Is homework unnecessary?

[miketv]

Just started junior school, we have reading every night (we need to sign to say they've read), plus one big piece of homework, plus a small piece of homework, plus practicing spelling every night for a test.

It just seems a lot. Not helped by us having after school club/breakfast club every day, plus activities after this. It's often 630pm by the time we get home, then we have to eat, then start homework.

AIBU to not agree with this? DC enjoys reading but forcing it on him is really turning him off. And doing homework is like torture (to him). He's generally bright I think but has so many other things he's interested in that he really resists this.

Teacher has told us that if they don't do homework there will be "consequences" which has got my back up (although appreciate that they have to follow school policy).

I don't think homework is necessary at junior school. Some people say they need to practice for secondary, but I disagree. They can learn how to do homework when they actually need to do it.

I think all they need is daily reading, and weekly spellings and times tables. Nothing else. And not these stupid projects that the parents end up doing. Surely the teachers know the parents have built the WW1 trench model or whatever it is? It's all so pointless.

I think it's way too much, but also, don't they do the homework in the after school club? Surely that's what those are ideal for?

At juniors school my dc were juggling between 2 homes. Homework was just not happening. I spoke to the school and it wasn't an issue at all.

Surely this hasn't come as a surprise to you - you presumably chose the school in question?

Can you use time spent in the car for reading?

Nope, we do none of it

That's a lot.
I like how our primary works, from reception till year 4 they had barely any. Maybe twenty mins a week, and I quite liked that as a chance to sit with dc and check they understood what was going on. As long as they understood it, I was always happy whether they did the rest of the hw or not as, seemingly, were the school.
Plus reading which we do every night in bed anyway, so that's fine.
Year 5, and it's been stepped up a bit now to a few hours a week. Again, I quite like it as it gives me a chance to sit with her and check she understands.
We don't do any at all mon- fri, too busy with extra curricular sport and down time, but I set aside Sunday morning to do it.

I don't mind the big bits of homework - but the reading irritates me.

I read with my child, she reads vast amounts but doesn't always remember to fill her diary in. I totally understand that not all children will read and there needs to be some form of monitoring so that help can be directed as needed but it's very irritating to get an email that my child hasn't filled in their reading diary again when I know she's been reading prolifically all week.

We ignore the spelling as long as we can too. She reads so much that her spelling and grammar are fantastic - she's exceeding in English and anything English related that it all feels like a tick box exercise rather than being conducive to any actual learning.

I am not a good parent

You may find your school don't actually care whether dc do it or not. I realised after a few years, that the teachers didn't mind at all if dc didn't do it, but could never actually say the words!
I realised after a while that the massive tick and sticker dc received regardless of whether their homework was utter shit or marvellous, was the teachers way of saying 'I don't mind whether you do this or not.'

Education is so important. Support the fucking school and get your child into good habits. If you say your DC doesn’t have to do the work set, think for a minute what you are teaching him?

I hated homework as a kid.
I hated homework as a teacher.
I hate homework as a parent.

I try to prioritise the reading with my DSs. DS1 looks to be dyslexic so if he's tired, we have to accept that he's not got the mental resiliance to deal with it that night. I want him to love books and I don't want to turn him off by battling it.

I hate the busy "topic" work. DS hates writing and finds it very difficult. He's done in after a day at school (they don't see the melt downs) and it's so difficult to crank him back up to do it.

Homework just polarises the differences between the able and those with support and those with disadvantages.

Mine have had it since reception. Now in y3 they have reading every night, spelling and times table test every Friday and one SPAG and one maths sheet a night.

I don't agree with it (apart from the reading), it's a battle, and my approach up until this year was to mostly ignore it. We're not going to get away with it this year.

I was speaking an acquaintance the other day whose reception child has just started in a private school. They have 25 spellings a week. She's about ready to pull them out.

I hate homework! It causes so much tension at home. There's not much time between pick up, dinner and bed as it is. My daughter is in yr 5 they're supposed to do 40 mins a night. There's no way she could do that. It's too much, I don't mind spellings & mental math, but the rest is unnecessary in my opinion.
I'm a teacher and tell my pupil's parents not to stress about homework.
My son is in high school and hardly gets any!

Reading, spellings plus one piece of homework sounds fairly standard. I stopped listening to mine read once they were fluent (I don't particularly enjoy reading out loud, think it's fair enough that they don't either), but do still make them read every night. Not school reading book, just whatever they happen to be reading. Although if it turns out to be comics for an extended period, then I'll insist it has to be a more challenging book for a bit.

Spellings I don't enforce, because I don't think the evidence is there that spelling tests actually help day to day spelling. But if they are writing something and don't know how to spell a word, then I make them work it out, as I think that probably does reinforce it.

Other homework I will enforce if I think it's worthwhile. The evidence is that primary homework generally doesn't improve achievement. But DS2 is a bit resistant to writing at the moment, so I think it's valuable to get him to practice that at home. His other optional homework this week was some maths that I know he can do easily, so we won't bother with that.

I think homework is pointless, and absolute rubbish to say it's practice for secondary school

YANBU it can be useful in secondary and stuff like reading at home is important (but it should be up to the family to spread it out during the week not a set amount every night) but having huge amounts mean they have no time to actually discover their own interests, take up hobbies and have some relaxation time in the evenings.

Is this a state school? did you ask about the level of homework when you looked around and chose the school.

I think a small amount of homework is useful especially if it is help teach independent learning. things like spellings can be done on the journey to/from school.

also I think part of the problem is the number of after school clubs. when my dc were in junior school we said that they could do a maximum of 2 per week. any more than this and I think it doesn't give children the time to do school work, get bored and learn to self amuse etc.

of course the school might not care if you do it or not. same as senior school wont care if you don't do it and don't revise for your exams because at the end of the day the grades you get are your grades and if they aren't what you want or need then who is the one to suffer? not the teachers.

I was waiting to speak to deputy head the other day on the playground, and overheard a parent complaining about the lack of homework and requesting some! Primary school btw. Thank fully the school's approach is in line with the evidence suggesting homework makes zero difference. But it's often the parents e.g. request it so the poor teachers' can't win.

pudgey does your ds save meltdowns for home too? Mine does and it slightly frustrates me that school see an angel!

I would disagree with that mummymeister.
I prioritise after school clubs - swimming, a team sport, a music lesson, brownies, a ballet class, a martial art for my dds - way over homework for primary school age. I don't think kids get enough exercise otherwise. It's working so far for my dds.

And regarding the whether school care or not, I should have added that my dds are both exceeding in every subject and have always been, and that's possibly why teachers don't care if they do hw or not. I'm sure it'd be diffferent if they were struggling.

Sign the book to say he has done reading - don't worry about whether he actually does it! For the other bits of homework that is far too much imo. I'd talk to the teacher and explain that due to schedules and extra curricular activities you don't have a lot of time in the evening so will need to the bulk of it at the weekend. Perhaps do the spellings in the evening (get him to write out each 3 times - should take 10 mins) and leave the other stuff until the weekend. Spend a couple of hours on one weekend day and knock off the homework.

This is how we deal with homework. I write in DDs book that unfortunately we didn't manage to do it tonight - we will do it on the weekend. I sure you won't be the only mum finding this too much for a junior.

can't your dc do it after school club. Do the readin every other day but sign it over 2 days.And nobody ever earns their spellings til the night before IRL

At primary age there isn't any evidence that it's beneficial, and as far as I'm aware there's none to suggest secondary kids who've done it before are better off either.

sorry such a bad keyboard with sticky letters^^

I believe the evidence is that homework isn't really of any benefit, and that many school therefore don't set any.
My DD is beyond primary age now, but I always thought homework was useful as a means of me/my ex helping her with something she was finding difficult, when she might not have been able to have a 1:1 explanation with her teacher. I also thought practising maths was important, to help reinforce what she had been taught at school.
I have no issues with reading, spelling and times tables.

What goes on in After School Club, could he not do his homework then?