How much homework and why do they do it?

[WalkingThePlank]

I'm wondering how much homework primary school children get and what teachers expect the children to gain from it

I'll use my Yr3 DC as an example but it's pretty much the same for the other child. Per week, she gets several exercises on a Maths website, spellings, learning times tables and a main piece of work. All of this is supposed to take 30 minutes in total per week and is in addition to the 10-15 minutes of reading per day.

The maths website, spellings and times tables take about 20 minutes. The main piece of work takes about an hour as it is usually along the lines of 'find out 6 facts about the Romans and present this on a poster'. The key learning point takes about 5 minutes and then we have an hour of poster making as they cannot print anything out, it must be by hand. Each of the main pieces of homework so far has been art based, be it a poster, making a model, costume.

The art element assumes a certain element of resources at home. The reality is that most of the children do not do their homework, the parents do. It also really eats in to family time. The latest homework took about 4 hours and cost us c.£10.

So, is this amount/type of homework 'normal' and what do teachers expect the children to be gaining from it?

If homework isn't compulsory in primary school, I would select which bits are going to be useful to your child. If the art projects look like a waste of time, then tell them they needn't bother unless they are really keen to do it. They can do the research and forget about the drawing. Reading, writing, maths. That's the useful stuff, no?

If they don't do it they have to stay in during break time to do it.

• you can't make the school not give the kids art-based "pointless" homework
• you can't make other parents not turn the homework into a big deal / work of art
• but you can let your kids do it just well enough to be acceptable. don't play along. don't worry about the displays in school. just do what you want to do.

i think your kids' time would be better spent doing a bond book or two! A yr3 class where literacy isn't good enough to understand written homework sounds a worrying situation to me.

My dd is yr 4 and has to do reading 5 times a week and write a paragraph about what she has read about. Plus they have a full on project to complete by beginning of Dec about water.

I find it all extremely annoying and resent having to spend time and energy 'supporting' dd to complete it. The reading I can understand but the projects have all been stressful as it is like pulling teeth getting dd to sit down and do anything towards them.

Dd would also be punished if it is not completed by being made to stay in a breaktimes.

DS1 is in Yr 3 in prep school.

So far he has had to memorise every week: a new times table, 4 of 5 French words, 11-15 English spellings.

He also gets up to 3 books to read a week (although not sure how strict they are on that, last week we didn't quite manage to get through the 3rd book).

The only project we have had is to bring in some history facts, presented in whichever format they want to.

Maths, Science and English have a prep session each of just over half an hour every week where they do some set work on their own. I wouldn't even know what that is because they firmly discourage parental involvement.

DD2 in yr4, state primary
Monday: English homework usually a grammar worksheet due on Weds
Wednesday: Maths homework due on Friday
Thursday/weekend: RE or creative writing type of work, due on Monday
everynight: reading, spelling (column and sentence), times tables. Spelling test on Tuesdays, Timestable test on Friday.

I'm with you on this. I feel the amount of homework my DD (Y1) gets is way too much. They changed the policy over the summer and I am in the middle of drafting a letter asking what they are trying to achieve with it.

We're getting: reading 10-15 mins a day. 12 spellings which need to be practiced three times minimum on three different days of the week (columns on a sheet that we have to return). A maths task. A project. Assuming that we are meant to spend no more than 20 mins a day (which is what the policy claims) by the time I've heard DD read we have 5 mins a day left (she's on early chapter books and we read a chapter a night so it's reasonable to assume 15 mins). The spellings take another 5 minimum. That means that either they are expecting us to do homework on weekend days or they are expecting us to complete the maths task and the project in 10 mins. And that's assuming that you think that homework every night at 5 is OK (which, excepting the reading, I don't)

Then we got a really snotty letter informing us about what we 'had' to do where homework is concerned. If she doesn't do it then she will be kept in at playtime to complete it.

So I am left with a little girl who is so tired when she gets in from school that she is weepy, especially this close to half term, and who I am going to have to make to do her homework because if I don't she is going to be punished at school for my failure to do so. In what way is this meant to engender a love of learning in her?

Year 2 child, private school.

He gets, from school:

Every day - reading for 10-15 minutes; 10 spellings to be learnt over the course of the week, so we do a little every day
Once a week - grammar (20-25 minutes)
Once or twice every half term - some weekend homework, which is either music based (learn this very basic tune on your recorder) or art based (find a leaf, and copy it and decorate it)

mrsmortis that is an enormous amount of homework for a Year 1 child. Completely over the top, I think.

My contribution to DD’s homework will be based on it’s difficulty level. If I feel that it is something that she can complete by herself then I don’t interfere in her work. While some other times she needs my help in finding the resources and pictures to complete the chart or any assignments. Her school, Sunnybrook School, doesn’t burden with assignments and homeworks and also they give enough time for completing assignments. So usually she completes the works all by herself.