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.

I'm 50-50.

Reading is non optional IMO.

However my eldest and my nephew LOVE homework. It only takes us 15-30 minutes (Y2 and Y3), they get to write on our whiteboard and it prompts conversations/we have fun with it together.

Y2 loves sending it to her teacher via the class app and reading the nice replies she gets.

Pages and pages of packets and busy work is a no from me, but so far we've not found homework arduous/a slog.

I vehemently disagree with homework that turns into homework for the parents instead, like the family tree mentioned above.

Your family set-up and others will be different. Their circumstances will be different. Expectations of reading out of school need to be created. My DS loved his teachers setting science projects, something I'm not skilled at doing.

Also getting children used to having regular home work makes transition to senior school much easier.

Controversially, I don't mind it! DS is in Y2 and has weekly maths, reading, spelling and comprehension. We do spellings in the kitchen while I'm getting tea ready (5 mins max) We read for ten minutes before bed. Maths on a Saturday morning (10 mins) and his comprehension on a Sunday (10 mins). So we're talking about an hour a week?? Plus his screen time is tied to whether he's done his homework or not so is a good bribing tool in this house!

Primaries set homework because it's generally popular with parents who mistakenly think that it's a sign of a good school.

YABU

One reason why a lot of Brits struggle with Maths is they never actually learn the basics properly at primary age.

They get progressed through primary without knowing multiplication, addition etc. fluently.

Then they reach secondary and can't cope.

Imagine learning to read if you don't know the alphabet properly. It's like that.

And it's hard to learn the basics fluently without practicing at home as well. If it's not being set as homework it's your duty as a parent to set it yourself.

Some of the work though - ''Research a middle eastern country, and prepare a presentation on it's cultural differences to ours. How is life different for children living there compared to your own? Compare their national cuisine to your own and include photographs of you making a recipe from that country. Be sure to include an introduction, some illustrations and finally a summery of your observations'' ....

Or just let the 8 year old enjoy her blinking half term break! 🙄

DT’s didn’t do homework in primary and still managed to finish school with all A’s in GCSE and A level. They had mandatory homework club in senior school.
There was no time for it at primary with a late collection from after school club, music and sports clubs and some downtime.

I like the way my daughter's school does homework. They are expected to read daily and encouraged to learn their weekly spelling words. Then there's one 'project' piece of homework per term based on their current theme.

This is set right at the beginning of term with the expectation that they start sharing after half term and is normally up to the child how they deliver the message of what they've learnt about the theme. Some draw pictures/posters, others create presentations, others write stories. One of my daughter's friends made a short video of his toys playing out a story from the theme.

The idea is to engage them with learning rather than rote repetition of tasks and it goes down really well because it's completely personal and gives the child a chance to show what they've learnt in a way that interests them.

All specific learning is done in class where the children have equal access to support, environment and resources. Much fairer way I think.

5 hours of schooling a day, equating to 25 hours a week and your claiming they dont learn the basics at school, and furthermore a "sums sheet" that takes on average 15/30 mins trumps the 5 hours of school time and that is the reason children cant fluently rhyme off multiplication?

Teachers can't please everyone. I've sat in a parent forum at an infant school with a parent ranting that there were not enough worksheets for homework and they were depriving her 5 year old of a fair chance at life. Whatever level of homework they set, it will be too much for some, or too little for others, or (often) both at the same time.

Encourage your child to do the projects, but don't push for perfectionism. They need to hand in something, it doesn't have to be The Best. Don't be afraid to stop at 20 mins or whatever and write on their work how long they did it for. But personally I would not wage war against the setting of homework altogether.

I've been told by primary teachers that instant recall of time tables isn't necessary as long as you can work them out quickly. They admit that they don't instantly know.

I see arithmetic practice as important as reading practice. Even 5 mins a day makes a massive difference over time.

I don't agree with it. I did a Masters in Education and one of my assignments was a review of research studies on the effectiveness of homework. It was really clear that it's ineffective at best before the age of 14 or so, with the exception of reading at home.

I hated school and having to do 'more school' at home made me miserable even as an academically able child. It's worse for those who struggle, especially if parents don't or can't assist with it.

I think primary schools should have at most a list of optional tasks for parents and children who want to do something more directed at home. No stress, no penalty for not doing it, and if they want to use the maths app but not make the model castle (or vice versa) that's fine.

Reading, spelling and times tables - schools just don’t have enough time for these and parents have to take responsibility. Anything else should be optional (I suspect most teachers would agree with this, not just parents).

@Parker231 i honestly don't think many parents mind a good old fashioned maths sheet sent home on a friday with boxes to tick and a few answers to be written out. If Freddy has umpteen sweets and he wants to share them with his mates ect. ect.

''Here's the sheet, here's your pencil. Sit now and take 15 mins to fill it out and after that we'll quickly go over it and then we can go to the park''.

But we don't get much of that. It's lots of weird open to interpretation stuff like ''search round the house for examples of ways to save energy and make a bloody presentation'' type stuff.

It takes a lot of motivation to do it and to keep prompting them to do it and for some families it creates resentment and disengagement from the school and from homework that is actually doable like 10 mins reading and a quick maths sheet.

I’ve always been very anti homework in primary. My dcs attended a lovely fluffy village primary school which didn’t set any except a termly project which was optional. We did occasional ones of those, but they were really just a test of parent’s crafting skills (I was particularly proud of my model of the hanging gardens of Babylon…).

BUT ds has had a hell of a time adjusting to year 7 now he’s moved up to secondary. The homework load has been a massive shock to his system, and it would have helped if the primary school had broken them in gently to the idea in year 6.

No, only reading. But my kids are ND.
They have hobbies they enjoy but kids also need downtime, boredom is good for them!

When I was in primary school the only homework we had was learning spellings and times tables. I was already an avid reader so didn't need to be told to read at home.

When my DD was in primary there was some level of homework all the way through and I am not sure how much use most of it was. Fair enough listening to her read but, like both her parents, she soon became a bookworm anyway. Some of the work sheets she had I really am not sure what purpose they served.

I once became the world's most unpopular mum when she had to find out five facts about George VI and I wouldn't let her use the Internet because I have loads of books on Royalty so I heaved them in her direction and said "Here, look them up from a book". The moans and groans and huffing and sighing!

I thought it was very telling though in Year 6 when they were preparing for SATs. They had one very experienced older teacher who specialized in Maths so he taught both Year 6 classes for that. He never set any homework at all during that year. He didn't need to because he could get everything across perfectly well in the lesson time. Every child in the year got at least level 4, many got level 5.

I think a bit of practising spellings/maths/times tables is pretty reasonable and helps solidify learning. I've never found it causes difficulties: supervising a worksheet/ book report while cooking dinner is pretty easy. Neither has it prevented her doing after school activities. However, I think holiday craft projects for small kids are the devil's work. We had to make London landmarks one Christmas. One kid brought in a model of the Shard with a working lift. I'm not convinced it was all the work of a 5 year old.

Homework was my pet hate and I was the teacher.
Reading, spelling and tables absolutely. Anything else questionable in it's usefulness.
I worked in a very deprived area and then a mixed area. No point setting homework that required anything more than a pen or pencil. Because a large number of children wouldn't have the items at home.
Some parents would complain about not enough homework, some that there was too much.
I couldn't send anything that we'd rely on later like a research topic because not everyone would do it.
Some homework in the later part of Y6 worked because the children saw it as grown up and getting ready for high school.

No.
School is for working, home is for relaxing and play.

Fyi: I don't include reading as homework

@Toastiesforever yes YABU. Children practicing sums at home on their own is good practice for speed, they build on what they learn at home.

Spellings are essential.

If your children can do this homework quickly then that's great. And if they can't, then they need the practice.

Only bit I would ask about are the books - do they follow a specific scheme? How do children progress? How are the children's pronunciation? Could a parent or the PA broaden the books on offer if they are very repetitive? Maybe your child is above the categories school offers and would be allowed to read freely? Lower level books (Reception - year 2) use the phonics for spelling in a structured fashion; might seem odd but there can be logic there

I agree with you to an extent but on the other hand, it helps get them into a routine of doing homework after school, rather than say, just gaming.

We're in Ireland and DS had homework set every day from Junior Infants (Reception) onwards.

He's so used to the routine that at Secondary school, he's very good at organising his time effectively to get it all done.

However, I'm not sure how he'd have kept on top of it if he was doing any after school activities?

Teachers don’t have time to teach all of the kids at school. If they have 30 kids for 6 hours, that’s 12 minutes per child. The bright kids won’t be stretched. The kids who are struggling won’t get enough attention. As a parent it’s your responsibility to ensure your child keeps up with the class and meets age related targets, by teaching them at home if necessary.

The books they read tend to be ahead of their age range when they read them and i dont mean the subject just the words/meanings, the do occasionally come down and ask us a word meaning/pronunciation.

In Scotland there is a standardised test, its not a pass or fail but has a range which would be classed as above average, below average and average for their age, my 2 older DCS scored off the chart and well ahead for reading, literacy and comprehension and average for numeracy which means they are in line with their learning.

They do ready independently very well apart from youngest DC who currently insists on us reading 3 books a night before bedtime but im not entirely sure whether thats a love of books yet or delaying bedtime 😂