I. Hate. Homework.

[Doodlez]

"It should only take 30 minutes per night Mrs Doodlez".

"Stop after 30 minutes and just write a note in the homework diary Mrs Doodlez".

IT.
DOESN'T.
TAKE.
JUST.
30.
FECKIN'.
MINUTES.

He won't stop after 30 minutes. It HAS to be finished. He gets upset and frustrated and tries to swear blind that if it's not finished, he'll be sent to Broadmoor detention.

He won't accept that's not the case.

He's 8 years old.

An 8 year old should not have to give a toss about homework.

[as you were]

Very good poem.

YANBU

My DS is 9 and he has homework every night. He aslo does gymnastics, games club, cricket.

It seems like there is no time for anything else.

Unfortunately he writes slowly, and it takes longer than 30 mins.

To add to the survey:

No homework in primary apart from perhaps a reading book.

Straight into 2 and a half hours every night in year 7 and up to maybe 4 hours in year 11.

I had rubbish common sense but was academically clever. I got the highest 11+ score in my primary school (I don't think that's too much to be proud of now but I was then as my name was in the local paper!) and I came out of secondary with 11 GCSE's all no lower than a B.

But I completely flunked A levels and didn't go to uni.

I simply cannot concentrate outside of a quiet classroom and since having DD and staying at home my brain seems to have turned to custard and I desperately need to learn something new!

I love the poem! Will share that with dd tonight

I hate homework. I never had any myself until secondary, and then, I very rarely did it.
I am not ashamed to admit that I did hardly any out-of-class work until I was an undergrad, and I have an MPhil.

Tiny Clanger (12) seems indifferent to it, but doesn't spend hours trying to complete it. I think she has the right balance, myself.

OK, so hands up anyone (over the age of, say 35?) who remembers having any sort of bookbag at primary school.
Homework started at secondary school. Exciting novelty. Adapted and got on with it.

I loathe homework. In fact loathe doesn't come close to covering it. I just don't understand why it's deemed necessary by anyone. I don't like having to work outside my allotted hours, so I don't see why kids should be expected to.

I got homework at primary school. There was my reading book, spelling, sums, project topic work and also these awful, deathly boring things called 'assessment papers'. They were basically collections of boring and pointless tasks that wasted my evenings with trying to figure out what the collective noun for anteaters is and other such important things.

should add... I'm not over the age of 35.

Lol clam, I am early twenties and I didn't have homework in Primary school! I think it is a very recent thing. I did get books to take home, but loved reading anyway. I do remember in year 6 we had to write about a book every week, but it was supposed to take only 15 mins per week. Think it was to 'get us prepared' for secondary school.

Even in Secondary School, I think it is too much. I was never interested in the work, and hated it. It took much too long, and I'd end up in tears with my mum telling me just to leave it and she'd explain to the school. And I was bright academically, the homework was just crap.

I do actually think it has damaged my motivation.

Would much prefer to see prep replace weekday h/w

I hate homework.
I hate the fact that parents have to do homework with children. I did not agree when I conceived to engaging in education again.
My parents never sat with me doing homework and I organised it, completed it on my own and handed it in all by myself.
Gah.

I've already got a thread on this in Primary Education, DD HATES homework (she's in Yr1) and it's becoming a real fight. I have to speak to her teacher today about it - am tempted to tell her DD will not be doing formal homework at all til I consider she's ready for it.

For the survey: I am v. old and memory is not what it ought to be, but I do not remember formal 'homework' in primary school at all, beyond learning spellings when we got to Juniors. I loved reading so it wasn't a problem for me as I already knew most of them.

We couldn't really do reading at home in Primary because we were taught to read via ITA and most of our parents couldn't understand a word of it!

We used to learn our tables by chanting them walking to the park to play rounders.

Actually I lie - it was a Catholic school and we had to learn our Catechism off by heart. I vaguely remember my mum going through it with me at home, so I suppose that was homework. It didn't stick, because I can remember the first question and answer but after that it's all a blank...

Clam, I did but admittingly it was not in the UK!

I have found that it depends on the dc. DD I basically told the school she wasn't doing h/wk, as they weren't differentiating it effectively for her (learning difficulties, left Y6 working below NC lvl 2, being given work for Y5). DS1...I am one of those horrid parents that asks for extra work for him (or rather, he actually asks for it himself, but I have no problem with that ). He is in Y4, working at NC lvl 5, has finished all the suitable books in Smiths, and differentiated h/wk for him that is given HE complains is too easy. DS2 (Y2) will happily do any h/wk that is meant to be oral, or written maths, but there is no way on the planet I will ever be able to get him to sit down and draw (which the last 3 h/wks have been). He won't write for me at home either. (In his defence, he does have a muscle problem that does cause problems with writing). I spoke to his teacher today, and explained this, and she admitted she can't even get him to do drawing in class either! So DS2 is doing some of his h/wk, but not others.

My 10 yr old child has just started in year 6 junior and it is 3 sessions of homework (i.e. screaming) every week. If it is not done he has to miss school breaktimes and do it then!!!! But then I have sent him to a school which has excellent ofsted reports comes high on league tables.....Of course as his mother it is all my fault!

Well knitpicks I have a PhD. I did no homework what so ever when at primary. Even at secondary it was only really when doing my Highers (Scotland) that we were set any homework, mostly French essays. I think being responsible for my own learning without set tasks really helped at uni, because I was used to doing things on my own.

I dread the arguments my DH and I are going to have when DD starts school. He is totally against homework, I am more conformist!

OP, if only I had a child like that...... I cannot imagine a scenario where ds insisted on doing homework. Fortunately for him, his school request very little.

He will start senior school next September, and he won't know what's hit him.

Yes, I definitely did homework at Primary school, and I have to say, I was probably more like the OP's ds!!

Clam I had homework from aged about 5. Basically the teacher wrote out any words that we had struggled over in 1-2-1 reading on a slip of paper and put them into a (very Un-PC) cigarette or tobacco tin.

At the next reading session you had to read the words in your tin. If you managed it 3 times, they were ripped up. Later we had to spell the words (I distinctly remember "beautiful" being in my baccy tin for at least a whole year).

I also remember getting some maths. I do not remember loving it, but equally I do not remember it being a problem. My brother had more homework than me and I remember my mother going into the school and saying to the teacher that she felt he should not be doing it because kids need time to play after being in such a structured atmosphere all day.

My kids learnt early on to loathe homework. I could easily spend 90 mins arguing with them over 20-30 mins homework. They have happily carried this lesson through their entire schooling and have just done disastrously at GCSE .

However, year 5 and 6 were spent at a school for dyslexic kids which did not give homework at. Lots of reasons why they did well there, but I think the homework policy helped. Just to say DS1 increased his reading age by 18 months in one year and DS2 by 30 months in a year whilst there .Before and afterwards their reading ages have improved by an average of 3 months a year.