Do you agree with homework in Primary

Agree. I know lots of mums who see it exactly as you say, like a badge of honour, and this has of course rubbed off on DS. I try to encourage him by telling him, well those kids won't do as well, will they? and he thinks about that and hopefully that sinks in!

Excellent post, thepeopleversuswork.

I find this fashion for being very anti homework really silly and I think people have taken what was initially a sensible desire to protect their children from stress and taken it to ludicrous extremes.

When my DD was in primary pretty much all of the (mainly very middle class) parents were always railing against homework as being the devil's invention. It was a kind of dog whistle thing to say "oh we never do it", as if this was some badge of honour. I remember thinking "really? you've all benefited from learning a bit of self-discipline as kids and now you're basically encouraging your children to chuck that away in favour of 'creative play' or something".

Like anything else, it's all about moderation. A year 2 kid being set two hours of homework a night is of course ludicrous. As is being asked to make a PowerPoint or spend hours foraging for hard to find craft stuff. But it's a big jump from this to saying "I don't agree with homework". Half an hour of spellings or times tables a couple of times a week is absolutely fine in my view and is hardly going to traumatise them.

A lot of kids arrive in year 7 with literally no experience of homework whatsoever and find it a massive culture shock. Unless a child is SEND or has specific emotional difficulties I struggle to understand why getting into the habit of completing short tasks and returning them is going to do any serious damage.

I honestly think we need to woman up about this: our kids' education is already way behind many of our global peers. Why wouldn't you support them in learning a few habits early on which will make it easier when they need to really apply themselves?

We recently did a pupil questionnaire about homework and this is exactly the sort of homework the children want and asked for. They love doing shared projects with their parents. They're also the homework they remember doing into adulthood. So it may be a pain for you but there's a good chance that your child enjoys it, unless they pick up on any negative vibes from you. Most homework of this type has a long lead time so I always used to plan it out over the 2-3 weeks or whatever it is.

Why do you think they won’t be learning anything in competitive sport? It can be excellent for developing a variety of skills that are useful in many areas of life (including academia).

And furthermore they are in competitive level sports outwith school which require substantial training hours.

So am I reading this right? You prefer this to learning? You don’t see this as a pressure and taking time away from developing academic skills needed for secondary school?

I find the variation in what homework is given to primary age really interesting. My niece gets homework each night so over the week she will have had 20 spellings plus sentences using the words, comprehension, maths, verbal and non-verbal reasoning plus reading.

We've got into a good routine but it does make the day quite long - I do worry about whether it is too much pressure however she is very pleased when she gets good marks!

I completely understand how this can make it harder for after school activities which are also very important. I honestly don't know how parents do it!

Reading and times tables is all that is required at primary school.

Not read the thread, however, I said you are bu because not every child has a parent who can or wants to support.
I don't agree with hw for the sake of it though.

My dc has just started Year 1 and has just started getting real homework. In reception it was just reading books, which didn't feel like hard work as DD enjoyed it and it was part of the bedtime routine. Now she gets spellings to practice for a weekly test, and a worksheet. She has enjoyed the worksheets and I've enjoyed doing the activities with her and keeping up to date with what she's learning. The spellings are a bit of a pain because she finds it boring and we have to practice daily for her to get it. I expect she'll be the same with times tables. And we are also doing daily music practice (separately from school) which just adds to the daily burden. And she's also very into extracurricular clubs so has something after school most days, so it makes it hard to fit in, even though it doesn't take a long time, it's a mental load. Luckily she doesn't need to go to wraparound care though.

She will probably apply to some selective schools for secondary so it's good from our pov to have her used to the idea of studying at home. And there are some types of learning that just need regular practice, eg times tables, music practice.

Yes I agree. I don't see the point of homework. I think the kids are already frazzled from all the work in school so making them work in evenings /weekends is too much. But I still get them to do it even tho I don't expect them to put much effort in. As long as attempt was made I'm happy.

The most stupid things is when they get an art piece for homework. Like make a Viking helmet or create a stone age village model... my child is not capable of coming up with or creating anything like that! So it becomes a parent homework activity!

My 7 year old has been given an A4 sized Collins maths text book and an English text book from school for homework. She is expected to do 5 pages of Maths a week and 5 pages of English a week, as well as reading daily and practicing 10 allocated spellings, and a termly at-home project. She loves doing it all, but honestly I'm struggling with getting it done alongside ensuring my 13 year completes his secondary homework, and then doing all their after school activities, dinners, bath times, bedtimes whilst I'm already exhausted from work😩😩

Oh we're in Colchester. Yeah my daughter's school uses TTRS. There has been a couple of new reading apps added this term but I can't remember the names.

We read the books at home with her as well. Sometimes the school ones don't seem as interesting. I bought a bulk set of Biff, Chip & Kipper books which my daughter seems to enjoy reading.

Not a teacher but absolutely agree with this. Sending home a short maths or English sheet tells me what they’ve been learning in school and when I observe them work through it, I can see whether they’ve grasped concepts or not. I also am able to see which spellings they may find hard or where their mental arithmetic could do with more practice. I don’t really care if the teacher marks it or not as I can work out if it’s right or not and guide them myself.

We do 5 minutes each day of mental arithmetic and spelling practice with each child from second term of reception plus 20-30minutes daily reading (both them reading and me reading). I get no complaints because it’s such short amounts of work and the reading is enjoyable (books are always their choice)

Sounds just like our school @QWE96

My ds started reception this year. We have nightly reading plus a reading diary to fill in. Also weekly phonics and letter writing (nursery was great with phonics so we don't have to bother with that as he has no issues there). And now we have to do daily phonics games with him too. He loves them and we do them on drop offs and pick ups, but we're both full time working parents (as are many) with a younger child too. My friend in another school, reception, has no homework...

I'm glad that the homework so far seems sensible at least, helping bring them to the same level as lots have been at home until now, but it does seem excessive!

Homework is given because it’s part of the ofsted criteria. I think some homework is worthwhile but it depends what it is. My dcs school give reading book, spellings and numbots/TT rockstars/my maths. I think this is actually fine. My children love reading and read to themselves every night so sometimes the school reading book is a bit of a pain but not everyone does this so I can why we have a book. I think spellings and times tables etc are important so I’m happy to do these at home. The apps the school uses are easy to access. I think lengthy writing homeworks or projects are just rubbish. I’m pleased our school doesn’t do this.

DS is two weeks into reception and being given homework. It's too much, he's 4

Your child, your rules.

But practically, how do you ensure your child is not penalised? E.g. setting based on perceived ability at self study homework?

As a primary teacher of 30 years, I also dislike homework for primary age pupils. However, in my experience, for all the parents that hate homework, the same number love and demand it.
I think reading at home, practising spellings and times-tables is helpful with some formal homework in Years 5&6 in readiness for secondary school.

So schools would be responsible for academic education only ? and parents responsible for parenting only ?, now there's a novel idea !!!
Parents should be able to do all the parenting at home and If they dont then their resposibile for their childs failure to become a well rounded young person.
Schools could drop all the time they spend being substitute parents and cease to be to blamed for everything except failure to educate !
Now if this was the realiity your logic might have a leg to stand on , sadly but unsurprisingly its not .
Just a thought to ponder a bit of a wild card though , schools and parents working in partnership ?🤔

People work.
People have more than one child.
People don't have teaching degrees.
Children have dyslexia, ADHD, autism, fatigue, burn out.

Cooked meals, bath time, bed time, reading, playing. If children don't learn enough in school time they need to make lessons more engaging not get parents to work another shift in the evening. I don't blame teachers but they don't kick back enough.

Let kids be kids.

The schools are paying for the subscriptions from their school budget. It might be 'taxpayers money' but we don't get enough of it and try to spend it wisely. At our school we discuss the subscriptions every year but invest because we get good feedback from parents and pupils, and when used regularly they yield results. It's a shame you can't appreciate the fact that the school are trying to buy something engaging and useful. Some of the apps you mention get good results for children who use them regularly. And it's hardly the school's fault a handful of companies don't get together and put all of their collective software onto one app. But then I guess you'd have people moaning that they hadn't been provided with the ideal set of apps and wanting to swap one out.

YANBU apart from reading, time tables and spellings. Most project work is done by parents. My 76 year old mother never did homework in primary but managed to survive a very strict grammar then full time work at 16. You don’t need to be doing homework at age 5 to prepare you for secondary homework. We can adapt to changing expectations as we grow.

lots of my DC’s primary teachers agree with me but have to set homework as some parents think it’s necessary and would complain if not set, can’t please everyone. We used out of school time for activities that got DC engaged and interested in the world which had paid off in their aspirations in secondary.

Reading at home and a few spellings or practice times tables are not unreasonable.