Starting secondary school: how to prepare your child for year 7 homework

Moving from primary to secondary school is one of the biggest changes in a child’s education. Over one summer, children go from one class teacher to a timetable of different subjects, rooms and teachers, and homework starts arriving from several subjects every week.

In England, applications for secondary school places close on 31st October of year 6, and offers are sent on 1st March [1]. Most children cope well with the move. In the government-funded EPPSE study, 84% said they felt prepared for secondary school, and only 3% were still worried or nervous a term after starting [2].

• Homework is one of the most common worries about the move, for children and parents alike.

• Start a short daily study slot in years 5 and 6, so year 7 homework feels familiar.

• Keep sessions to 10 to 15 minutes and use quick quizzes rather than re-reading.

• In the first term of year 7, help your child set up a homework system, then step back.

In the STARS study of around 2,000 pupils in South-East England, homework was among children’s top five worries before the move, and that worry only eased by the end of year 7. Before the move, the things parents most often expected their child to need help with were homework and remembering books and equipment [3].

The jump is real. Primary homework tends to be reading or practising spelling and number facts [4]. At secondary school it comes from several subjects and teachers, with different deadlines, and children are expected to keep track of it themselves.

None of this needs to feel like exam preparation. The aim is to make a short slot of independent study normal before it becomes compulsory.

Habits form through repetition in the same setting. In a study of 96 volunteers building a new daily habit, it took between 18 and 254 days for the habit to feel automatic, and missing a single day did not materially set them back [5]. The same time each day, such as straight after a snack, matters more than any one session.

A slot of 10 to 15 minutes is enough to start with. The Education Endowment Foundation’s review of homework research found that the quality of the task appears to matter more than the quantity [4].

Times tables, number facts, spelling, grammar and reading underpin year 7 maths, science and English. A few minutes of quick practice each week keeps them secure.

In a major review of learning techniques, re-reading was rated low utility and practice testing high utility [6]. Quick quizzes, flashcards and ‘close the book and tell me’ all make your child pull information out of memory. Our article on why highlighting fails has simple swaps to try.

In year 7, children are expected to follow a timetable, pack the right books and keep track of deadlines, often in a planner or homework app. In year 6, let your child pack their own bag and keep a simple list of what is due. The STARS researchers suggest checking homework diaries, making sure your child understands the instructions and encouraging them to start early [3].

• Ask how homework works at the new school: which subjects set it on which days and where it is recorded.

• Help with planning rather than answers. Look at the week ahead together for the first few weeks, then step back.

• Talk about worries together. In STARS, children whose worries matched their parents’ tended to worry less once they had started, so share concerns while keeping your own in proportion [3].

• Speak to the form tutor early if homework regularly ends in tears. In EPPSE, children who had a lot of help from their secondary school to settle in were more likely to have a successful transition [2].

Tassomai’s courses for years 3 to 6 cover Maths and English, plus Science in years 5 and 6, in Daily Goals of around 10 to 15 minutes per subject. The algorithm picks the questions and gives instant feedback on every answer.

Every Monday, you get a progress email. It shows how many days your child was active, how many questions they answered, their accuracy and their strongest and weakest topics of the week, with a picture of their Tree. One click takes you to your Parent Dashboard, where you can see the Tree for each subject and how many Daily Goals they have completed. Our guide to the weekly report emails explains how to use them without nagging.

If your child’s secondary school uses Tassomai, you get the weekly email and a Parent Dashboard through the school at no cost.

Want a simple daily routine to start before year 7? Try Tassomai at home with a free 7-day trial.

1. Department for Education. (2021). School admissions code. GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code--2

2. Evangelou, M., Taggart, B., Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Sammons, P., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2008). What makes a successful transition from primary to secondary school? (Research Report DCSF-RR019). Department for Children, Schools and Families. https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/8618/1/DCSF-RR019.pdf

3. Rice, F., Frederickson, N., Shelton, K., McManus, C., Riglin, L., & Ng-Knight, T. (2015). Identifying factors that predict successful and difficult transitions to secondary school. Nuffield Foundation. https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/files/STARS_report.pdf

4. Education Endowment Foundation. (2021). Homework. Teaching and Learning Toolkit. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/homework

5. Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., & Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998-1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674

6. Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266