Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Original poster

Canceling Homework in Primary school

108 replies

CambsMummy · 30/03/2011 22:16

I am looking for advice/opinions on the decision that the headteacher of my sons school has made regarding homework. Due to some parents complaints and abusive behaviour towards teachers regarding making their children complete homework tasks the head teacher has now stopped homework altogether. To me this seems outrageous, I am aware there is no legal obligiation, but to me this seems absolutley crazy?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 30/03/2011 23:19

god tell me about it Cory - DS1 is YR5 - but he's starting early (he's a September birthday too so oldest in year). One of these horrid days I just know he's going to wake up and growl at me..........his voice crackled and dropped a couple of semitones last year (very useful - I now only have 2 squeaky voices to distinguish between when I'm not in the room - his is a little lower ), and I'm not sure - but I think it's crackling again .

I didn't have homework in primary - got to Secondary and really struggled with the workload, that was 1992. It was a really nasty shock for me and that was despite the fact I had a brother 4yrs older who had had the same nasty shock 4yrs earlier.

sageygirl · 30/03/2011 23:20

I did no homework til what is now yr 7, and in reality had little until what is now yr 9. It wasn't a problem.

My yr 3 son isn't up to looking up stuff himself. He needs too much of my input to do his homework to a standard that satisfies him. He hates to take in poor homework but if it needs research or careful reading of questions and a lot of subsequent explaining, he can not do it by himself. I think it sets a precedent - I want him to do his homework himself when he is able to do so, not have me spending ages at weekends and most week nights going over homework.

So I'd love it to be scrapped apart from a bit of reading and, as someone else said, mental maths as part of everyday life, not worksheets.

Goblinchild · 30/03/2011 23:21

Mumsnet would lose half its posts though.
All those ones on 'I don't understand this' and 'WTF is this pointless piece of crap?' and ' Help I need to know what a preposition is' all the endless ones complaining about having to make children do homework and insisting that the child doesn't understand the homework because the teacher is crap and not because they haven't been listening.
All that anger and bile being poured into the internet
Think of all the space for exciting and mind-expanding posts that would free up, and all the evenings you could spend doing interesting things with your children instead of worksheets and grammatical exercises.

IntotheNittyGritty · 30/03/2011 23:40

Goblinchild or :)

mummytime · 30/03/2011 23:43

Some very good schools have cancelled homework. tiffin homework

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 30/03/2011 23:46

ermm - isn't that just homework under a different name

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 30/03/2011 23:47

and have you clicked on the independent study challenges at the bottom of that page?

Goblinchild · 30/03/2011 23:50

Writing compulsory lesson reviews in their own time?
How is that not homework?

Goblinchild · 30/03/2011 23:51

It also appears to be a secondary school, whereas this thread is about Primary homework.

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 30/03/2011 23:52

thank yu Goblin - I thought I was going slightly mad there and missing the point somewhere - it is homework isn't it - just under a different name.#

My DS1 has 2 lots of independent study a week..........for maths and literacy. Except it's called homework in his school as they're not trying to sound all posh and clever

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 30/03/2011 23:58

it's also a selective..........so no doubt most of those kids do (or at least did to get in there) plenty of extra school work in the form of tutors

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 31/03/2011 00:00

and I feel a little queasy looking at the challenges - "go and see this show" "go and see that show" blurghh. Now that sort of "optional" homework would piss me off

Goblinchild · 31/03/2011 00:01

I do like some of those tasks though, visit the science museum, do 180 sit ups and see two public dance performances whilst reading a quality broadsheet.
It looks very similar to the Take Home Independent tasks many schools send home as homework over a term.

Goblinchild · 31/03/2011 00:02

Seriously, I suppose I liked them because a lot of it is what I've done with my own children. Gold stars for mummy don't often head my way.

CointreauVersial · 31/03/2011 00:03

We have something called "Home Learning" - not anything like as structured as homework, and far too vague and wafty for work-dodgers like DS1. They have a three-week window to do stuff "if they want to".

The DDs however quite often choose to do something.

But I am worried about DS1, who is approaching the end of Year 6, and will have the shock of his life in September when he hits secondary school. I really think it is a mistake not to ramp things up a little in preparation. We have tried to insist he does a few pieces of Home Learning, but it doesn't have the credibility of a deadline, or a mark, or anything like that, so we are fighting a losing battle.

On the one hand I can see the appeal of not having homework at primary level, then on the other hand I look at DS1's friends who are privately educated, already doing an hour of homework each night, and I wonder how DS1 can possibly manage to achieve what they can when it comes to qualifications etc.

stream · 31/03/2011 00:03

Brillliant idea, fantastic head.

Goblinchild · 31/03/2011 00:05

Except the sit ups and the press ups and the running.

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 31/03/2011 00:11

some of them are quite good - it just smacks to me a little of "we don't care how bright your child is this school is for rich kids" (each year group has 2 paying things to attend - cheapest Lion King tickets for instance appear to be £21),

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 31/03/2011 00:16

Goblinchild · 31/03/2011 00:17

Self-knowledge is a painful thing,

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 31/03/2011 00:22

though it doesn't select on ability........................though it's a CoE school so you have more chance of getting your child in if like I am you are heavily involved in your local church

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 31/03/2011 00:23

aaaaaaaand - just to teach me a lesson my strikeouts failed

LadyWellian · 31/03/2011 00:24

I fear that primary homework is counterproductive because it seems so optional.

DD (Y6) has learnt from experience that her class teacher (who by an extraordinary stroke of ill-luck/poor management in a three form entry school is the same as her teacher in Y5) rarely marks homework, so she is understandably reluctant to do it.

I am pleased that her maths set this year has a very strict teacher who does not tolerate homework not being handed in on time, but that's on a personal level as she is not great at maths so could do with some extra (plus it lets me see what she is doing).

I had no homework at primary, and yes it was a bit of a shock how much we got at secondary, but it reinforced the message that secondary is different. If they are already disillusioned with homework, it's not going to help them to adjust to the sudden expansion in the number of subjects and the extra effort they need to put in to accommodate that.

BaroqueAroundTheClock · 31/03/2011 00:35

exactly LadyWellian, secondary is different, just with the sudden expansion in the number of subjects - to suddenly discover that you don't go home and chill after what has probably been a tough day at school when they first start at least, but that you have to sit down and do homework - it seems too much.

They've spent 7yrs at school going home and chilling out, then they get to secondary school, suddnely have a huge influx of new subjects, new systems and everything else that goes with starting a new school, and they're at the age they're probably more likely to be going out with their friends to the park/kick a ball around/ride bikes without parents sticking their beaky noses in. And then suddenly another hit on top.

We have the 2 tier primary system here, and I know what a shock is is for many when they simply go from Infants to Juniors - without the addition of any major extra work to accommodate (they do have 2 lots of homework a week at the Juniors - due in 1 week after it's given out - usually takes no more than about 45 minutes to an hour to complete both - and that's for my DS1 who is a bit slow at the maths - so 10 minutes a day and it can be done.

The jump to secondary school is even harder. It just seems daft to create a huge obsticle to over come - at a time when they are all mostly raging in hormones, when with a sensible amount of (checked) homework in primary it could make the transition harder.

Why do we want our children to have it even harder than it already is

SpringchickenGoldBrass · 31/03/2011 01:19

Now I'm not in favour of homework at all. I think they should slot in some time during the school day for the DC to work by themselves and, once they get home from school, they should be able to play/chill out/watch TV or whatever. After all, in a substantial number of jobs (probably the majority) you do your set hours, you come home, and then you do what you want.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5