Is homework legally enforceable in state secondary school?

Don't forget, it's half term!

Not sure , is this ever been proposed to be made into law? Curious because secondary will be dawning on us

If homework is causing a problem then I would suggest getting in touch with either the form tutor or the Senco.

No, homework is not legally enforceable.

As a teacher, we have always had some children who did not do any homework and this was agreed either with the Senco of with pastoral support, usually because of autism/anxiety etc. schools are often happy to do this, especially if homework is caysung exacerbation of mental health issues etc,

Also, there were usually some students who dropped it on a temporary basis - so for example if a parent had just died then they didn't have to do it if they didn't want to.

If you haven't been in touch with the school about Sen/my issues etc then the school will probably impose consequences which is often a detention. Again, your child does not have to go to that, but if they don't there is usually an escalation of consequences up to after school detention, Saturday detention, isolation etc

That's all very well if you have kids who can learn at home and who will engage with it. Plus the lifestyle which suits it.

If there was a small state secondary school up the road of about 700 pupils instead of 1300+ with no homework or uniform I'd be hammering down their door to get DD1 in, as would a lot of other parents.

It isn't legally enforceable, no. If he doesn't do it then there is no criminal offence!

But . . . . The school with have a homework policy and if he doesn't do it then he will end up with detentions etc. This will be stated in the contract you signed with the school at the start of y7.

I would stop worrying about whether or not it is legally enforceable and start thinking about why it is such a huge issue in your household. It should not be dominating your evenings. Why is it?

DD spends less than an hour a day on her homework. It benefits her (well the things like maths practice, and grammar etc...not sure if that physics wordsearch was beneficial). But it doesn't take over our lives...

However supporting your child education is important instead of telling them not to follow the rules.

I was a secondary school teacher for 25 years. I think homework isn’t as important as it’s made out to be and it’s just another stick to beat kids with.

Ks4 yeah. KS3 not really necessary. I’m aware this sounds like heresy😁

If he doesn't do homework now, and you don't enforce it, how do you think he'll cope with GCSEs? Or life in general?

Also, why is homework dominating YOUR evening?

Amen to that!

Oh, except homework is an essential aspect of learning, self-directed skills etc etc.

Fairly sure it's not legally enforceable but once it escalates through school consequences you could essentially be looking at an exclusion for not doing homework I suppose.

Just do the homework perhaps?

So change schools then

In our school if it isn’t done you get detention

Do as we had to for our four and home educate?

If people genuinely don't want to engage with services offered they have to take responsibility and sort their own shit out. The system doesn't bend.

Ps you can probably reach an amicable agreement with the school as to how much homework is reasonable for your child. But it's unlikely that they will agree that "zero" is a reasonable amount.

Presumably you've signed a behaviour contract with the school? This states expectations (which would normally include homework) and the sanctions if those expectations aren't met.

I don't think homework is legally enforceable (as in, you're not going to have police knocking on the door if he doesn't do it!) but there will probably be consequences at school if he refuses to do homework. This will likely involve him having to stay in at lunchtimes to get the work done. This would probably be easier for you, but pretty miserable for him.

My DS was struggling at secondary school. If he didn’t do homework he wasn’t sanctioned.

This was discussed with the school and then each teacher was informed.

Found it https://www.gov.uk/school-behaviour-exclusions

Schools are allowed to give detentions as they see fit. People have posted links to the government website stating this before. I don't have the link available but have seen it posted.

Secondary school homework here is ridiculous. My dd has to do it all on an app. The maths is set out that if she doesn't get a correct answer it won't allow her to move on. She struggles with maths and I am terrible at it.
It always ends up in me emailing the teacher and asking for it to be printed because then at least she can show where she is going wrong.

Not doing homework in y7/8 is one thing but he needs to be able to revise by the time that important tests like gcse come around. Universities often require pre reading of future lessons so he may not be able to access uni if he still resists in future.

As the others have said try and work out what the problem is. If it’s doing school work at home then he needs to complete homework at school eg homework club. If the homework is too hard then you need to provide a note saying that he’s worked on it for 30 minutes and that is all he could get done. I assume that he has a quiet place to study and that there’s a routine time (after dinner here)

At my son's school if this is repeated behaviour they try to intervene to see why it isn't being completed. There is a homework club immediately after school meaning children can work together just like they would if they were at home. It would start with detention then intervention. But they would be required to do homework and submit it. Unless there is SEN at play then the intervention comes in earlier.

Secondly, doing homework and getting into the routine of it means they improve their research skills and as they get into their GCSE years they do revision for tests and improve their grades which in turn gives them more options.

Thirdly, how is it dominating your evenings? What time does your child get out of school? Mine were out at 3.10pm, how long is the journey home? Mine were home at 3.35, that leaves a lot of time until they go to bed. Homework should be completed easily, if it isn't then the child needs to talk to the teacher about why it is taking them all evening. And yes mine did sports so not just home with all the free time in the world.

They can enforce their school policies. So if he doesn't hand homework he may get detentions and if he didn't attend these this could lead to being suspended. I doubt that you could challenge this legally.

I had a long commute (first/last stop on the bus route even though school was the nearest grammar) and left the house around 7am and didn't get home til after 5pm, often later if bus broke down/terrible city centre traffic.

I was knackered and year 7 and 8 hardly did any homework, and yes, I was frequently in detention. I'd got my shit together by year 9.

OP what year is he in? Pretty sure my school had 20 mins per subject per week in year 7, up to an hour per subject per week at gcse.

This. Maybe it would be better to ask for clarification of the policy, duration it is expected to take and help your ds come up with a timetable to manage it. It is unusual for homework to be due next day so he should have a little flexibility . Do they allow study at lunchtime or afterschool club?

Did you sign a home-school agreement when he joined?
Were you not expecting homework, or is it that it is taking too much time that is the problem?
What year is he now?
My view is that schools should set relevant homework (there are examples above) and I suppose then I would wonder why you would not want him to have watched the video or done the research (or whatever) needed for the next class.
If it's "make a cake in the shape of a castle" type homework, then I would have more sympathy with not doing it, but even then, if you signed an agreement, you've not got much wriggle room.