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 ;)

People have put on convincing posts showing that their child was depressed by homework

It depends on the individual child. (Do teachers allow for that?)

Blanket homework is bound to have casualties and successes. "Gabby"

IME, if homework is well set and, crucially, parents are able to supervise it, homework allows for a different sort of exercise and learning to take place to that that goes on in the classroom. One-to-one tuition is always valuable.

My primary age children are meant to read every night, do spellings and then have additional homework on top - after a day at school...so exactly WHEN do they get to run about and just be children. My 10 year old is unbelievably stressed.

Also not all parents are equipped to help with homework, its OK for those of us who have a reasonable level of education and time but not all homes are like that.

I do find the reading every day thing ridiculous too - if he reads 1 page every day (7 pages) he gets 2 team points. If he choses to read 2 whole books over 2 days (30-40 pages) then nothing...just a reminder to read every day!!

"Also not all parents are equipped to help with homework, its OK for those of us who have a reasonable level of education and time but not all homes are like that."

This is the heart of it -- if you depend on hw to set the level of learning your whole class is stuffed because of the parents who are unwilling, unable, have no time, whatever.

also agree with lequeen, gooftrop, all.

We only got homework at all because the pushy parents cornered the teachers into it at parents evening, they didnt actually intend to set any.

It does condem children from slightly chaotic homes with less academic parents to feel second best

Ha condem...I meant condemn!

seeker: "I do wonder when people go on about the "poor curriculum" in state education, whether they actually know what that curriculum consists of. It seems to be recieved wisdom that it's rubbish, but nobody actully says why."

If you are hoping for an answer from the fragrant pissedoff, I am afraid you won't get anything beyond bald assertions.

pissedoff, being gratuitously offensive, without actually being able to explain your point with any degree of coherence, is not actually covering you with glory.

Once more, what is the connection between homework and a poor curriculum.

YABVU

Homework allows a child whatever age to:

Review learning
Extend learning
New learning through discovery - open ended research
Individual practice of a skill at own pace
Refine exisitng work
Work without distractions at own pace

Homework is a crucial part of the educational process and all chips into produce the final result.

Oh I got that wrong I meant: YABVR the two activites are not mutally exclusive and these parents are either lazy or just dont get the importance of instilling a decent work ethic in their children.

Homework also teaches childrent to develop independant study skills that are needed hopefully in the future.

Most secondary schools have and after school club/library where students can get help with homework if parents struggle and what about the parent being arsed enought to ring up or find out how they can help.

"independent"

"these parents are either lazy or just dont get the importance of instilling a decent work ethic in their children."

There is such a short-sightedness in these comments it takes one's breath away.

I'm not being offensive, you are just offended. There's a difference.

Read the thread blueshoes. You might just start to understand.

Review learning
Extend learning
New learning through discovery - open ended research
Individual practice of a skill at own pace
Refine exisitng work
Work without distractions at own pace

snort -- for a five year old?

right yes my DS (5) does practice his writing, and his flash word cards.

I actually responsed to the OP which does not mention age just purely on the concept of homework and its usefullness in contributing to the overall achievment of a child ie some form of summative assessment.

I would not support any activity that adversly affects a child of any age.

I havn't read all of the thread and your points of particular disagreements are with others.

I meant homework to the point that would have an adverse affect

My daughter is 5, in Year 1 and gets 30 minutes a week Maths homework and about ten spellings to learn (they aren't actually given a test yet though). Also they are supposed to read for ten minutes a night. The homework is ok, as even though I work four days a week and don't get home until 6.30pm on those days it is set on a Thursday and doesn't have to be in until the following Wednesday so there is usually plenty of time to do it, and my daughter enjoys getting homework and often does it straight away on her own.

The hardest part is reading together EVERY night- we always read both our daughters bedtime stories but by the time we get home J is sometimes too tired to read to us, so we don't make her, or just do a few pages. But then other nights she wants to read the whole book of thirty pages plus others of her own...so it probably does average out more than ten minutes a night, and she is a very good reader so I tend to think what the heck?

By the time E starts school hopefully J will be doing her homework mostly on her own, but I do think it would be hard even with the level of homework described above if you had two in Key Stage 1 at once who both needed supervising with their homework.

I think homework can be too much and would certainly have a word with the school/teacher if I thought it was an unreasonable level.

I like doing homework with her though, I should say. Last week there was a Maths Quiz that was set for the whole school and KS2 level stuff really, which required parents to work with them and estimate things - you were expressly not allowed to look it up on the internet- and it made me think I can tell you!

Homework does adversely affect many children in primary, including many well supported children. Just read the thread.

Given that well-supported children can do work at home without homework being given to all children, and given that homework adversely affects many children, and given that homework is often relied upon to instil the basics, it is hard to support a blanket homework policy.

Teachers should look at what they are giving as homework. If it is pointless (draw all the bugs in your garden), drop it. If it is pointful (learn your 4x table) it should be done in school.

If you are keen and committed, then you can read harder books with your children, practice the million times table, give them harder maths and spelling, work on home projects.

Keep it to yourselves, give your children a leg up.

To support a system which fails so many children guarantees that your, legged-up children, will still pay the price. They will pay the price when they are older, and have great jobs, and have to pay for an ever growing underclass of the ill-educated.

If that's what you want, I can't change that.

Eleanor I find evenings too busy or tire to do reading everyday so I do it in chunks with my DS(5) I dont read to DS everynight at bedtime but we often takes books out with us if we go for a meal or coffee and read then. I often get him to read through words on his own then I check them sometimes before school. I think as long as it gets done.

TBH the last thing DH and I feel like doing is reading a story and just dont do it every bedtime. If DS wakes early he 'reads' his story books in bed and then he tells me about them when we get ready.

I also wonder about giving reading as homework, and whether it risks making reading just another compulsory task rather than a fun and enjoyable thing in itself, which would be a shame IMO. For me reading has always come in the same category as watching TV or playing games, one of the things I did when I should have been doing something 'productive' like homework!

I'm sure it's different if a child is struggling with reading, and can see they would need a bit more encouragement and structure around it.

right how positive of you - Ok if a child is truggling with homework level or load and is being affected adversly it would be reasonable for a parent to speak to the teacher about this and gain advice or work together ways in which to moderate what is being set, as this would only serve to switch off the child from engaging in learning.

When you talk about a blanket homework policy are you referring to amount and frequency? As not every child maybe set the saem homework as they are given work that petains to their current level of learning. This is certainly the case with the levels of reading books.

'keen and committed' I dont see the relevanc eof this comments as it seems your decidedly negative re this topics. I never mentioned doing anything extra - just about supporting & encouraging a child in their current learning at home.

Depends on the child, DS2 happily does homework and even makes up extra projects, he finds school easy and loves (for him I'm not sure which came first the love or the ease), DS1 would rather chew his own arm off than open a book. Whilst I have had to adapt, a lot, to how he works I still struggle with him not doing well at school. I remind myself all of the time that for some people school is a very insignificant part of their learning and life success. He's only nine and about to do his second fashion show and is in a professional production of Evita....it's his thing and I am delighted. As long as my children find something to be passionate about I am not going to ruin every evening with shouting about homework.

Love, I don't understand your post at all. You seem confused. I just don't get what you are talking about.