Poor school provision

[julie8940]

Hi I am debating reporting my primary school to Ofsted, for a number of reasons. The only compulsory homework is reading 5 times a week and 10 spellings, which seems fine in KS1 but KS2 results are a disgrace.
The school changed its homework policy from work sent home to this without consulting parents and it appears without running it through the Governing Body.
The reading results have got worse and we are in the bottom 4 out of 75 local schools for progress and only 50% leave Year 6 at expected levels in reading, writing and maths.
My oldest is going into Y6 and I am concerned what the heck is going to happen next year.
I’m not convinced he is where he should be and the school is burying its head in the sand. I have taken my homework complaint to Chair of Governors and he said its the Heads decision. I believe that this is not how governance works and any major changes like homework should be presented to the Governing Body to discuss and ratify, with the pros and cons discussed before it’s rolled out. When I showed him the homework at the complaint meeting he appeared to have no clue what it was and I had to explain the problems I was having with it! Shouldnt that have taken place at the Governors meeting?!!!
The HT has come back from summer break, informed the governors of this bonkers policy, mentioned it in the headteacher update and no discussion has taken place nor has its merits been discussed within any Governor meeting.
Reading results since it has been introduced have got worse and are “well below average.”
It’s driving me bonkers. Should I stick my neck out and report the school to Ofsted? I think the governing body do not hold the school to account and reading the minutes the HT tells them everything; there is little evidence or evidence of anyone else’s viewpoint apart from hers. That’s not right is it?!!!

My DCs go to an outstanding primary. The only homework is reading in KS1, KS2 get reading and weekly spellings. They get given a few optional project type things to do each term, but not many people seem to do them.

If we were outstanding and had the results to back up this approach and there had been an improvement since the change then I would welcome the no homework policy obviously. As it is we are far from
National expectations in anything and our progress results are shocking so I cannot see how this policy is working tbh. Obviously to me the teaching in KS2 is not effective and the no homework policy serves to highlight the problem for me.
I’ve contacted other outstanding schools locally in the hope that at least one operates a similar sort of policy- none of them do😞

Interesting evidence here.

It could be that the school needs changes, but homework is unlikely to produce any improvement in isolation.

Sorry, but changes to homework really doesn't count as a "major change". There are many school policies that don't need to agreed by the whole governing body, and changes to policies aren't put out to a parental vote.

You mention results in year 6 have gone down since the change in homework - when did the homework change and is there a continuous downwards trend in KS2 results over several years? If so, OFSTED and LA or MAT will already be monitoring attainment and progress.

They should not be put out to a parental vote but they should be run by the governing body at least as the body holding the HT to account and governors at least should have a viewpoint on it, with the whole governing body given the opportunity to look at pros and cons? They will be the ones answerable to OFSTED

DC's primary had significantly less homework than that (1 English + 1 Maths sheet per fortnight, sent out alternate weeks), got amazing results and moved from Good to Outstanding.

Spelling was done in school. There as an expectation of reading at home, but zero monitoring / compulsion.

If your DC's school is getting poor results, then that categorically WON'T be because of the homework. Research shows that homework in primary has very little effect (statistically) on progress.

Teaching in school WILL be having an effect on the results and your child's progress. So if your child is not making progress, and isn't where they should be, then address that directly - find out why, where the gaps are, what they are doing to fill them IN SCHOOL - and ignore the distraction of the homework policy. Complaining about the homework policy will be shifting the deckchairs on the Titanic - keep your effort for something worthwhile that WILL make a difference.

Why do you think homework is the issue? Children are tired after a day at school; they need to test and recuperate. Why should they work all day at school and then come home and work some more? Most adults aren’t happy doing that. What about work-life balance? What about extra-curricula activities: sports, music, drama, crafts? What about reading for pleasure, playing out, sleeping even?

Homework other than reading, has been proved to have no benefit at primary level.

As a governor, I wouldn't expect to be consulted about a change in homework policy. It's something that would be mentioned at a children and learning subcommittee, but it's not something governors need or should approve. Governors are not there to get involved in the day to day operation of the school. If the results are below par, they should know and be discussing with the Senior learning team the strategies, but they aren't there to approve exactly how it's done on a day to day basis.

The one of my DC who achieves highest at Secondary level and is the most self motivated is the one who had very little homework in primary.

I'm not following the issue.

Results can be poor for a number of reasons. It's not for parents to decide that it's because of one thing or another, let alone report to ofsted because they want more homework. As others have said, homework has little impact at primary.

If you wish to discuss your child's progress and concerns you have about your child then call up and ask to speak to the teacher.

Save the single person crusade against the school nonsense though

Other than the obligatory tracking measure to get ks4 progress measures, I can't think I've ever really used ks2 sats data in my teaching beyond a start of term 'ok rough ball park ability judgement which I'll take with a pinch of salt'.

Our primary had a small amount of homework but was outstanding with superb results, due to high standards of teaching and learning, not homework.

Homework is not the problem/solution at this school. I wouldn't complain to Ofsted though as if there has been a dip they will indeed be on the radar.

Agree that HW is not the problem here but poor teaching/lack of challenge/differentiation. They have 5-6 hours teaching a day so a couple of extra HW tasks will make no difference if the learning in school is poor.

Homework really isn’t the issue. It’s the daily teaching and learning that needs to be looked at!

Oh don’t be so silly. Homework isn’t going to change their KS2 results.

The primary reason your schools KS2 results has dropped is because last year SATS changes and the reading paper was INCREIBLY challenging. Lots of schools results suffered. We got 40% and we work our absolute socks off for the children - it was just too hard for some of them.

And with all due respect, as a parent you really don’t have a clue what’s happening behind the scenes. I’m English lead at our school and spend a lot of time in meetings discussing what we can do to improve etc, making changes, monitoring impact. I’ve not once run any of that by governors - the head does a brief report to them every term, that’s all. Governors don’t have as much power as you think they do. Neither does homework.

Your priority and focus is all wrong here. Ask for a meeting with the head, not the governing body, to find out what they are trying to do to tackle results. Make up your own homework if you want to support your own child - it’s not a good use or teacher time to find appropriate, differentiated homework for all of the children that only a small handful complete - and most entirely don’t by parents which doesn’t help with learning. Maybe your teaching staff want your children to be children at home without the extra pressure on top of SATS?

Sorry for the typos - I’m using my phone and have fat fingers!

governors are strategic and how homework is done is operational and very much the heads decision.

Governors should be asking strategic questions about the educational attainment of pupils - so you should be able to look at the minutes of the meetings and see an analysis of the schools position compared to national and local averages and governors asking questions about whats in place to improve results and whats in place to improve the results of discreet groups such as pupil premium children or those with SEN

I think homework is a real red herring - you need to see evidence of quality first teaching in the classroom or evidence that the school is moving towards that

there is a dashboard of data that will trigger an inspection if results aren't what you'd expect to see without you complaining anyway.

I'm a governor, and as others have said, you have misunderstood our role.
We should be asking the HT what can be done in the long term to improve outcomes but the homework policy is strictly operational and down to the HT.

It’s not Ofsted’s job to police homework policies so there is absolutely no point in reporting this to them. Ofsted will already be aware of the school exam data (it’s their job to monitor this), so again, no point in reporting.

If you want your kid to do more work at home, then there are lots of resources available free on the internet for you to do this, or you could buy workbooks.

Agree with Giraffe if you want your DC to do more work at home there are tonnes of ways you can implement that- help him yourself using pre-prepared workbooks, get a tutor, sign up to an online service like ixl or mathswhizz. Sumdog is good.

You obviously don't think much of the school so your choices are to ride it out and compensate at home, move schools to another local state or go to an Independent.

Ofsted are not going to give a monkey's what the school homework policy is, and you are just going to make yourself sound a bit batshit (and therefore less credible in general) if you try to report to them. It's the equivalent of going to the police because your neighbour cuts their grass in a different style than you prefer.

Forget about homework and concentrate on current student progress and attainment. The figure you quote are not good on attainment.

If you want to complain to Ofsted complain about the results and that they do not seem to be getting better. With those results the school will be on Ofsted's radar but parental views are taken into consideration also and your complaint about the apparent lack of effort to improve results may be just the nudge to get a visit organised.
However without knowing far more about the situation in the school and the starting point for many of the pupils, the results may actually be good in terms of progress given their relatively low starting points.

What makes you think homework would raise attainment? If that is the case, perhaps our children should all do 16 hour days, because more must be better, right?

Educational research suggests that while homework has a very minor positive impact on attainment, there are other things teachers do that is far, far more effective. I can imagine that a school that is serious about transforming things may ignore homework - and focus on the real impact strategies to spend time on. Look up John Hattie, Visible Learning.

There is even research that suggests that having too long a working day for our children, through school work, homework, after school clubs etc really mucks our children up emotionally, educationally and mentally. If you really want them to learn, let them have free, unstructured play time and support creativity and physical activity.

I think you should concentrate on focussing on your own child's progress. You don't really mention that at all. If you have concrete examples to show that your child is not making progress/ not being stretched etc. then you have something to complain about. A change in homework policy (to one that many other schools follow) and a drop in results (which may well be for reasons you know nothing about) are really neither here nor there. You could also speak to the HT and say that you were concerned about the recent results and ask for the school's response .

I am a mother and grandmother and ex-teacher with six grandchildren still at school. Three of them have needed special help in the classroom - one, non-verbal had his own teaching assistant everyday. He is reaching high school age and has been re-assessed so that he won't qualify for so much help. This is an economy measure as the council is having to cut back. They are all having to cut back so that there will be less help in the classroom for all, let alone special needs. I have another special needs grandson with mild to moderate learning difficulties. He went to a superb special school with small classes and extra help in the classroom. He has just about reached the top and we are very pleased with his progress. His sister got a job as a PA at that school, and she says they are cutting back. If two difficult children create a scene at one time (and there are difficult behaviours there), it is getting so that they can no longer cope as well as they used to. After years of schools getting better, they are now going to get worse - with fewer teachers and assistants and cutting of subjects. Parents may not notice but there is danger that education is going to decline. Parents and carers need to keep an eye on the situation: headteachers and governors know what is going on. They need to be supported by parents who can make the powers-that-be aware that they will not tolerate this decline in standards.