Year 1

[Ilikecake]

Hi All,

Just wondering how year 1 is going? My daughter is at a supposedly great school, but, has said she hasn't learnt anything yet! Not sure if true... I think they've been adding 1 to numbers, practicing writing (a bit) and a tiny bit of reading. A friend, whose son is in the same class, had said he has been reading everyday and doing maths. The friend said the school has been helping him to catch up. This is great, I just wish my daughter was also making progress. Is this normal at the start of year 1?

Thanks

[Pickle]

Does your daughter bring books and homework home with her that you look at with her? A big part of reinforcing reading comes from the time you spend at home doing it. Our school have homework books which start from year 1, encouraging 15 minutes every day of homework on different topics.

In Year 1 at my children's school the "learning" really ramps up, and their day is very structured with literacy, numeracy etc. If I asked my children what they have learnt on a particular day I probably wouldn't get much feedback - but this morning my year 1 daughter has been walking round the house with a tape measure, notebook and pencil, measuring things and "writing them in a table", so that gives me an idea of what she's done at school :)

[Curmudgeon]

Speak for her teacher, I wouldn't set much store by a 6 year olds feedback on what they've learnt

Is great that a child doesn't realise the learning she's doing

[Ilikecake]

Thanks for the reply. We read every day, she is a confident reader. We have had no homework, although we had a reading book sent home which she read. Really hope they start doing something soon, feel the class will be way behind other year 1's otherwise...

[Ilikecake]

Cross posts, sorry! Yes, not sure if her account is completely accurate, but, have had no homework and I have no other way to judge. Also her teacher is a tad unapproachable.

[Curmudgeon]

There are many who believe, me included, that homework in primary is for the parents' benefit not the children's

Make an appointment with the teacher

[Otta]

Forgive me, but are you not worrying a bit much about this at this atge. It's year 1, they're 5! I agree with Curmudgeon about homework, especially for infants.

[womanofdulwich]

In state schools at least, there is little homework besides reading and maybe spellings in year 1.

HOWEVER that does not mean you cant do for example times tables with her.

[edanna]

They are only a couple of weeks in so will still be easing them into year 1, which is quite different from Reception. I really wouldn't worry at this stage. Also children do seem to take sudden leaps in their learning - even though you might not see a difference now you might still be amazed by something she comes out with in a few weeks.

[Cora]

Yes, it's only a couple of weeks in. Year 1 is very different to reception I should think all the effort is going into settling in and new routines.

[Ilikecake]

Thanks for all the replies! Think I'm prob worrying too much. Might get a time tables or a maths workbook of some kind.

:-)

[edanna]

This is a pretty good maths book: http://www.collinseducation.com/titles/46065/maths-9780007300983

[????]

Those thick Scandinavian types don,t even bother with school until 7......given that they all speak English better than me I am not that worried about how my kids are doing in year 1

[Curmudgeon]

I really don't think you need to do more than you're doing to be honest, not if you don't want to

[hpsaucey]

I'll come out in agreement with Curmugeon and Otta's comments. I think I'm going to cry. Poor things are only five and childhood's short enough as it is. I'm having the opposite reaction and am frankly sad that my year one has a homework book .. albeit low key homework. Horses for courses I suppose.

[bluesuperted]

Me too hpsaucey :(

I'm going to refuse to comply with homework requests til at least Y2/Y3 My husband (teacher!) has parents who do this and he has no problem with it, often the schools are setting homework only due to parental feedback requesting them to do so (through the governors etc). This may sound controversial but I will simply trust that we will be reading lots and lots, doing huge numbers of educational activities at the weekend and I will be taking control of my kids having as much 'childhood' as they can at the end of a tiring school day. If, and only if, my son/daughter are dead keen on something that's been set, then fine, I obviously won't stop them, but I really thing Early Years and KS1 are not the place for homework. I remember one solitary piece of homework that I did as a primary school kid - a topic piece on Otters. I loved it! But that was in the juniors and was a great novelty. I know several parents who do this (all of bright, able kids) and it's been a good policy for them!

[alieh]

Great to know that you can do that - i.e. opt out of homework. I agree that if it is something they enjoy and want to work on, then great. But otherwise seems a terrible way to end a long day when they're only 5 or 6 if it is a struggle.

Thick Canadian type here where they don't teaching reading or letters until at least 6 or 7 so maybe that's why I prefer the laissez faire approach!

[bluesuperted]

Yes I'm sure some teachers are not keen but I will just be open about it and my reasons. Also when I say 'educational' activities at weekends, I mean that loosely, don't mean for their own sake - I mean as in life, fun, parks, museums, chilling out with family. I think kids spend enough time each week concentrating on schoolwork and I'd like evenings and weekends to at least be as unstructured and relaxing as possible.

Some people on here may be interested in the 'Too much too soon' campaign (there's a march in October half term too..) and this petition which is campaigning against Gove's non-evidenced based policies:

http://bit.ly/180LYk9

[kristymac1]

I've always considered 'homework' for the wee ones as simply one way of informing the parents what the kids are doing and the sort of level maths and literacy they are focusing on in reception, yr 1 and yr 2 (my daughter has just started yr 2), We haven't had anything particularly onerous and have never felt under any pressure to get it done - we're lucky I guess that our daughter enjoys sitting down and working through her homework (which generally takes 15minutes or so), but if she's tired, not interested, cba then there's no pressure from us (or the school, so far anyway) to hand it in on time.

For us it helps to know what level the kids are being taught at, helps us contextualise stuff better when just hanging out at the weekends.....

[canela]

bluesuperted, you may want to have a chat with the teacher as you might get a nice surprise. What school is it, btw? My son's teachers in Year 1 and Year 2 were very open about homework, and always said not to do it if it caused any stress. They gave very light homework over the weekend, and stressed that the child shouldn't be spending more than 10 minutes on it unless it was something they really got into, ie doing a picture. They encouraged daily reading, and some help with spelling as my son was quite behind. But really, they were far more relaxed about it than most of the parents. Interestingly, they said their main reason for giving homework was just to provide some home-school link rather than any academic justification. They also preferred the child to do it on their own to see how they got on independently, as they said they could always tell when parents had helped to make it perfect!

to be honest, in most schools the teacher doesn't even look at the homework. It is the TA's job and they just flag up anything that needs attention to the teacher.

I know exactly how you feel about resisting homework as I was the same - but I was also very pleasantly surprised by the response of the school when I asked them about it.

[bluesuperted]

That's good to hear Canela, my son just started nursery but am hoping he will go to Kilmorie in FH, it's a very laid back school and so I have high hopes they'll be sensible about this kind of thing.

I have heard from other teachers that it is parent pressure that makes the school have a homework policy - but that the results of more homework are not proven - kids who are getting lots of support at home continue to get it and those who need more support don't get more related to the amount of homework given... I guess I worry because I've always been fairly conscientious and even from a young and I would have thought 'oh it's there so I have to do it, and do it well' - in this respect I'm glad I wasn't given any as I know it would have played on my mind! My son is more laid back than me though but that's another thread ;)