to think that parents who moan about their kids gettting too much homework..........

[rudolphsmum]

........to think that parents who moan about there kids getting too much homework can't then expect them to do well in exams.

If my son is finding something difficult I sit and explain it to him and if I can't I speak to his teacher. The most recent complaint I heard was that one mum spoke to the head teacher about her daughter finding homework hard but that she wasn't interested because all she is cares about is the school getting good results ....sorry I thought that was what a good head teacher was supposed to be concerned about.

There seems to be a certain group of parents that send there kids to school and expect all learning to go on between 9-3 Mon - Fri and then wonder why their children struggle and before anyone starts on about children being to tired or need to play and relax when they get home, I am not talking about hours of the stuff either - ok rant over ;)

There are so many more important things that a primary school child can do outside of school. If they have had 6 hours in school they don't want more of the same! It would be much better to read for fun, play chess, build lego models, help cook a meal etc etc

op yabu

if somebody really really wants to succeed they generally do.

maths homework or not

personally, I think homework is a great evil and shoild be abolished.

blimp word of advice abandon homework at primary if it's that much of a struggle

tell the teacher and be firm -- they're nt doing it

you will create bad feeling between you and your child, he will hate it with a passion by 11 when he actually needs it,and establish a totally one hundred per cent negative pattern about homework which it is almost impossible to reverse

"silly and ghastly...and entitled to an opinion.
I stand by what I say. Social mobility is generally lefty fuss and in the real world there is no such thing. Hard work and good brains usually wins through. As for paying for state education, please don't worry, I wouldn't live in the UK if you paid me.
Just as you no doubt find my opinions offensive, I find know it all opinions on social policy narrow minded and provincial. The big wide world exists, visit us sometime."

ha ha -- have lived in five countries in my life

your opinions are silly and ghastly

I have no wish to pay for an underclass of badly educated children fit for nothing but a never ending stream of work experience schemes or crime

I would rather pay for them to be well educated and then benefit the rest of society

your experiences have done nothing to give you perspective

an "commnist" ?

big joke. You want your children mugged by someone who can't earn his money so has to steal it? you want to pay prison costs and mental health costs for people whose chanceshave been taken away by the very people who are supposed to safeguard them?

bring back the three rs with a vengeance, bring back times tables chanting, abandon "creativity rather than accuracy", abandon ludicrous projects and stupid waste of time dress up rubbish

educate all our children then perhaps we can stop spending so much money catering for the failures we imposed upon them

and give them a better life -- just a minor pint to you, but there we are

Spellings and reading in primary is fine. Anything else NO.

Secondary - I think children should start off on a small amount and gradually increase as the go up the school. This should help teach them the independant learning skills they will need at college.

Homework nightmare story - my DS2 was in mainstream and has moderate learning difficulties, auditory processing disorder and ASD. He was given exactly the same homework as all the other children. Other children with SEN were given the homework too. 'Write sentences using the words bought and brought' for example.

My son couldnt read or write and didnt have the cognitive skills to understand the difference between the two words. Just getting the sheet out of his book bag provoked tears and meltdowns.

But if he didnt do it he lost his play time.

So the school must have known that I would have to do it for him.

I took him out of that school.

oh these stories make me want to weep with frustration

don't you think, in the words of my children

it's like, duh?

yuou get six hours with my kids, why don't YOU teach them instead of getting me to do it and destroying their confidence in the process

pissedoff, you seem unable to understand that homework does not mean a child is not also being educated during school hours. Why this aversion to reinforcing what is learnt at school? Communist.

if they're being educated in school hours then why do so many children fail at eleven?

obtuse

If they are NOT being educated during school hours, homework is not automatically the problem. Jeez.

what on earth is the matter with you?

if they are not being educated in school hours homework is pointless

Homework (well set, not too much) is not pointless for children. It instills discipline and reinforces the lessons learnt, to be building blocks for more advancement.

Naturally, if a child is not being educated in school, homework is hardly going to make the difference. But if a child is, then homework can be beneficial.

Your gripe is a different one. You are missing the point.

Crap. A 7 year old who has had six and a half hours of school does not benefit in any meaningful way from hw. It's a disbenefit.It exhausts them, makes hw a chore.

Every well educated parent who is well off in time will put in extra. That's what itshould be -- extra. You can't take away that benefit, that extra leg up, the edge that some parents can offer.

But to deny every child a decent basic education and then thrust the onus on parents ..it's a crime.

How is what you are saying related to homework? Homework means no teaching during school hours? Nonsensical conclusion.

Agree homework for primary children should be limited to spelling and reading, possibly with the introduction of an extra half-hour/hour work per week in year 6 to smooth the transition to secondary...

what concerns me as a parent of a yr 8 child, is the huge disparity between homework set at secondary level. DS attends a very much below average comp, and usually does his homework in lesson time , any he does at home takes a max of 20 minutes a week. A friends DS attends a local grammar, and has 3 hours of homework a night, more at weekends.

Frankly, I'd rather my Ds had more homework than the amount he has currently.

If the evidence suggested that homework worked (ie that schools and school systems that consistently set homework performed better than those that didn't) then individual grips would be just that. But the evidence does not suggest that there benefit. Now I've not seen any original research reports, and it could be that there are particular ways to set homework that really support learning. However given how much variation there is in how homework is set between schools and school systems it seems to me that most teachers are not working to set approaches, rather make it up as they go along (this is not an attack on teachers btw, I know that there are a number of teachers who really would rather not set homework at all, it's just an observation).

Failure at eleven means ineffective teaching. Don't you know anything?

We have failure at eleven. In a system where the basics are being sent home in homework bags for the parents to instil.

Er I think they might just be connected.

While I find homework with my 7 yr old a pain, it does work to her benefit. She doesn't get a lot, and the work has already been covered in school. The repetition does help her grasp stuff. My 9 yr old gets about 30 mins homework, and can do it by herself, just need to 'hear' her spellings, tables, etc.

But I do think anything more than 40 mins for primary school is too much (and 15 mins is loads 4-7 age group).

God hw is a waste of time until they get to at least year 5.

Read read read. Add on maths practice if you can.

But it should be done in school.

Parents like you who like a bit of homework, fine, do it, buy your books from wh smiths and do it. Great. Give your child a leg up.

Compulsory hw? losing playtime for not doing it at home when they've spent the day making oil lamps or some such crap?

utterly, utterly wrong-headed

and I've done it.. I've committed, I've been in school helping children read, I've done it at hme and I've seen exacly how children are disadvantaged

and I know that my children will suffer the consequences, as much as the ones left behind

rightpissedoff "You want your children mugged by someone who can't earn his money so has to steal it?" You can't be serious?!! That some serious class discrimination. There is a guy in Whistler, son of the judge, grew up very wealthy, and he's been put in jail for mugging people and some B&E's... he did them because he was bored because he's had everything handed to him.

cat64 I agree with you. Learning comes in many forms.

I don't remember getting any homework at primary school, except to do a bit of reading and learn my ten spellings of the week, and yet I managed to get excellent A Levels and a degree from a Russell Group university!

All the masses of homework seems to be mostly done by the parents anyway...