Why is homework in primary seen as "bad"

[Iamwaiting]

Inspired by a few other threads. I'm not a teacher or in education so I'm genuinely interested in perspectives, plus those with older children who have been through/ going through primary.

Why is homework viewed so negatively?

Context... I have a DD in reception. She finishes school at 3. We come home (5 min walk) and do her homework (set by me.) 15/20 mins of reading, 5 mins of writing (tricky words / practicing writing words with "igh" sounds for instance / following wibbly lines for pen holding) and 5 mins of simple maths.

Finished by just after 3.30 leaving 4 hours to play / go to clubs / see her friends before bed. Same thing at the weekend but we do it in the morning.

But so many threads on here seem to imply homework is awful in primary, certainly reception. But I genuinely don't understand why. Surely it's just getting her used to a concept that will become increasingly important as she gets older?

For context she can ride a bike, swim well, climb a tree etc etc. Not boasting but just to show she is still enjoying lots of activities despite the "evil" homework!

And if you want to be super popular, hold a homework club one day a week with a couple of her friends, and make sure you do fun and competitive times tables, with a little junk food and fruit/veg. It really benefits the kids. They enjoy it. And it makes learning fun. You also get to hear all the gossip.

As a gran it’s second time for me doing homework as I have the children after school weekdays and so do it when they get home, then they can have time outdoors or indoors playing.
It’s so much fun now! The idea is that they can choose how they want to do their homework.
Eg Spell words using pasta shapes ( if written skills are poor). Photograph them.
or make funny sentences using the allocated words. There are lots of ideas for them when they sign on glow classroom it makes learning fun. I see some really creative ideas from their classmates.
one of the kids teachers said school has got to be fun.

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To add, with my ‘professional hat’, homework has been proven time and time again to add almost zero value

I'm not sure if people read updates before commenting but just popping on one more time to say thanks for everyone taking the time to share their perspectives and experiences.

I think with the benefit of hindsight calling it "homework" in my title has been very misleading, as I totally agree that the "busy work" many describe, or hours and hours of worksheets sound insane. Being honest I had no idea that's what homework generally entailed.

what I’m talking about is on top of reading, 5-10 mins of doing some fun tasks around what they have been taught that week. So for instance a shopping list with list of “igh” words in it. I find it ludicrous that @MustWeDoThis you class this as "obsessive learning" and "obnoxious.

However I also appreciate that I am fortunate to have the time to do this and not everyone can do this due to their unique circumstances. I don’t think it makes me a better or worse parent.

I never minded homework for DC that they could do in primary. I resented the pages of themed activities I had to "supervise" as homework. Make a model, bake and decorate a cake, make a costume, make a movie - endless activities no under 8 can do alone.
A few sums and some spelling would have been a treat.

Doing few sentences, spellings and couple of little equations will do them good

Maybe because people just can’t be bothered. As long as your daughter is enjoying her life then all is good, plus she’ll be advanced. I think what you are doing is brilliant.

Wait till you have another child, then you'll see how "easy" it is

It’s viewed negatively by parents who would rather stick their DCs in front of the TV or a tablet #sorrynotsorry

Homework is completely pointless all the way through. Flipped learning in Y10-11 is meaningful as are supportive revision techniques, but the entire curriculum needs revisiting so that content can be covered in school. Perhaps if we didn’t force worksheets and pointless research down children’s throats we would have time to encourage a love of reading and not not have such a drastic drop off of reading for pleasure as they get older.

Sorry if this has already been said, but I am a teacher in Central Australia and a few years ago we engaged with a program called Visible Learning. The research for that program (of which there was lots) suggested that homework at a primary level, especially in the early years, didn't really have any significant effect on a child's learning. And at that age they are often so tired at the end of the day that it might not be beneficial for that reason too.
However, reading at home is still very much promoted whether that is the child reading or the parent reading to the child, any exposure to age appropriate reading is really valuable for literacy development.
I think for little ones there are so many fun ways to incorporate learning at home without having to set a certain time for homework. You can do all sorts of fun activities to promote the development of fine motor skills that don't always have to involve pencil and paper, and there are lots of ways to encourage the understanding of maths concepts through every day life activities.
If your way is working well for you and your little one and she's benefiting from it that's really great 😊 I just don't agree with making extra work for parents, kids and teachers if it is just going to cause issues for very little reward.

There is no evidence for homework being useful in any way at primary school, and quite often it is set to appease the parents who want their child to have homework because either: a) their child is academic and enjoys it; b) they think it is going to make their child academic by doing lots of homework; or c) they think their child should have homework as that's part of being at school (even at 4).

I used to teach, predominantly in EYFS, and the number of parents who wanted homework for their 4 or 5 year old (and on occasion 3 year old in nursery) was unreal. It doesn't give an advantage in terms of academics, it just creates a lot of stress for parents and children.

Reading as homework, maybe with some spelling thrown in from Y1, and possibly timetables from Y2, is the absolute most that should be given in primary. And by reading, I mean anything - if the reading book doesn't appeal, a book from home, signs, booklets, leaflets, anything! It shouldn't matter what, just reading any text!!

It’s a British thing. In the Netherlands we had NONE in primary school. Everyone is well educated. High school was also pretty relaxed until the last 2 years.

Children dont learn anything from homework. They do however get stressed out by it and get punished for not doing it. There are much more effective ways for children to practise and refine skills learnt in schools

No idea. Ours really enjoyed theirs, especially reading.

I hate the idea of homework because they spend 6 hours of their day learning. My kiddos school is demanding. They come home tired. I could push them to do maths or literacy - but 100% I would rather build their creativity. Build a den, board games, paint, plant things in the garden, do science experiments, go to the park, make ice lollies, make dinner together… build family relationships!

Or go kayaking or fell walking or painting or climbing or just playing...

@abouttogetlynched or it isn't done because people took thew time to research and make an informed decision. 🤔.

It all depends on the child. I think as long as she's enjoying it and you're happy to continue then do so, but other children aren't so keen and that's okay too. Mines on the spectrum, ADHD and PDA, so absolutely cannot concentrate on something they're not fully interested in and it's not worth the battle to force it. I also dislike the idea of teaching them they need to overwork themselves on tasks they find mentally taxing for the benefit of others. I hope one day to have an adult child that will clock out of work and be able to focus on whatever activities they've got planned or even house work that needs to be doing. I don't want them growing up trying to please their bosses with overtime and taking work home at the expense of their mental health.

In my instance, I'm not against home work but my children don't get home till 6ish Monday to Friday.

As you have said you don't do home work on the days they stay in after-school club, for some (us) this is every day.

I also have one child who is happy to do homework and one who battles me on it EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. Extremely intelligent but finds homework absolutely boring. Tough, he still has to do it. But it's hard.

I don't have the time to battle for an hour, then do homework for an hour. Then supper, bath, bed, etc... just not enough hours in the day.

It's easy when you have a compliant child...

Your child is in reception and those 5-10 mins will become 30-40 mins in year 1 plus reading everyday plus weekend homework.

5 mins everyday (which contradicts what you said earlier) is easy.

I’m a Year one teacher and honestly, at this age, the best thing you can do is to read to your child and with your child every single day. If everything else goes out the window then reading would be the non negotiable for me (I liken it to cleaning their teeth to parents, it has to be part of the daily routine wherever it works for you).

There’s lots and lots of research to show formal homework is actually detrimental at primary age because parents teach the children things differently to school and it hinders the child because the teacher has to unpick things and re-teach concepts, especially maths and phonics. Basic things like one more, one less are useful and hard to mess up and counting in 2s, practising number formation etc. Reading the common exception words for your child’s year group (and the year above if they are more capable) is useful too. If teaching Phonics then please look at someone like Mr Thorne on YouTube and make sure you know the sounds ❤️
Some children love homework, but school is so intense and some just need some downtime and time to play/get some exercise. Absolutely just take your child’s lead and liaise with your child’s teacher xx

For some the homework is so easy that it is boring and pointless. For others it is incredibly stressful and ruins their evening. .there are a few in between who really enjoy it and learn something, but it is likely those children have been paying attention at school anyway.
All in all it is a chore for the majority.
There are gazillions of real life ways children can apply concepts learned to real life, which is the point at the end of the day anyway. I think this is what should be nurtured at home.

Been fucking around cajoling, bloody printer has run out of ink due to huge framed borders, chucked youngest in front of a screen, kid sulking because one page of questions are things like 4-3 (kid you not) and the other page is a topic they've not covered. We are all cheesed off and what should be family time is just stress over pointless crap.