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Secondary education

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Original poster

How much homework do your dc's get?

8 replies

Bomper · 02/04/2009 16:37

Ds is starting at a Grammar school in September and we have been told that in Yr7-8 they get 1 and a half hours homework a night, Yrs 9-10 it is 2 hours and Yr 11 and above 2 and a half!!!! This seems LOADS!! It is hard enough to get ds to do the homework his is set at Junior school, gawd knows what fights we will have over this!!! Is this excessive or the norm?

OP posts:
mrsmaidamess · 02/04/2009 16:38

We were told the same at Dd's grammar.

In reality its much less, well it is in our house anyway. She might get a couple of hours worth over a weekend, but she seems to do a lot of it in her lunch hour

Original poster
Bomper · 02/04/2009 16:42

Phew!!! A friend did say that it may not be as much in practice, so it is good to hear that it can be true!!

OP posts:
snorkle · 02/04/2009 17:13

I think to an extent homework is what you make it to be. My dc go to the same school & in many cases have been taught by the same teachers. One apparently gets loads of homework - approaching the times you have given bomper (though maybe not every night), while the other gets scarcely any. The reason as far as I can see is that one is concientious and always does any optional extras & tends to go the extra mile where possible while the other does the bare minimum. There's not as much difference in their effort grades as you might expect & the 'bare minimum' child seems to have the knack of keeping the teachers happy.

cory · 02/04/2009 17:33

Hmmm.. dd was told 40 minutes per day in Year 7, she isn't spending anything near that, and yet her grades are going up and her teachers are satisfied. But the tiny amount of homework she had in infants used to take hours. Perhaps she is getting the knack of working efficiently.

roisin · 02/04/2009 17:42

ds1 generally spends about 5 hrs per week on homework. But he could get away with doing far less. They don't set a great deal of homework (between 5 and 8 tasks per week) but he does tend to spend a lot of time and effort on them. (His choice).

I'm pleased his teachers motivate and inspire him and set him interesting homework that he wants to spend time on, rather than less meaningful time-filler activities.

bagsforlife · 02/04/2009 17:52

My DCs are/were at high achieving grammar school. They do not get abnormally huge amounts of homework at all. I seem to remember they got more in year 7 to get them used to the work ethic but DS2 in year 8 now does get bits of homework most nights, but not a great deal.

Some children do seem to make a great deal of homework and spend hours and hours on it. Mine don't seem to fall into that category

(Have just been to parents eve as well so he is not secretly hiding it all and is getting good grades...)

seeker · 02/04/2009 22:18

My dd is at a high achieving grammar school and she is currently at about the upper middle of year 8 - with assessments at 6ish generally and a couple of 5s and 7s. Her homework takes her about 3 hours at the weekend and 30 minutes or so most nights. Perfectly manageable.

Lucia39 · 08/04/2009 11:40

I suppose one could compare the amount of time spent doing homework with the time most kids spend watching television, texting, and on their computers each evening!

Put into context two hours+ a night at age 16 ain't that much, is it?

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