To be thrilled DDs school have ditched homework

[MeAgainSparkle]

DDs in primary school. This academic year the school have decided to stop setting homework for children as they agree with studies showing it has no academic benefit. AIBU to be absolutely delighted? It used to annoy me so much sitting over them on a Saturday or Sunday morning nagging them to practice cursive writing etc. Not to mention eating into our weekends. For the record school still expect books to be read every night and support specific online learning portals that children are encouraged to login to (maths and phonics games)

I always thought that Hookwood was more about encouraging a good work ethic and parental involvement in education.

all homework does is test who has 'good parental involvement' though

if it is compulsory and children are punished for not completing it, all you are doing is punishing infant children who don't have parents with the time or wherewithal to do homework with them

if it's not compulsory and it makes no odds whether it's completed or not, then it's pointless

When I first started teaching (many years ago!), we had Year 6 parents demanding homework so that it wasn't such a shock when they started secondary. Then, the Year 5 parents started demanding for it, "so it wasn't such a shock when they started Yr 6."
And now every year group has it and everyone hates it and asks for it to stop.
I never even had a book-bag as a child. Turned out OK.

That's great. Wish all schools would do this. I work in an after school club. I had a 8 year old that had to write out the question and the answers in their copy. What is the point of that. It took the child an hour to do and most of that was taken up with writing out the questions.
I really didn't see the point in it. I never saw the point when I had to do it either.

Race care.. but you can encourage work effort in different ways.

Not letting your child stay off just because they fancy it.
Going to work your self if your able to.
Always giving your 100 percent to things.
Never quitting something just because you want to. If you chosen to take part in a school play you can't back out and let other people down just because your bored of it now.

Mine rarely did homework in Primary whether it was set or not. They have always read (don’t count that as homework) but after school hours were taken up with having a wind down time in after school club and sports and music clubs. Weekends are family time and a break from the school week. Both of my DT’s got all A’s at GCSE and A levels and are now at Uni so it hasn’t done them any harm. School letters about not doing homework were ignored.

I work in an infant school and we set no compulsory homework.

We ask that parents read to their children, and listen to their children read, as regularly as possible. We see this as being important.

At the request of some parents we send home a half termly grid with some 'ideas for out of school learning' linked to their topic. But this is not assessed by teachers. Children can bring their work in and it will be shared with the class as 'show and tell' type sessions, but thats as far as it goes.

Even at secondary a lot of the homework sent home isn't actually beneficial.

I had no homework at primary. Had some homework at secondary. We coped perfectly fine with the change.

would you also suggest that those learning musical instruments stop practising at home?

I'd compare this with reading, which I would recommend happening most days before or after school.

At primary school level, 10 minutes or so most days, of practise will help them improve more quickly.

Some local primaries don't set homework and the parents love it.

DD's school set it from Reception (just reading then). Now she is in year 6, she has 2 pieces a week, plus reading, leading to 3 pieces later in the year to prepare for year 7.

(Friends with year 7 kids, say that they are bringing home around 3-4 hours of homework a week)

I think that there should be no homework until year 5 at the earliest, apart from reading, which is vital .

A lot of parents like homework because they can suit and they think it makes their kids look clever
The make a scene in a shoe box at my DDs primary school were legendary!

I wouldn’t like that, for aged 7 upwards.

Ds has a term project that usually asks them to produce two pieces of work, a diary or story or model around their term topic. It’s nice to work together on that, so I can see how he’s getting on.
Plus mymaths once a week which is just practice at multiplying fractions or whatever.
And reading. Lots of reading
Ds likes it.

I would have loved no homework in primary. I had no homework at all in primary growing up - in the first year of secondary it was introduced in a supported way and we all just adapted. The cult of homework is just as bad as the cult of uniform.

Yanbu. I’m a primary teacher and I fucking hate it. It’s bad enough that it is proven to make no difference but worse than that, it wastes so much time that I could be teaching / the kids learning. I’m meant to check they’ve practised their spelling every day (so that’s 30 sheets to get out of bags and put back and any follow up if they’ve not done it). Also 30 reading logs to check and change every day plus actual homework 3 times a week to give out take in, check and follow up with kids not doing up.

Even if it had some small value it takes up a lot of time when we could be doing something more valuable in school.

IMHO all kids should do at home to help School work is read, chat about books, practise their timestables, get outside, exercise and broaden their interests.

Homework at dds school is pretty ridiculous and requires a great deal of parental assistance. Even in yr6.

Topic work. Yr5 was awful. More often than not it was design and make / draw / design something. Dd doesn’t like doing things like this so I ended up doing more than half. Topic work takes about 3 hours and given every 2-3 weeks. Anything less than 3 hours of work results in very low marking. .

The odd bit of topic work is to research information. Then dd and I have to research it together on the internet. I’m very ill and disabled. Taking great swathes of my energy to do something, which means I’m unable to do practical things like cook for my child. Or play a board game / cards with her.

Then there’s maths weekly, times tables (not yr6) and spellings. Dd isn’t the sort of child, who will do any of these alone.

Fantastic op. My Ds has just left primary and so far had less in secondary school.

A sensible decision for once .

Setting homework for primary schoolchildren is unnecessary. Our school sets maths on a Friday to be marked in class on Wednesday but there's no punishment or comeback for those kids who don't do it, which I think is a good thing.

Our school made a big song of dance of stopping homework and then produced a grid of 'suggested learning activities'.

Fucking hate it and would prefer a straightforward sheet. I am not baking cakes because this week's sound is e. I am not emptying my cutlery drawer so you can count the knives and forks in twos. No, we are not going to the beach this weekend.

@pristinecondition - my concern would be that he's not being pushed enough in the lesson and therefore is finishing his homework tasks during lesson time. He shouldn't have time to do this, his lesson time should be full.

Certainly if you ask my year eleven boy he has no homework - logging into ShowMyHomework tells a different tale

DD moved from a school that set written homework every night to one that just asks that they read. DD loves reading so doesn't even see that as homework. Its lovely. She is trying harder in school, partly because she absolutely adores her new teacher but also because she is getting time off. Old school's homework was usually a written piece which would take 45 minutes to an hour, then 15 minutes each on reading, times tables and spellings, plus book reports every time she finished a book. School finished at 4 so by the time she's done that, had a shower and dinner that's pretty much the evening gone. She often sat sobbing over pointless homework and no matter how much I said she didn't have to do it and I would write the teacher a note/go in and talk to the teacher she wouldn't leave it because she didn't want detention

I would worry about the transition to secondary too. One piece a week is ok, plus spellings and times table.

I would worry about the transition to secondary too.

The flip side to that is that they often have homework fatigue by then and have picked up some bad habits.

I think reading and spelling makes sense to do at home because they are important to practice. It's hard to get 30 kids to sit in silence and read without distracting each other so it is better for them to do it in a quieter environment at home. Other than that, it is pointless though.

I think homework is good for secondary school kids though. You are not spoon fed as an adult and I think it is leaving it a bit late to get to 16 having never had to take responsibility for your own work.

Primary school to secondary school is a big transition. They go from being around toddlers to being around adolescents. It's a good time for them to start learning to organise themselves with their diary, to self motivate and to get in trouble if they don't do what they should have.

I wouldn't be too thrilled to be honest. I think it will be a bit of a shock when they start secondary and go from absolutely nothing to quite a lot of homework every night.
I do think Weekend should be homework free though, ie: none given on a Friday night.
When I was in primary school, we used to get tons of it at the weekend and my cousin's school didn't get anyway. I always thought it was so unfair.

@colditz
Its the school that dont give homework not my son not doing it, honest! 😀
Morning tutor and another 2 sessions(I think 30 mins each for yr9+) per week in school time.
Before school and after school there are rooms and food available with staff to help if needed.
The school used to have very poor results (as did all the ones in the area)
Attendance was crap and no one did work at home so when it got a new head many years ago he made it that all work was done is School. And it did improve results a lot.

Mines an average child but there’s some very bright kids there that are certainly stretched and supported and they go onto to great things

How lovely. I would love this. Primary kids need time to relax and be kids. 10 mins reading a night and 10 mins practicing times tables (times tables can be done anywhere - over dinner, on the walk/ drive home etc) is plenty for them.