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.

My dc has just started Year 1 and has just started getting real homework. In reception it was just reading books, which didn't feel like hard work as DD enjoyed it and it was part of the bedtime routine. Now she gets spellings to practice for a weekly test, and a worksheet. She has enjoyed the worksheets and I've enjoyed doing the activities with her and keeping up to date with what she's learning. The spellings are a bit of a pain because she finds it boring and we have to practice daily for her to get it. I expect she'll be the same with times tables. And we are also doing daily music practice (separately from school) which just adds to the daily burden. And she's also very into extracurricular clubs so has something after school most days, so it makes it hard to fit in, even though it doesn't take a long time, it's a mental load. Luckily she doesn't need to go to wraparound care though.

She will probably apply to some selective schools for secondary so it's good from our pov to have her used to the idea of studying at home. And there are some types of learning that just need regular practice, eg times tables, music practice.

Not read the thread, however, I said you are bu because not every child has a parent who can or wants to support.
I don't agree with hw for the sake of it though.

Reading and times tables is all that is required at primary school.

I find the variation in what homework is given to primary age really interesting. My niece gets homework each night so over the week she will have had 20 spellings plus sentences using the words, comprehension, maths, verbal and non-verbal reasoning plus reading.

We've got into a good routine but it does make the day quite long - I do worry about whether it is too much pressure however she is very pleased when she gets good marks!

I completely understand how this can make it harder for after school activities which are also very important. I honestly don't know how parents do it!

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

So am I reading this right? You prefer this to learning? You don’t see this as a pressure and taking time away from developing academic skills needed for secondary school?

Why do you think they won’t be learning anything in competitive sport? It can be excellent for developing a variety of skills that are useful in many areas of life (including academia).

We recently did a pupil questionnaire about homework and this is exactly the sort of homework the children want and asked for. They love doing shared projects with their parents. They're also the homework they remember doing into adulthood. So it may be a pain for you but there's a good chance that your child enjoys it, unless they pick up on any negative vibes from you. Most homework of this type has a long lead time so I always used to plan it out over the 2-3 weeks or whatever it is.

I find this fashion for being very anti homework really silly and I think people have taken what was initially a sensible desire to protect their children from stress and taken it to ludicrous extremes.

When my DD was in primary pretty much all of the (mainly very middle class) parents were always railing against homework as being the devil's invention. It was a kind of dog whistle thing to say "oh we never do it", as if this was some badge of honour. I remember thinking "really? you've all benefited from learning a bit of self-discipline as kids and now you're basically encouraging your children to chuck that away in favour of 'creative play' or something".

Like anything else, it's all about moderation. A year 2 kid being set two hours of homework a night is of course ludicrous. As is being asked to make a PowerPoint or spend hours foraging for hard to find craft stuff. But it's a big jump from this to saying "I don't agree with homework". Half an hour of spellings or times tables a couple of times a week is absolutely fine in my view and is hardly going to traumatise them.

A lot of kids arrive in year 7 with literally no experience of homework whatsoever and find it a massive culture shock. Unless a child is SEND or has specific emotional difficulties I struggle to understand why getting into the habit of completing short tasks and returning them is going to do any serious damage.

I honestly think we need to woman up about this: our kids' education is already way behind many of our global peers. Why wouldn't you support them in learning a few habits early on which will make it easier when they need to really apply themselves?

Excellent post, thepeopleversuswork.

Agree. I know lots of mums who see it exactly as you say, like a badge of honour, and this has of course rubbed off on DS. I try to encourage him by telling him, well those kids won't do as well, will they? and he thinks about that and hopefully that sinks in!

It totally depends.

I found HW in primary useful as it meant we spotted several issues with DD which the school failed to see as she was the perfect middle ability child and nobody realised that she was actually failing to keep up with some maths which would have caused severe issues later on.

In a class of 30 it's easy to get lost.

I hated the arts and craft homework she couldn't do without parental help.

In secondary it's often independent learning to prepare for the topic and learn to revise which is crucial for Y10/11 and later 6th form if they go.

Agree @Thepeopleversuswork you put it far more eloquently than I could

@BooseysMom

Yeah the badge of honour thing is very odd and I think it’s a sign of a decadent and pretty lost society when affluent people who have benefited from a high quality education themselves are actively encouraging their kids not to strive or apply themselves.

I can totally understand that families where there isn’t a background of parental engagement with education or where the parents have limited schooling would find it a more challenging concept but for university educated people in two parent families with no financial stress to tell their kids “homework isn’t important, let’s just enjoy (whatever it is)” is very short sighted.

If you want to do well in life, applying yourself at school is a massive advantage. It’s not the be all and end all and it shouldn’t take over a child’s life but there’s no dodging the fact that it’s important. Relying on your own generation’s cultural capital and espousing some vague notion that better mental health = doing as little as you can get away with is a recipe for breeding entitled and demotivated children.

This is how societies decline.

Spot on 👍🏼

I’d also add that ‘topic’ homework like writing on the term topic and finding out stuff in an area of interest within it prepares them for secondary school. Yes, it does involve the parents but I never minded that.

I would certainly argue that more than 2 extra curricular week day classes is far more detrimental to them than some homework

More that if it’s heavily weighted toward that and means they can’t successfully complete set homework, it’s too much. Unless sport is very likely a career path or they are superlative at it.

Homework is reading, learning tables, maths games, spellings. Anything more is unnecessary.

No your not reading it right at all.

I see it all as a balance and one doesn't trump the other. I think they compliment one another.

For example competing under pressure and learning that skill can also help with the pressured environment of exam taking or standing up in front of the class and presenting.

Resilience and learning that they may not get it right first time but if they keep trying they will is something they learn in their sport, this can also come into play when they are studying, the resilience to keep going even when it feels tough.

These are a few examples of many how their competitive sports compliment their education.

@Toastiesforever

For example competing under pressure and learning that skill can also help with the pressured environment of exam taking or standing up in front of the class and presenting.

I don't disagree with that and for some kids competitive sport does build resilience and ambition (not to mention having health benefits).

But I think it's a stretch to argue that competitive sport should be a greater priority for a primary age child than basic homework.

For one thing only a relatively small handful of children will continue to excel at competitive sport beyond school. That's not a reason not to do it but for most kids in most circumstances doing well academically will have more benefits than doing loads of extra sport. If you are not good at sport and are pushed really hard to do it it can backfire horribly: I've seen this happen a lot.

A much greater proportion of children will get more overall benefit from applying themselves to a bit of basic education (spelling, arithmetic, reading comprehension) than they will from doing six hours a week of (for example) hockey.

Swings and roundabouts and some kids will get disproportionate benefit from sport. But to argue that competitive sport is overall of greater benefit homework is just the wrong emphasis.

Yeah i hear what your saying but i dont think their sport is more important than homework, more that i think if i weigh it up, they have their school hours, then their sport hours, then their family time.

So i suppose overall our family life, which includes all other aspects is more important than homework currently.

I know this will change, and our plan is to transition more our oldest DC into homework when they reach P7.

I suppose right now our family is sitting in a sweet spot, everything seems to be running smoothly and working well and we are really comfortable in our decisions at the moment.

Im not saying im totally right and everyone is wrong, im constantly trying to make the best decisions for my children in their education and general up bringing.

And i suppose the more ive thought about it the more ive realised that we do homework but not in the traditional sense, in the car we will play games and shout out sums, my husband has taught them their times tables to a point its natural to them whereas i never learned mine by memory but yes we dont really pay much attention to the traditional spelling and sums sheets given out.

Competitive sport is great for building resilience and confidence. It doesn’t have to come at the expense of homework if you’re organised. Ds plays football, rugby and cricket so 3 different sports teams there with regular training and matches throughout the year. He also plays an instrument. Dd dances competitively, both troupe and solos plus singing. Dh and I both work in demanding jobs, but we’re organised and the kids always get their homework done on time. I agree about the stupid project type homework’s but reading, timetables and spellings are important.

No. I think the only homework should be reading except possible in year 6 to prepare ti for secondary school.

I know this is defo part of the issue for us.

DH works from home and picks the kids up from school but the second they get home its snack, changed and off to sport.
DCs train 4.30-8.30pm, dinner, (sometimes shower) and bed when they come in so maybe 9.30pm before they are down and me and DH actually sit.

But your right we could do it on friday nights or at the weekend but then i worry where is the kids downtime.

I also think i work full time, then coming home and adding to that work would just be awful for me so that aspect bothers me about homework also at their age.

There is a reality that the world has changed and many households don’t have someone at home. My children get picked up at 6 from wrap around. We have to fit in chill out time, dinner, bath bed, any activities. In infants I prioritised reading and that has built a good foundation but I’m currently prioritising piano practice for my y3 and reading for my reception child. May be the wrong choice but we can do one thing well in the evening. Homework is the weekend for us if it needs to happen. Mid week is just too hard to fit in.

I understand about the pressure to fit it all in but seriously... I work a 50+ hour week and I'm a lone parent.

Homework at primary is very unlikely to be more than at maximum half an hour a day. If it's not, you need to take it up with the school.

What I find slightly bizarre about many of these posts is that people seem to be taking as read that "chill out" time or clubs or music lessons take automatic priority over homework. These things are all important, sure, and people are busy and tired but the idea that homework is the last on a very long list of priorities is an odd assumption. It can't be unmanageable to find an hour or so a week for it if you're finding time for piano lessons?

Again I would think it depends on what the primary school homework is.

If it’s reading (which we’d do anyway) or some help with maths or spelling, then fine. If it’s some other crap like crafts or projects that involves me doing the majority of the work, then I think other things should definitely be prioritised.