Homework and meeting expectations

[PullUpTheDrawbridge]

My year 6 DD refuses to do any homework. She does NONE. It's a complete battle and is really detrimental as she ends up getting really stressed and it upsets the whole evening - which she desperately needs to decompress.

She is ASD and Dyslexic with average to high underlying ability. I understand that it's hard to conform/ keep up/ mask/ concentrate all day in school. Until now it hasn't really mattered. She was home educated for awhile and she's only in primary school now, but I'm worried about transition to secondary...

How likely is it that kids who can't/ won't do homework survive and succeed in any formal qualifications?

I have two asd dc and one was similar however at secondary school did homework at homework club (so never had to bring any home). My other dc didn't want the punishment at secondary school but couldn't cope with homework club so we set a routine that its done at a specific time, in a specific place and not discussed out of ghis time/place. Dc1 also had some 1:1 sessions to support homework.
Senco might have some strategies to help when they transition.

Some DC are successful in secondary doing no or little homework at home.

Some do homework at a lunchtime or afterschool homework club. Others are withdrawn from a subject in order to complete home. Some focus only on any essential homework for core subjects. And some don’t do homework at all.

Have you spoken to the SENCO at the secondary school?

There is only very limited evidence as to the effectiveness of homework (see EEF Toolkit) so this one may not be worth sweating if DC is able to participate at school. You really have to take an holistic view - if not doing it means DC is able to cope and not be tipped into a state of overwhelm, then not doing it sounds a good idea?

DS accepted that the rules at secondary are different; need to do homework, must wear trousers not shorts. I've not so far seen much homework that has any value in terms of learning really and he does the absolute minimum. He is now end of year 8 and its still very much a tick box exercise, you have to complete it but don't expect any feedback, if you don't do it you get a demerit but thats about it. He does some at home although this year he has one teacher who regularly just tells the class to do homework as they can't be bothered to teach them. All homework is on Google classroom so it displays in a nice format to be ticked off when done, I don't help with anything.

To be clear, I mean agreeing with school a reasonable adjustment that DC will not be punished for not doing it.

For my DD, school now categorise her homework into 'must do' and 'optional'. Of course she never does the optional. They also give her extentions rather than punishment if she is having a bad day and doesn't get it done. These are reasonable adjustments and have worked by taking the pressure off a bit. They also leave the door open to her doing all the homework, on time, if/when she is ready for that.

Mine is v similar. She'll do it at school so she goes to hw club once a week and when she was younger after school club supervised reading for a while.

It's a private school with loads of hw but when I explained how much difficulty we were having they were quite helpful.

DH and I were both swots at school and had barely any primary hw. Stupid modern fixation and I say that as a teacher.

There's no evidence for the effectiveness of homework at primary school so I would simply not do it for the rest of the year and tell school that is what is happening.

For secondary, check the policy- some schools have none early in year 7 to help with transition- but others have made some good suggestions above on reasonable adjustments.