Formally withdrawing child from homework

claire16c

koalamummy wrote: »

It is good to hear that things have improved for the better.

I was never smug or superior about being more academically able than some of my peers and helped out anybody who was struggling whenever I was allowed to.

For the poster who asked how it was possible to do homework in the class this was not too difficult as schools were very low tech when I attended and most teachers will still in the position where they had to write the questions on a blackboard and then give the pupils time to copy this down. I copied as the teacher wrote and most of the time had time to answer them before the end of the lesson. My school apparently could not afford to give out pre printed worksheets which I totally believe as they had to do lots of fundraising so that each pupil could have a textbook for maths rather than sharing one between three.

They had black boards at my school but what the homework was given out on was not relevant. It wouldn't have been given out in time for you to know what it was or it wasn't that simple that you could answer it that quickly.

For example in a maths lesson we would spend maybe ten minutes of a teacher explaining a topic. We'd then spend say 40 minutes answering questions in a textbook, then in the last 5 minutes the teacher would give us a homework sheet or tell us a page from the book to get questions from. Then we packed up & the bell rang. There simply was no time to be doing anything else!

Or in a German lesson we might spend 10 minutes listening to the teacher, 20 minutes learning verbs & then writing each one in a sentence, then 20 minutes listening to a tape, answering questions & marking them, then 15 mins doing an exercise from a book, then right at the end the teacher would say 'please read page 13 and answer the questions' or such like and then it was time to leave.

It sounds like your school was giving you incredibly easy homework & not spending enough time giving you work to do or teaching you.

claire16c

Person_one wrote: »

It was more a take on some of the responses in the thread.

I'm with the others who can't see how all GCSE coursework can possibly be done within school hours, at least not done well. We had no free periods, weren't allowed in the building at breaks and lunchtimes and had nowhere to sit down and work outside, we certainly weren't allowed to do work from one subject in the lesson time of another, and some of the coursework required group collaboration, particular equipment or fieldwork. One of my GCSEs was music, I don't think it would have been appropriate to bring a piano into English to work on my compositions or practice my pieces!

Not to mention the fact that kids seem to do about a million GCSEs today. We did 9 and a half (RE was the half) and that took up the full timetable, but you see schools putting them for 12, 13 or even more these days.

I did child development gcse and the coursework involved doing a study of a baby or toddler & watching their development over a few months. I'm not sure bringing in the 6th month old and seeing if they could roll, sit up, stand, walk etc in any lesson would have gone down well lol!

Lunar_Eclipse

alice31 wrote: »

If there is a home-school agreement in place (usually signed in September each year), it may stipulate that the homework policy is to be adhered to. This then, if contravened, might be reason to exclude. I would have thought that withdrawing from homework would not be a sufficient reason to exclude if otherwise the school were happy with the pupil. Particularly if it were the wishes of the parents, not the child.

It is part of the home-school agreement at our local schools, and children who do not do their homework at home, for whatever reason, are kept in at breaktimes until it is completed. So for children in Y3-6 at our school, they would basically miss all of their morning breaks every day in school to ensure they did the work. Most children choose to do it at home so they avoid this.

I haven't tried what the OP asked about, but I do know with absolute certainty that our junior school would not support the idea and ensure the child did it during school time if it wasn't done at home. The infant department would be much more understanding.

At our secondary school, the children would be in regular/permanent detentions (which isn't looked upon favourably.) No idea whether they can exclude pupils for this reason, but they would have to be fairly mitigating circumstances for a child to do no homework at this age, when one has to wonder why homeschooling isn't seriously considered on the basis that projects given as homework are a key component of the overall curriculum. At primary level it's less important.

Good luck OP!

bestpud

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

It is part of the home-school agreement at our local schools, and children who do not do their homework at home, for whatever reason, are kept in at breaktimes until it is completed. So for children in Y3-6 at our school, they would basically miss all of their morning breaks every day in school to ensure they did the work. Most children choose to do it at home so they avoid this.

I haven't tried what the OP asked about, but I do know with absolute certainty that our junior school would not support the idea and ensure the child did it during school time if it wasn't done at home. The infant department would be much more understanding.

At our secondary school, the children would be in regular/permanent detentions (which isn't looked upon favourably.) No idea whether they can exclude pupils for this reason, but they would have to be fairly mitigating circumstances for a child to do no homework at this age, when one has to wonder why homeschooling isn't seriously considered on the basis that projects given as homework are a key component of the overall curriculum. At primary level it's less important.

Good luck OP!

Homework isn't a legal requirement though.

A school may object (and I see the reasons for homework) but I'm not sure they'd have a leg to stand on if they tried excluding a child.

If it was just a child refusing to do homework then they would follow a disciplinary route, obviously, but I'm talking about a parent stating formally that they do not want their child to have homework. This would probably involve them informing the governors too.

libbyc3

I haven't read through the whole thread but had to add my tuppenth worth as I withdrew my dd from homework this year.

She's in year 6 and I have been consistently concerned about her being behind her peers especially with literacy. The homework that was being set was generic to the whole class and would take her (us) so long as her reading / writing is just not that of an average 11yr old.

I informed the school she would no longer be doing the set homework as I was going to concentrate on finding out why she didn't seem to be catching up on the basics and work on them instead. I also told the teacher there would be no consequences for my dd for my decision.

I was polite but firm and now feel justified as she has just been diagnosed with dyslexia - which the school have never picked up any signs of. I can now take guidance from the dyslexia association we went to and help her get to grip with the basics. She has become a lot more relaxed and ready to learn now she knows she doesn't have to stress and worry.

No the school weren't happy but I had carried on until year 6 with her struggling and getting upset and I didn't feel listened to. I finally felt I needed to take control of the situation and dd is much better for it.

She will not be skipping homework at senior school, but I plan to be far more on the ball from day one regarding the help she needs and the level of the work

koalamummy

claire16c wrote: »

They had black boards at my school but what the homework was given out on was not relevant. It wouldn't have been given out in time for you to know what it was or it wasn't that simple that you could answer it that quickly.

For example in a maths lesson we would spend maybe ten minutes of a teacher explaining a topic. We'd then spend say 40 minutes answering questions in a textbook, then in the last 5 minutes the teacher would give us a homework sheet or tell us a page from the book to get questions from. Then we packed up & the bell rang. There simply was no time to be doing anything else!

Or in a German lesson we might spend 10 minutes listening to the teacher, 20 minutes learning verbs & then writing each one in a sentence, then 20 minutes listening to a tape, answering questions & marking them, then 15 mins doing an exercise from a book, then right at the end the teacher would say 'please read page 13 and answer the questions' or such like and then it was time to leave.

It sounds like your school was giving you incredibly easy homework & not spending enough time giving you work to do or teaching you.

Your last paragraph is quite an accurate summary of how it was. However it is not a very fair reflection on the teachers concerned. I actually have great admiration for them and what they did manage to achieve. It was a run down school in a very deprived area with lots of very difficult and challenging pupils. I still have a small scar on my arm from where I was hit by a desk that was sent flying by one of my agrieved classmates who was en route to attack the teacher. . Many pupils had already mentally opted out of education by the start of first year and attendance levels were abysmal. The teachers tried their hardest for all pupils regardless. Unfortunately they were unable to perform miracles though.

Spendless

I honestly hadn't realised that homework wasn't compulsory. DS's Secondary gives them detentions for missed or late handed in homework. DD's junior school moves them down to amber on their traffic light system and/or they miss breaks or golden time in order to complete it.

I wonder how happy Secondary school will be at primary schools suggestion to you? :cool: I'm guessing we are talking about a child moving from yr 6 to yr 7? What about talking to Secondary school about some support about the issues your child has re how long it takes to complete homework?

Son's school has a homework club 4 nights a week, but that means the school bus is missed and no service bus connects the 2 villages. It's a walkable distance away but not a safe route when it's dark. At a recent parents evening when it came to light that son had several pieces of homework to catch up on, his form teacher told me that he was welcome to stay behind with her till the time she left and catch up in his form room. As she teaches IT it meant he had access to a PC, a teacher he knows well to ask any general queries of, and she stayed later than the homework club ran to. It didn't take much for him to catch up.

bestpud

Spendless wrote: »

I honestly hadn't realised that homework wasn't compulsory. DS's Secondary gives them detentions for missed or late handed in homework. DD's junior school moves them down to amber on their traffic light system and/or they miss breaks or golden time in order to complete it.

I wonder how happy Secondary school will be at primary schools suggestion to you? :cool: I'm guessing we are talking about a child moving from yr 6 to yr 7? What about talking to Secondary school about some support about the issues your child has re how long it takes to complete homework?

Son's school has a homework club 4 nights a week, but that means the school bus is missed and no service bus connects the 2 villages. It's a walkable distance away but not a safe route when it's dark. At a recent parents evening when it came to light that son had several pieces of homework to catch up on, his form teacher told me that he was welcome to stay behind with her till the time she left and catch up in his form room. As she teaches IT it meant he had access to a PC, a teacher he knows well to ask any general queries of, and she stayed later than the homework club ran to. It didn't take much for him to catch up.

I will be doing all I can to ensure my daughter gets the help she needs so she will be fine. I have no intention of withdrawing her from homework altogether, or at all unless it's a last resort.

I'm just interested really. I'm not one to follow rules without question but I see the benefit of homework.

mumofjusttwo

milliebear00001 wrote: »

Pigpen has expressed her opinions (and knowledge/experiences of education) many times on these forums. Perhaps she has some insight ito peer marking that my Masters in teaching and learning missed out though.

Perhaps those that do have an insight are correct.

Those that have experienced a child that has been taunted by children after having had their work marked by a peer.

onlyroz

Person_one wrote: »

I think its worth remembering that no matter how clever a child is, they will have to learn to get along with their peers if they want to enjoy their life, and being told repeatedly by their parents that they are better, faster, brighter, more special than the rest of the class is not really going to help with that. An air of superiority or smugness is not an attractive trait.

On the other hand there are plenty of bright children who feel that they have to pretend to be less clever so that they can get on better with their peer group.