I like homework. But when I say that it is targetted hoemwork I'm talking about.
Not the kind the original OP has (tell me what you learned in class this week - where the parent has to basically get involved I imagine, in YR/KS1 at least).
I think a teacher realising his/her class (or a group in the class) don't quite get adding fractions then sending some problems home (maybe a photocopied worksheet) or recommending they play an on-line game or do something on MyMaths is a good thing.
I think schools sending home class reading and letting children bring home library books is a good thing. Getting them to write about it - think about their reading (especially in KS2) seems very beneficial and I look on in envy at friends children who do this -as our school has years when they don't and years when they do.
I am, however, at a school where some years homework happens regularly (or when OFSTED are visiting) and other years we have weeks on end with nothing.
I personally don't know if having more rigorous/ challenging and regular homework would have made a difference. But I certainly would have welcomed targeted worksheets when DD1 could barely add in Y1 or subtract in Y2.
We solved DD1's inability to do any sort of addition/ subtraction with numbers >10 at home and without support from the school. So although yes, it spared the teachers a great deal of work, I do kind of wonder about a system that just leaves it to parents who ultimately can't bear to see their child unable to read or add any longer and start doing their own thing at home.
Those of us who gave up on the school and started getting in workbooks, etc... have children who're doing well (they're in the group of kids not being heavily crammed for the SATs in Y6) - those who believed the school's strap line that they achieve excellent outcomes for all their children and believed the school when they would ask about slow reading/ slow maths school and got the answer 'they'll get it next year, year after year' - now are in a complete panic about achieving L4 on KS2 SATs.
A little bit of targetted homework along the way could well have averted it. Many of the kids struggling now were doing way better than my DD1 in Year R/ KS1. I've been consistently working about an extra 2 hours over a week on mahts (through Mathsfactor) and reading/ writing skills with DD1 since late Y2. She's now much more secure than many of these children. So for us, homework made a difference. It didn't come from the school - but it did mean that my child is leaving primary at the level I would anticipate a good student in primary school should be at.
I do take the point that better teaching in school & standards of achievement may also have been useful. However, as a parent, there's very little I can do to change the culture/ work ethic/ commitment of teachers in a school.