Homework for 5 year olds

missbiggles1

ViolaLass wrote: »

At some point you do have to trust the professionals who have been hired to do the job.

I think that's a potentially dangerous attitude to have in both education and medicine.

ViolaLass

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I think that's a potentially dangerous attitude to have in both education and medicine.

Trusting professionals who have been trained and hired to do a job doesn't mean not having your own opinions nor does it mean never checking up on them. Of course there should be accountability.

In the end, though, unless you're going to do the job yourself, you will have to trust the other person. Teachers are trusted with pupils every day. Of course it can and sometimes does go wrong, to various extents, but I find your post alarmist. A lot of the time things go perfectly well.

missbiggles1

ViolaLass wrote: »

Trusting professionals who have been trained and hired to do a job doesn't mean not having your own opinions nor does it mean never checking up on them. Of course there should be accountability.

In the end, though, unless you're going to do the job yourself, you will have to trust the other person. Teachers are trusted with pupils every day. Of course it can and sometimes does go wrong, to various extents, but I find your post alarmist. A lot of the time things go perfectly well.

I wasn't intended to be alarmist - I've worked in and around education for most of my working life.

However, I don't think that people should just hand over the responsibility of their children's education or their own health into the hands of somebody who's a professional because, exceptions as they may be, there are some pretty poor teachers and doctors around.

ViolaLass

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I wasn't intended to be alarmist - I've worked in and around education for most of my working life.

However, I don't think that people should just hand over the responsibility of their children's education or their own health into the hands of somebody who's a professional because, exceptions as they may be, there are some pretty poor teachers and doctors around.

If you think that I said people should just hand over responsibility for their child's education with no other checks or balances, then I would suggest that you did not read my posts carefully or entirely. I did not recommend blind trust.

missbiggles1

ViolaLass wrote: »

If you think that I said people should just hand over responsibility for their child's education with no other checks or balances, then I would suggest that you did not read my posts carefully or entirely. I did not recommend blind trust.

I appreviate that you didn't say that but there was an assumption of it from another poster and that was what I was trying to address.

bambinaUK

I haven't read through every single comment on the previous four pages, so I might be the only one saying this.

I never forced either of my children to do homework when they were in Primary school. When they were in junior school it wasn't until the final year that I considered it to be important as preperation for High School. Neither did I make either of them revise for SATs.

Reading was the one skill that I encouraged and they both developed their own love of books.

I lost count of the number of notes that I would see in their homework books saying 'work not completed', to which I always put the reply 'I educate my children at home and did not see the need for the completion of this homework. I was invited to meet with the headmistress on more than one occasion to discuss this and declined to do so.

The pressure that teachers are under to improve achievement and the financial punishments that are inflicted on schools are worrying. The responsibility for all of this pressure lies with the Education Department.

FenellaWitch

Of course every parent has a responsibility to facilitate a good education in school by providing an education at home through various means and support.

Equally someone cannot entirely rely on a health service to provide peak health if they themselves do not follow a healthy lifestyle.

Ultimately however ,we do need, at some point in our lives, to place blind trust in a profession. When my child was very ill ,the surgeon and specialists cared for him in ways I was in no way capable of myself. And in schooling you trust the professionals who educate your children are performing as well as possible. Communication and vigilance are key.

Anyway, back to to original point Re: homework for 5 year olds will always be a moot point.

mumps

Nicki wrote: »

Both. For the child, if they have achieved the standard of learning which the level reflects they have a firm foundation on which to build future learning and their long term academic outcome tends to be better. For the school, if children without SEN are not reaching these levels, it is an indicator that teaching is inadequate and there are likely to be repercussions at the next Ofsted inspection.

If the child has achieved the standard they will have that foundation even if they aren't tested. The test doesn't magically do something.

One thing is clear to me and that is when we talk about early years education and people mention other countries starting school at 6 or 7 I always hear that key stage 1 is just like the nurseries/kindergartens in those countries, learning through play, nothing formal, children not being pushed. How is sending a child home with worksheets, more than one a week at that, learning through play? You can learn through play, my children learned basic maths by helping me bake, helping with the shopping, working out how many weeks they needed to save their pocket money to buy the latest lego model, playing board games but work sheets aren't play.

So from what people have said on here is it reasonable to assume that our reception and year 1 are nothing like the informal learning through play that other countries practice, countries that often have better outcomes than us.

I am also interested in what a worksheet consists of, my grandson, year 3, came home on Monday with an English and Maths worksheet. The maths was two sides of A4 questions, 120 questions. This needed to be handed in on Friday with the English, he also had 20 spellings and of course reading. His school seems to have a policy of no homework at weekends so apart from reading this all needs doing Monday to Thursday nights and seems alot to me.

msb5262

Interesting article here on homework and its contribution to children's achievements in school: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alfie-kohn/homework-research_b_2184918.html

missbiggles1

mumps wrote: »

If the child has achieved the standard they will have that foundation even if they aren't tested. The test doesn't magically do something.

One thing is clear to me and that is when we talk about early years education and people mention other countries starting school at 6 or 7 I always hear that key stage 1 is just like the nurseries/kindergartens in those countries, learning through play, nothing formal, children not being pushed. How is sending a child home with worksheets, more than one a week at that, learning through play? You can learn through play, my children learned basic maths by helping me bake, helping with the shopping, working out how many weeks they needed to save their pocket money to buy the latest lego model, playing board games but work sheets aren't play.

So from what people have said on here is it reasonable to assume that our reception and year 1 are nothing like the informal learning through play that other countries practice, countries that often have better outcomes than us.

I am also interested in what a worksheet consists of, my grandson, year 3, came home on Monday with an English and Maths worksheet. The maths was two sides of A4 questions, 120 questions. This needed to be handed in on Friday with the English, he also had 20 spellings and of course reading. His school seems to have a policy of no homework at weekends so apart from reading this all needs doing Monday to Thursday nights and seems alot to me.

I first read that as "age 3"!:eek: