Please help stop homework before its too late!!!

[freerangeeggsnookie]

I would like to appeal to all parents who are fed up with homework and encourage you to email, phone, tweet & post your school to stop it.

Having taught for a number of years in various schools I am sick and tired of the absurd homework we are setting. Here are some facts about homework from Visible Learning by John Hattie (summarising research on homework):

1. Homework makes no visible difference to pupils progress until they are in about year 10 and in high ability groups.
2. Homework does not help pupils learn time management skills.
3. For the homework to be effective the teacher must be actively involved.
4. Anyone who asks a pupil in year 7 and above to make a poster is taking the piss (pet hate, not from VL).

Now this is not to say that pupils shouldn't do any studying at all. If a student is independently studying at home doing extra work that they have requested then this will have a benefit. Also as stated above as pupils get older and are studying complex content it can be essential.

Unfortunately most pupils are snowed in with ridiculous tasks which teachers are forced to set by heads who are terrified of parental complaints. It is these complaints that need to be balanced out. If you are not sure if your childs homework is useful ask them after its marked "What improvements could you have made?". If they cannot answer then they have learned nothing. What was the point of that?! So if you are sick of homework like me please, please, please complain. Nothing would make schools a more happier place!!!!

and the class bear/tiger/teddy - more sodding writing - we want to play at the weekend thanks.

I don't mind a maths sheet or a book review but "we took Timmy the Tiger to the park and played football" bores me and DS to tears!

I'm completely with you re: creative/fun homework. We do this anyway when we mess about with paint/clay etc.

BUT...when IMO you miss the point the pig exercise. It's a fun way of reinforcing feelings, thoughts and speech in writing. Plenty of 10 & 11 year olds really don't do this very well. You'll likely learn it better if you are having fun!

But the pig exercise does not sound fun and is absolutely not something I'd be looking forward to reading. It's not something DS1 would find in any way fun either (closer to torture for him actually). And it comes under the hearing of 'school work', which I think should happen only in school time not during family time.

I've been in prep schools, the children can generally churn out well written pieces of work with their eyes shut. The children in our state generally can't - they haven't spent enough time honing the necessary skills which would have been acquired by most if they'd had the same sort of homework from the get go IMHO. It's not all about the homework but in our school it would be assumed a great many wouldn't be up to the required standard to even attempt that pig competition!

I may have accidently lost a class bear once.

cortina - Not really here to talk about the difference between state/private. If the teacher you mention takes it as you suggest then it will most likely be effective. However that time could have been used far more usefully in other areas. Whether it captures imagination or not is open to debate as I don't think it would at many other schools.

CupOfBrownJoy - I do the same sort of thing. I tell the parents what I'm doing, the kids know the game and I lie to SLT.

QED - Sounds good to me. If you give her too much she won't want any anymore!

I think the pig work sounds brilliant, better than sourcing cardboard for a pointless air raid shelter, anyway. Your child would have more chance of learning something via the pig competition as I see it.

I'm a teacher and have mixed views.

Some homework is necessary. I teach languages, and the more able and willing pupils learn loads when told to revise for a test or complete a very specific task.

However, we have to set homework on certain nights, which isn't always the best time for the children, and also 'learning' homework (rather than task-based) is frowned upon. For languages, the one thing I can't do in lesson time is give the kids time to really learn verbs and vocab, but this is seen to be lazy homework setting by the powers that be and parents, so, lose lose.

Might be something to do with the very small class sizes and the intensive teaching, rather than the homework. Perhaps.

It's probably tailored to the cohort, you could find a subject that was similarly engaging for most stateeducationisboss, I am sure. It's just one example of homework and I think it adds value. As I said in an earlier post sourcing cardboard has to be far less productive!

See, I don't have any problem with 'learning'/memorising homework for things where kids need to be able to recall facts/vocab/etc. Learning vocab is fine with me. Dull sounding stories about pigs are not.

Indeed, Damsel, but it's all reinforced at home. Effectively too, looking at the results and reputation of the school. I think our school could learn from them.

Possibly it's because I went to state schools, but I can't actually work out what the pig competition homework is asking for. Is it a continuation of the story started? Am slightly about the posh sounding characters but again I could be being unreasonably biased.

Cortina as you seem to dislike state education so mych, and indeed see the teacher at the prep school as a "God", is it possible for your DC to go there? If not (which is entirely reasonable), don't you feel frustrated by knowing everything that happens there while you can't be a part of it?

I think the pig story sounds fun. Maybe just me then...Again, what strikes me is it would be assumed this was beyond many in our Y5/6.

DD did like getting the class bear and writing about it . I liked less discovering that our printer was putting lines across everything making the bear look a little odd.

The homework DS in year 5 has, this Easter holidays....

Timmy the Tiger to write about - most children write at least two pages and add photos etc.

Write a children's story - mini project, make an actual book, hole punch the pages, tie with ribbon or put into a booklet with a cover from cardboard, draw the main character also.

Murder mystery project - a booklet with codes to decipher using co-ordinates, morse code, angles etc - I feel like he is actually learning something with this but it's at least two hours worth on it's own.

Spellings and tables practice and reading of course - all of which is fine. We do tables practice in the car.

So when that's all done, we'll go to the park and play football - in the dark! LOL

I would love my son to be at the school but it's not possible. Why can't state school pupils identify with 'posh sounding characters'? Yes, it's frustrating not being able to have my child attend but am sure that's true for many of us.

Send in a note Kbear saying you were far too busy having fun in the holidays and couldn't fit in all that utterly pointless homework. I doubt the teacher wants to see any of it anyway.

so if I were on holiday abroad, for example... in the holidays when you are supposed to go.... I would be spending a huge chunk of my lounging time nagging about homework.!!!

I went to a school back in the 70's that didn't set any homework until I was 13. Did I wish they had? You bet I did.
When I did start homework I had no idea how to do it, how to revise effectively etc. I do think it should be more traditional, spelling tests, tables tests not make and design some heap of rubbish that parents can do for them.
Heaven save me from trendy schools like the one I went to. We didn't have uniform either and I hated that too but that's another story.

knitknack what is personal scaffolding?

The issue remains that when we spend time on homework we take time away from far more effective parts of the job. Again how you support your child at home is different and I am always happy to support this in any way I can.

It is interesting how many people are mentioning boys who hate homework. I work in a boys school and can definitely sympathise.

The key point is though if you feel your son/daughter gets too much homework then please complain to your school!

I never did my homework at secondary school. Didn't hold me back in any way (and I have oodles of education, and even prizes).

In my DD's primary school all homework is optional. The headteacher made a point of telling everyone at the welcome meeting. Its one of the things that I really like about her school.

Don't you think a lot of the pointless worksheets type of homework is really the school saying we don't agree with homework at primary level but you parents have asked for it so here it is?

At secondary it's different. Especially maths. Learn a concept in school but consolidate it in homework. It was obvious my children hadn't grasped what was taught sometimes because homework questions posed slightly differently had them scratching their heads. At home we had time to talk about it.