Homework - which option would you prefer?

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As in what would suit your family life and preferences best? This is for a year 4 class by the way.

Should I give nightly homework 3 times a week, issued one day to be returned the next, or issue homeworks on Thursday to be returned the following Thursday?

Children get spellings and reading books at the start of the week.

Any thoughts?

We give ours out on a Friday, to be in on the following Wednesday. That give parents the option of using the weekend or week nights, whichever suits their family's routine.
Reading is done every night. supposedly

Issue Thursday to be returned the following Thursday works better for us. Children have so many clubs & activities after school that it's hard to fit the homework in if there is a quick turnaround required (not just that child but siblings as well). DD is going into yr 5 next week but we had weekly set homework & it's worked well for us as she was able to do it on the nights she wasn't at karate & swimming so she wasn't rushed & gave it her full attention. HTH

Not 3 times a week. Thursday to Thursday sounds fine

Our school gives out on Friday and it's returned before Wednesday.

I think that's better as you can have after school clubs/feel too tired/go out in the evening or weekend without worry.

yes i agree, thursday to thursday.
some nights it just is too much of a rush to get anything done beyond reading and a quick practice of spellings/timetables.
Actually last year DD1s homework was given on thursday to be handed in on Tuesday. That was pretty perfect. I try to avoid homework at the weekend so we had Thursday night to start it and Monday night to finish off.

Thursday to Thursday might suit the parents, but how do the teachers have time to mark it and turn it around? (we have homework exercise books, so they need to be available for the next task).

I prefer nightly to be returned the next day. It gets children into a good routine doing a little bit each night. It also promotes a good attitude rather than encouraging procrastination. Also, I think learning is more effective when done in frequent small parts rather than me big chunk.

I don't think a child should be doing so much after school that they haven't got time for homework.

blueglue how are teachers meant to turn it around in one working day then? How do your dc's teachers manage it?

DC's primary gave 2/3 pieces of homework to be given in on the Monday morning (with a week or so to complete) which seemed to work OK for us.

Just make sure the tasks are doable by each child without much adult intervention (unless your school is full of helicopter parents)

I will have 2 sets of homework books, week 1, week 2 which I will alternate. So I have a full week to mark.

OMG that sounds complicated!

DC's school gave out worksheets which were kept in a folder and a reading task to do in the reading diary plus the spellings/tables sheets.

Next day deadlines just cannot work if a child has after school care then Brownies/Cubs/swimming/music lesson that evening.

Our hw comes home on Weds to be handed in on Monday. The spellings are expected to be done once on each of those days. Reading nightly is recorded separately.

I'd prefer no homework at all in primary. Sorry, I know that isn't helpful, just a bugbear of mine.

I also think marking homework is a bonkers addition to teacher workload - when I was at secondary, homework was never marked. It was gone through in class, if you got picked to provide an answer and hadn't done the work you had either dutifully done it and got the answer right, blagged it (in which case you clearly knew the material anyway), or got found out. Taught personal responsibility IMO.

Plenty of ways - do homework on sheets rather than in books for example. Or, as my dc's school does, have different books which each come back weekly. I don't think this is a problem for the op though, otherwise she would not be asking her question

We would need the weekend to do it as we don't collect ds from child care until six pm so there is not enough time to do homework during the week.

Our primary homework (in years 2 and 3) is given out Friday to be returned Tuesday with spellings, times tables and learn by heart given out on different days ready for tests a week later and reading most nights.

This works really well for us as Sunday afternoon is homework time and between spellings etc, reading and after school activities plus working full time it would be struggle to fit in homework too (bt obv would do it if need to) DS2 also finds it hard to concentrate on homework after being at school all day.

DS2 is going into Year 4 next week and has a teacher new to the school so not sure what will happen then.

In an ideal world, nothing. BUT DDs school adopted a new policy last year, which we love.

Weekly spellings, out Monday, in Thursday.

MONTHLY - a sheet with 10 options, mix of maths, literacy and "topic". Chose 8, chose when you do them. 3 of the maths, and 3 of the literacy compulsory.

It's brilliant. Totally flexible round family life, the DCs feel they have some control (actually minimal) and plenty of time for parents to get involved as and when support is needed.

It went down so well in the pilot P5 classes (they surveyed parents at the end of the year) that it is being rolled out through the school.

we used to get H/work on thursdays to be handed in on monday -homework got done

new teacher new schedule -home work handed out on mondays and thursdays to be handed in the next day
if they don't do it then they stay in at lunch to do it (yr3)

I work full time so DD goes to after school club until 6pm -no quiet space for homework so not practical to do it there
Monday is her brownies night so she goes straight from after school club to brownies, gets home about 7.45, far to late to start doing homework

Thursdays, I do guides, she has to come with me as I'm a single parent, so it doesn't get done on thursdays either, and then she is punished the next day -horrible system!

Loving the system at chrisdriver's school - might try to pinch that for when I eventually get my own class.

workshy As a WOHM & Brownie leader, I totally get where you are coming from: a perfect illustration of why next day handing in does not work.

we have friday and return tues - as WOHM but even when I wasn't working nightly homework would not be popular - my DS is often shatteredand/or doing activities - books changed twice a week

Thursday - Thursday or even Thursday - Tuesday for us - a maximum of two pieces a week ( no way on earth would I tolerate three times a week in Yr 4

Weekends don't work for us as I work Fri nights & Sat and do Sunday is our only family day. A friend whose son has weekend access to his dd has a nightmare with getting her gd to do homework. They live a distance away hence they stay with her

Nightly again just would not happen with dance/swimming/taekwondo

And to whoever said children shouldn't be doing do much. Dd is SERIOUS about her dance, dneice is the same Bout her swimming.

Studies have shown that children who take part in sport or music etc do better academically ( according to the headmaster of the selective senior school dd will be going to)

I would prefer the weekly/5 day turnaround system. As a working lone parent with 3dc there is no way we could do daily turnaround and dinner and clubs and baths etc.

Another example similar to chrisdrivers happened in my dd's class this yr. (Year 4)

A sheet with 6 different tasks was given at the start of the half term, all based on that half terms theme. It was up to each child which task they handed in each week, but one had to be handed in each week.

Some of them dd could see would need more time, and she learned about planning ahead and doing a little of the more time consuming tasks each week while also doing another to hand in that week iyswim.

I know another child who did the big ones firstas she had a busy time ahead with performances/grandparents visiting, etc.
Another child who couldn't attend school due to a contagious illness but who wasn't actually 'out of action poorly' got all his done in the week he was off. So effectively he had no homework for 5weeks.

Importantly these tassels taught so much more than the subject. And far more than a sheet of sums/grammar sentences etc. Each one required research, planning, and thinking about what resources to use. it made the child use literacy and mathematical skills, science, it, history and geography. (And probably many more that i as a parent and not a teacher am not aware of.) My dd realised she had skills she didn't give herself credit for. And despite her/our initial 'oh no' reaction due to something different, it renewed her interest in completing her homework and made her feel proud of what she achieved during that term.

I would be delighted to see a similar homework system again.

Please excuse my errors, I'm on the most auto-correcting phone on the planet I think.

Homework 3 nights a week, but handed in a few days later. Definitely not next day.