Homework going straight in the bin!?

[afussyphase]

DD (Y2) is at a school that's been OK for YR and Y1, but Y2 has been less good for her. She's bored, she doesn't want to do her homework and she's often disappointed or distressed at one little thing or another (whether the class gets the class treat; whether they are still/again doing the same story in literacy etc). The school doesn't have a good reputation for meeting the needs of the "more able", which we've been told DD is.
I talked to her teacher about the HW attitude -- I'd rather they didn't do any, but if they are supposed to, I feel I should help make it happen. Her teacher told me she doesn't have time to actually mark the HW; from our point of view it disappears into a void and the DC never know how they did or what to improve. When we talked, I said I thought DD would benefit from some positive comments if she'd done a good job; she might be happier to do it.
Today DD told me that the report she did over Easter (which her teacher did celebrate after our chat) was the only thing that hadn't been put in the bin. According to DD all the HW goes in the bin - in view of the DC. She was nearly in tears when she said it; said it had been going on all year.
Now, I don't save all the bits of paper the DC scribble on and I don't imagine any teacher does either, but I have the good graces not to bin stuff in their view right after they've done it, no matter what it is. I would have thought it might get filed for a term or half a term, reviewed to see if DC have made progress in line with school books, returned each half term, or at least binned discretely.
Can this be right? What would you do? If you're a teacher, do you mark it? Return it? File it?

Homework used to be done in exercise books, which were handed back after marking. I can remember the anticipation when the teacher handed the books out at the beginning of the lesson and we all looked to see what marks we had.
The teacher gave an overall mark for the work (A+ or 9/10 usually in my case !) and corrected spellings and grammar etc. I used to try to do as little homework as possible. I can't imagine being motivated to do any at all if there was complete lack of feedback. What would be the point?

exercise books and text books are out of favour these days, ofsted doesn't like them. most work in my schools is done on file paper, by worksheet.

Seems I just stumbled on to something Ofsted I agree with. Text books are horrible. They are usually incomplete with missing pages or have someone's dinner stuck on to them. Yuck...

One day in the not to distant future, Ofsted is going to "discover" the " brand new" concept of text books and insist every school fully equips them selves again, and conveniently forget they were the ones that effectively banned them in the first place.

Homework in primary school is pointless. If the parents are dedicated then the homework will be done. If the parents aren't then nothing will happen. Children shouldn't be made to feel bad because their parents can't or won't help them.

Yes Pipbin I agree, it's not in many DC's control whether they are able to find time and space and help and quiet to do HW at this age - really at most primary ages. Our school serves a quite deprived community and perhaps this is one reason they don't make much of a fuss if it's not completed. But then they shouldn't set it. If it's set, it takes time for parents, DC and teachers and it should have a benefit.
If anyone has references for any studies we all seem to believe that HW isn't helpful and studies have shown it but I don't know offhand how they would figure that out or where to find the studies that would be great. Meanwhile ... still not sure how to handle this one with the school but at least I am now convinced that I should say something. Lucy and 80sMum, seems like in your experience it can be helpful but that's entirely about having feedback on it! I never did any HW in primary and was always very academic; never did me any harm and might actually have put me off, if it had been time-consuming and dull.

The problem is that the teacher will most likely agree with you, the head might even agree with you but they are expected to do it by the almighty OFSTED. And some parents complain if there is no homework.

Puzzles and cooking: good fun. I guess we could, if we had the energy, coordinate through MN and all write letters to Ofsted ...
One of the local schools near us is rated Good, has a new Head, and he (and that school) doesn't send work home unless parents ask for it to be provided. I think he's been through Ofsted inspections at other schools but maybe Ofsted won't like it (unfortunately we did not get into that school).

None of the teachers I've talked to - many, professionally and friends - think homework should be set before yr5 earliest. But they all do because some pushy parents request it.
My DCs 2and 3 in yr 3 gets maths each week which they mark in class together each Friday.
Really shocked that any teachers would throw it in the bin without looking at it!

Toobusy it's not that teachers take some perverse pleasure in setting work and then chucking it. It's just that sometimes there literally isn't enough time to do it. At one point I was down to 3-4 hours sleep a night and I still couldn't get through everything I needed to. In part because of a new marking policy which meant pretty much all work was deep marked with targets and an individual extension activity written in. It took too long. Unmarked work was not acceptable. Disappeared work was just that, Disappeared. I would look at it to see what the children had been up to, then keep it at home. If it was suddenly asked for (never happened) I would bring it in the next day.

I'm not a fan of homework, and I'll never set any busy work (except for practicing their spelling words and times tables). Because I'd prefer to avoid it altogether, but don't have a choice, what I do is have a homework book (a scrapbook) and every student gets a homework grid each week to tie in with whatever classroom project may be going on at the time. The students can choose what activities to complete from that grid. It can be something like cooking a recipe and taking some photos of their work, to something as simple as drawing a picture which relates to the topic, so there is something for each student to be able to do with minimal parental input if needed. I take the books home once a week and will mark and make comments. Not necessarily the most in depth and brilliant feedback, but at everyone will get something.

Throwing a student's work in the bin in front of them is not on, ever.

DS (year 5) has maths and english homework exercise books. He gets a weekly task for each (no other homework) and they are marked in time to be handed back for the next weeks homework.

I loathe setting homework too. Soapboxqueen, I really hope you are no longer working in such a horrible regime.

No I'm not. Had to leave due to my ds having asd and his school not being able to cope which really didn't help the already stressful situation at work.

I really don't regret it either which makes me sad because I love working with children.

My dd dislikes the peer marking process. She might put some extra effort into some piece of work or other because she really liked the topic and she will bounce into school saying she can't wait to show Mrs X only for her to come out saying that they just peer marked it and Oliver said it was ok but why didn't she do something about Minecraft or something.

I wouldn't mind if they didn't do homework but said 'we are doing x or y topic if anyone wants to do some craft they can bring it in' or 'we will be looking at perimeter, area and volume over the next two weeks if any parents want to do extra work at home'. Then there is less formal homework to mark, children won't be kept in if their parents can't or won't help, or prioritise going to visit a sick grandparent but those parents who want to do something extra will be able to help. I fall into all the camps of parenting depending on the week!

If it was our choice muggling that's exactly what many teachers would do.

Peer marking can be very effective but children need to be trained into it and criteria need to applied.

Well, I spoke to the teacher very briefly, said that I was sure DD had the wrong end of the stick but that she'd been upset and hadn't wanted to do her HW because she thought they went in the bin. The teacher said, well, eventually they get binned, but said something about giving them to the TA, and that they don't get binned straight away. DD said they get binned on Fridays (turned in on Wednesdays; not looked at until Friday from what she says). DD remains upset and I remain worried that the DC are seeing their work thrown away and it must be demoralising and upsetting for them, but I can't really disbelieve the teacher again.
Not sure what to do now! I'm thinking: do nothing. I don't want to ask questions about school HW policy just in case it inspires anyone to set some rule about marking it which takes teachers' time away from more useful and fun tasks. This is probably just a battle I'm not going to pick, though if we stay at this school it'll bug me every week for years. When she has a new teacher in Y3 I'll ask what they do with it, I guess. I don't see a problem with occasional feedback and all the HW given back each term/half term so parents can bin it after it's been forgotten.

I pulled my kids out of a school that set but never marked homework. I don't believe in homework, but I believe even less in children being demotivated by producing stuff that isn't read/fed back on. I realise that teachers are on stressed, but 1) it's only once a week and 2) it's not fair to pass that stress to the children with extra work that steal's from their free time... and then not bother to uphold your side of the bargain. My experience was that after a few times of being ignored, children put in zero effort.
If the teacher's object that much to homework, they should refuse to set it, or organise a meeting with the head. That's a principled objection.

In new school, work is marked - even if it's just numbers out of ten or a tick or a smiley stamp. It's also relevant to class work, so if it isn't done children miss relevant information.
I feel far less cross with this school as a result - even though I'd rather there was no homework until secondary school.
Tellingly, it's a private school and the teacher's don't have the same rigorous, time consuming marking policies.

Binning homework seems a bit of a stupid solution. Surely the way around this is just to put it in a homework folder and let the kids keep the same folder each term - and then send it home to parents at the end of the term - and THEY can chuck it.

Yes, that (deliciouslytipsy) is what the more sought-after schools around here seem to do, judging from the couple of people I know who I've asked. Naturally, one day, the little worksheet on how to make up 50p using combinations of coins will not be framed and kept for all eternity but it seems better to send it home and parents can gently bin at the end of the year or whenever. We might try to move schools but it's easier said than done -- and not just because of this (but I admit that a different school nearby, for which we are on the waiting list, doesn't set homework and it's a very appealing aspect of the school!)

As a teacher, I'm usually on the teacher's side and know that most of us hate homework and would prefer not to set it, but students should know that they still need to do it. In this case however, I would be refusing to do any homework until it was actually marked and not thrown in the bin.