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.

So any rule goes, if a school says so thats it.

My children are respectful, well behaved and within the top groups within their classes.

Im aware education ebbs and flows, at the moment they are doing well, if that changes we will of course adapt, but right now i choose not to meander along in life going by someone elses rules without any thought or research to back up what they are saying or infact disprove it.

I fully support education, teachers and school settings, that does not mean i follow every rule because they have said. I am allowed to have my own thoughts without it been seeing as an all or nothing type situation.

DD has just started year 1 and we’re already seeing reading - easily done as we’ve always read to her, maths apps - not keen on this as I’d prefer to limit screen time during the week not increase it, handwriting practice - cursive and it’s a nightmare.

I’ve also been informed by DD and other parents that if the ‘homework’ isn’t completed, they have to finish it off in break and lunchtime. Strikes me as a way to kill a love for learning especially at 5 years old. I’ve been informed by the school that they haven’t even started learning times tables in class yet and we’re supposed to be completing them on this maths app, which also seems unfair.

At parents night, albeit it was in march they are fully keeping up with maths and within the top groups.

I don’t agree with homework in primary bar reading and spellings, but would be uneasy with telling my children to ignore teachers’ instructions. Also, my children would hate to get told off for not doing it!

I think this is the kind of thing i’d especially object to as it sounds like it actually requires more effort from the parent than the child!

In the GCSE years, 9-12, homework generally serves as a practice of newly taught skills, in the same way that a child will practice music for example outside of the regular lesson. The syllabus is so full that spending a lot of time in the classroom practising a skill would be wasteful.
Would those who disapprove of Homework also stop them practising their music etc?

A reading book and spellings every week is actually useful for me to understand what my child is capable of and help him progress as sadly he's not a natural reader and is a little behind where he should be. (Despite our best efforts reading to him since he was a baby he's just not fussed about books.) I can see why it wouldn't seem as important if your children love to read for fun, but I'm not sure I'd be able to convince mine to read with me if it wasn't his homework.

If a school accepts my child they agree to my rules.

Did you make them aware of your 'rules' and tell them that those were going to be applied when you accepted the place?

When mine were in primary I asked ds's teacher to not give homework over the weekends and school holidays.

I explained that during the week there was time to do homework but that weekends and school holidays were strictly family time.

It fell on deaf ears. The few times we didn't hand in summer holiday homework resulted in a snippy note in their books.

One year the summer project was a beach scene in a shoe box (ffs), did the project, happily glued in real frozen prawns to add a bit of realism.

@NumberTheory What, did you put your terms and conditions on the application form then?

OP - but are they finishing all the maths they are set in lessons? Sounds like you might want to look in their books to get this answer if you don't have it. This is important - it will show you how much maths they are actually doing at school.

Spellings - it can take 5 mins to check they know the list. Do they get tested? Do you tell the teacher they must be excluded from spelling tests? That's not a precedent I'd want to set.

Giving 5-year-olds mandatory homework because you think that otherwise they'll never cope with homework at age 11 is a little like making children wear impractical uniforms for years because otherwise as grown adults they'll never cope if their job has a uniform. A strange sort of logic.

I’m an ex-teacher and I don’t make my primary age DC do homework. Sometime they want to do it because it’s an interesting project, and we read every night, but I’d rather they go to sports clubs, Rainbows, swimming etc after school. They need that down time. Both are doing very well academically so it’s having no impact. But to reiterate, we do read every night, and I do think that’s important.

If a school accepts my child they agree to my rules.

Good Lord - and we wonder why teachers are leaving the profession in droves 🙄.

In answer to the question, I have no issue with homework in primary school, provided it can be completed by the child without significant adult input. My DD in year 4 has weekly spellings and times tables practice, plus an online vocabulary app thing, all of which I’m ok with. Less keen on the ‘build an ancient Egyptian burial chamber out of loo rolls’ type tasks which inevitably end up being completed by the parents!

I have mixed feelings on homework, especially when it's excessive amounts, but overall do think it's a good idea for them to have some and to at least try to complete most of what is asked. I also find it sad/worrying that some parents feel they/their children don't have enough time to do homework at all - in that case I might be considering if the children are doing too many after school/weekend activities, and drop one so that they can spend a little more time on homework.

The researcb saying no benefit - well that would depend on what the homework is. Because spllings if the spchild can memorise from lessons alone would waste your time. Same as ttr if your kid never forgets them and is very fast.
Clearly extra work in an area a child struggles with will help - that is logic!
It is why 1-2-1 tutoring works.
Very little of oue primary work was tailored - basically none.
Both dd would have benefitted from moving up a year on the maths app.
Somilarly in y7 the different maths app says its tailoring the homework - maybe it is but it is very slow..
Whereas for sats we did 'homework' of past papers and cgp books and that really helped. Went from not finishing the arithmetic to 40/40 in 8 weeks. We targetted the areas she struggled with - time and measire etc.
A great school would be stretching kids - ours doesnt do that. A child who works slowly gets a lot less done in class so less practise.

A kid in dd1 year never did the maths app. Had to do it at breaks. She was not high achieving years ahead child. Kids who did homework etc have all come out with exceeding on the maths sats. And most gone into higher sets. It will affect kods who did none of the work until they do enough secondary work to improve.

I hate and dread the homework. It's a constant battle getting DS to do it. He tries his best but there is such alot he can't grasp and he's falling behind. He's Year 5. We're going to have to get him extra tuition outside of school. He has little interest in reading and his only focus is games on screens. It's a nightmare and will only get worse

I assume your oldest child is at the upper end of primary, as you have three school age kids? If so, it's their responsibility and you don't need to make them. It's up to the child to do their homework or not do their homework, and if they get in trouble for not doing it then that's their problem. I don't think you need to get involved really OP (unless I've got that wrong and your oldest is in Y2 or Y3).

To as much of an extent as the school that accepted them made me aware of their rules.

A simple no would have sufficed.

Yes oldest is P6....would that be Y6 in england?

Oldest does tend to slot in HW as and when she can, but as her parents we dont make it a high priority so dont enforce it iykwim.

Id say she maybe does it 70% of the time, but always participates in school projects and solo talks which are also part of the HW. She works diligently on them producing some great results and only really involving us at the end to have a read over etc.

We have reading daily. Maths sheet once a week and literacy sheet once a week. Time tables practise encouraged daily

Also just re read my OP and i made a mistake, the teacher that's having the issues is my middle child teacher and shes in P5.

So you assume schools don’t make their rule explicit to parents before accepting children?

I actually had a conversation with my kids’ reception teachers about homework before they started at the school. We were much on the same page, which was a bit of a relief. They had to set homework as school policy, but they didn’t think it valuable except for reading - which we did lots of.