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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Primary school homework ONLY available online?

139 replies

HereBeFuckery · 09/12/2022 18:56

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.

OP posts:

Parker231 · 10/12/2022 12:02

FunctionalSkills · 10/12/2022 11:35

It's absolutely not optional in the couple of primary schools in my area!

Legally it is. DT’s didn’t do homework in primary (rarely set at their school- UK based international one). By the time they got home from after school club or activities, it was dinner, relaxing and bed.

2reefsin30knots · 10/12/2022 12:02

Just set showbie to send notifications to your phone- then you won't have to check the app daily. Your phone will just tell you when homework has been set.

UsernameAlreadyTaken101 · 11/12/2022 20:25

Saltywalruss · 09/12/2022 22:29

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.

Unfortunately we are only allowed to buy from approved suppliers which are ridiculously overpriced. For example, replacing one single Oxford Reading Tree book costs around 7/8 pounds and most of them must be bought in mixed packs. I have lots of other fiction and non fiction library books for children to access in my classroom but I've paid for most of them myself and so I'm hesitant to send them home. I bought each child a plastic folder to keep their books in and even still I have books not returned or covered in juice with ruined pages.
It gets disheartening but I really hope we can continue to send home real books for as long as possible.

DrMarciaFieldstone · 11/12/2022 20:27

HW is all on Seesaw for us, rarely get paper copies. There are no notifications for new work, only when a teacher acknowledges the work, which is irritating.

Magoo89 · 19/01/2024 01:27

I’m pretty sure the school is by policy, not allowed to have sanctions for incomplete homework. Homework is not a statuary requirement.

mathanxiety · 19/01/2024 01:58

Fuuuuuckit · 09/12/2022 19:08

Lack of Internet access/devices was the cause of so much lost learning in lockdown, that's if schools could be arsed setting any work.

Utterly utterly inappropriate for them only to be setting homework online, more so for them giving 'detention' for it not being done. The content is unforgiveable. This is very thin ice they're on.

I agree with this.
They should have done an accessibility assessment before switching over to online communications and homework notifications. Schools where I am (US) supply iPad or chromebooks to every student regardless of income and cover internet access for families that can't afford it.

For all the OP knows, though, an assessment of access has been done. She may have missed the memo.

The particular case described by the OP isn't a problem with accessibility but rather lack of organisation on the part of the parent.

The excuse offered for completely dropping the ball - "I have a life" - is the lamest I have ever seen, and I'd bet if one of the OP's students failed to turn in homework based on "having a life" there would be plenty of eyebrows raised.

I think the OP needs to apologise to her child and to commit to getting up to speed with the school's communication method and homework requirements.

She can approach the school about equity of accessibility if that topic bothers her, but that is a separate issue, and it's not the problem her child has.

mathanxiety · 19/01/2024 02:02

ilovepuppies2019 · 10/12/2022 11:25

I think whether or not it is optional depends on the school. In Aus, it is often not optional and it was not optional when I was in PS. I would not recommend using a phone to access school work. Larger tablets (available quite cheaply if they are not an Apple product) or a laptop is a must. I would be very surprised if no-one in OP's family had access to either of these things but if not then they are very worth investing in. If they OP did not have access then it would something to raise with the school and plan time in a local library to use their computer every week. I'm a researcher in this space and there is a lot of benefit to children using apps to improve their reading and writing. They offer instant feedback, the difficulty changes depending on the responses, the teacher can quickly mark the output and the learning can be tracked using analytics. The largest benefits of technology are found for young children when caregivers use these devices with children to scaffold. I would assume that the OP's child spends a lot of time learning to write on paper and by hand in the classroom. It's very appropriate that she uses a small amount of learning time at home to engage with technology and improve her technological skills and writing skills at the same time. The benefits of practicing writing, structuring a narrative, using punctuation and thinking about audience do not disappear because the pen is replaced by a screen. Done correctly, homework via apps can vastly improve the learning outcomes.

Show quote history

YYY to all of this.

mathanxiety · 19/01/2024 02:03

donttellmehesalive · 09/12/2022 23:32

At our school, if you don't have access to tech, children can do their homework one lunchtime at school instead. Would that be preferable?

That is horribly divisive, outlining who are the haves and who are the have nots.

mathanxiety · 19/01/2024 02:06

HereBeFuckery · 09/12/2022 21:36

@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.

I realise this is an old thread, but I sincerely hope you have changed your tune by this point in your child's education.

Of course you have to check whether your child has homework and make sure it's done. It's called parenting.

Meadowfinch · 19/01/2024 02:11

You have devices, so the issue isn't that you can't access the homework but that you didn't.

In our house 'What homework do you have tonight?' is a pretty routine question.
Just allocate 30 mins screen time every evening for homework. And download the app. Why waste paper & print when you don't need to?

TempestTost · 19/01/2024 02:28

I hate this online thing. My kids are older (14 and 16), but it's a problem for us. We don't all have laptops or even tablets, and the kids rightly complain that doing math homework on a tablet, much less a phone, is not easy. So we are supposed to have a laptop for each of them? (We did splash out this year on a very nice one for my eldest in university.)

We are better off than a lot of kids in our rural area too, and are also right in the village. There are plenty of families without a single computer other than their phones, and limited internet too. Either due to financial issues, or in some instances remoteness.

I don't know why the school thinks this is ok.

TempestTost · 19/01/2024 02:33

The other objection I have is that work on a screen is not processed the same way as on paper. Reading, but especially writing. With math it's very limiting too because it's difficult to do things like show work or diagram.

Younger kids in particular get a lot of value out of writing things by hand, it really does so much to cement reading and decoding.

They do online because it's easy, not because it's better.

Original poster

HereBeFuckery · 19/01/2024 05:28

@mathanxiety

I don't have to 'change my attitude' as the school received so many complaints from other, like-minded parents, that they dumped the app.
I sincerely hope you don't speak to other adults in real life like that. It's called being patronising.

OP posts:

Craftycakes25 · 10/03/2024 19:11

HereBeFuckery · 09/12/2022 18:56

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"

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.

I totally agree, its ridiculous to think that everybody would have access to an electronic device. Also of its online how are they being practicing the write properly, you can't do that on a device. I don't think a child should have a phone till there atleast 15 years old. They moan in school that kids are to electronically focused and yet expect them to have access for homework. Also my nephews only get homework once a week and 98% is online that's just not good enough.

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