietea · 21/01/2009 17:51

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Docbunches · 21/01/2009 17:51

My DS is also in Y9 and he gets on average about 2 pieces per night. Sometimes each piece may take a few minutes to complete, other times it might take half an hour, but rarely much more than that.

The only time DS spends more time on homework is when he needs to revise for a test, eg, next week, his Y9 cohort are being tested in almost every subject - DS is taking this fairly seriously (unusually for him) as he wants to do well because most of his friends are quite 'boffy' and they tend to compare scores, levels, etc.

I think the amount of homework seems to depend on the teacher tbh, because in Y7 DS seemed to get quite a lot, then in Y8 hardly anything. My DD is in Y7 and she probably gets more homework than my DS!

I'm not bothered if it doesn't seem to be much homework for Y9, because next year he will be starting his GCSE courses, so I'm guessing he will get loads of homework then!

iamdisappointedinyou · 21/01/2009 18:33

DD's school never set much homework and don't get particularly good results. DS's school do and get the results. Go and complain/query!
DS is in Y9: he gets about 1.5 hours per night.

DocB: glad to hear that your DS is taking his tests seriously - they will probably be used to guide which subjects he can take for GCSE.

janeite · 21/01/2009 18:37

Our school recommends that teachers set one piece a week, designed to last between half an hour and an hour. Occasionally in English, we would set an extended piece that they have a couple of weeks to do it in or at other times I might set two shorter pieces over the week.

My daughters probably do around an hour per evening (one in yr 7, the other in Yr 9).

TheFallenMadonna · 21/01/2009 18:38

I set one piece a week (Science).

Milliways · 21/01/2009 18:46

Just checked with DS (Yr9) as he does his homework then stays on his PC so times become grey. (Homework IS always done first though).

He said "what we get is what we are supposed to get"!!!!

On pushing, it is 3 subjects per night, 30m each, with occassional let-offs and the odd Project etc thrown in.

herbietea · 21/01/2009 18:49

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Scorta · 21/01/2009 18:51

Mine gets about 45 mins per night

nappyaddict · 21/01/2009 18:54

How much do people think is too much for KS3?

Scorta · 21/01/2009 18:56

If they finish school at 3.30/4 then another hour on top of that is not much to ask imho

stillenacht · 21/01/2009 18:58

as a teacher i would say about an hour to and hour and a half a night

Milliways · 21/01/2009 19:04

DS has already chosen his options! We had a Parents evening earlier this month to check his options were sensible (had had a planning meeting in November), but they will still be tested in all subjects in lieu of SATS!

Teachers are even marking some work now as if it had been submitted as coursework - to make them realise they have to improve to get good GCSE grades.

Original poster
hennipenni · 21/01/2009 20:37

Thankyou for the replies. DD is in the top sets for all her subjects and is predicted to get good grades (the school is still going to use the sats tests this year). It seems that most of DDs homework is to finish off what didn't get done in class which she normally finishes so gets very little in terms of homework. I'm just a little worried that she's doing the bare minimum that she can so as not to appear "geeky" (this has come up before in progress reports). We have reports coming out soon with view to her options so will see what happens then!.

OP posts:
twinsetandpearls · 21/01/2009 21:10

If a top set ever have a finish off homework they also have a proper task set. Otherwise they simply dont finish the classwork as they can do it at home.

SlartyBartFast · 21/01/2009 21:16

ds reckons he is meant to get one a day...

bargainmad · 09/02/2009 15:35

i have the same problem with my son who is in year 9. He gets little or no homework. What he does get is extremely basic (for a top set pupil, state school comprehensive) and takes him about 15 minutes tops. I would say he gets less than 45 minutes a week. I have spoken to his head of year and she said this is a major problem and the homework policy needs to be changed to reflect the fact that little homework is given! I am going to have a word with the headmaster at parents evening this week but I know this will achieve nothing as I wrote to him about homework when my son was in year 8. I am worried if the lack of homework will have any impact on his GCSE results in 2 years' time. He is not very well motivated at the best of times. I have bought some English and Maths CPG workbooks and was going to make him do 30 minutes of each a night but I know this will cause friction.

I really don't know what to do as I am not at all happy with the situation.

bagsforlife · 09/02/2009 15:53

DS1, now at university but was at 'top' grammar school, appeared to have little or no homework when in years 9/10!!! I always thought it was him being lazy.

Now DS2 at same school is in year 8 and also really doesn't have too much homework. He is much more diligent but still only has about 20mins a night, if that. Occasionally has a bigger piece but really he is not sitting working hard all evening by any means.

It does seem to be just finishing off, researching something or revising for tests. School gets VG results (100% A - C GCSE) so they must be doing something right. They don't seem to have to do any project-type homework.

I think they get much more in Years 10/11 with GCSE coursework etc.

scienceteacher · 09/02/2009 17:29

Finishing off classwork is generally frowned upon as homework. It can make them rush their classwork, and does little to help the teacher assess their knowledge and understanding.

Coursework is disappearing from GCSE. Things are moving towards eliminating coursework altogether, or doing it exclusively in class under teacher supervision.

lazymumofteenagesons · 09/02/2009 18:38

DS2 in year 9 is boarding. Prep time is supervised and is one and a half hours. If they finish before time they have to read a book until the end. Sometimes he only takes an hour, other times he has to finish it off in his room. BTW, this is a non-selective independent boarding school with a wide ability range.

Docbunches · 10/02/2009 11:16

Bargainmad, I would agree with you that 45 mins per week is far too little.

On the other hand, I chatted to a friend only yesterday who has one DD at an all girls comp and another at an all girls grammar. She says they both get a very large amount of homework every night. Her DD at the comp is now in Y10 and has always been set a huge amount (the mum has complained for ages but to no effect). However, she does accept that the grammar is likely to set loads.

My point being that it's difficult to get it right.

As Herbietea says, it's not essential to give loads of homework in order to achieve great results, eg, my DCs comp (who generally set a moderate amount of homework) achieved the highest Contextual Value Added scores (11-16 and 16-18) in our borough and pretty good GCSE/A level results as well.

Original poster
hennipenni · 12/02/2009 13:52

Sorry didn't realise that this thread was still going.

Scienceteacher, that is what I'm worried about, however she has just had a report prior to choosing her options and in every subject it says that her h/w is always finished to a high standard and is always handed in on time [hmmm]. Her predicted end of year grades and the grades that she is working at now tally with each other (she got good grades in most subjects apart from 2 that hold no interest to her and which she wont be doing as options next year).

OP posts:
bagsforlife · 12/02/2009 14:41

Why does everyone think you should automatically get more homework at a grammar school?

They are covering the same syllabus as at comprehensive schools, but presumably most are doing the higher levels in GCSEs.

I really don't see the correllation between going to a grammar school and having lots of homework. In my experience my DCs friends at comprehensives get more homework.

I don't want to hijack this into a comp v grammar v independent debate but sometimes they don't actually NEED incessant homework.