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Homework - How much ?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 12:36 pm
by Owass
DS started Year 7 at a good comprehensive last September, but I am not convinced that he is being stretched enough. How much homework is reasonable for aYear 7/night, please? I have heard stories indicating 1 - 4 hours/night depending on the type of school, child's pace and complexity of the work. Should I supplement if very little homework(max one hour) given by the school or should I wait until the spring term in case the school has a different approach? Thanks.

Re: Homework - How much ?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 1:04 pm
by ginx
Dd2 at gs is supposed to do 20 minutes a subject, she has two or three subjects each night. She rarely takes an hour over her homework, unless it is art or English, which she finds difficult.

Her friends in the grammar stream at the local comp, get much more homework.

Four hours a night sounds terrible. I'd leave it a little while, let him settle in. You never know, his school might increase the homework anyway. I think one hour a night is reasonable and four hours is not. In the meantime, I wouldn't moan. But maybe that's because I have to admit that I am lazy like my dd. And it's less for me to nag her to do. :wink:

Re: Homework - How much ?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 1:13 pm
by DC17C
My ds is Yr 7 Crypt and it varies between - nothing and 2-3 pieces a night which he seems to take 20 mins to and hour to do. I am sure he could put more effort in but feedback on marking has been ok so far. Will get more feedback at the academic mentoring day in November I guess.

Re: Homework - How much ?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 1:32 pm
by Okanagan
So far typically about 10-12 hours a week. A lot of it is project work to be done over about 4 to 6 weeks so it's taking a fair bit of enforced time management as there aren't many "this week" deadlines, but he'd never get it all done if he left it until a week before the end of this half term and found he had 6 which were all supposed to have take 12-15 hours to do!

Re: Homework - How much ?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 2:03 pm
by ginx
Okanagan, 10-12 hours a week! That's a lot! Especially if ds has after school clubs. Dd2 probably does maximum four hours a week.

I'm going to try and make sure dd2 gets her tiny amount of homework done at the beginning of half term. I hope there are no tests to revise for afterwards, nor projects or posters. She hasn't had any yet. I'm hoping her school don't give any - but they're bound to. :(

I hope he's enjoying year 7.

Re: Homework - How much ?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 2:28 pm
by Okanagan
ginx wrote:Okanagan, 10-12 hours a week! That's a lot! Especially if ds has after school clubs.
Yes he's struggling a bit to keep up - it usually ends up with him having to spend just about all day Sunday working :( because he's doing even more sport than usual now he's playing for school teams on top of what he was doing before. I just wish there wasn't quite so much design a poster/presentation/leaflet/mock newspaper front page/worksheet type work for the subjects where that actual design work isn't really part of the core learning. Without that it wouldn't take half as long.

Re: Homework - How much ?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 2:42 pm
by ginx
We were told to stick to 20 minutes a subject and not much longer, unless it was "two weeks homework" or similar. He must be very good at sport. You must be very proud.

Does he have to do posters/presentations/leaflets in many subjects? Dd2's done a basic poster in geography - well, a picture of what geography is about. She has a presentation book for both French and Spanish but fortunately nothing yet. She hasn't had to make a leaflet or anything, but she would really enjoy it, and happily spend all day Sunday doing that.

However, if she had to spend all day Sunday doing anything else, she would be unhappy and very tired. Sounds like your ds is very diligent. Wish my dd2 was as conscientious.

Re: Homework - How much ?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 2:44 pm
by southbucks3
2-3 bits a night 20 mins each plus optional mths extensions in year 7. More revision, less hw now in year 8. optional maths, latin and french extensions. Saying that sometimes it does take 4 hours, if you include texting time, toast making, gawping into space, pencil chewing, taking socks on and off, etc etc :roll:


You may get more hw once streaming is complete, my friends son at upper school found thi to be the case. In the mean time the school vle will probably give suggestions of extra year 7 work to supplement the curriculum.

Re: Homework - How much ?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 3:05 pm
by KS10
I just wish there wasn't quite so much design a poster/presentation/leaflet/mock newspaper front page/worksheet type work for the subjects where that actual design work isn't really part of the core learning. Without that it wouldn't take half as long.
My sentiments exactly!

Re: Homework - How much ?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 3:06 pm
by Okanagan
ginx wrote:Does he have to do posters/presentations/leaflets in many subjects?
So far for: Science, English, French, Geography, History, Food Tech, ICT, Music, Maths.