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The homework nightmare

Johnsmum

I know this is a nightmare for most parents of kids with an ASC. My son, in Year 12, is doing almost none of his homework - he refuses to do any at home and I think he is doing a little in free periods but clearly not much as teachers have started ringing us up! He has recently dropped one of his AS subjects which should give him plenty of free time to catch up on work, but he just stays home if the free period is at the start of the day, and comes home if it's at the end.

He is a very bright lad and got pretty good grades in his GCSEs without doing much work at all but we need somehow to drum it into his head that he can't get away with this in 6th form. And exams are coming next month - help!

AndrewC, thanks for your input on the now closed guideline thread. The school does indeed have facilities for my son to go to Learning Support and have supervised work times at various times in the week, but he doesn't go to them! There's also an after school homework club which he won't go to either. Either he forgets, or he is too tired and comes home.

I agree with you that, as a school we once visited said, 'Asperger's and homework don't mix'. But given that all pupils in a mainstream school have to do homework, and my son is really too high functioning for a specialist school, we seem to have reached deadlock.

Parents

  • If it is any consolation (it probably isn't) I teach mainstream secondary and nearly ALL Year 12 kids have homework 'issues' ... it seems to be that they have lived in a very controlled environment up to year 11 (no free periods, everything closely supervised) and suddenly in Year 12 they are given liberty and privileges such as free periods to help prepare them for independent study at university - and the freedom goes to their heads!!!

    Somebody above mentioned supervised free periods ... that should be possible to arrange at least some of the time - the school I teach in has a quiet room for Year 12 students to go to with a teacher supervising and they get on with more work there than in the common room where they tend to chat!  There might be a teacher with a couple of free periods at the same time as your son who wouldn't mind sitting with him (I would be fine if asked to do that because I could get on with some marking while the student did some work - it shouldn't actually cause any extra work for the teacher doing it).

    Another possibility is to approach your son's teachers (probably there aren't too many of them if he's on 3 AS levels?) and ask to exchange email addresses?  Personally I hesitate to phone parents sometimes unless the issue is a medium/high cause for concern but if I have their email address in my organizer it is easy for me to drop them a line for a minor issue - e.g. 'Your son has a project due in next Wed. for me, please nag him about it!!!'

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  • If it is any consolation (it probably isn't) I teach mainstream secondary and nearly ALL Year 12 kids have homework 'issues' ... it seems to be that they have lived in a very controlled environment up to year 11 (no free periods, everything closely supervised) and suddenly in Year 12 they are given liberty and privileges such as free periods to help prepare them for independent study at university - and the freedom goes to their heads!!!

    Somebody above mentioned supervised free periods ... that should be possible to arrange at least some of the time - the school I teach in has a quiet room for Year 12 students to go to with a teacher supervising and they get on with more work there than in the common room where they tend to chat!  There might be a teacher with a couple of free periods at the same time as your son who wouldn't mind sitting with him (I would be fine if asked to do that because I could get on with some marking while the student did some work - it shouldn't actually cause any extra work for the teacher doing it).

    Another possibility is to approach your son's teachers (probably there aren't too many of them if he's on 3 AS levels?) and ask to exchange email addresses?  Personally I hesitate to phone parents sometimes unless the issue is a medium/high cause for concern but if I have their email address in my organizer it is easy for me to drop them a line for a minor issue - e.g. 'Your son has a project due in next Wed. for me, please nag him about it!!!'

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