Verbena37:
Just to clarify THERE NO LONGER is a national weekly homework requirement - Gove removed that. www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-24126000
The old requirement for KS2 upper was roughly 1.5 hours per week I believe.
Most schools around here got around that by saying that the bulk of this was indpendent reading - neither monitored nor resulting in any written work.
I get that now that we can only have time off school 'out of term time' - many parents resent that during their holiday they have to construct a model/ research facts/ etc... - sometimes there just isn't the computer access.
However, I would put it to you that you could simply approach the school, explain that you are away and unable to access a computer and will attempt to complete the work upon your return. most schools would be content with that.
I would also just ask this rhetorical question Verbena37:
If homework was optional (no problem at all if you opt not to do a lick of it) - would you still be doing something (and I include reading at home in that)?
I suspect you'd answer yes.
What you're objecting to is homeworks which involve parents - what you should be lobbying your school about is designing homeworks which children can do entirely independently. Project homework, in particular, is frequently complained about here on MN. Usually parents have to go to expense to get materials, come up with the design idea and sometimes build the thing themselves.
I think this is what you're objecting to (and I'd argue it excludes pupils with less means - i.e. the kid that doesn't have a computer at home or access to a smart phone that can take stop-motion films). So this is what you should be complaining about to your school.
However, can I just say, there are some kids (my DDs are both in this camp) who adore the projects and learning about things off the internet far more than the writing an essay assignment. In fact, if essays are fairly infrequent, they tend to be less objectionable when they do come along.