UK schools

My 11 year old came home from school the other day (US school) with loads of home work. She had not missed any school and there really should be no reason for that much homework. On top of soccer it's just not really even manageable. I am so upset that schools are pushing the kids harder and harder with each passing year. My 11 year old has more homework than my 19 year old had at that age, heck, my 9 year old even has more homework than my 11 year old had 2 years ago.

So my question is are UK students pushed so hard? Is homework being given out in truck loads? My husband tells me he never even had homework unless it was to study for a test. Now I know that was decades ago but we are of similar age and I (American) was given lots of homework.

I *hate* homework- I hated it when I was a child and I hate it for my children. They go to school 6-7 hours a day, are expected to have extracurricular activities and then do hours of homework on top of it all? And people wonder why American kids are always eating junkfood, there's no friggen time for anything else!!!
Lifelong stress should not be the way of life!
Please tell me UK schools don't swamp kids. 

It depends on the school.  My niece had hours and she is 11, my friend's kids have less. 

So my question is are UK students pushed so hard? Is homework being given out in truck loads? My husband tells me he never even had homework unless it was to study for a test. Now I know that was decades ago but we are of similar age and I (American) was given lots of homework.

I grew up in the UK and didn't have any official 'homework' until I got to secondary school (age 11), but even then, it wasn't all that demanding, maybe up to an hour a night or so for the first year or two, and then it increased as we went up through the school years, but even by age 16, I think I was only doing a maximum of 2 hours a night (maybe a bit more, depending on the subject and if it was coursework).

I get the impression that primary school kids are given homework now - my younger brother had homework at our primary school (he's 7 years younger than me, age 22 now), but I didn't have any when I was there.

Not sure if the quantities of homework in secondary school have increased since I left though (I attended secondary school from 1994 to 2001).

Chicklet is 13 (year 9) and she barely had any homework for the months of April thru July which were her first months in school. She's only been back since the 6th now and again, very little homework. She uses her free time at school to get some of her work done though. She has 40 minutes for her dinner, so she eats and does her homework if she has any while sitting with some of her friends.

I had bucket loads from age 11, although I could have gotten away with doing much less, I just was never wired that way. I did get exceptional GCSE/A Level results so it was always justified/important to me.

I did seem to have plenty of time for everything though, although I occasionaly did it at lunch/on the bus like everyone did sometimes.
When you're a kid, isn't your whole life just either homework and running about anyway?  I wasn't massive for TV (used to play outside, later read/talk on the phone with my girlfriends, play V.games) so maybe that makes a difference

Hmm, okay, thanks for the replies.

Let me ask this:
My daughter (11) is in her first year of junior high school (she's in 6th grade, I guess that would be year 7 in the UK) and has been placed in advanced math. It's only 2 weeks into the new school year for us and she's already getting nightly homework that she struggles to keep up with. First of all, she doesn't understand a good portion of it, and I suck at math, always have and I can't help her- thankfully my husband is very proficient in math and can help but even he struggles with her work. She is given 2 pages to do a night (of just math, she also gets homework in her other classes), I know that does not sound like a lot, but it is, there are anywhere from 10-25 problems per page and the real problem is much of it she doesn't even understand. I ask her if the teacher does not explain what she is supposed to be doing and she said that when the teacher was explaining the last homework she got it was when she had to be taking a test- so I asked about that and she said that they are split into sections to take tests since there are not computers for all kids, so when that particular homework was being explained in class she missed out on that because it was her test time. Sounds like poor planning and even poor teaching to me and I know that really comes down to the teacher... and school - so I can't really ask if this could happen in the UK (anything can happen, of course)- but if she is 11 and given 2 pages of math, a page of social studies and needs to prepare for tests and now has an added class on top of her schedule and as the year progresses she will be getting homework in science, history, literature and English- is she being pushed more here than she would be in England? Or does that sound reasonable for English school's homework as well?
Now on to my older daughter who is 15 and in 10th grade, a sophomore in high school, and is given about 3.5 hours of homework a night. Or more, like today she got home at 3pm and it's now 7:18pm and she's still working on her homework. I know if she was also in soccer there's no way she could keep up.

Another thing:
How long is the school year in the UK? Someone mentioned 'thru July' does school actually go that long? Like here it is from September 4th- June 19th. So they get a 2.5 month long summer.

My daughter started school this year on Sept 6th. She got out of school the second week of July. During the school year though they get a week of the end of October for half term, they get out for Christmas and don't go back until like the 7th of January, and another week off at the end of February I think, and two weeks at Easter. I believe they actually go to school a total of 190 days here rather than the 180 that most kids do in the States.

Sounds like poor planning and even poor teaching to me and I know that really comes down to the teacher... and school - so I can't really ask if this could happen in the UK (anything can happen, of course)- but if she is 11 and given 2 pages of math, a page of social studies and needs to prepare for tests and now has an added class on top of her schedule and as the year progresses she will be getting homework in science, history, literature and English- is she being pushed more here than she would be in England? Or does that sound reasonable for English school's homework as well?

When I was in year 7, we had a kind of rota for homework - i.e. English homework was issued on, say Mon and Wed, Science on Tues and Wed, French on Wed and Thurs etc., so you would usually only have 2 or 3 pieces of homework per night, with each piece taking approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Another thing:
How long is the school year in the UK? Someone mentioned 'thru July' does school actually go that long? Like here it is from September 4th- June 19th. So they get a 2.5 month long summer.

Yes, the UK school year is split up, so the kids get less summer holiday, but more time off during the year. As kbeech06 said, it's 190 days of school per year.

School starts in the first week of September and ends towards the end of July (although private schools have shorter terms).

The vacations are:
- 1 week in October
- 2 weeks for Christmas
- 1 week in Feb
- 2 weeks for Easter
- 1 week in May
- 5-6 weeks in the summer

I love the way the school year is broken up here. Summer was absolutely perfect! Chicklet never got bored, and just when she was starting to get to the point where she would start driving me nuts...she was back at school. I always found, and I can remember as a kid, that the children get really bored by the beginning of August in the States. I can remember before we moved here, chicklets friends would come by in August and they would hang around for an hour trying to figure out what to do for fun. Then they would start driving me nuts till I kicked them all outside and said GO FIND SOMETHING TO DO!! I like it much better here!

Hmm, everything seems so much better over there. 

Yep, 2.5 months of summer vacation leaves the kids just itching to get back to school. I suppose that's a good thing all in all, but being relentlessly bored isn't.

Another question, what do the school days look like? What time does school start and what time does it get out and what sort of breaks in the day do they have?

Oh, and is it anything like US schools come middle school when kids rotate classes? So instead of staying in the same classroom all day like they do in elementary school then go to a different classroom for each class- my 11 year old has 7 different classes and my 15 year old has 4 (they are longer classes). How does that work in the UK?

Do all schools have uniforms? Are uniforms readily available (I remember when my kids went to a charter school and uniforms were required but we had to drive all over town trying to find the proper attire)?

Do all schools have uniforms? Are uniforms readily available (I remember when my kids went to a charter school and uniforms were required but we had to drive all over town trying to find the proper attire)?

Uniforms are a pretty standard thing--how strict they are depends entirely on the school.  Some schools, especially in well-heeled areas, will require strict uniforms such as specific skirts, crested jackets, etc.  Others will be less strict.  My daughter's school just tells us the colour scheme and kinds of things they can wear (grey bottom and red cardigans/jumpers with a white shirt underneath, etc).  We can get the school crest from their supplier, but we don't have to.  Since uniforms are so standard, you can get them from pretty much anywhere for cheap.  I've picked up skirts, dresses, trousers, cardigans, etc from lots of different stores and they are all fine.  I was intimidated at first, but it is no problem once you get the feel of it.

Another question, what do the school days look like? What time does school start and what time does it get out and what sort of breaks in the day do they have?

It depends on the school, but usually the school day is split into 5 or 6 lesson periods, with a morning break of about 20 minutes and a lunch break of about an hour.

The structure of the day at my secondary school has changed in the last few years, but when I was there, it was:

08.45 - 09.05: Registration
09.05 - 09.55: Lesson 1
09.55 - 10.45 :Lesson 2
10.45 - 11.05: Break
11.05 - 11.55: Lesson 3
11.55 - 12.45: Lesson 4
12.45 - 13.40 Lunch
13.40 - 14.00: Afternoon Registration
14.00 - 14.35: Lesson 5
14.35 - 15.30: Lesson 6

Lessons were different every day and some, such as PE or Science, were double lessons (i.e. Monday: English, French, Geography, Maths, double Science; Tuesday: Drama, French, double PE, History, Music etc.)

Oh, and is it anything like US schools come middle school when kids rotate classes? So instead of staying in the same classroom all day like they do in elementary school then go to a different classroom for each class- my 11 year old has 7 different classes and my 15 year old has 4 (they are longer classes). How does that work in the UK?

Yes, the classes are usually all in different places, so unless you have a double lesson, you will move rooms or buildings for each lesson (i.e. English lessons in the English building, French in the French department, Science in the Science Block, Drama in the Drama building etc.)

Do all schools have uniforms? Are uniforms readily available (I remember when my kids went to a charter school and uniforms were required but we had to drive all over town trying to find the proper attire)?

The majority of schools have uniforms - it's pretty standard for most schools, although it seems as though the uniforms have become more relaxed in recent years.

When I was in secondary school, for year 7-9, we had to wear a bottle-green blazer with school emblem, white button-down shirt, a school tie, knee-length grey skirt (no trousers allowed), white or black socks and black 'sensible' shoes. In Years 10 and 11, the blazer was replaced with a V-necked green jumper and in Sixth Form we had a 'dress code' of a white, black or maroom top, and maroon skirt (boy had to wear shirts and ties). If you want to see what I looked like on my first day of secondary school at age 11, click here :p.

Now though, the girls at my old school are allowed to wear trousers and the shirts and ties and blazers were replaced with polo-shirts and sweatshirts.

When we got here in March, I had to fill in a form to "apply" for an in year placement. Our local high school is very popular and I was afraid there wouldn't be room for her. We were ok though. Once the school received the info from the council they got in touch with us and had us come round for a visit. While we were there, we got the tour, and they told us about the uniform and where would be our best bet to get them. Chicklet's uniform is black skirt or trousers, flat black shoes, white blouse, and black blazer with the school crest. Oh and her tie. She can also wear a black cardigan for cooler weather. She also has her kit for PE which is a bottle green (I Had never heard of that colour till we got here) polo shirts and black shorts or sweat pants. I loved that our "back to school" shopping last month was so easy. The schools do seem to be pretty lax about enforcing certain things though. Like at ours, its supposed to be no makeup, no nail polish, no outlandish hair, and the skirts are to be knee length. Well, the makeup is there, the hair is crazy, and the skirts, well lets just say, if they're knee length, then British girls knees are just below their bottoms!
As for the school day...chicklet's is very similar to what Ksand24 put, but she only has 5 lessons. Her class schedule is different every day for two weeks and then goes back to the beginning.

ksand24, I would have loved an hour for lunch in secondary school.  We had 20 minutes - so by the time you made it through the queue, you had to scoff it very quickly and move onto the next class. And the first lunch sitting was at 10:30 am, next one at 11:15 and the last one at 12:00. So usually you weren't even hungry unless you had the last lunch seating your in your schedule.  Certainly no leaving school grounds for us either, like all the kids around here do!

(I am really sure this was not the norm, just my school's crazy way of fitting everything into your day)

And the first lunch sitting was at 10:30 am, next one at 11:15 and the last one at 12:00. So usually you weren't even hungry unless you had the last lunch seating your in your schedule.  Certainly no leaving school grounds for us either, like all the kids around here do!

Wow, that's crazy - in UK schools, lunch is at the same time for everyone. Plus, there are often extra-curricular activities going on at lunch too, like sports practices, music groups and clubs, so it's not really feasible to have separate lunch times.

Our school had one lunch hour, but three different dining halls - one was two English classrooms that were converted into the canteen at lunch (for years 9-13) and the other two (for years 7-8) also doubled up as classrooms during the rest of the day. If you brought your own lunch, you just ate where you felt like - there were a few classrooms reserved for eating packed lunches, or you could just sit outside or hang out in the area of the school reserved for your year.

We were not allowed to leave school grounds until we were in year 10/11, and of course, during Sixth Form. Sixth Form was good because we got lots of free periods (back when you only had to take 3 A level subject) and in year 13, we didn't have to be in school when we didn't have a class... so on Mondays I was only in school for one lesson, from 11.05 until 11.55 a.m., and I spent the rest of the day at home .