COD, can you spare me a minute or two please? re homework

[unknownrebelbang]

DH has a governors' meeting soon, and homework will be on the agenda.

I know you've said before that homework has been shown to be of limited educational value, so I was wondering if you have any links he could research before his meeting?

(primary school.)

TIA.

Friend told me a story recently about a homework project at her kid's school (high-achieving state school in a very leafy suburb). They had to make a model of medieval house (this is year 4 or 5 I think).

They were all very impressive, historically accurate, aesthetically pleasing creations. Except for one. The one brought in by the child whose mother is currently undergoing treatment for cancer. He got teased by the other kids for the inadequacy of his offering.

Nuff said about homework, in that story, methinks .

I went to a prep school so very little h/w, since it was all done in prep, apart from learning things by heart like spellings and tables. Think it's a good idea personally as home shouldn't be turned into mini school.

H/W seems to have become a burden for parents and sometimes an assessment of the parents rather than the child! Prep at least would test to see what the child had learnt.

That's very sad Zazette.

I once taught with a colleague who called homework 'cabbage', and wouldn't set any. This was in secondary. I only ever set homework when I thought it was appropriate and when it supported the learning. When doing weather in year 7 Geography, I asked them to watch the BBC weather report to see how all the symbols were used and displayed. I also never set homework over a half term or a holiday, except for year 11 and 12 before their exams, and even then, it was to revise.

DS got homework every night in year 6, and now gets two or three subjects a night in year 7, which can be a battle. By the time he's finished shouting about it, he could have done it. He does get a night on the PS2 now and again, as it seems to relax his brain, but only if there's no homework. Incidentally, I AM the kind of mum who oversees homework, and it gets redone if I think he's skated it.

IMO homework has a value IF it supports the learning, but not if it is set because OFSTED or the parents say it should be. I also have issues with teachers who set a 400 word essay to be done in the rough book, then you know the next homework will be to write it up in neat in the exercise book, and he hasn't checked it in between. Finishing classwork should also not be set as homework, unless it is an ongoing project being taught and researched over a number of weeks.