Primary school homework ONLY available online?

[HereBeFuckery]

I'll start by saying I am raging about this, but I'll try not to rant.
DDs school has started setting homework (after a bad Ofsted, but that's another thread).

Homework is ONLY posted on this fucking stupid 'Showbie' app. No other way to access. I must have missed a notification, as I don't check the shitty app daily, because, well, I have a life.

DD missed a piece that was set on Wednesday and due today, as she doesn't have her own phone (because she is eight), or her own tablet or laptop - she uses one of ours when she wants to.

As a result, she missed break time today.

The 'homework'?
"Tell me your favourite Christmas joke"

Give me a fucking break. That's not even close to homework, so lets acknowledge you're phoning it in. Fine. Do not then punish a kid for your shit system that is predicated on her having free access to technology WHICH SHE DOESN'T HAVE.

I'm considering writing to school and saying that we don't allow her to use phones or tablets and so homework will need to be set another way.

Before the pile on, I am also a teacher, but secondary. We set online homework and it is school policy to offer EVERY kid a paper copy too. Because we don't assume access to technology. If I set such a shit piece of homework with 2 days to complete and didn't offer a paper alternative to the online portal, I would be in trouble.

@AlwaysFullOfQuestions22
I wish. I've now checked it. Here it is, the homework it's worth being put in detention for. The format is how this app displays homework. It looks like a bloody text message!

OP is unreasonable for not letting her EIGHT YEAR OLD child have free access to a phone?
Give over

@BotWaterHottle
And she will learn precisely what from telling 'her favourite Christmas joke'? She doesn't even have a favourite Christmas joke, ffs.

@BotWaterHottle also, the system IS at fault. I don't get homework, I'm an adult. If I am required to check, then I am being set homework. They can shove that plan up their tailpipes. I have more than enough to do without logging in to an app to tell a fucking joke.

You're required to do a million things on behalf of your child. This isn't that unreasonable or out of the ordinary.

With the Christmas joke, I see your point that it wasn't the most useful homework, but I guess they just want to ease children in to getting homework if they've never set it before and been pulled up on it in an inspection. It's not exactly onerous for you and your child though, is it? it's also nearly Christmas and kids are tired, and the teachers obviously don't have consolidation tasks planned alongside their curriculum for this half term, as they would have been setting them before now.

What a load of old shit. Poor love, being given detention for not doing homework....sorry, I mean not answering a question in a message!!
Definitely don't let this go unchallenged.
And you most certainly aren't being unreasonable for not allowing your 8 year old access to a mobile phone etc.

A lot of schools are moving to online homework and communication with parents due to lack of money and resources. We simply can't afford to make the number of photocopies we used to for letters, worksheets etc.
We did an audit of IT provision during lockdown and children without appropriate access to technology were given iPads or chrome books.

Thankfully my school are still clinging on to sending home actual books for reading practice but there are so many ruined each week or not returned that the cost of replacing them is unsustainable and we'll probably have to move to ebooks eventually which I find really sad.

Homework is not compulsory and should only be to reinforce what has been learned. Practising phonics and reading is essential in the infant years but any other stuff should be optional. Giving detention to a child for failing to tell a joke is bizarre and I would definitely ask about in case there was more to it. Also, children have the right to play, so preventing them from having break time is not an appropriate response to failing to complete work.

But then OP should have said her daughter didn’t have access to tech when this App was introduced.

She didn’t.

That’s parenting. You make sure your children do their homework.

To all the people frothing at the mouth over the PP who commented

"You are being unreasonable to say she's not allowed a phone"

I think that you are missing the point - the point is that of course it's not standard for an 8 year-old to have a phone, but you cannot use "she hasn't got her own phone" as an excuse not to have seen or done the homework. The adult is responsible for finding the homework on their phone and passing the task on to the child, who can complete it on a piece of paper.

As to the criticism of the task itself- thinking about jokes helps children learn about puns, joke structure, why some things are funny and others are not, different types of joke (what do you get if you cross/knock knock/ what do you call a..) and also probably encourages a family discussion to compare jokes that different people like, as well as possibly chat about jokes in crackers and why we do that as a cultural tradition.

I was with you up to that point.

It's always been a parent's job to check whether a primary age child has homework/reading/spellings to do. The difference was that it was written in a book that came home with the child every day. They had a book bag, and it was routine that we went through the bag and read the reading/homework/ parent communication book.

I still much prefer that to an app that the parent has to check, as much as anything because the 'going through the book bag' routine inclined us both, where's the app is something that the parent alone has to check and advise their kids of.

But yes, it is and always has been a parent's job to check what homework needs doing until the kids are well into their teens.

Inclined? Involved.

Quite. We are meant to encourage children to get off screens and do other activities. Schools really aren't helping by forcing parents to :

1. Buy devices they might not want or afford
2. Making children spend even more time in front of a screen

Primary school children should not be punished for missing homework. It’s the parents fault if they do not theirs (not that it was anyones in this instance) I’d complain to head and then OFSTED .

Can you not just download the relevant app on your laptop? My kids only have online homework and don’t have their own laptop so we download relevant apps on DH’s laptop so they can do homework.

Thankfully my school are still clinging on to sending home actual books for reading practice but there are so many ruined each week or not returned that the cost of replacing them is unsustainable and we'll probably have to move to ebooks eventually which I find really sad

It would be a lot cheaper and easier if each child was given an old-fashioned reader (a book with lots of stories/different types of texts). This way they would also learn some facts while improving their reading skills.

I feel your pain here. My DD is 9 and her home work is online via teams. I have a work laptop that she cannot use, her iPad (my 10 year old iPad) died a death a couple months ago- it was that old it didn't support the new update and couldn't access teams. I have my work teams on my phone. They started handing paper copies which I prefer I want her to write her homework which she enjoys too. Her teacher mentioned to me about the homework being I nine and I said I had no means of accessing it online and he was like do you work I said yes I work 2 jobs but I'm a single parent and he said oh well your not eligible for a free laptop then. 🙄🙄

You should apologise to your dd for not checking that she had homework and make a plan for how you will do it in the future to reassure her that it won't happen again. I'm not in the UK so I don't know how it works there but we always did homework straight away when we got in the door. So every day at that time we would check the app to see what the homework was. In the same way you would check their school bags to see what homework they had before there was an app. It isn't complicated but again I'm not in the UK and we have a different attitude to education here, parents tend to consider schoolwork important and homework is an extension of that so just not doing it with your children when they are young and needs guidance wouldn't be a consideration for the vast majority of parents.

What that is honestly ridiculous!!

This is just 2022 version of checking their bags for homework/letters, I’ve got 1 in primary and 1 in secondary and apps coming out of my ears!

I don’t agree with them keeping kids in for missing homework though.

Homework is only to reinforce class learning.

To be honest I think the best thing for primary DC is to be given reading and math's games asnhw.

My grandson was punished. Teacher told them to all write a letter to Santa asking him to bring them X, Y , Z.

He refused saying that he had written his letter and put it up the chimney last night. He's a very literal boy. The teacher spoke to his mother telling her he was very disobedient. They have this little book to log all infringements which scares the little ones into line sigh....

Primary school children should not be given detention for homework as it’s ultimately down to the parent to organise, and some kids won’t have the parental support. I don’t expect a child under 10 to have the responsibility. As a parent with add, I will likely forget at some point. It won’t be my child’s fault.

My son is only in school nursery, but I’m worried about needing a device for him to use in the future. We don’t have much money. I only have my work laptop and he can’t use that as it has sensitive data on it. I’ll look at getting one second hand, but I’d rather not have the pressure.

My son is only in school nursery, but I’m worried about needing a device for him to use in the future. We don’t have much money. I only have my work laptop and he can’t use that as it has sensitive data on it. I’ll look at getting one second hand, but I’d rather not have the pressure
I completely agree. This is not something you should have to worry about!

@Saltywalruss thank you for understanding! I thought people would tell me I’m being ridiculous. But honestly, I felt a numb shock the other day when I went to buy bin bags and the cheapest was £4! People are struggling, even people who were fine before the latest cost of living crisis. Me and dp both work full-time, but everything is getting so tight. I’m sick of having no money for the last few days of the month, any extra expense really puts me under stress.