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'm more than happy to support with practising reading/spelling/writing/maths at home.

Our DC also get various optional tasks/projects relating to topic work in school, which are always really woolly and hard to get them to engage with (mostly because DC always furiously deny having covered the topic at all in class). So we don't tend to do those as they feel more like homework for us than DC.

My kids would be worse are times tables, spelling, maths reading etc if they didnt do homework.

Normally do 10/15 minutes on a night after they've been in the bath, they grumble about doing it, but just part of our evening routine.

Cant say we lose precious family time to it.

It's so bloody granular too

Refer to this page in that book, then check line 27 of the green folder etc etc.

They should just give them a book each week to read, then discuss it on Fri. That would be far more valuable.

Well that's easy Just make it optional

Mine is year 5 and they don’t do homework in her school. She gets nothing- all school work is done in school. There are optional apps if you want to do them

The majority of kids DONT do the 11pmus though. My DD did but she was also at a primary school that didn't set homework and never had " tuition" for 11 plus either. Had some practice papers . Got her into a good grammar

Pointless box ticking. I'd ban it altogether except for a gentle introduction in year six.
Both of mine were so tired after school it added nothing to their education but lots of stress to family life. In the end I told the school that DC2 wouldn't be doing it any more.
He still managed to get A*s in GCSE and A level and a first in maths at uni so I didn't ruin his education

I'm a teacher and I don't give any homework. I just encourage families to read with their children as often as they can - stressing that any reading is better than no reading, and if their child prefers graphic novels (for example) then encourage that. I'm not aware of any research that supports any good reason for primary homework. After school time should be spent on family time / relaxing and regulating / fresh air / moving the body / hobbies.

It’s awful and it ruins family life. It also gives unfair advantage to children of engaged parents. The last hour or the first hour of school should be homework time.

Why are schools still teaching times tables in year 3. We learnt up to 12 time in infants

2 of my kids never did homework in primary school. One of them has a first class honours degree and the other one is still school age but does the work required for high school/exams etc.

Its standard curriculum - they start in year 1 learning simpler times tables and progressing up to being able to recall all up to 12x12 in by the end of Year 4.

That's changed then. I wonder why they've chosen to drag it out another couple of years.

Congratulations. Would you like to enter a battle of 'who has it harder'?

Unfortunately this is not the case in London. Every kid is so super tutored and you have 700-800 applicants for 60-90 places that without a lot of work you just don’t get in. I know super clever kids, top of the class, grade 5 and 6 in two instruments, who have spent the whole summer practicing 4-5 hours a day to get into St Paul, Westminster and the like. They were found around 1-1.5 hr homework (including paper) a day with and without tutor snd around 3-4 hours over the weekend since year 4. Kids in London are tutored since year 2, twice or three times a week. It is not openly spoken as parents are shy to admit but everybody does it.

If you want. I’d win though 😀

YANBU it’s a joke and I think primary schools behave like they are the police tbh

Evidence suggests it has zero effect on educational outcomes. Why is primary education in this country not more informed by research?

Prep school here: year 6
daughter had for the weekend:
mental arithmetic that’s bloody hard
a science project (research and write up)
And English comprehension!

i ended up doing her science project for cos cos she also had two parties and her sport to do. It’s ridiculous and im happy to tell the school we didn’t have a chance to do it.

i believe reading and spelling is all we should have

I think there's a couple of things to unpack, here:

It also gives unfair advantage to children of engaged parents. That's just always going to be the case, in all sorts of ways, and I don't think it's a reason to stoop to the lowest common denominator. For example, should parents stop reading with their children because it's disadvantaging other children? The actual homework tasks aren't making a difference educationally, though, which is what is so frustrating and what a lot of parents recognise. Sitting around the table fora meal together as a family and all chatting, with no devices, would have a more positive outcome than homework tasks.

Yes 99% of DDs school friends were tutored. People were prepared to move counties if their daughter got a place in the school. There's 130 ( 95 when DD went)places and had 1350 applications so not really any different from your London schools. It was the top scoring girls that were offered places. Passing 11plus wasn't enough

If blind arrogance wins, sure.

I would have more, I buy work books for my DDs because they enjoy doing them, and as we’re in a grammar school area so the more practice they get before the 11+ the better.

Well they can't do an extra year of counting/sounds because of the national curriculum which they have to follow. It's well known most primary teachers think the curriculum is too broad and too much too soon but they have to generally teach what it dictates in the year groups that it states.

I don't really understand your complaint with general arithmetic. That's all about keeping skills ticking over. Nearly all schools will do arithmetic starters (Tough Ten/Flashback Fours/Arithmetic Challenge etc) in class every week (or even day) even if the main focus for the week is long division or whatever. You can't do fractions once a year then not visit them again until next year or children would forget what they had learnt.

I agree with the OP. Maths times tables yes, spelling yes, not something taking up a large amount of time each evening. Partly because I want to see children doing things other than being sat over a table or tablet especially in the summer, when they should be outdoors as much as they can.