Isn't it about time we got rid of homework, at least for the under 14s?

[Solopower1]

Just heard on the radio (PM Programme, Radio 4) that there are moves afoot to stop setting HW in France. They did this years ago in Spain. Didn't catch any more details (eg what age children) but they are considering lengthening the school day by half an hour so that the kids can do their HW before they go home.

Apparently there is no research that proves that doing HW benefits a child! (Which isn't to say that it doesn't, of course, but still).

I think it would be a great idea to abolish homework, at least for those under 14. It has always been a huge burden in our household, and caused so much tension. Plus the school day is really short. In Scotland there are no classes on a Friday afternoon - not even for sixth formers.

It wouldn't stop parents from going over their kids' HW if they wanted to, nor would it prevent anyone from doing any amount of extra research. What it would do, however, is make things just that little bit more equal. It's not fair, imo, that children from disadvantaged backgrounds who get no help (or might not even have anywhere to do their HW), are still expected to produce the same quality of work as a child whose parent does it for him/her.

What do other people think?

Tilly. Not forgetting the parents whose children do disappear to their rooms all evening under the guise of 'doing homework'.

Oh yes DS studies in his room from the moment he comes home til bedtime, he is very academic and studious, we hardly see him.

Ho yes! DD fits in quite a bit of FB, texting, catching up on Towie, etc around doing her homework!

This must be a hot topic at the moment because we've just been sent a questionnaire from school about our attitudes to homework.

Both my DDs (yrs 6 and 1) loathe homework, and it takes bullying and cajoling to get them to do it. I don't mind the odd letter formation practice or spellings (for the younger and older one respectively) but we get these godawful project books with some unbelievably vague question (i.e. 'what do you know about....') and my kids don't know where to start, so I or DH end up having way too much input, and it takes all afternoon: 4+ hours typically, tears and tantrums included. Worse, you can guarantee one or the other will have it most weekends so we can't do anything as a family.

I just don't get how this helps anyone. When I was at primary school in the '70s we didn't get homework at all until the last year, then it was only finishing off things if you hadn't in class. We didn't even take reading books home (no one had a school bag even!) Yet we all learnt to read, the school was one of the best in the area, my sister went to Cambridge... we had hobbies outside school and played outside.

As I pointed out before, it's in the new Teachers' Standards, which came into force in September 2012. All teachers have to adhere to them.

I'm in mixed minds. I had homework in high school (about hour a night but varied) and about once a week in primary school, but I never did it....got so many telling off until 3rd year when the teachers gave up.

I wish I had done it though and I am for homework because doing coursework was a downfall for me because I couldn't work at home. Even now I'm doing my BA and I keep procrastinating and just can't work at home. TBH I would have my degree and all if I could just work at home. I'm a brilliant student and can easily get an A but I can't study (never once studied for a test) or do homework so I'm only now doing my degree at 22.

I believe if my mum or teachers had pushed me to do homework I would be better now. Children need to learn to work outside of class.

I always did my homework, struggled to get essays done at university and really can't work at home. I don't think the two are particularly related.For me it's all about motivation - I need to be really into work or have a looking deadline and I've always done better staying late at work compared with bringing stuff home.

We had a couple of years of ds kicking and screaming about projects and homework in the UK, and then the last three/four years with no homework. Last week ds brought his math book home to find out something about square roots, this week he was studying for some French test. We didn't have to nag or cajole once. He just sat down and got on with it. I'm an advocate of waiting until they are ready for independent study, understand the benefits and can get on with it on their own. I don't recall my parents ever being involved with homework beyond asking me if I'd finished it.

I didn't get that much homework when I was at school - none at all at primary, and not much at secondary even though it was a "stuck-in-the-1950's-girls-grammar. And if there was, it was mainly working from the textbook, other than French A'level literature.

I struggled at first at university with researching and essay writing - mainly because we had been spoon-fed.

I am hoping all the research, etc my DC have to do now will set them up if they go on to university.

Btw did anyone hear on the Today programme (Radio 4) this morning they are asking for you to send in examples of how crap your kids' teachers are at spelling.

If you ever need one, here is an excellent example of a programme that is stuck for ideas and so decides to whip people up into a frenzy about how awful teachers are (again).

I was listening to it in the car, and I thought 'Oh I'll send in that letter that the HEAD teacher sent home - in which I found six basic grammar and spelling mistakes.' And then I thought, 'Why? Why would I do this?'

Pure malice.

How nasty and spiteful.

It was in the context of Gove's latest idea to make the English and Maths tests that teachers have to take harder.

I don't know what I think about that, tbh. I do get fed up at the lazily written letters my son brings home from his school - which is at the top of the league tables in Edinburgh. But why would I want to shame the school publicly? How would that help anyone - least of all the kids, who need to have some confidence in their teachers. If teachers are consitently undermined in the media and at home, that puts kids in a difficult position at school imo.

Sorry to hijack the discussion.

That's vile Solo I head something this morning about someone who sent the teacher's letter back in with some spelling mistakes highlighted.

Teachers know how to spell but I guess that if they have 25 odd notes to write speed is important so a mistake may be made.

I think hijacking your own thread is fair enough. The homework thing is failing to come to any conclusion.

I couldn't resist marking it in red pen, and I nearly did send it back, Sparkling. Tbh, I think that's a better way to deal with it. Tell the school - not the nation!

About the homework issue, Nightingale's school sent a questionnaire home. What a great idea! If other schools did this, it would send the govt a message about how parents and kids feel about it. Non-confrontational, just asking for opinions.

If they taught the kids properly at school then I would love to give up homework, but I have to do writing with my little DS as he has not been taught how to write capital letters and he is nearly seven.

As a parent I can see holes in the way they have taught him. He was asked to learn 'gymnastics' and 'mystical' in spelling which he duly managed well but he could not confidently write 'have' or 'were' ...
Ugh?

"Teachers know how to spell"

Not all of them! Wish they did.

O/T I know, but someone needs to ask Gove how he squares making the tests for teacher training harder with allowing free schools to employ people without a teaching qualification - whose literacy and numeracy have therefore not been tested in advance?

Indeed - teachers must be more highly qualified - but actually, anyone can teach.

There is an argument that even half an hour a week of one-on-one "teaching" (by a parent) works wonders for a child's achievement. People pay tutors £30/hour for this kind of individual attention. But of couse not all parents are able / prepared to help their kids in this way: I am, but I do resent the way homework can intrude into family life.

I read Tim Lott talking on this subject in the Guardian last weekend and couldn't agree more about being "never more likely to lose my temper with my children than during a homework session" - and in doing so, setting bad associations with schoolwork and ruining many a Saturday morning.

Moreover, what really annoys me is that our half term cottage break is going to be disrupted by a Y6 project on weather that was set today for the holidays - this is our one "proper" booked holiday of the year because we can't afford to go in the summer and aren't allowed to take them away with the family in school time - and yet it's alright for the school to eat into our family time with this work. DD is stressing because we won't have internet / computer access while we're away which will make it very hard to do. I know I can write a note to explain why it wasnt done over the holidays, but it'll still need to be done when we get back in November. My inclination is to stay up late tonight and do the bloody thing myself, and let DD spend an hour personalising it when we're back next Sunday.

Doodle, I agree. Ime any amount of quality one-on-one time helps children enormously,raises their self-confidence and strengthens bonds in a family. Of course it doesn't have to be the parents who spend the time with the kids. Grandparents and uncles and aunts can all play a part.

But I would still like to see homework done at school, after school, just to ensure that every one at least gets the HW done. Of course this is not going to iron out inequalities at one fell swoop. But it would mean that a teacher could start her lesson reasonably confident that everyone was up to speed, instead of having to spend the first 15/20 minutes scooping up the ones who haven't done it before the whole class can move on.

In answer to the OP's question: No - if young children do not gradually increase their ability to concentrate and complete homework during the week, they will be ill prepared to cope with the demands of secondary school work. Besides, it is good for kids to consolidate their in-class learning through their assignments. Granted, homework does sometimes cause stress for a family, but so does trying to get kids to: eat their vegetables, not watch too much tv, not play too many video games, not curse, etc... should we abandon those things too, on the basis that it is too much trouble/stress for the parent enforcing these disciplines?

"In answer to the OP's question: No - if young children do not gradually increase their ability to concentrate and complete homework during the week, they will be ill prepared to cope with the demands of secondary school work. "

Really? That's what we used to do... hardly any homework at primary, then I had lots at secondary and it wasn't a big issue. Can't speak for anyone else though.

"Besides, it is good for kids to consolidate their in-class learning through their assignments. "

But much of what people are grumbling about is not consolidating their learning - it's pointless tasks (like building models of the Titanic) and/or simply cannot be done without substantial parental help, putting children who don't have this at a huge disadvantage.

"But much of what people are grumbling about is not consolidating their learning - it's pointless tasks (like building models of the Titanic) and/or simply cannot be done without substantial parental help, putting children who don't have this..."

Well, this goes to the heart of the issue about having teachers pass more rigorous tests; if they were more 'academic', they would realise that consolidating their pupils' literacy and numeracy skills at a primary level is more important than burdening parents with tasks that a child of that age couldn't possibly manage on their own...

Yes I wish homework would be abolished too. More playtime and rest time would be so much nicer. For me particularly as I am the one who does the homework. I am quite proud of my ppt presentations but all the same I wouldn't mind the odd night off.