AIBU to wish primary schools would do away with homework

[Mondaymoanday]

When I was at primary, kids would be expected to learn some spellings, read, do times tables, maybe do a termly project at home. I hate how much family time is lost to busywork homework.

I think homework is bullshit in general.

When you're old enough to work, you're generally not expected to continue working after clocking out, so why should school students be made to do homework after school has ended? My son gets homework (year 3) but if he refuses to do it then I don't force him. Plus the homework they get is genuinely too complicated for me. Which I know sounds ridiculous but I'm not an academic person at all. I don't understand most of the stuff they set as homework so if he gets stuck, I can't help him

I don’t agree with home work and I don’t force mine to do it. It’s different in high school as they’re punished if they don’t do it which I really really don’t agree with! They do 6 hours of school in a day and then are expected to go home and do more? I don’t take my work home with me to do more after doing a 8/12 hour shift!

I genuinely don't see the benefit of homework. Kids need rest, play, cuddles and social interaction like we all do. If they want to stay busy I'd rather they engaged in a family or self-led project/activity,

I refused to do any homework in secondary school as I prefer to work in bursts of energy and felt like homework drained me. I became a doctor in the end so it clearly wasn't a big problem (for me).

We found it useful for secondary. My oldest was already used to homework, handing it in on time etc, so one thing less to learn. His friends from other schools had a bit of a rude awakening, especially the ones who were ignoring homework in primary and tried the same in secondary, only to end up in detention
his school was sensible though, about 5-15 min homework a day, and always stuff they can do without help. It was always about giving it a good try, not about being perfect.

DS now 14, had reading, spellings and TT Rockstars weekly, plus optional termly project work for merits during Junior School.

Definitely for primary.

Homework is optional in primary - we didn’t do it. Had no time after getting home from after school club

Our school doesn't set loads. I find it useful seeing how they manage it, it highlights to me where they are struggling etc.

Generally its just:

• spellings
• tables practise in ks2
• an english sheet that is general very easy, it takes 5 mins and they do it very independently (once a week)
• a maths app that is also very very easy & only takes 5 mins (once a week)

our school gives none for any year group beyond reading book and spellings

When all of my 3 DC were at primary school it was an absolute nightmare!

Every week they had spellings, times tables, maths, English and reading. Not to mention competitions; write a poem / story / design something.

And every 6 weeks there was a project for every child to complete; usually it was along the lines of make a model of something. Apparently, this was to give the children some quality family bonding time during the holidays. 🙄

It was all waaaayyyyy too much - and I was so glad when my youngest left and went up to secondary school a few years ago.

Don’t do it. There’s nothing the school can do to force you or them to do it.

Neither of my kids did any homework. Didn’t harm them in the slightest. However they did willingly read a lot of books for pure enjoyment, and still do.

Our school doesn't set loads. I find it useful seeing how they manage it, it highlights to me where they are struggling etc.

Generally its just:

• spellings
• tables practise in ks2
• an english sheet that is general very easy, it takes 5 mins and they do it very independently (once a week)
• a maths app that is also very very easy & only takes 5 mins (once a week)

I definitely think homework should be reduced for both primary and secondary

My son has dyslexia and ADHD, and it always took him hours to do his homework in primary school. He'd spend all evening on it and he couldn't do the afterschool clubs his friends did because of it.

Now hes in high school and most nights he ends up doing his homework while hes eating his tea, he has barely any free time at all

What you were doing as a child is more than I set as a teacher now which shows this isn't a 'schools' problem, it's a 'your school' problem.

Agree completely parents should mainly just do reading and times tables but frankly very few of them do even that. Don't think I've ever had a KS2 class where more than a third of reading records are filled in and I see almost no evidence of times tables being practised at home. A few minutes a couple of days a week would make a massive difference.

I disagree but then our school only set homework after the October break and they get one sheet which lasts a month. For instance my 8 year old had 10 spellings he has to write out in different ways,do spelling sentences for, he has to keep a reading log,write down the temp daily and predict the lowest temp this month. He has to practice his 4th and 8th times table and use an app to work on them. He has a poem to learn for an assembly. As there is no time pressure I have a look at it on the first day we receive it and put the date by which it needs to be returned into my calendar. We read everyday anyway so it isn't a hassle to write down how many pages we have read or to do the temperature log. Otherwise we have 1 day a week where we tackle the other tasks although he had been practicing the poem every other day.

Speak to the school if you have issues and check whether the projects are mandatory or not.

At the very minimum I would be practicing handwriting, spelling and times tables.

Going to be a shock going to secondary if your child does no homework in year six.

Our primary school makes the children lose their break times if it's not done. I'm furious about it.

They have to read a mininum of 3 times a week (fine) have a spellingshed work sheet each, 3 pages of maths each, timetable flashcards, and timetable rockstars. Try fitting that in with two full time working parents and any extra curriculars. And that's before the projects.

It causes our family so much stress because we want to do it but the children are knackered after after school club (no attempt to get them to do homework there either) and weekends seem to fly by. It ends up being done in a rush and through tears and bribes. Not sure it's conducive to meaningful learning.

One thing I dislike about Northern Ireland is the pressure come p6 (year 5) and p7(year 6) in all primaries for the preparation to do the transfer test (11 plus). Nearly everyone gets tutors and the amount of work is insane.

Oh and parents complain if they think primaries in that age group arnt sending out enough work

My DC's primary doesn't set homework, but I actually think DS (yr5) could do with some. I mean, I know we could do stuff on our own to reinforce learning but it's hard to know what exactly (esp. because DS is monosyllabic about what goes on at school) and the idea of doing voluntary extra work would get short shrift from him. But he could do with being stretched a bit more

I am curious, what book in Primary School can be unsuitable for a younger sibling?

If realistically the younger one is bored, let them do quiet play while you are reading, it's not such a big deal?

No homework at ours- just reading and TT Rockstars. It’s one of the reasons I chose it. The results are strong too.

Ok but what about the jump from primary to secondary school when homework is for several subjects, in several forms? If your child has done none (and been told it’s fine not to do it), how do they cope with that?

I see homework as a good thing overall (though I appreciate that some schools do seem to go OTT on the volume of it for younger kids). Engaging parents with their kids’ learning, forming good study habits, teaching kids that learning is an ongoing process, time management and prioritising skills.

I’m for it, but I’m in the minority on MN it seems.

I was of this view initially then my eldest went to secondary and the jump is huge!
Had the primary school not given out homework it would be a huge shock to the system but that way it starts gradually.

If classes were not over-crowded and schools short of teachers, maybe there would be less homework. Classes of 30 or 31 kids, sometimes with just 1 TA (and not always their fully trained teacher) what do you expect?

If kids need to catch up with reading/ spelling/ Maths etc at home, it's a shame parents are so unwilling to be involved.

Kids finish at 3pm in this country, they can't be that tired they can't fit some homework late afternoon/ early evening.

No issues with the secondary transition reported amongst all the parents I know who have done it (I’m a governor so know a few).

The kids adapt really well and completely accept it’s different and move on. The primary has 62 kids, secondary has 900. That doesn’t seem to matter either (to be fair all the feeders are small rural primaries).

School teaches them time management, organisation etc so they are used to working on tasks and projects. They just don’t do it at home, they manage their work in school time instead.

There’s very little data supporting homework on learning outcomes.