I can't stand homework - do you think it's a good thing?

[mydoorisalwaysopen]

DS1 (year 5) gets the same homework every week.... "This week we have been learning about X. Tell me what you know." Every week I have a battle to get him to do it and it just doesn't seem worth the effort. Marking is usually a tick and a smiley face. DS2 (year 2) gets a more detailed description of a task but very often it's a poster for this, that or the other. Marking is perfunctory but does occasionally contain a comment.

What are your thoughts on homework? I wish they didn't have any at primary school mainly as I think what they are set is of limited value and the main lesson being learnt is that mum will sit you down and drag it out of you. I won't be doing that every night for a couple of hours when they go to secondary school.

My favourite bit about marking homework is reading the snotty comments that certain parents like to leave... especially the one who dares to attempt to 'correct' my English, when it is already correct, and it is not their first language.

.. and the one who complained one week that the open-ended maths investigation was 'too vague' and then that the following week's answer-all-of-these-questions was 'too rigid'!

... and the one who blames the other parent for not doing the homework properly and never understands my response that it's supposed to be the child who does it.

... and the one who moaned that my spelling lists were "Just lists of words with the same letters, so what's the point of that?" then complained when I sent some wholly topic-related lists as words as there weren't any letter patterns to learn.

Complaints when we set too much. Complaints when we set too little.

Can't win.

Only 4 more days to the holidays

We are in Scotland and our local primary school sets no homework until p3, so age 7 ish before they start.
I love it:) friends with kids at other schools nearby have stress every night trying to engage some 4/5 yr olds. I am so happy our head teacher has made that call.

Classic situation today. DD came home with her completed homework project where she had to interview elderly relatives. Took a few evenings to do, she made a great effort.

It came home unmarked. I asked her why, she told me her teacher hasn't had time to look at it so told them not to worry and take it home.

This is not the first time.

This homework is completely irrelevant IMO. At the same time this homework was given, she had spellings, reading, her part in the christmas play and more songs to learn for an additional carol concert her class is taking part in.

Oh and she also came home with a letter asking for homemade pizza's for her christmas party on wednesday.

I'm sure the school think all the parents sit at home twiddling their thumbs waiting for the next task.

I almost throttled her teacher at parents evening for giving me this look for not making up for lessons she had missed to do an art exhibition she was selected for. It was for 4 weeks.
DD is dyslexic so has extra support but no-one thought to let me know it was these lessons she was missing to do this project.

Then her teacher told me during this parents evening that he hadn't heard her read for 4 weeks so hoped I did extra with her. Twat

I'm in 2 minds about homework.
on one hand I like to see my dc's progress and between the parent-teacher meetings homework is the only visible thing there is.
on the other hand it's a bloody hassle, we only are home late and the dc are very tired.

I cannot quite understand how homework type worksheets can't be done within the (very long imo) school day. my dn in germany only goes to school in the mornings and doesn't have any homework at all. dn is making good progress nonetheless.

My DD (4.5, in Reception) gets on average two worksheets a week. One is drawing things that begin with a particular letter and then practising writing that letter on the lines underneath. The other might be colour by numbers or something along those lines. Or perhaps simple counting or addition.

I don't hover over her as she is always doing it while I am bathing her little brother! I explain what she has to do and leave her to it.

I think it probably is worthwhile, just not hugely so.

We are also supposed to hear her read every night .....

DD1 is in Reception and her home "learning" [rolls eyes] is 2 books, some phonics words to learn, 2 letters to write and a maths "game". I can't begin to tell you how much I hate doing it with her.

Mainly because she has 2 little sisters who disrupt us if we try and do it when they are awake, and then when they have gone to bed she wants to relax and watch TV, not do homework. The dawdling, twitching, daydreaming, stalling... It almost gives me a stroke.

I suspect that even if we tried to do it earlier in the day (assuming no younger siblings were disturbing us), she still wouldn't be keen. She loves school but wants to play after school.

Ahhhh the projects. I thought ds2's (P2) lighthouse was brilliant, cereal box base, egg box rocks, upside down costa coffee cup all lovingly splattered in paint painted. Then I saw the carved wooden model and the one with the flashing rotating lights and realised things had moved up a gear since ds's 1&2 were in primary!

I am a teacher. I think children at reception and year 1 should get a reading book to share or read to their parents. That's all. As already stated if a teacher doesn't set enough homework the head complains, lots of parents complain and frankly there is so much pressure to set homework it is hard to take a stand. School have policies on homework and as a teacher you have to follow it. In the ideal world marking would be detailed and explicit but I like many teachers am up planning till 10 pm and later most school nights.

I worked in a school that had a serious look at no h/w in the lower years (secondary) and only setting work that was essential (mainly GSCE/A level). The idea was to extend the day and include independent learning sessions during form. It was based on the idea that a great deal of h/w was pointless and caused enormous conflict at thome.
it didn't go through mainly as the parents didn't support the idea and I was always under the impression that they pressure for h/w at primary comes from the parents.
My DD's school gives very little (a 10 -15 minute task) in addition to reading and spellings, so I don't mind that too much.

We hate it

I genuinely think they should stay longer at school if the learning can't be fitted into the day, although based on the fact the whole school watched a DVD one Monday afternoon after I'd battled with my 3 (all primary) to complete their homework at the weekend I'd say that its setting for settings sake, I'd be inclined to agree that some parents like to have it so they can keep track on their childs learning...

I'd like a comprehensive topic list (so I know what to guide their interest on) and just keep reading

...and teachers can pretend its optional but if thats the case stop giving house points and awards for it and having whole showing and sharing sessions about the work you did over the holidays because mine insist on doing it and get anxious that they'll have nothing to take in

What really fucks me off is DD's teacher will give the children a sweet on a Friday if they have a comment from the parent in their reading record book Mon-Fri.

If they miss one night, no sweet. In front of the class.

Is this normal or as I suspect, fucking moronic of the teacher?

I work 7am - 5pm Mon-Fri. DD gets up at the crack of dawn so I can work. After making dinner and doing house work, we are both half dead.

I hate homework with a passion, the DC come in at 3 (I have 3 DDs at school 9, 8 and 5) quick biscuit and drink and it's homework. They are tired, I am tired, some of it I really don't see the point of at all. If they want children to do homework keep them in school an extra half hour. The nights with the clubs are the worst.

In my utopian world school would be 8.30-5pm, 3-5pm would be spent on extra curricular stuff sports, music, drama, clubs like Brownies etc.

Parents would be charged depending on income, a lot of patents would be happy to pay for it because it would be cheaper than child care and you wouldn't need to ferry them to clubs at night, children from poorer families would get a chance to go to clubs as well.

I like that idea sweetkitty!

I'm a primary teacher, currently in Year 3. I hate sending homework - my class work hard in school, I don't think they should have to do anything beyond reading/spellings/times tables at home. However, Mr Ofsted says that homework should demonstrate extending the learning done in school, and that it should be marked with relevant comments. So, every week I have to pick, and differentiate, a task which relates to our current learning, send it home and then spend ages marking it when it comes back. I don't give the children a hard time about returning it late, or even not at all. They are 7 and 8 and I'm not nagging them about how their time at home is spent.

I hate homework projects like Threetomatos said it is competative parenting at its worst in our school. The last project in yr3 had intrecate items handcrafted in wood and other materials brought in that I would be amazed if the child had even touched before it was brought into school (I wont say what as it would out me) and the few that had been made by the children where much simpler and therefore did not look so impressive.

How do the teachers mark these I wonder - A+ for mummy/daddygrandparent/carer/nanny's work or art or A+ for the child who actually did the homework on the own or with a little help? Or do they all get the same?
All this ontop of reading everynight, spellings and weekly homework sheets.

My dd is Y3.
I refuse to do homework that she does not understand. If it has not been taught sufficiently well, she should not be coming home to learn it. I think it is a much more efficient assessment for the teacher to know that it was too difficult and should be covered again in class.

We spend our weekends and evenings doing lovely things, that are much more important than homework.

What is even more frustrating is when a child is asked to do a research project to be handed in on a certain date and then it doesn't even get looked at. DS handed in his farming project as requested on the 29th November as did all the others in his class, this work was to be presented a bit like a show and tell to the rest of the class and it's not even been discussed.

Another thing that bugs me is I always have a look to see if DS's homework has been marked and noticed writing in green pen on the pages that looked like a childs, I asked DS who's writing it was and he says that the teacher doesn't mark his work but each pupil in class passes it to another and they mark each others work

Maybe in the time that they're marking each others work they could Oh I don't know! Maybe be actually learning which is what I send him to school for after all.

I'm an A level teacher / lecturer and I bloody hate homework. In fact, by and large I refuse to set any, unless there is something that I specifically want my students to do.

I think too often, it encourages the wrong attitude "Miss, I have done your homework for you" whereas I'd prefer to see students taking responsibility for their own learning, reading around the subject (which I do provide) and extending their own interests in a topic.

Incidentally, despite my refusal to set homework, the value added for my course is usually really high (top 7-10% in the country usually). So it doesn't seem to do the students any harm!

Of course, that doesn't stop the parents moaning .

DD (year 5) gets a fair amount of varied homework. She completelys self-manages it and we were told as parents to allow them to fail, so not to stand over their homework, not to point out errors but to tell them if you'd found a mistake but not what it was.

Each week she'll do Mathletics, a maths workbook, a report/investigation of some sort, prepare a speech (research and write), sometimes a debate. I leave her to get on with it, no TV is allowed until all homework is done.

The senior part of the school uses the Dalton plan, which is all about self-management of time and I think the homework is structured to prepare them for this.

My kids had a massive amount of homework at primary school, often 2 or three different pieces a week, it was far too much.

Luckily at secondary school they get only a fraction of that.

Worst homework we ever got sent home was in year 1. It said 'what do you understand by the term 'fraction'? He was 5. I nearly wrote 'nothing' on the sheet but instead tried to be a good parent and ended up drawing bloody pizzas and teaching him basic fractions myself.

I HATE IT.

Happy to do reading and some spelling revision on words they got wrong in class but anything else at 6 I think is ridiculous.