AIBU for refusing primary school homework apart from reading?

[AntiPrimaryHomework]

My dc are 7,9 and 13. We’ve never done any homework at primary school. I strongly disagree with it all except reading.

The school aren’t happy but my dc all have ASD and ADHD diagnosed and they are too exhausted every weekday and at weekends we let them play and relax and take them out.

At secondary school we believe homework is necessary and ds1 happily does his but for primary we just don’t agree at all.

Does anyone else feel the same ?

I thought schools were moving away from weekly homework. When my DDs were in primary school they had reading, spellings and x tables to learn plus a piece of maths/English homework a week. Then they changed it so still reading, spelling and x tables (which tbh didn't take long, apart from the reading but that was because they loved to read) but they could then pick two projects a term for homework.
It did increase the amount of children who completed homework when it wasn't every week. W lot of the schools round here still do it that way. Might be something to suggest at your school.
However I think you just don't want to do homework with them every night (and who can blame you) so if you don't like the idea of suggesting the change of homework frequency just keep doing what you're doing. Doesn't really matter what anyone on here thinks. The school have obviously accepted it so just carry on.

I just spoke with the class teacher and explained my children were well behaved, worked hard and to their full ability at school. They didn’t need any extra homework. It was always agreed. They did well in SATS

We know - which is why we read multiple books to her every evening as part of bedtime and always have.

But 10 minutes a day of reading phonics books is not on our radar given she’s the youngest in her class and absolutely fried by home time.

I mean the ten minutes of phonics is better use of her time than doing the worksheets.

If you're going to do anything, get her doing the phonics, not the worksheets.

How much homework are they actually getting that its "too much"?

Mine is in year 3 and has an expectation of reading 5x per week and homework is a page from an English and a maths workbook to consolidate their learning that week. It takes him about 5 minutes to complete each, as hes academically quite able.

But, with his autism and ADHD, what it teaches him isnt about the actual maths and English, its about the fact that sometimes in life we have to do things that we dont necessarily want to, and that sometimes we have to plan ahead and schedule things to meet deadlines around other commitments. And sometimes we make choices about when to do things that work out well, and other times we choose to leave it until the last minute and then its more pressured. Given his diagnoses, these are far more valuable lessons than the actual grammar and arithmetic.

He sits down at the weekend and plans out when he will do his reading, homework, music practice etc. around the other things going on that week, which is a life lesson I wish I was taught at 8!

His strategy this year is to "get ahead" with his reading by doing it over the weekend, so he has two days "in the bank" before Monday, for flexibility during the week.

Totally agree - I’m feeling overwhelmed with the homework let alone my year 2 child!

2 different phonics books - to be read 3-4 x a week each (so 7 reads total)
spelling work sheet 4 x a week
online spellings 3 x week
online maths 4 x week

state school, not private. It’s too much, she’s only just turned 6

Refuse the homework, OP, 100%. Totally ridiculous that primary school kids get homework.

Though normal…

There is no educational need for regular "homework" at primary.

Children should read nightly with a parent and practice spellings but that's all. If a child wants to do more after this, then fine. If not, that's fine too.

Children don't read enough in my experience and they suffer at secondary if the foundations have not been laid at primary.

But if she likes learning and writing poems. Why not do the set homework. At some point in life she will need to learn to do the work that has been set now what she fancies doing. Work is like that, life unfortunately is expensive and working is a requirement for almost all.

It's primarily to do with underfunding in both schools themselves and all external support services.

because why should she be made to write a set poem? When she want to write a poem about trains, not a poem about Autumn. Otherwise it makes the whole thing that needs to be done, rather than writing poetry for the enjoyment of it. The whole point of creativity and expression is not to be told what to do it on - how long it should be if it should rhyme etc.

She's 6. she can learn about the "real world" when she's older and stick to deadlines, do pointless work for someone else, deal with that nonsense. etc.

Plus, she already knows that sometimes she just has to suck it up sometimes. She sits there in school waiting for others to finish worksheets, she does hers and the extension tasks and then just has to sit around and wait - wondering why she has to do the "easy" sheets int he first place. She knows she has to just get on with things she doesn't really want to - she has to feed the cat every morning, she has to pack her bags for activities, she has to help unload the dishwasher in the morning before being allowed to watch TV, She has to save her pocket money to get the desired toy etc

So yeah, I'm not going to make her write a poem about trees, just because that's what's on the homework grid for this week.

We never did homework until secondary school - and I manage just fine and have kept a job and can meet deadlines, do stuff i have have to do etc.

In my experience, it's the parents. Underfunding doesn't affect homework policies.

ts of things are "normal" doesn't mean we have to do them - its "normal" round here for kids to have smart phones at 8... it's normal for kids round here to be fed takeaways 2-3 times a week etc

Your experience is not in line with what surveys of teachers say.

Underfunding affects everything. It's incredibly tough now.

Yes 'normal' is unhelpful - norms change, evidence-based policies change.

Encourage her activities. But also encourage homework. My son has a degree in Philosophy, Theology and Secondary Teaching. He has two passions. Philosophy and writing. He is a published poet and writer but also teaches. He also has a Masters in Creative Writing.

Doing the homework means they get used to working at home. Which they have to do to get a degree and a masters.

I didn't make any of mine do homework in primary. They a read books, lots of books. I'd provide them with a variety of books based on the topics they were learning, and we'd do days out based on them. So it's not like they were sitting at home doing nothing. Although sometimes we did, because that's also a good thing to do sometimes. Sometimes they'd choose to do the homework if it was something they were interested in.

My youngest is AuDHD and was very much "school is school, home is home" so would have meltdowns about doing schoolwork at home, so I didn't push it.

Luckily their primary school was easygoing about homework, so it was never an issue.

Which teachers and where?

It’s about the kids though, not you.

They’ll be different to their classmates and will be excluded from related discussions. You teaching them that teachers don’t have authority and you can pick and choose what you do.

We didn’t do homework except reading , spelling and times-tables. Certainly not ‘projects’ unless the DC really wanted to do it by themselves. So many projects obviously done in entirety by parents . Both parents here working full time. So time with the kids was too precious to spend any of it making things out of cereal packets and toilet rolls . (Although one dc is a struggle engineer ironically)

Fast forward 26 years. All have good degrees from RG unis . All have jobs in London and other large city. All earn over £50k one earns over £100k.

Just explain you don’t do this. Neither did we do Kumamoto Maths or any other academic learning after school and absolutely adamantly against tutoring for the 11+.
school was quite enough from 9-3.30pm . After that it’s free time. A sport or art club if you want , otherwise they should be running around outside making camps and playing or inside playing games and watching a bit of tv !

I agree with OP and with catchments who knows if another school is an option anyway, I’m with you OP we rarely did it when our school had it and this year we have a new head and they’ve scrapped home work so shows it wasn’t essentially anyway.

Not unreasonable at all.

My daughter is in year 5 and she has to choose 1 piece from a grid each week, a maths sheet, a list of spellings, and times tables rockstars every day and reading every day.

shes just been diagnosed with dyslexia so it’s a weekly struggle anyway trying to tackle it all while we’re both working full time.

I dunno how regular kids manage without having any additional needs and I don’t know how the hell parents with 2-3 kids manage.

I'm with you. The educational research is clear that with the exception of reading, homework in primary school is functionally useless, with little or no genuine academic benefit. In addition, there are considerable drawbacks, from prioritising homework over more meaningful activities to an increasing reliance on screens to potentially creating a negative association with learning.

In a home environment that values reading, is language rich and places emphasis on activities that enhance learning, homework can be happily ignored. Some children may benefit a bit from homework if they don't have such a family setup, but even for them it would be minimal.

nonsense.