To think that primary school children should not be given homework.

[darcymum]

My eldest DC has just started reception and came home one day with three pieces of homework! Ok it was only a few reading books and a picture to draw but still... AIBU to think she should be out playing.

I don't think the time they spend playing is wasted time, I think they learn a lot during that time. Homework eats into that very valuable time, that's part of my problem with it. She comes home at 4pm and goes to bed at 7pm in that time she has to eat her tea, have a bath, and have bedtime stories, not much time for playing imo never mind homework.

mollie thanks,yes detention but what happens after a prolonged time of detention

looks like im going to protest in my own little way

I have both sides, dd is 3 and a half and at the nursery class in our local tiny school so does afternoons with the reception class. She "reads" to the teacher twice a week, just nursery rhymes, following the words with her fingers but loves books so much that she's started the reception books at the same time with me at home. She also recognises some letters and can count to 30 and has started number bonds to 10. None of this is pressure from me, she just loves "doing"

I have to say she also loves painting and drawing, playing outside and all normal toddler things. I take it from her and will do as much or as little as she wants. I remember being able to read many words when I started school at age 4 and apart from a couple of years of being a rebellious teenager will devour books.

As a secondary school maths teacher however it "does my head in". We keep discussing as a school to reward hw done, not punish those who don't as these kids generally can get one to one tuition during a detention on a topic they can't be bothered to do at home. I see hw as vital to see how much they undertand on their own and also think if they do it with parents they always have a detailed example to help explain and if they can teach a method to their parents the concept will stick. I did spellings and times tables as well as reading throughout primary school and remember my dad shouting 7 x 8 to me in the car and Mum saying "she's only 5!"

Throughout this waffle what I'm trying to say is that hw at primary level should be set a couple of times a week but reading should be every night, and at secondary find out from the school the time that is expected for each subject per week and have a set time to do it. BTW I leave at 7am and get home at around 5 so no late start early finish and I bring marking and planning home each night and at weekends.

Kids who are young are generally excited by everything, if we don't make hw a chore but fun as parents, perhaps we stand them in good stead for the future! That's my idealistic view, I'll get back to you when dd has 3 projects and 2 essays due in at the same time!

Not sure how spelling can be made 'fun' when ds won't even look at the book. He is usually hugely competitive but even telling him that everyone else gets their spellings correct hasn't been enough to interest him. Even the threat of sitting on the 'rubbish table' (his words) makes no difference.

Not sure what happens after lots of detention tbh. I imagine the next step would be exclusion.

DS never received homework at his primary school. I was initially upset when he was allocated his school as it had a 'satisfactory' Ofsted and got a lot of its intake from the local council estates. I think it generally doesn't insist on homework because many of the parents aren't literate enough to be able to support their children, or can't fit it in with other pressures (not just work but caring for extended family, dealing with family/visa/disability issues etc).

Anyway, for us it's been an unexpected advantage. My sister has to sit down with her DS every night to go through regimented exercises, while I got to take DS out after school to local museums, play parks and leisure centres. I would buy him Letts books etc but he'd choose to do them or not, there was never any pressure to.

He left his primary school with a reading & spelling age of 17 and Level 5s across the board so it clearly didn't do him any harm.

Oh, and his new secondary school also doesn't have homework until GCSE level. They have very small classes so the students are able to learn everything they need within the school day. They have a lot of extended activities (often until 8.30pm, including team sports going off-site) so it would demand too much of their time and not make much difference academically.

Vespasian - yeah, I knew a teacher would object to that! I meant as a small child I could see that teachers had to do work outside teaching time - my teacher certainly wasn't sitting there marking our work while we were in the classroom - but other grown-ups didn't seem to bring work home. They went out to work and came back. Certainly never noticed my own parents bringing work home (as a small child) and they were both professional people with demanding jobs and successful careers.

Personally I don't think it makes sense to speak of "primary school children" as if they were one category.

There is a vast difference between a timid 4yo who is exhausted by the sheer effort of sitting still at carpet time and a great big 11yo who is getting ready to go to secondary. I think homework should be introduced in junior school rather than infants.

It would be a dreadful shock for my Yr 6 boy if he were to go up to secondary next year and suddenly start planning long homework projects if he had never had to do any unsupervised work before. But he didn't need to start practising when he was 4.

I think it should start when they are old enough to be responsible for it themselves, that is around Yr 4 or 5.

It is very interesting on here that there are two opposing camps. I have found it the same at school meeting for parents. I have sat and listened and found that most parents agree on general issues, but when you get to homework there are the 2 sides-poles apart-it is the same school but some think there is too much homework and some complain that there is not enough! Arguments can get quite heated.
I was responsible for making them think about one aspect. In key stage2 my DSs used to be set 'projects' e.g. a country- with a set amount of time to produce some work. They were quite enjoyable except that my DSs hated writing them up.They produced a pleasing piece of work but it was only because I got them books from the library, a folder to put it in, suggested layout, pictures that they could cut out etc etc. I also helped them plan the workload. It was all their own work but they had a lot of adult help gathering the information etc. The school loved getting them all and displaying them. I pointed out that it was unfair. It was a very mixed catchment area and if the DC didn't have parents who took an interest, couldn't get to the library, didn't have internet access didn't buy folders etc then the DC couldn't produce much, through no fault of their own.
I think that it is the first time I have ever made a comment at a meeting which really gave pause for thought!

When I was at school it was quite exciting to go to secondary school and have homework-because it was something that I hadn't had-except for spellings, tables and 11+ questions.

My DD (4) loves homework. It is not particularly onerous and she doesn't do it instead of play she does it as well as.

This week was tracing letters, a bit of word blending and reading. Homework is 'optional' at DD's prep and can be done over a two week period so not really a problem.

Riven think there is a difference between parents that cannot and those that will not help. The fact my dd goes to school does not mean I abdicate responsibility for helping her to learn to read, write, do maths, etc.

"Kids who are young are generally excited by everything, if we don't make hw a chore but fun as parents, perhaps we stand them in good stead for the future!"

that's my idealistic view too etotheipi (LOVE the name BTW! :o)

that's certainly the attitude I picked up from my parents and it's really helped. I'm doing a maths degree with the OU, so it's almost entirely homework! If I weren't used to working on my own I'm sure I'd be struggling with the discipline.

DD (3.3) has grown up with me studying and enjoying it (started when she was 3m) and I call it homework. I didn't expect it but when she was 2 she started asking me for "ome wort" and maths so I'd give her colouring, magazines or DSDs' old workbooks to scribble on. now she also enjoys 'working' on the computer, learning letters etc. we are gradually working towards proper preschool workbooks, as she really wants to do it - I think it's just part of wanting to be like mummy.

I may of course eat my words in the future but I'm hoping that as she has such a positive view of schoolwork and learning, this will really help when she starts school.

Hmmm. Not sure where I stand although am not a huge fan of structured homework at primary school. My DCs' primary school no longer does structured homework, as of this year. Instead they are piloting an optional "Strive" scheme run for the older children (years 3 to 6) where activities such as music / dancing / sport / brownies etc can count towards getting a "strive" award. For the kids that don't do these things, they can choose from a raft of projects: organising a fundraising day at school, researching a topic and presenting it in front of their class, cooking a meal for their family, helping out at home with jobs, helping younger children at school etc. They then write up what they have done and have a whole year to complete a set number of tasks (6 for year 3, going up to 9 for year 6) and then get a certificate at the end of the year if they complete it.

From what I and other parents have seen (and we are three quarters of the way through the school year here) many children have thrown themselves into it (including all of mine) and some are doing more than the required number of tasks! Many children seem to be really into it because someone is not standing over them making sure they complete something (I've had to help my DCs with finding stuff on the web, printing out photos etc...but it's been fantastic how keen they are).

See a story here (am in NZ by the way!) Anything similar going on in UK primary schools?

A homework refusnik here. I absolutely refuse to make my children do it. It is totally pointless at primary age.

that Strive scheme sounds fantastic!

I've started collecting ideas for homeworks, projects etc as I'm hoping to be a primary teacher, I'll write that one down.

I remember being given a blank scrapbook in yr5 and being told to fill it with the topic of our choice - it was quite good as it was open ended.

YANBU. I hate homework at primary level, there is no evidence that it improves results and in many cases can be detrimental.

However at the moment we are having to ensure that ALL homework is done on time and is correct becasue dd is going to be in a play and we have had to get permission for her to have time off school to do it.

Sorry not got time to read whole thread but my 3 (all primary-age) get homework every weekend and every single holiday as well. It's the stuff in the holidays that really really irks me. We can't have a week at the sea any more without it has to be turned into a teddy's diary or a photo-project or a leaflet-collecting exercise.

I want to go on holiday and just forget school. And the kids do too.

My son loves to read. It is absolutely his favourite activity and I'd guess he reads or dips into around 20 books a week (in Horrible Histories etc). If I made him 'review' every single book he read by writing about it in a 'reading journal', he would simply stop reading for pleasure. Is that the desired result? I doubt it. So bugger the reading journal. Homework has a way of sucking the joy and pleasure out of just about every activity it touches.

"there is no evidence that it improves results and in many cases can be detrimental."

Yes that is my feeling as well, any evidence for it though?

Just found some here

See I knew she was better off running round with a bucket on her head!