Homework at primary - how much? Too much?

[GrumpyGit]

Dd is in yr2 and gets what seems to be an average amount of homework compared with my friends kids - i.e. each week she gets spellings/other English homework, a reading book, some maths. I thought it was quite a lot at the beginning of term, but as she's usually happy to do it and everyone says it's a normal amount these days I've not thought much about it since.

Last week we had one of those nightmare weeks where everyone (other than dd) was ill, both dh & I, plus the 2 ds were up in the night (you might've seen my other thread about the vomit) - anyway, just a week of surviving and the English homework got overlooked.

The note the teacher has written in the homework book irritated me a bit and got me thinking again - when I was a kid I first got homework aged 11 just before starting secondary - is it just me or do other people think there seems to be an unreasonably large amount of homework for kids to do at a very young age these days? And is it actually helpful to them in the long term?

PS I deliberately didn't post this in aibu btw!

That would be doing, oops

Technically it isn't called detention. It is called 'being kept in at break'. Actual detention is also being kept in at break. Apparently there is a difference but I've yet to work out what it is and the teacher hasn't been able to enlighten me.

I always try to get ds to do his homework but he rarely complies (no amount of threats work). He thinks it is pointless (I have never let him know that I agree). At school he won't do his work as he says he'll just get more to do. Can't really argue with the logic!

Well he's clearly very bright Mollie, will obviously go far!

When I taught Year 1 a few years ago I was told I had to send home spellings every week, on a Monday I think, plus a maths or literacy worksheet on a Friday, as well as changing the children's reading books 3 times a week. I was fine about the reading books (though some children didn't read as regularly at home as others and I felt they should not be progressed through the levels if they were not actually improving their reading at home, but anyway) and the spellings, but sometimes was annoyed that I had to find something to send on a Friday, just for the sake of giving homework. I did occasionally photocopy something for a child who was having difficulty with something particular in class, and sent that home as 'extra reinforcement' for the parents to do with said child. This was only with parents who I had previously spoken to at Parents Evenings and who were very keen to have things to do with their children to help them to improve. I thought this was useful for the lower achievers, but for the more able kids I did often feel there was no need for the homework that I was giving them, though I did try to make sure it linked to something we had been doing that week. The parents at that school were quite keen on homework though, and came in requesting work and new reading books if their child had been off ill for one day. I always thought the poor little things deserved to rest if they were ill at home!

"but for the more able kids I did often feel there was no need for the homework that I was giving them"

The trouble with that policy is that able children can spend many years at school without ever having to make much of an effort and getting used to an awful lot of spare time. And then, one day, life catches up with them and it is a horrible shock.

Our school does not set any homework until year 3. Most research indicates that homework does not help children and actually hinders the more disadvantaged.

I like this approach...it means my children can play and actually learn something useful, we have time to enjoy being a family and my dds can do other activities.

Apparently spellings (the traditional primary school homework) don't actually help children spell.

Obviously we are meant to read with our children every evening, but since my oldest has been able to read, I find myself doing this less and less.

If I was unhappy with the level of homework set, I would go and see the head teacher and teachers and find out what would happen if my dds didn't do it.

For example, if they then missed out on an activity that the homework lead into, I would probably stick with the homework.

If if was stand-alone, I would state that we weren't doing it.

If the head didn't like this, i would look for a school with no homework!

But Bonsoir, do you really think that argument holds for 6 yr olds? I see your point for older children; life (as you put it) didn't catch up with me til I was at uni as I'd always managed to coast along til then, but I don't think having done homework at primary school would've made much difference.
I have just spent the evening coaxing dd into finishing off her English homework, doing her maths homework and reading her latest book. She was enjoying reading so much more before the start of this term - she's just fed up with it all at the moment, and tbh I totally don't blame her. Stupid system imo!

My DD2 is in Yr 3 and gets a sheet of sums (double sided), a sheet of grammar (single sided), 10 spellings to practice (and a test that will include non-practised words along the same pattern and is expected to read to us every night. This last doesn't happen - reading is something that either I do to them (at bedtime, every night without fail because I love doing the voices and making a fool of myself , or something that you do by yourself, for fun. She reads to her teacher every fortnight at school and everything is always fine.

Don't get me started on homework in primary. I went through the Dutch school system and did no homework until secondary (equivalent to Yr7). We were eased into it over the first term and then it was full on, and we handled it. I've looked into this and I don't see much research that says homework improves outcomes for children - even at secondary level the evidence is tenuous. Personally I'd rather they worked hard at school and had time to play. However, the school sets homework so we do it, and there are times when it has been fun (i.e. when I taught DD1 long division 2 years before she would normally have learned it and she loved it, ditto reducing fractions to the lowest common denominator. Also the time when DD2 had to write 10 sentences using connectives and turned them into a wild story about her coffee addiction, what must her teacher have thought of that???)
But on the whole I think that in primary school the only good homework is no homework.

I had an interesting discussion with ds's form teacher today. I said I thought that the only reason homework was set was for the parents' benefit. She said that it was to get dcs into good habits for older years. When I pointed out that I had never had homework at primary school and coped easily with it as a new experience at my selective grammar, she said that it was really to limit the amount of after school activities dcs do! Meaning less to give up when they get to secondary school.

Have to say I was very and at that justification for homework.

tell you what I think is a pointless weekly homework is spellings, utterly pointless if you ask me..

My class teacher who teaches the infants in 1 of the schoold I work sends home a phonics workbook with 2 worksheets a week for the NandR children now that is silly!

GrumpyGit - I do, actually. DSS2 (13) has recently changed school and now has to work (a bit) to be first in the class, instead of being able to be first in the class while coasting. He is finding it a dreadful shock. But actually, the real, dreadful shock is realising that life is about effort and application and hard work - he hasn't actually heard the message yet. And that has all sorts of repercussions for him/us.

His older brother, who is clever too, just not quite as clever, knows that he has to work to succeed and that life will be one long succession of jobs.

Bonsoir - your child came top of the class without ever working hard - and you never stretched him with an extra curricular activity he would have to work at?

How is it the schools fault your child hasn't learnt about the value of working hard?

IndigoBell - not my child, my stepchild, and, yes, I have worked incredibly hard to convince his parents (my DP and his exW) that DSS2 needed to change schools. And, finally, I have succeeded .

DD is in Reception. They have homework sent home on a Friday to be returned the following Wednesday. They just have to fill a page in their A4 homework book with whatever they want on that week's theme (it might be a letter, or an animal, or a number etc). They don't have reading yet, I think that probably starts after Christmas from what I remember my other two did.

DS2 is in Year 2. They have reading home on a Friday and a Tuesday, no set amount that you have to read you just write down what they have read. Most weekends they have some kind of worksheet, either maths or literacy.

DS1 is in Year 3. They have reading home on a Wednesday for the following Wednesday, two books as they now read in English as well as Welsh. They also have both English and Welsh spellings most weeks. They don't have very much written homework.

We didn't have much homework when I was in primary school, except learning words for spelling tests. Although my DC don't seem to mind doing it (in fact DD loves it, obviously the novelty hasn't worn off yet!) I'm not sure that I see the point in it. I also think that it discriminates against those children whose parents won't/can't sit down with them to do it. A child in Year 7 should be better able to organise themselves to do their own homework regardless of parental input, however a 4 year old needs the support of their parents.

This is one of those issues where I genuinely can't decide. I was an uber geeky child and loved HW (we started in yr5, 1996) and would set myself work, I even nicked my mum's ancient general reasoning test books

OTOH I've learnt a lot from MN about the dangers of doing too much too soon in terms of academic work, putting too much pressure on kids and stopping them learning through play.

My DD's class teachers (French Year 1 - sort of English Year 1/Year 2 equivalent) are adamant that DCs arrive in their class having done way too much writing and have got into bad habits because their fine motor skills were not sufficiently developed to allow them to write properly.

Given just how beautifully DD writes now, two months in (she is just 6), I am inclined to understand why it is a good idea to discourage children from writing too soon!

I discouraged her from writing outside school because I couldn't teach her cursive (never having learned it) and wanted her to learn it.

I don't think life is about effort, hardwork and application.

I think that it is about following your interests, working hard enough to support your family but enjoying life.

I see many of my contemporaries who think that they have to do a certain level of work, paid at a certain (but arbitrary) level, paying a huge mortgage on a house that they think they should live in and think ' how miserable!'

I want my dds to be a bit more creative and happy with their lives!

Creativity demands a lot of hard work and application .

civil working in any area of the arts/creativity is beyond competitive and you have to work extremely hard.

Creative muscles have to be flexed and worked intensely.

DS is 6 so in primary 2 (not sure how that relates to reception etc.). He gets one reading book a night, plus one maths sheet a week. Overall his homework is supposed to take an absolute maximum of 10 minutes per night and the school are quite open about parents talking to the teacher if it is taking longer. I think that's a reasonable amount, although I'd be happy if he just got a reading book - I'm not sure what the maths sheet adds.

I don't think that I mean 'creativity' in terms of a creative career - I just mean being creative in thinking of fun things to do within leisure time rather than just switching on the TV because you're so exhausted from all the homework.

I would be the first person to agree that working in a creative or artistic industry is utterly time consuming (and mind consuming) and needs constant self-development.

I'm on the edges of a creative industry myself and have a very creative older daughter who I love to watch work away at her schemes. I would not want to see her time wasted with dull and pointless homework.

My DD is in year 2, and has

reading to do every day.
Spelling test once per week 10 spellings
Timestables test once per week 12 questions
Maths sheet (due next day)
English sheet (given Thurs due Monday)

I thought it was a lot at first, but now we are in a routine its fine, and DD is happy to do it.

DD is 11 and never received homework at primary school. She went to a school in quite a deprived area and the HT announced when she first started that the school had a policy of not setting homework, because the parents in the past had struggled to support it and the parental demand was to keep learning within school hours.

Many of the parents do shift work so aren't around in the evenings (older siblings care for primary school children but they're often of secondary age so have their own hw to do), or caring for elderly relatives (lots of Asians which tend to keep elderly at home rather than putting in homes) and many with English as a second language.

DD is luckily very bright and enjoyed reading for pleasure from a young age (she'd read several books every night without being asked to) and tended to pick up spellings just from being a keen reader so she would manage to do well in tests without any prep. She did well in her KS2 results so the lack of homework clearly didn't prevent her excelling academically.

I have friends with children in more middle class areas and they have an awful lot of pressure to go through very time-consuming tasks, which must be demanding after a full day of work. We were able to use after-school time to do various clubs and activities, which just wouldn't have been possible if I'd been spending so much time doing homework tasks.

Bonsoir - do you mean that you think if your dss had had more homework aged 6 that it would've helped him to understand that hard work is necessary in life? I don't really understand; I can see that he may need to move to a different school in order to be stretched, but I don't see how more homework at a (much) younger age would've helped. Is that what you're saying?

Mollie - am wondering whether it might be worth asking dd's teacher the same question you asked your ds's... wonder what his reply will be? (and surely it's better they have a wide range of interests while they're young so they can then choose a subset when they're older and busier?)