Do you agree with homework in Primary

@Noodledoodledoo what good habits do you think it builds?

I feel like it feeds the attitude that people ‘should’ be ‘working’ from dawn til dusk, which leads to so many people doing hours of unpaid labour for their employers and negatively affects their life. Especially when the homework is just busy work for the sake of ‘doing work’.

Not that I think that’s purely down to homework obviously, but I do think that in high school it would build better habits for the future for the children to know for example, how much coursework they need to hand in by X date and to be encouraged to manage the workload themselves rather than being told to do an hour a night or whatever.

Secondary Teacher here - primary homework with the exception of reading, spellings and times tables (knowing them really supports a lot of maths topics) is pointless!

If I'm honest so is a lot of it at Secondary, it foes build good habits though.

Schools stuck with it as they get parental complaints if they don't issue it! Classic can't please everyone!

As someone who has both been educated in and had kids educated in both the state and private sectors there's definitely more comfort in the private sector around the general idea that homework is set and done.

My DD moved from a state primary where there was no homework beyond a weekly spelling test after year 3 (inexplicably) to a private secondary where they were expected to do an hour per night from year 7.

There was a very marked demarcation between the kids who had come from the "prep" schools and those from the state sector, for whom it was a bit of a shock. It's more or less evened out now (year 8) but the kids who had been through the independent sector were definitely more used to the idea that they had homework and had a head start.

Whether or not that's a good thing will depend on your perspective on homework and as is clear here a lot of people come from the starting point that homework is something which should be minimised and avoided as far as possible. I personally don't agree with this but I can understand the anxiety about overdoing it and not wanting kids to be drowning in it.

But when so much noise is made about the importance of narrowing the gap between the state and private sectors it seems an own goal not to encourage year 6 kids in the state sector at the very least to get used to the discipline of doing a bit of token homework. Acknowledging that teachers in the state sector have horrendous resourcing and workload problems and much bigger set a little homework for year 6.

It's a good question. I think the demand is often a step change higher at private schools and it's the reason I don't think my autistic child would cope there. I was looking quite seriously at one who told me they absolutely understood anxiety and were full of students who were too anxious to cope in mainstream state school, yet they had an expectation that prep would be set one day and due in the next. My child had no chance of meeting that - some nights he could hardly manage to eat and brush his teeth. But at the same time, I know that private school can work really well for other autistic and anxious kids.

Parents fall on a spectrum of how much work they expect/support and I think private school parents will, on the whole, both expect and support more. By "support" I mean "be in favour of it being set" rather than necessarily "sit with them and help them". Having been through public school myself and been pretty broken by it, maybe I was more wary of its demands than most.

Schools all have their own cultures though. My children are at different comps with very different homework expectations.

Erm, differentiation is a normal part of primary lessons- there will always be variations in ability and achievement. Giving homework doesn’t realistically change this because half the class won’t do it for whatever reason and several will do it and have additional needs etc so you still have to differentiate.

Is homework the only way to learn to spell anyway?

I have no problem with reading, times tables and spelling practice at home but additional homework at primary age is excessive. Looking at what my children have had to do over the years for homework it often appears to be homework for homework’s sake rather than anything expanding or developing their knowledge or ability. It is NEVER marked either so no way for the children to know where they can improve.

Seondary SMT here - 16 years
I despise homework and no child should have to have it - primary or secondary
If we had a more forward thinking curriculum which was built around electives, skill building and different forms of assessment (timed exams are the worst) then there would be no need for homework. UNfortunately, universities are not ready to change their admissions programme to accomodate this.

not even spellings? When do you think they should learn those? In primary school class? Do you think the children that can already spell the words should sit there in class doing nothing, waiting for the ones who can't spell them to learn them?

GCSEs is too late to be learning to spell!

I think it is inconsistent with how most adults have to run their lives, but I think that’s because we don’t have a system/society set up in the right way- people shouldn’t have to work so much they can’t do anything else (or very very little else), and have to rush about and be stressed all the time.

I agree.

In an ideal world, homework wouldn't be necessary in primary school. Unfortunately, there are so many disruptions for children now that it's necessary. A typical class has 30 students to 1 teacher; 5-6 of those students who have SEN, 3-4 with behavioural issues, 4-4 low achieving, 4-5 high achieving, and some students may not even speak English. Cuts to funding means the class is lucky if they have 1 TA. The teacher delivers the lesson and the students do their work, but no individual time is allotted with the teacher, especially for neurotypical students who are expected to get on with their work effectively unsupervised.

Homework means students have guided work to do at home with parents giving individual attention. Many households wouldn't even encourage reading outside of school without it being classed as homework.

It's not something that I support, but I see why teachers rely on it.

I think it really depends on the school.

We have some around our area where the 4+ entry exam is already tough and they expect a certain brightness. These schools do set quite a lot of homework and expect it to be done perfectly.

Others are less hothouse, more inclusive. A colleague moved his son to one as he struggled with social issues at his state primary and he bloomed there. They are not less academic but they put a holistic approach to it.

Another colleague's DD is at a Montessori private primary and there is no pressure at all, it's very much work on your own pace with the Montessori background.

Oh, DD is at a state secondary and in Y9-11 1 1/2 -2 hours homework and prep work a day wasn't that unusual, definitely before assessment/mock time.
But as most clubs move to a 6pm and later slot it's not too difficult.

I think this may depend on why the parent has chosen to send their child to private primary school. I know a few people who were sent to private primary, not because they wanted amazing grades out of their kids, but because they had issues with their state primary schools, such as giving them books to read far below their capabilities, or due to bullying.

Also depends how much a parent would prioritise top grades in general. Most people are perfectly able to get into uni and have successful careers without all the top grades. 2 hours a night even at secondary school sounds like a lot. I remember having to quit my weekly sports club as soon as I hit year 7 because i had so much homework, so kids still need time for other activities, and parents work and also have several children.

But there may well be parents on here who want the top grades out of their children and have a different view.

Spellings, times tables and reading are fine (but the choice of book should be individual, not some dreary set text, just so long as comics are barred). Otherwise there's not a lot of point.

I'm assuming she wasn't expected to do this for the next day?

No.
I never have, but that belief was reinforced by my eldest DGD getting a 12 x 12 matrix and they wanted her to do 144 decimal multiplication sums for homework.
FT working mum and dad so not getting home till 6. Nowhere quiet to do it at the childminder. 144 sums just for the sake of it.
Ridiculous.

Could anyone give their perspective on homework in primary/prep independent schools? I'm a secondary teacher (most recently in the independent sector) and we set a lot of homework. The pupils spend a minimum of 2 hours a night doing their "prep" and most will leave school with at least 9 top GCSE grades/ top A- Level grades and a university place.

I had always assumed primary/prep schools set homework and that parents would support it. Am really interested to read these perspectives.

I think the general consensus seems to be that projects, research, posters, craft type homework is rubbish and adds very little value. Whereas reading regularly, spellings, times tables etc are important and will help them in their school based learning.

Jesus Christ, cos parents working full time and judging child care isn't enough for a half term

Same exact results? How can you measure this?

Do they have spelling tests at school?

If so: How do they feel about sitting these tests without having prcaticed them? Or do you ask for them to be excused?

If they don't have spelling tests, how do you actually know they know all the spellings? Spellings aren't usually put into "groups" so I don't understand how you are so confident they know the spellings they are supposed to be doing

I've read your OP. So is this the reason you won't find time for the sums and spellings:"my theory is that my children have enough education in school and as parents we should educate outside of school however we see fit."?

Yet you do maths and spellings of your own in the car?

If so, then why not just do the ones the school is setting which should, in theory, support/revise what your child has been doing in class? Instead of your own ones?

So why don't you find time for the spellings and the sums then? Purely dislike of homework and the fact that it will eat into your family time?