Homework: what is the point? (and on the links between school and home)

[Arkadia]

I feel the other thread has run its course, so here is another one...

DD1 (P3) gets usually very little homework (which is fine), but it is ALWAYS the same week in, week out, AND it NEVER gets checked, let alone commented on. So, the question is... what is the point? Obviously she loses interest in doing it (and so would/do I).
There is certainly a pattern because in the previous years it was the same.
When you ask the teacher she invariably says that everything if fine.

Some schools in our council are doing away with homework altogether. That would be OK as such, but homework is the ONLY link that the family has with the school and with what happens in the classroom (except some little morsels of information that DD graciously gives us from time to time). So, on a wider point, do the parents have the right to know what goes on at school or should that be seen as a privilege?

The Education Endowment Foundation

Lots of parents don't do homework with their children ...probably 80-90% of my class

I have to set homework and it's like planning another lesson for me. I differentiate it 6 ways and mark it, but I don't really agree with it.

More often than not the children don't do it themselves - or don't do it at all. It doesn't tell me anything I don't already know about how they are getting on - and they aren't practicing skills they have learned (which is the point of it, from my point of view) because they aren't doing it themselves.

One of my parents asked me for more homework (one of the ones who doesn't usually complete it at all) and I just said that what would really help is reading more with her daughter, talking to her about her learning at school and helping her to learn her number facts and times tables, which is really more helpful that anything given that those are not secure yet and need practicing again and again and we don't have adequate time for that in school.

I send out a sheet every half term that sets out ideas and websites and things the children need to work on. Those things are far more helpful to be done at home on an ongoing basis than a worksheet on telling the time, but I am obliged to send those out too.

Involved parents will make a massive difference by asking the child what the time is now and how long before they need to go out at....x time. How long until dinner? Etc.

Filling out a worksheet and arguing because the child doesn't want to do it...not so much.

I would add that we fill out a home school book everyday with what they covered in each lesson, so the parents know what they are working on day to day. That means they can start those conversations about what the children are doing without having the usual 'what did you do at school today?' 'I don't know. Nothing' conversation!

Thanks I don't know the education endowment foundation are or where they got their facts from.
Only from personal experience homework worked for me. I effectively taught myself French with school as a guide and same for chemistry through reading. For primary school I was getting through a novel a week by age ten which was lovely, but I can see many thinking that was pointless!!

Ten minutes per day with my child and she is getting on well with reading and maths. It isn't a massive bind.

It can be. DS1 is generally happy to sit down and read his reading book to me or DH.
But homework that involves writing? He doesn't like writing or mark making (but needs to practice it), so there's usually lots of whining and dawdling and deliberately silly scribbling before he produces as much as one letter. That can stretch a tiny piece of homework that shouldn't take more than 5 minutes into something way longer.

My ds is a kind of child who thinks homework/school work is important. In yr2, teacher set several homeworks from nrich, which took him more than 2 hours to complete. If I gave him same assignment, he will give up in 20 minutes. But achievement in his face was priceless. Influence of teacher is massive at this age.

I just wish they give more meaningful homework(as op says), rather than just giving them some worksheet because they have to. He will do any, because I raised him this way, but most of time, set homework is just pointless for him(imo), except for teaching him to finish what was set by school is important.

IntoTheDeep, my ds is/was very reluctant writer, who used to whinge and make things worse. I don't know your dc's age, but for my ds, it sort of changed in yr3, when everything become have to do kind of work. Now he just seems to get on with it.

Kennington the EEF is a charity which funds research with the aim of improving educational outcomes by providing teachers with evidence

"Only from personal experience homework worked for me. I effectively taught myself French" isn't that self study and motivation rather than homework?

Dd's yr1 and yr2 get - a list of words to write the words then have to be put into a sentence.

Then an A4 sheet of maths.

This is on top of a reading book, mostly get read every night.

Fantastic school who got 100% sats scores, and has been mentioned in the Guardian. A lot of the parents don't know how lucky there are to have a dc in that school unfortunately as we live in a transient town.

Mrsz you are right I assumed you were talking about self teaching which I class as homework.
I still think homework is useful.
I do thinks schools push writing too early and it can be tough to get kids to do things.it is easy for me to say when I have a kid who is easily bribed to do their homework!!

Mrz, surely not? Teaching? Evidence? What madness is this?! We all know that we move from one fad to another without bothering with silly things like evidence?!

Good that they exist, but does anyone actually listen to them?

Mrz, for me homework set by school lead me into self learning and made me realise the learning is actually fun, not a chore. Properly set homework to reinforce the learning at school leads to deeper understanding and passion to learn more. School work become inspiration. At least that's what homework did for me.
I don't know schools other than ds' school, but his school's homework does not work this way, imo.

Kennington, I entirely agree about pushing writing too early, but that is not down to schools themselves, as they don't set the curriculum or assessment expectations.

If more people raised these concerns with their MPs we might get somewhere.

Of course some children are ready to write at 3/4 (my DD loves it. She writes by choose all the time and has just turned 5) but I have taught in year 1 classes where the children just aren't ready because they have neither the fine motor skills required nor the vocabulary or speaking skills necessary and that is tough for everyone.

lifeissweet, my ds was a very passionate writer before school. He worte stories, which was obviously not properly structured or anything. He used to write diary everyday.
It all changed when he was in yr1, teacher started commenting that his writing was good, but boring in front of him. He became reluctant writer since then, with added pressure of cursive writing to get lv3 for end of yr2.
I really wish I was more knowledgeable back then, and didn't listen to what teacher said. Literacy isn't his strength anyway, I wish I just let him enjoy writing his own way.

Interesting replies.

What annoys me is that fact that I do not believe the teachers even checks whether ANY homework has been done... (she gives us weekly sheets to fill out with the list of the activities chosen, but I keep finding them in DD's bag and in the house.)

I don't believe that homework does make any difference at this early stages, except for ingraining the idea that homework IS pointless.

I think I will have a chat with the school whenever the opportunity arises...

If you don't believe makes any difference, why do you care if it's looked at?

What would you expect a teacher to do if their 5 year old didn't hand in their optional homework? It's not something to punish for, they can ask them if they did do it, but it's also not something to bother the parent with, as we've seen in the thread lots of even high performing kids parents discourage homework, let alone parents who aren't interested.

The YR1 curriculum is almost all basic skills based, so practicing the skills is all that the homework would be setting. The progress at those skills would be seen in the lessons as much as the homework anyway, so even if there's point in doing it, that doesn't mean there's point in reviewing it.

Yes, if you don't believe in homework, just don't do it, and forget about it. It's optional.

The homework is not marked as "voluntary" or "optional" (we do get some of that form time to time, usually as part of something "bigger"). Indeed, at the beginning of P1 we get a lecture on how important homework is (I got another one this year when DD2 began school).

Most likely homework as such doesn't do much, what does do a lot in my view is setting the homework and then not bother after that... That does teach something to children (AND parents).

Not sure YR1 corresponds to... I believe P2 up here. Since we are in P3 so perhaps things should have moved on in any case.

Again, I am fine with both having and not having HW. What I find objectionable is having HW, but then... not caring about it.

One thing for sure, my school should get better at communicating with those silly parents who would like to be kept informed on what the kids actually do during the day.

To explain my earlier post, our new home learning means that the children get a sheet each week from the teacher with some suggested activities to do at home, then the parent needs to sign the sheet and send it back in to school. There is no longer any requirement to actually bring the completed homework in. I find it odd, because the idea of homework in primary school in my view is really to prepare them for secondary school etc and make them independent learners. I don't even mind if it's not marked, the hw is for the child's benefit, but I think there should be some output, because the hw requirement at secondary school is much more onerous and it's a good habit to get into.

helenwilson, can you post a sample? It would be interesting to see it :)

I think you have to ask the school about what they expect from homework.
Just setting and not checking doesn't sound like good practice.

Also, you said school is quite large, I do wonder if there aren't any website/yr group pages that feeds parents with information about curriculum at school. Or aren't there any hand out beginning of the term?
That's what my ds' school does.

You said you are talking with HT regularly(?), why don't you ask her/him for school policy about homework/information, etc?

I've known so many parents who claims they don't know anything about what their child is doing at school. They only needed to look at school website.

My dc get cpg books, two or three pages to complete in each English book and maths book each week. Plus spellings. Plus daily reading.

As for knowing what they are doing, each term we get that terms curriculum sent home no it will say what they are focusing on in each sibject. This is also up on the website. There is also an overall year planner on there too, so you know what they will do well in advance.

irvineoneohone, I was about to write about our crappy website, but I have just discovered that has been (FINALLY) revamped. So at least not it doesn't have this internet 1.0 look (in fairness I think this is down to the Council, NOT the school)
The content is the same, though: only general information and nothing else. Nothing is being handed in to parents at the beginning of term or at any other time. The ONLY font of information is the little homework we get and the report card at the end of the year (which requires another three, though).
There are some Twitter feeds, but they contain mostly pictures of smiling children and little more. No FB page (just as well, dare I say :) ).