Do you agree with homework in Primary

[Toastiesforever]

I disagree with homework in primary school and quite frankly im amazed its still handed out and expected.

I have 3 DC in primary school and we have never done homework, my theory is that my children have enough education in school and as parents we should educate outside of school however we see fit.

For us this includes them reading books, Harry potter, Jacqueline Wilson, david Williams etc - we are lucky that my children love reading.

They will always participate in school talks/presentations and projects.

All my children are involved within the school Litter picking committees, School newspaper, music lessons within school.

And furthermore they are in competitive level sports outwith school which require substantial training hours.

Local days out like airshows, community days and city celebrations.

Ive noticed that most teachers my Dcs have had through the years really agree that homework is not required in primary yet we have this year we have came up against a teacher that says its required for my oldest DC.

I still said no, am i being unreasonable.

We never did it. Got up to Y3 with DD and noticed that the teacher never marked it so we gave it up.

I never resumed with younger DS either.

You are not being unreasonamble in the least
You are absolutely right. Stick to your guns. Education is much broader than 'lessons' and most homework( certainly at primary school) amounts to nothing more than being a time filler.

I think both. YANBU (85%)homework is a drain and the parents end up doing most of it anyway. YABU (15%) in years 5 and 6 the school are preparing them for secondary...and my word is there a lot of homework! And if they don't do it, they get detention. I don't agree with it and think they should do away with it all together tbh but I'd rather my children enjoy their lunchtime at school than spend it in a room doing the homework they didn't do.

I dont agree with homework in primary either. Mine have these silly grids and you are supposed to pick an activity to do every week on top of spellings etc. We just do the spellings and reading.

No. I'm a teacher.

However, I do agree with encouraging reading at home. If that's either a book of choice or one taken home from school (many children don't have access.)

School is extremely full on these days, with little time to play after Foundation stage. Most parents also work and have just a few hours and weekends with their kids before bed. Let them play and spend time as a family without the pressure of homework. In my experience parents often have no idea about the homework anyway!

I don't think young children should have homework beyond being encouraged to read at home.

I don’t agree with home work in primary. Obviously reading is good and having books to go home, but multiple tasks a week like we seem to have I don’t understand.
my primary age children both read a ton, listen to education podcasts and play at home so they constantly learning at home. They are exhausted after school and the last thing they or we need is some brining home work to get done.

I especially hate homework when it is too easy for my children (they often spend ages rewriting spellings they already know) or simply a print out from a teaching website that is pretty boring and mundane.

One thin I’ve always wanted to know is if there is evidence that home work improves outcomes for children.

I’m a reception teacher. I don’t give homework as such, some of my class this year love writing so they ask for things to do at home (letter formation sheets mostly!) The only thing I send for every child is their reading book. They’re not remotely interesting as they must match the sounds they’ve been taught. At the end of this week weve only learnt satpinmd so the books with those in are limited to just words with those! I can absolutely tell which children read at home and practice. On the whole, unless there is an underlying specific reason, they’re the ones who fly with their reading. So where I don’t agree with arbitrary homework, some things really do help the children!

Some parents teach absolutely nothing to their children outside of school, some are lazy and borderline neglectful, so setting a small amount of homework for primary school children is a positive thing in my eyes. Homework steps up massively in secondary school, it’s a big adjustment even if your child has always done homework at primary school, let alone if they have never done homework.

Where is the harm in a child learning a bit extra in their spare time?

One thing I’ll never understand is why parents are happy to use the education system, then fight teachers every step of the way and complain about everything? Isn’t it. Enter to just homeschool if you know better?

My children all got reading, spellings & time tables to do at home in primary. I think all three are really important so was happy for them to do it. They didn’t get set any other homework.

I could see why setting some towards the end of year 6 would be useful to prepare them for high school. Having said that mine didn’t get an enormous amount of homework in high school, apart from GCSE revision/past papers in the build up to their exams.

I agree. I home ed and use school too. There's no get out clause for parents in being accountable for their children's education. You have to support and get involved with what they're learning either way.

Studies have shown that there is little benefit from an a endemic advantage perspective to addition homework for primary children outside of reading. However reading is critical to progression as it doesn’t teach them to simply read, then spell, it acts as the foundation for comprehension which ties into all areas of learning.

My sons school have scrapped all additional learning and asked us to read 5 times per week.

My son has a speech delay due to issues as a baby. We got into a very unique and intense NHS therapy course. We were told if we didn’t do the homework we would be kicked off the programme. He was 5 going on 6 and before we even left for school he had to say 1000 words daily for various purposes - for 6 whole months. It was like pulling teeth. Then we also had to do his reading on top. Worst 6 months ever, loads of tears. Very little time (we both work full time). However it has done wonders for him and paid off in improving his reading too.

Now that programme has completed he doesn’t bat an eyelid at a few other language practices and reading daily we do. It’s nothing in comparison.

My point, I think ‘homework’ shouldn’t be
more than reading, unless your child is academically behind and then homework should be targeted for those specific areas of improvement. Making a pasta face or a family tree in Y1 is utterly pointless.

I also think in y5/6 it should be given, as like my son above, it got him into the routine of daily learning and now he doesn’t bat an eyelid to what we are asked to do because he’s been so used to extensive amounts of additional learning. This will prep them for secondary school.

The reality is kids who practice at home do better. They have extra practice in a relaxed setting with no noise. They can focus better. Additionally parents can pick up areas where kids are struggling. I realised my daughter could not read a watch only when we sat and did some exercises. She was able the year before and then somehow she forgot!
i have done 30 mins math homework 3 days a week over the summer and my kid went back to year 4 much stronger in math. Any 15-20 mins additionally I can squeeze during the weekend is beneficial. That’s why people tutor their kids, to get them on the top of their class. My friend is did 2 additional hours of homework a day with her daughter from year 4 to get her into St Paul school of girls. She is now flying there as her basis are very solid. She has no issues with the amount of work required. Others there need to be heavility tutored.
if families prefer to do other activities is ok, but denying that extra work helps is crazy. As in sport or music, the more you do the better you are. However parents seem to love extra practices in football, ballet, swimming and can’t see how extra practice in maths and English is helpful in the exact same way.

I came from another country where kids go to primary school at the age of 6 and they stay at primary until the age of 12. I would say homework is important from this age as the children getting used to have obligations and learn the concept of studying. If you don’t follow the system then when they go to the secondary school they won’t be able to sit down to study more than 5 minutes. School is way more than free childcare..

But this to me is bonkers:

“My friend is did 2 additional hours of homework a day with her daughter from year 4 to get her into St Paul school of girls. She is now flying there as her basis are very solid. She has no issues with the amount of work required. Others there need to be heavily tutored.”

St Paul’s will already be taking some of the brightest girls in the country. Making them do hours of extra work/tutoring at a young age shouldn’t be necessary to get good results. I’m sure it happens but I don’t think it’s a great endorsement for the school given the cohort of children. I’m not naive about the need to do tutoring for 11 plus but 2 hours a day at 9 seems pretty miserable.

Wait til you hear what a load of Chinese kids do.

They have very long school days, go to cram school after school, and when in neither of these they study or have to play an instrument. No free time to play at all.

And in Germany children don’t start school until 6 🤷‍♀️

Do you really understand? Maybe because most people need to work and rely on school for childcare as well as education.

Also who is fighting teachers?
Questioning some of the educational strategies and policies of the current education system is very different to “fighting teachers”. In fact it has nothing to do teachers at all. Several people here who are teachers have disagreed with the amount/type of home work given to young primary children. Sadly teachers have little control over things like home work policy, it’s those above them that make these decisions. I don’t think it’s bad for people to question if it’s actually improves outcomes for children. Obviously that can be done without undermining teachers. I disagree with the amount and type of homework young children get, I however help my children to do the work and try to work with the school if we have any significant issues.

I agree with homework (from 7 years old, maybe 6 if its very little) so long as its work the children can do themselves, following on from what they did that they or reading or studying, not projects that require parents to help or pointless busy work.

I have seen the positive impact of homework on my daughter, which she has got daily since 1st grade. She now has excellent study habits because she is used to coming home and doing some homework or revision every day after school. I saw her grades improve and her confidence increase once they started to get more serious about studying and homework in 3rd grade.

@Anna79ishere I totally agree. It's so important to maximise your child's opportunities. The self-righteous on here about downtime and "life lessons" is largely a foil for parental laziness.

@Bunnycat101 how do you think people enter in these schools? They are bright, plus they do a lot of work as tutoring or homework. You do not get to top competitions without hours of practice, why would you get to top schools without the same hours? Whoever says otherwise just want to make their kid pass as a genious. There might be same but many are just hard working kids, academic in the sense they do not mind the hard study. Not everybody can train 8/9 hours a week so not everybody can do homework for 2 additional hours a day but kids who can learn a lot and get to very academic schools.
in other countries kids study 3-4 hour a day every day from year 5 or 6, the breath of their curriculum is triple or quadruple than the British one. Is it important for life? Maybe not for 95% of the population, so we can debate if it’s needed for all these students, but they do and they know a lot more than our kids.

Reception age kids ABSOLUTELY need to be doing their homework. Their homework sent home directly links to the sounds, diagraphs/triagraphs that they have been learning in school that week, if they do not practice those, alot of children get left behind. The reading shouldn't even count as homework, surly reading to your kids at some point across the week isnt too much hassle. Dont get me wrong, I do not believe in punishments being placed on the kids if they do not do their homework as that's a little much, but i do think a little bit of homework/revision, helps with what they're already learning in school that week, this helping to solidify their understanding.

I absolutely disagree. Having to force tired, grumpy kids to do additional formal learning outside of the classroom will not benefit them in the slightest. But it will put off learning, school and education in general.