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.

Reading, spellings and times tables I am fully supportive of. I don’t think any primary children should get any more homework on top of this. In the end I refused to do any tasks on top of this when my children were in KS1, especially the ridiculous ones that took up a whole weekend and ended up with me doing more than the kids! Now my children are in KS2 there is so much pressure from the Teachers to the children to do the homework that we end up doing it all now (low grades in end of year reports because they didn’t make the effort to complete all homework, kids coming home in tears because the teacher told them off for not doing homework). I just think it’s such a burden to throw into children who have very short childhoods and parents who are overstretched working and trying to spend quality time with their children. I bloody hate it.

And I should add that I HATE all the bloody apps. We have TT Rockstars for times tables, DB Primary for English homework, Mymaths for maths homework, EdShed for spellings. With 4 children I have 4 different log-ins for each app. So we have to log in to 16 different homework accounts per week. Bloody ridiculous and time consuming. Why can’t it all be streamlined into one app??!

We're in Oxfordshire and also use apps for the maths! Got to love TTRS and Sumdog!

I've found my kids reading has improved so much making them do 5 lots if reading! Sometimes we have a binge read at the weekend if I know were going to be busy.

With classes of 30 it's so important for parents to also help kids learn the basics. Kids need that 1 to 1 attention.

It takes 5 hours for a class teacher to listen to each child read for 10 mins just once!

Right.
🤔

If a school accepts my child they agree to my rules

And this sums up why the education system is so utterly fucked.

I haven't rtft but am a teacher and would rather not set homework.

It's an extra job to find something purposeful, set it, mark it, monitor receipt and chase up late submissions.

It is not useful to me because I can't tell how much support they had.

BUT it is useful in informing parents of where their children are at. I have had countless conversations with parents who were surprised hate their child couldn't independently complete a piece of age-appropriate homework. In lots of cases it has led to more support at home - more reading, times table practise etc.

In our school the expectation is to spend 30 minutes per week, plus reading and spelling. It's not a big commitment. If parents support it, it can help to foster good attitudes that continue into secondary education - doing a bit every night, doing it on the night it's set instead of the morning it's due, asking for help if you need it. Certainly I am never surprised when secondary collleagues talk about pupils who don't do their homework because they're usually the ones who didn't do it for us either and have decided it's optional.

I always made my kids do it - good habits are soon ingrained and I always said it wasn't fair on the other kids if some opted out.

Because they're all different companies and businesses, they'd have to all agree to merge.

Schools choose the best apps and providers, the ones that suit the needs of the pupils. They also pay money for your children's subscriptions so it's galling to hear you bitching about it. Can't you just write the passwords down? If used regularly, and shown how to log on, kids from Y2 are able to get on and do it themselves.

I don’t mind my son being given homework in Year 2. However he has never been to an airshow (I’m not sure I’ve even ever taken him to a village show if I’m honest) and he only plays playground level football so clearly he needs the educational challenge. Over my dead body will he read David Williams though.

I hate homework. My son does his half arsed after a lot of moaning. Even the reading is done miserably and as fast as possible. Lots of the time I just forge the book to say we’ve read but haven’t 😳

I’m not brave enough to say no though!

They use my tax money to pay for the subscriptions, they aren’t paying it out of their own pockets as some benevolent act to me. And surely someone can make an app that has spellings, times tables, English and maths homework all on one app, with one log in?! And haven’t you ever bitched! had a rant about something that’s annoying to you?!

Reading at home and a few spellings or practice times tables are not unreasonable.

YANBU apart from reading, time tables and spellings. Most project work is done by parents. My 76 year old mother never did homework in primary but managed to survive a very strict grammar then full time work at 16. You don’t need to be doing homework at age 5 to prepare you for secondary homework. We can adapt to changing expectations as we grow.

lots of my DC’s primary teachers agree with me but have to set homework as some parents think it’s necessary and would complain if not set, can’t please everyone. We used out of school time for activities that got DC engaged and interested in the world which had paid off in their aspirations in secondary.

The schools are paying for the subscriptions from their school budget. It might be 'taxpayers money' but we don't get enough of it and try to spend it wisely. At our school we discuss the subscriptions every year but invest because we get good feedback from parents and pupils, and when used regularly they yield results. It's a shame you can't appreciate the fact that the school are trying to buy something engaging and useful. Some of the apps you mention get good results for children who use them regularly. And it's hardly the school's fault a handful of companies don't get together and put all of their collective software onto one app. But then I guess you'd have people moaning that they hadn't been provided with the ideal set of apps and wanting to swap one out.

People work.
People have more than one child.
People don't have teaching degrees.
Children have dyslexia, ADHD, autism, fatigue, burn out.

Cooked meals, bath time, bed time, reading, playing. If children don't learn enough in school time they need to make lessons more engaging not get parents to work another shift in the evening. I don't blame teachers but they don't kick back enough.

Let kids be kids.

So schools would be responsible for academic education only ? and parents responsible for parenting only ?, now there's a novel idea !!!
Parents should be able to do all the parenting at home and If they dont then their resposibile for their childs failure to become a well rounded young person.
Schools could drop all the time they spend being substitute parents and cease to be to blamed for everything except failure to educate !
Now if this was the realiity your logic might have a leg to stand on , sadly but unsurprisingly its not .
Just a thought to ponder a bit of a wild card though , schools and parents working in partnership ?🤔

As a primary teacher of 30 years, I also dislike homework for primary age pupils. However, in my experience, for all the parents that hate homework, the same number love and demand it.
I think reading at home, practising spellings and times-tables is helpful with some formal homework in Years 5&6 in readiness for secondary school.

Your child, your rules.

But practically, how do you ensure your child is not penalised? E.g. setting based on perceived ability at self study homework?

DS is two weeks into reception and being given homework. It's too much, he's 4

Homework is given because it’s part of the ofsted criteria. I think some homework is worthwhile but it depends what it is. My dcs school give reading book, spellings and numbots/TT rockstars/my maths. I think this is actually fine. My children love reading and read to themselves every night so sometimes the school reading book is a bit of a pain but not everyone does this so I can why we have a book. I think spellings and times tables etc are important so I’m happy to do these at home. The apps the school uses are easy to access. I think lengthy writing homeworks or projects are just rubbish. I’m pleased our school doesn’t do this.

My ds started reception this year. We have nightly reading plus a reading diary to fill in. Also weekly phonics and letter writing (nursery was great with phonics so we don't have to bother with that as he has no issues there). And now we have to do daily phonics games with him too. He loves them and we do them on drop offs and pick ups, but we're both full time working parents (as are many) with a younger child too. My friend in another school, reception, has no homework...

I'm glad that the homework so far seems sensible at least, helping bring them to the same level as lots have been at home until now, but it does seem excessive!

Sounds just like our school @QWE96

Not a teacher but absolutely agree with this. Sending home a short maths or English sheet tells me what they’ve been learning in school and when I observe them work through it, I can see whether they’ve grasped concepts or not. I also am able to see which spellings they may find hard or where their mental arithmetic could do with more practice. I don’t really care if the teacher marks it or not as I can work out if it’s right or not and guide them myself.

We do 5 minutes each day of mental arithmetic and spelling practice with each child from second term of reception plus 20-30minutes daily reading (both them reading and me reading). I get no complaints because it’s such short amounts of work and the reading is enjoyable (books are always their choice)

Oh we're in Colchester. Yeah my daughter's school uses TTRS. There has been a couple of new reading apps added this term but I can't remember the names.

We read the books at home with her as well. Sometimes the school ones don't seem as interesting. I bought a bulk set of Biff, Chip & Kipper books which my daughter seems to enjoy reading.

My 7 year old has been given an A4 sized Collins maths text book and an English text book from school for homework. She is expected to do 5 pages of Maths a week and 5 pages of English a week, as well as reading daily and practicing 10 allocated spellings, and a termly at-home project. She loves doing it all, but honestly I'm struggling with getting it done alongside ensuring my 13 year completes his secondary homework, and then doing all their after school activities, dinners, bath times, bedtimes whilst I'm already exhausted from work😩😩

Yes I agree. I don't see the point of homework. I think the kids are already frazzled from all the work in school so making them work in evenings /weekends is too much. But I still get them to do it even tho I don't expect them to put much effort in. As long as attempt was made I'm happy.

The most stupid things is when they get an art piece for homework. Like make a Viking helmet or create a stone age village model... my child is not capable of coming up with or creating anything like that! So it becomes a parent homework activity!