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!

Wow OP your post comes off as really smug. Can you not imagine situations other than your own?

My DC is year 1 and gets spellings, maths and “discussion topic” (usually about a story or concept they’ve covered in school) once per week, which we do on a Sunday afternoon. We also read with him daily (he gets 1x school reading book a week but we ignore that and read our own stuff with him). I was really against the idea of homework at first because I felt that he should be covering everything he needs to in school and needs downtime.

However, through doing the maths homework with him I’ve realised that he actually needs extra help in maths. This came as a surprise as he is very good at reading, writing, drawing, great vocabulary etc. I think because of this his teachers haven’t noticed that he is having some issues with maths - I got glowing reports last parents eve - but in fact he hasn’t understood some basic concepts which means he is struggling with the harder stuff they are doing now. I’ve started doing 10mins of a CGP workbook with him each morning and it’s really helping.

So I think that some homework, maybe once per week, is useful to give the parents insight into what is going on at school.

Presumably that extra training had a clear goal and was relevant to your job though?

Not “write an acrostic poem about Salesforce, then complete this word search about the new HR policy on parental leave”.

I don’t think anyone is complaining about reading or times tables. We’re complaining about “six year olds, over the weekend please make a papiermache replica of the old medieval St Paul’s Cathedral because we’re studying the Great Fire of London this term, and then take photos of five things that don’t burn”.

Because parents can't be bothered

My dc (Y2 and Y4) get a bit of maths and literacy each week, which takes on average around 20 minutes. I don't think it's too much. I think it gets them into the habit of doing a bit of homework and taking initiative. The older one has already learned through experience that it doesn't feel good to leave it all to the last minute on Sunday night! Personally I wish I'd had the same realisation at primary. When I got to Y7, suddenly having to organise myself to complete homework on time was a shock to the system.

It does seem de rigeur among parents at their school to complain about it and say how terrible it is though.

I agree- I think the argument that as adults we are expected to work outside of work hours is one thing, but primary aged school children, especially 4-6yr olds shouldn’t and don’t need to understand this. I think it’s bonkers that that has become a justification for a four year old being set homework. They are young children, working 9-3 is enough for a child of that age.
When a child is in year 3 I can see why things would be set to do outside of the classroom, but it should be reasonable.

The models my 9 year old builds takes a few weekends, sits in the classroom for half a term and then comes home and either goes in the bin or recycling. The learning in that process is minimal.

Because parents can't be bothered
I'm not sure it is because parents can't be bothered.

We don't like a lot of homework tasks set in lower primary, not because we can't be bothered, but because there's only so much time in the week and we'd rather spend that time doing fun and enriching things as a family that are more beneficial for DC than some of the tasks I've seen get set for friends' children.

Sometimes I think a lot of homework is done as a way of sticking a plaster over the fact that some children have parents who are engaged, support learning at home and will offer a range of experiences, whereas others don't. The problem is that the engaged parents will still end up jumping the hoops of homework and the children whose parents aren't bothered about education/wouldn't offer their children enriching experiences without homework being set/haven't the ability to support homework are probably not gaining very much from the homework tasks anyway.

What month was your child born OP?

I'm guessing Autumn born. Perhaps reception is not challenging your child enough and you should ask for her to be moved up to Y1...

Lots of the summer born reception children will still be 4 year olds who are knackered after a day at school. Some will struggling to adapt to school.

As the mother of an ND child I find your post particularly nauseating. Not all children are like yours, it doesn't mean other parents are doing it wrong.

'I don't understand why other parents find homework a problem'....we'll there you go, the issue here is your own lack of understanding. Maybe you could set yourself some homework on child development as comments like this make you sound a bit thick.

It's not necessary. There's no evidence that it improves learning. And adjusting to homework can easily be done in Yr 7. I had no homework in primary school. We all knew that would change in secondary. We coped and it was fine.

I feel quite torn now, because I completely agree with you but also I want to see everyone's acrostic poems about Sales force.

Many of us work extra hours without the extra pay! It's normal in many industries. It's not right or fair but there's an expectation. Especially if the job is well paid. There's a culture of 'you're getting paid to do the job no matter how long it takes'

School isn’t the workplace and children aren’t mini-adults.

Talk about a stealth brag about how compliant your child is and how well they are doing in meeting their milestones. Nothing wrong with being proud of them, but are you really so lacking in insight and empathy that you can’t appreciate how privileged you are and how others’ circumstances differ from yours? Speaking from a personal perspective, we don’t get home until closer to 4pm because I don’t drive and my DC has SEN and needs calm, quiet time after school with no demands. Homework is a demand and my child is already exhausted after a full day of academic work at school and also masking to fit in.

I just posted before I read this, but completely agree with what you have said. Nauseating just about sums the original post up!

I don't see it as bad but there can be too much, my daughter is in Y3, has always done all her homework, maths, spellings, reading, anything else that comes home. But i can't deny it can be frustrating as we both work full time so she attends breakfast and afterschool club 7:45-530ish, a couple of evenings she has Brownies and swimming lessons, so homework is shoehorned in while dinner is cooking or just after dinner which leaves her little downtime before bed. Thankfully she handles it well but i can see how for some kids it's too much and too tiring.

However, through doing the maths homework with him I’ve realised that he actually needs extra help in maths.

There is that - we often spotted maths concepts issues early though conversations and bits of home work and same with reading and spelling problems- we just didn't see school work very often and were often told things were fine when they weren't.

Eldest apparently did well in Y2 sats but was in middle maths groups and worried she wasn't be shown what top group were doing- bit of HW and talking with her became clear she hadn't grasped place value - we turned to online mathsfactor as school worried parents so much about "new maths methods" they used and not to confuse the kids with our old fashioned ways.

It entrenches inequality as the kids who have family support/can pay for additional support benefit more than those whose parents may be working but can't afford the help, juggling other children, or just can't be bothered.

If the child needs that learning to progress, it should be taught in school. The fact that it isn't is a reflection of the chronic underfunding of education in this country and the misplaced emphasis on assessment. Scale back the assessments, stop messing with the curriculum every five minutes, build more schools and employ more teachers so class sizes are smaller and homework would be superfluous.

I think it is because children need down time. My DC do extra curricular activities after school, which I think they get a lot more out of than just doing homework after school. There is so much more to life that excelling academically at school and I want my DC to be well rounded individuals. Probably doesn't help that even up to my A levels I just did my homework in lessons and it didn't do me any harm, so I have a low opinion of homework even at secondary school.

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@Vod

I hated the nightly homework battle
the kids are tired after school - not everyone ‘lives 5 min walk from school’ and some of us had to use afterschool clubs not getting in until 5.30-6pm or later
my son with adhd had just had enough of school and learning for the day And I just didn’t enforce homework. If they did it fair enough if not nevermind

But no one needs that argument at bedtime

I wouldn't describe what you're doing as 'homework' as it's not something the teacher has assigned. It sounds like you're supporting what your child is learning by practising skills being covered in class. As long as your dc enjoys it I can't see a problem. If your dc was learning a musical instrument you'd expect improvements after practise. The issue lots of people have around homework is that no research has ever been published to show homework in itself set by the teacher is beneficial to attainment. However parents spending time doing activities with dc and encouraging them is proven to greatly impact outcomes.

Love it!

Brilliant!

Just popping on to say that I'm still reading, and thank you for all the perspectives.

Sorry to those of you who have found my OP "smug" or "nauseating." My DC has had 6 months at school. I pretty much know nothing about education at this stage. And as I mentioned I'm not a teacher. Which is exactly why I was posting, to get a range of real life experiences and examples. Yes she is compliant at 5. Who knows if that will stay the same in a years time, as many have pointed out!

As well as all the practical issues, It's also often not that beneficial for learning (not harmful, just not very beneficial)
https://www.hull.ac.uk/work-with-us/more/media-centre/news/2022/primary-school-children-get-little-academic-benefit-from-homework

Not everyone has that amount of free after school time and they have less time to prepare dinner etc, I think homework is outdated especially in Primary school we are trying to make out kids grow up too fast, they learn enough at school just let them relax and play at home, and as for stupid half term projects etc they are ridiculous too

My daughter has swimming on Monday night, Beavers on Tuesday night and gymnastics wrap on Thursdays so I can work. I read with her every night, but more than that is entirely unnecessary at this yound age. They've been sat in class all day. Do they really need more? We visit museums, castles etc, go on nature walks, she has a vox block for audiobooks which she loves. Do I think she needs to be pushed into doing more on the two evenings she's home at 3.45. Not really. Am I happy for her to play with her toys, or on her scooter. Absolutely.