Do you agree with homework in Primary

Am late to this thread but this is bullshit honestly - I have an A in Maths at GCSE and was asked by my teacher to consider maths+further maths at A Level. (I didn't do it as I'm a humanities person). I never learned my times tables. You have a calculator at every point in life.
Mathematics, pure maths, application of number theory is important. Being able to calculate 9x8 within a second in your head isn't.
I hate this so much as DD is the same as me - academically doing well but totally unable to retain number facts. She's being written off when that difficulty is zero sign of her understanding level.

Yes, exactly this. The art projects were really a waste of time (although I think DH quite enjoyed doing them). Goodness knows what ds would have done it if it had been down to me, though, I have precisely zero skills in that direction.

People will say that art projects are just as important for the kids who are less good at academic stuff - well maybe, but why do parents have to do them?

Ditto dressing up days, they should never be compulsory.

No, I let them work out their days formal learning in child led, non-directed play. Then they eat dinner and go to bed.

I agree with you op but you won't believe how many parents wouldn't even bother to read with their dc if it wasn't part of their hw. In fact, lots still don't.
They don't even take their kids to the park let alone air shows.

Reception homework is once a week, a few worksheets that take 15 minutes max. Does this really make such a big difference on top of the hours they are spending on it in school already? Surely they would need to be doing daily homework for it to really make much difference. And that would probably bore them and put them off.

Reading books is different, the more exposure to different kinds of books the better.

If the homework is a replacement for TV or screens then it may be worthwhile but if it replaces 15 minutes of one to one time from a parent that could have been spent having a conversation, or reading a book, it is probably detrimental.

That's a good point, school days are so long in the UK, it would be a whole other issue having homework after such a long day for small children than it is somewhere where they only go to school for 4 or 5 hours.

By the night they get home from after school club it’s getting on for 6.30 -7. No time for homework. The mandatory homework club in the senior school worked well and they was nothing negative on their grades by not doing primary homework.

They have (supposedly) been ‘learning’ for 6 and a half hours ffs. They need time for rest and other types of learning.

If the school day wasn't so long I wouldn't have a problem with homework. But considering most kids spend almost a full working day at school I just don't understand where the time for it is. DD only has a few hours in the evening and that includes dinner so if she did her homework she'd have no time to play at all on weekdays.

So you give them a snack, let them revive and have a short, supported session of learning at an appropriate moment.

I absolutely disagree. Having to force tired, grumpy kids to do additional formal learning outside of the classroom will not benefit them in the slightest. But it will put off learning, school and education in general.

Reception age kids ABSOLUTELY need to be doing their homework. Their homework sent home directly links to the sounds, diagraphs/triagraphs that they have been learning in school that week, if they do not practice those, alot of children get left behind. The reading shouldn't even count as homework, surly reading to your kids at some point across the week isnt too much hassle. Dont get me wrong, I do not believe in punishments being placed on the kids if they do not do their homework as that's a little much, but i do think a little bit of homework/revision, helps with what they're already learning in school that week, this helping to solidify their understanding.

@Bunnycat101 how do you think people enter in these schools? They are bright, plus they do a lot of work as tutoring or homework. You do not get to top competitions without hours of practice, why would you get to top schools without the same hours? Whoever says otherwise just want to make their kid pass as a genious. There might be same but many are just hard working kids, academic in the sense they do not mind the hard study. Not everybody can train 8/9 hours a week so not everybody can do homework for 2 additional hours a day but kids who can learn a lot and get to very academic schools.
in other countries kids study 3-4 hour a day every day from year 5 or 6, the breath of their curriculum is triple or quadruple than the British one. Is it important for life? Maybe not for 95% of the population, so we can debate if it’s needed for all these students, but they do and they know a lot more than our kids.

@Anna79ishere I totally agree. It's so important to maximise your child's opportunities. The self-righteous on here about downtime and "life lessons" is largely a foil for parental laziness.

I agree with homework (from 7 years old, maybe 6 if its very little) so long as its work the children can do themselves, following on from what they did that they or reading or studying, not projects that require parents to help or pointless busy work.

I have seen the positive impact of homework on my daughter, which she has got daily since 1st grade. She now has excellent study habits because she is used to coming home and doing some homework or revision every day after school. I saw her grades improve and her confidence increase once they started to get more serious about studying and homework in 3rd grade.

Do you really understand? Maybe because most people need to work and rely on school for childcare as well as education.

Also who is fighting teachers?
Questioning some of the educational strategies and policies of the current education system is very different to “fighting teachers”. In fact it has nothing to do teachers at all. Several people here who are teachers have disagreed with the amount/type of home work given to young primary children. Sadly teachers have little control over things like home work policy, it’s those above them that make these decisions. I don’t think it’s bad for people to question if it’s actually improves outcomes for children. Obviously that can be done without undermining teachers. I disagree with the amount and type of homework young children get, I however help my children to do the work and try to work with the school if we have any significant issues.

And in Germany children don’t start school until 6 🤷‍♀️

Wait til you hear what a load of Chinese kids do.

They have very long school days, go to cram school after school, and when in neither of these they study or have to play an instrument. No free time to play at all.

But this to me is bonkers:

“My friend is did 2 additional hours of homework a day with her daughter from year 4 to get her into St Paul school of girls. She is now flying there as her basis are very solid. She has no issues with the amount of work required. Others there need to be heavily tutored.”

St Paul’s will already be taking some of the brightest girls in the country. Making them do hours of extra work/tutoring at a young age shouldn’t be necessary to get good results. I’m sure it happens but I don’t think it’s a great endorsement for the school given the cohort of children. I’m not naive about the need to do tutoring for 11 plus but 2 hours a day at 9 seems pretty miserable.

I came from another country where kids go to primary school at the age of 6 and they stay at primary until the age of 12. I would say homework is important from this age as the children getting used to have obligations and learn the concept of studying. If you don’t follow the system then when they go to the secondary school they won’t be able to sit down to study more than 5 minutes. School is way more than free childcare..

The reality is kids who practice at home do better. They have extra practice in a relaxed setting with no noise. They can focus better. Additionally parents can pick up areas where kids are struggling. I realised my daughter could not read a watch only when we sat and did some exercises. She was able the year before and then somehow she forgot!
i have done 30 mins math homework 3 days a week over the summer and my kid went back to year 4 much stronger in math. Any 15-20 mins additionally I can squeeze during the weekend is beneficial. That’s why people tutor their kids, to get them on the top of their class. My friend is did 2 additional hours of homework a day with her daughter from year 4 to get her into St Paul school of girls. She is now flying there as her basis are very solid. She has no issues with the amount of work required. Others there need to be heavility tutored.
if families prefer to do other activities is ok, but denying that extra work helps is crazy. As in sport or music, the more you do the better you are. However parents seem to love extra practices in football, ballet, swimming and can’t see how extra practice in maths and English is helpful in the exact same way.

Studies have shown that there is little benefit from an a endemic advantage perspective to addition homework for primary children outside of reading. However reading is critical to progression as it doesn’t teach them to simply read, then spell, it acts as the foundation for comprehension which ties into all areas of learning.

My sons school have scrapped all additional learning and asked us to read 5 times per week.

My son has a speech delay due to issues as a baby. We got into a very unique and intense NHS therapy course. We were told if we didn’t do the homework we would be kicked off the programme. He was 5 going on 6 and before we even left for school he had to say 1000 words daily for various purposes - for 6 whole months. It was like pulling teeth. Then we also had to do his reading on top. Worst 6 months ever, loads of tears. Very little time (we both work full time). However it has done wonders for him and paid off in improving his reading too.

Now that programme has completed he doesn’t bat an eyelid at a few other language practices and reading daily we do. It’s nothing in comparison.

My point, I think ‘homework’ shouldn’t be
more than reading, unless your child is academically behind and then homework should be targeted for those specific areas of improvement. Making a pasta face or a family tree in Y1 is utterly pointless.

I also think in y5/6 it should be given, as like my son above, it got him into the routine of daily learning and now he doesn’t bat an eyelid to what we are asked to do because he’s been so used to extensive amounts of additional learning. This will prep them for secondary school.

I agree. I home ed and use school too. There's no get out clause for parents in being accountable for their children's education. You have to support and get involved with what they're learning either way.

My children all got reading, spellings & time tables to do at home in primary. I think all three are really important so was happy for them to do it. They didn’t get set any other homework.

I could see why setting some towards the end of year 6 would be useful to prepare them for high school. Having said that mine didn’t get an enormous amount of homework in high school, apart from GCSE revision/past papers in the build up to their exams.

One thing I’ll never understand is why parents are happy to use the education system, then fight teachers every step of the way and complain about everything? Isn’t it. Enter to just homeschool if you know better?