Do you agree with homework in Primary

I don't agree with mandatory homework.

We personally try to supplement the curriculum at home. So if they're learning about a historical point in time, I try to loan a few books at the library on the subject. May ask a few questions about it. Same with times tables, we do some practice when driving from a to b.

Consolidating what they've learned but not adding to it.

It's too much pressure for everyone. Much better to enjoy each other at home and focus active learning at school.

Not according to the document you posted 🤷‍♀️.

The answer to this is because the government have made the curriculum so full it is physically impossible to fit absolutely everything into the school day. Not the fault of the school or the teachers. That along with reduced funding and larger class sizes means the resource (such as extra adults to support and help consolidate learning etc) rarely exists in schools these days.

I don’t know about the schools you refer to, but adaptations are made for neurodiverse learners at our school.

We get loads every single week since Reception class 🙄 and even for school holidays, which I disagree with. If that is the only time I can take my child on holiday then leave them so they can just enjoy their holiday fgs!

Homework total waste of time. If teachers are setting tasks that can't be covered in class then the issue of why can't these tasks be done in class time needs examined. The families who already support emotional intelligence, promote interests, skills like sports & reading, science and technology aren't the ones who need homework tasks.

Unfortunately there will always be gaps and the lack of interest or just deprivation difficulties for some kids, from their families is never more obvious or anxiety inducing than. When homework is handed in.

Separate issue is neurodiverse kids, children with autism NEED to decompress at home. After a day of masking or a day of anxiety home needs to be a place of relaxation and seperate from school. It's not the job of schools to dictate home activities.

Wow thats a little bolshy...and unfair on the other kids.

15 min over the weekend doing a maths sheet on top of reading, spelling and XTable will certainly consolidate and reinforce the children’s learning and help with progression. This is nothing compared to many other countries where daily homework is the norm and their academic results excel ours.

Reading, bit of basic number work and any optional investigation or project should the child actually enjoy it, but enforced homework I’m against.

The thought of battles at home ruining home life for some families makes me sad. Kids already do a full day at school and should relax, pursue hobbies, spend time with family or whatever.

The vast difference in abilities in primary means you would have to ideally differentiate everything, then mark it. An onerous task and a waste of time for most.

I encourage any interest in learning in children and would happily take time to look over anything a child has done in their own time.

I’m a year 5 teacher and this summarises my points exactly! Although it sounds like they may have given excessive amounts at times which may not have been completely necessary, it sounds like your daughter is doing amazingly well 😊 If only all parents could be this supportive and understand most teachers want the best for their children too.

😂 well clearly if they are receiving excessive homework they will struggle for a work life balance. I’m actually speaking about a NORMAL amount of homework. At our primary, the children get (per week) 1 piece of homework that takes a maximum of 20 minutes and 10 ability appropriate spellings and that’s it. Obviously we encourage reading for pleasure but that isn’t homework.
If parents think 1 hour of homework per week outside of school is ruining children’s ‘work life balance’ then I’m not sure how you expect them to cope with future study to achieve qualifications.
As a teacher, I’ve seen the difference in how children cope going into secondary who didn’t learn to take any responsibility for themselves in year 5/6, and the children that established their own routines and had support from their parents in developing independence and a good work ethic. The latter don’t usually struggle, whereas the first group have a culture shock trying to settle in. You may have done a Google search, but I’ve seen it first hand year upon year.
Ultimately, most schools have a homework/home learning policy and you sign up to this when you enrol your child at that school. I don’t understand all the complaining from parents afterwards.

😂 well clearly if they are receiving excessive homework they will struggle for a work life balance. I’m actually speaking about a NORMAL amount of homework. At our primary, the children get (per week) 1 piece of homework that takes a maximum of 20 minutes and 10 ability appropriate spellings and that’s it. Obviously we encourage reading for pleasure but that isn’t homework.
If parents think 1 hour of homework per week outside of school is ruining children’s ‘work life balance’ then I’m not sure how you expect them to cope with future study to achieve qualifications.
As a teacher, I’ve seen the difference in how children cope going into secondary who didn’t learn to take any responsibility for themselves in year 5/6, and the children that established their own routines and had support from their parents in developing independence and a good work ethic. The latter don’t usually struggle, whereas the first group have a culture shock trying to settle in. You may have done a Google search, but I’ve seen it first hand year upon year.
Ultimately, most schools have a homework/home learning policy and you sign up to this when you enrol your child at that school. I don’t understand all the complaining from parents afterwards.

No, I don't.

My children don't do homework and we've vetoed school putting in sanctions for it not being done (as it's not my child's fault, and they shouldn't be punished for my beliefs).

We do read, lots. And they want to do spelling practice so I do. But the fixed homework book & sheet homework we don't do.

A quick look on google scholar will show that the research is clear, homework does not benefit children of primary school age.

I am absolutely anti-homework. It doesn’t teach them a good work ethic, it teaches them that a decent work-life balance isn’t important. Ultimately, they are children who should be experiencing childhood, not tiny little robots to be prepared for the work force. It is hard to raise well rounded children if all the focus is on academics.

We have just moved DS from a school that set a ridiculous amount of homework (2 pieces a week, plus spellings, times-tables, 20 mins maths app 3x a week, and a big project every weekend) to a school that doesn’t set any, and we have a much happier child as a result. We are no longing rushing about from his extra curriculars and trying to cram more academic work in before bed, and we no longer have the epic battles over homework at the weekends.

We have always encouraged reading for pleasure and not viewed it as homework so DS reads freely every day, and I always read to him at bedtime.

I actually am quite appreciative for homework.

I look over what they’ve done and check which errors they’re making and this means I know what kind of things to practice with them…. Just things like words they’ve misinterpreted the meaning of that I try to explain and then use in context a lot..

I guess I feel like getting them to where they need to get to is half the school’s responsibility and half mine. If I don’t know what they’re doing at school this half term or what they’re struggling with I can’t really help much.

I think the issue with no homework until GCSEs is that it then becomes a shock. My DC’s primary gave homework but it was never onerous. Secondary started during Covid and not much was given and it continued this way - usually some online maths and some reading. However we’ve got to y10 and suddenly there’s homework for each subject and panic has set on as they aren’t really prepared. Added to this an autistic child who doesn’t cross the line with home and school so all academic work is school work and should be kept that way. Luckily the school have a homework club for sen so they go to that but I’m still going to have to work on extra at home. My other child loves homework though and has even asked for more from their teacher. They come on and do it.

Its probably down to children and family situations at the end of the day and some kids are timetabled quite heavily with extra curricular and some do nothing out of school. I think maybe schools need to be flexible with the type of homework so that it’s not finishing something off that’s needed for the next lessons as we get frustrated with that. But homework that’s related but stands alone so that no one is disadvantaged from not being able to complete it would be helpful.

I heard a story this week the child was bringing homework back in to school, mum was getting reports could do better sums mostly wrong, well over all homework not great turned out is was the mum doing the homework and not the said child, I believe learning spills out to the home aswell and parents getting involved off what their child is learning. There learning and education is not just up to the teacher or school but parents aswell.

I agree with homework as I think its good for the kids to practise what they learn in school so it sinks in quicker.

But the local primary school gives far too much. My DS is on the waiting list for a dyslexia assessment and he spends all night every night on his homework, so he can't ever go out and play with friends, or chill out on his switch

People forget that many kids don’t actually have anywhere to do homework or have the resources.

Growing up I would constantly get into trouble for not doing my homework but I had parents with MH issues and DV issues and was often not allowed in the house and if I was there was nowhere to do it. At one point I shared 1 room with my mum and siblings.
My mum wouldn’t allow things in the home that was touched by other people and felt the stuff from school was dirty and so we had to leave our school bags at school or outside.
Buying supplies was a no go and it wasn’t something I could speak to my teachers about.
I couldn’t do it in an afterschool club because I was getting afterschool detentions for not doing my homework and then it was a vicious cycle.

I think there should be no homework and instead encourage reading and exercise.

In year 10/11 they should put on revision classes and teach them how to revise and make flash cards etc which they can then use at home.

I’m a teacher.
I hate homework in primary and secondary school.

The absolute maximum they should get is having to do reading and perhaps practice spellings.

DS went to a ‘homework as you feel’ Primary. We were given a choice of projects each term, and did bits and pieces from it. We also had a schedule of sports, trips out, reading etc. it was great.

However… he’s now started high school and the formal homework is a shock to the system for us all! I think a start on more structured homework in year 5 or 6 might have helped in hindsight.

Haha this is definitely incorrect. It’s less about this and more about instilling some form of work ethic, responsibility and independence ie remembering deadlines etc into young learners who for their own well-being, need these skills to transition smoothly into secondary school.

I have one word for you, OFSTED!

I didn't agree with it in Primary, DD's year 5 teacher in particular piled it on. At the time the hours we spent sat around the kitchen table felt torturous. But it was always linked to what was happening in class the following week, so if it wasn't completed the children were left floundering. Many parents refused point blank, but DD seemed to enjoy most of it, so I gritted my teeth and got on with it.
Once she was able she learnt to get on with it herself with minimal input. Although there was the occasion when she presented me with a beautifully written piece on the history of the Victoria sponge. The actual assignment was on the history of Queen Victoria.....😂😂😂
FF to year 10 and the start of her GCSEs (our school stagers the papers between Yr 10 and 11 so fewer exams in the last year or a chance to resit if necessary) and I realised how much of a work ethic DD had. Suddenly all those hours spent hunched over whatever it happened to be that weekend had really instilled a sense of hard work l= achievement in DD.
6 weeks to exam time, the parents FB group was going mad with parents trying bribery, punishment, tutoring all all sorts of things to get their kids sat down and actually revising. The same parents who blew off the primary homework week in week out. We've never pressured DD, I've seen the consequences of that first hand - a friend made to go to university when she didn't want to, ended up with a mental breakdown and has never been the same since - so I was pleasantly surprised when I asked about revision and apparently she'd been making notes and doing targeted sessions since Easter. DD worked her socks off (no pressure from us, just help and encouragement when asked for) when peers were at the beach/park/wherever the day before exams.
Come results day she smashed it, the others, not so much. And this success is already driving her on to want to follow it up with the rest of her exams this year.
All those hours of primary homework paid off, not in terms of content, but in mind set. I grumbled and groaned with the best of them at the time, but now I completely get it. Although I won't be volunteering to make a scale model of the burial chamber of an Egyptian tomb again any time soon!

Try living in Northern Ireland and having nine and ten years olds got houses for the eleven plus!!! The pressure is huge - lots of kids have tutors at the weekend and practice tests during the week and at weekends.

awful process

Difficult one.
I think homework should be small and manageable in primary but yes I think it should happen.
Im a secondary school teacher. When each subject is suddenly setting them a 20 min + homework in year 7 which can mean maybe 2-3 hours or more of homework a week, this would be a huge reality shock if up to this point they haven’t done as much a one 20 minute task in a week.
Surely gradually building them up is the answer?
I can also tell you the data is pretty clear, kids that do homework (in general) do better in exams. I teach a core subject, but there is sooo much in the syllabus. You might do a topic for a couple of weeks and then not see it again for a couple of years. If you don’t practice it, you are very very unlikely to remember it.
On the flip side my 3 year old has been in a school nursery for 2 weeks now. We have to fill in her reading diary daily for her to get an entry into a raffle every week. She’s had to do show and tell, a sheet about practicing different fine motor skills and then uploading pictures to show that they have done it. So for example using scissors, making jigsaw puzzles unassisted.
The first week we were supposed to get them to make a curry and upload pictures of them doing it. I’m 33 and would struggle to make a curry from scratch. If my 3 year old managed it then clearly she won’t need school as she will be a chef before she’s 10 😂.
So I’m definitely starting to see it from both sides!