Please tell me what's good about homework at your school

[Ifonlyoneday]

Background, new headteacher has asked parents what we would like to see changed re homework to improve the quality and learning gained. Ours is not great, but also not too much and I don't have other examples to know what may be better. So wise mumsnetters, if you had the opportunity to change homework at your school what good bits of homework would you suggest and what would you ditch from your homework if you had the opportunity to feedback?

It feels useful, particularly the maths and spelling and reading.
The French is fun.
Project work is a bore for me so would prefer less of that.

Happy to hear child read.
Happy to assist child to practice time tables.
Glad we don't (often) have spelling to learn.
i like the fact that the child is supposed to do it without any parental supervision; if the child has a problem they tell the teacher they can't do the homework.
I hate, hate, hate research or project based homework. This tends to be homework for the parents not the child. It doesn't teach children research skills it tells them that Google is what adults use.

I'd rather have no homework at primary level, apart from reading.

I agree- ditch the stupid 'make an Anglo Saxon hut' type projects.

I also hate the grids that suggest 'going for a walk' 'singing a song' etc.

I'd prefer no homework at primary level. Or optional tasks but with no punishments for not doing it. Except reading. reading is good.

I like short and well defined. Not requiring extra resources or "research" at the age of 5. And a reasonable period to do it, not just weekend (we might be busy) and not just weekdays.

I don't like open ended topic based tasks for small children as that means I have to research and make up what they should actually do myself, what we produce is rubbish compared to other families and I always end up feeling like I've let the kids down. And it feels more like homework for the sake of homework rather that actually trying to learn something.

The best thing about homework at our school is there's very little of it!

I have two DDs in Y1 and Y2, we have spellings once a week, English/Maths once a week and reading every night which is fine. On top of this we have the option of doing extra maths and computer coding (web based) and it's perfectly manageable and I like to see what they are learning. We were asked if we wanted to do term projects last year but his was veto'd by parents. In its place the school has introduced this...every term we are invited into school for the children to present to us. They stand up and show us the work they've done that they are most proud of. The children are amazing standing up in front of everyone (now) and it's does their confidence the world of good. Public speaking is a great skill to learn early on and even the shyist of children are now happy to do it. I find it means they put extra effort into their work as they are always doing it to a level 'that they are very proud of'.

Reading is good. Times tables practice is good. Short, weekly English/maths that is related to their current topics is also good.
Big projects that we don't have time or resources for is not so good.

Quite a lot of different tasks set.

Reading
Spelling
Maths
At least one other task as well.

All of it optional until year 5. You do what you feel your child would benefit from doing; all of it, some of it, none of it. Caters for everyone then.

After a similar consultation, our school is trialing a homework ‘menu’. Children have to choose one homework item to hand in every two weeks. They have to choose one English, one grammar and stuff and one creative type (I think), each term. I like it!

They’re also about to start online maths homework where I understand children will get instant feedback and parents will be able to log in to see what they’re doing. I think.

Ours is currently optional and no punishment if not done. I like this element of it.

Is there a homework style you prefer open ended, worksheets, online, projects or a mixture? Initial responses seem to dislike the project style which appear to become a parent competition or require lots of parental assistance.

Best homework DD's school do is at the end of each topic they bring their books home and have to design a leaflet or a poster about what they've learned, so the research is already done, they just have to read through their work to find the information, which i think is a lovely way to revise what they've already learned.

I'm ok with projects but really, really hate the keep a diary/write about what you did at the weekend homework, which we get a lot, as they get competitive and make me feel bad.

Nothing is good about homework. I hate it as a former teacher and a parent. I’ve never seen any research that shows it makes any difference. I would only ever want reading and times tables at primary.

I work sometimes in a local library and to witness the struggles that families face doing it. It’s just so stressful to watch. Kids hate it - the parents get angry. And don’t get me started on all the printing.

As a class teacher, I give nightly reading, Irish and English spellings, tables practice and a grammar task sheet or mental maths. I then add in a maths or English task linked to that week.

Tbh I feel it's a little much, but the parents are happy (and asked for more homework at the start of the year), so it works well for my setting.

Oh and I really hated this weekends homework, which was to go outside and look for signs of autumn then write a poem. We don't have a garden so I had to take DD for a walk, in the rain. I have flu, I had planned to spend my weekend wrapped in a blanket watching films but no, no amount of googling photos of autumn would convince DD we could stay indoors.

Short tasks that can be done in one sitting that practice key skills at the right level of difficulty.

e.g.

• Maths worksheet on the topic they did last week, or 3 weeks ago.
• Short English comprehension, or write one paragraph on maybe with success criteria (3 levels for differentiation).
• Correct the spelling and grammar in the piece below - find 5 missing capital letters, 3 missing full stops, 2 apostrophes, 4 spelling mistakes
• Reading
• Times tables.

I am pretty sure that the overwhelming research shows that homework at primary is a waste of time and effort. There is a website that looks at education research and the balance of effort vs. results and the effect of homework is negligible. Lots of reading and maybe times tables practice but other than that I would be thrilled if homework was scrapped.

Short tasks that can be done in one sitting that practice key skills at the right level of difficulty.

Exactly this ^

I am happy to do spellings, readings, tables, worksheets, check maths/SPAG, learn lines for a play.

I don't want to build models of the Taj Mahal, keep diaries for weeks over the summer holidays, print out hundreds of photos, have to remember to send school a postcard from a local attraction or fill in the journal for a sodding teddy bear.

Homework (imo) should reinforce what is done in class and be largely something that the child can do on their own or with minimal assistance.

We have too much IMO.
DS is in year 1. He gets:
Monday - English - at the moment it's write a couple of sentences.
Thurs- Maths worksheet
Friday- 10 spellings to learn for test the next Friday. Weekend discovery- topic based writing, draw a picture, finding out type.
Reading book daily.
Reading is fine so would just stick to that in reception and Year 1 and 2. Happy to read daily as long as it's not compulsory if the child is overtired.
Further up the school I would suggest 1 or 2 days plus weekend with 15 minutes of English or maths.

All given on a Friday for the following Friday. Then can choose what days to do it on and can have a homework free night if it's swimming/ soccer / youth club night. As working parents it actually suits much better to get a bit done on a Saturday / Sunday morning.

Nothing. We have far too much. I’ve posted about it before.

4 maths sheets and a handwriting sheet every night, reading every day and 15 spellings a week.

Year 2.

Oh I like SparklyUnicorn's homework! Revising what they did at school in 'topic', using notes they made at school. Our topic homework is pretty much the opposite: Children to research at home for homework, take notes and print stuff out, which they take to school where they create a poster or something based on their homework notes.

It then depends if you can find any quality resources for your child, and effectively means most parents do the 'research' then pass the resources they found on to the child. Basically the teacher's job, no?

Revising - going over what you learned at school - is the only homework that makes sense to me. (Apart from reading, but I don't really count that as homework, it's reading!)

What I dislike is when homework effectively means that the teaching is outsourced (to the parents/carers/for the children to figure it out themselves), and the school merely assesses. Prime example: Learn how to spell these 10 words (at home/by yourself or with help/by whichever method works or by a specific method) and then we will have a test at school to see if you managed to learn them/if someone taught you. Other example is Times Tables. Fine to practise at home, if practice is needed; but for heaven's sake, please TEACH them at school! You're the teacher, not the assessment centre officer!

Anyway what is good about our homework is that there is relatively little of it. The maths homework is usually an online game that can be completed in about 15 minutes (though if the same number of maths questions arrived printed on a worksheet, they could easily be completed in 5 minutes - but then the teacher would have to mark it)

SPAG homework online is a pain, and pointless IMO. Takes forever to type out the answers when the child is constantly looking for the letters on the keyboard. And very non-effective - the child would spend a lot less time on homework, and learn a lot more, if they did the same stuff on paper by hand.

But as we only get 1x topic homework/week, and on alternating weeks maths and SPAG, it doesn't matter much.

So far (Y3 now) we have never had spellings to learn, have never had a spelling test, and have never had times tables to learn. But the children (mostly) spell really well and (mostly) understand multiplication - because they have been taught, at school, by their teachers. Learning the times tables by heart is really no huge feat on that basis, so I am not in the least concerned by the 'lack' of homework in this regard!

Ours have a topic based grid with a variety of things on which is quite good for flexibility as if you have a busy weekend you can choose something which has only takes a few minutes or you were going to do anyway eg play a board game /tidy your room. Or you can choose something more in depth. On the downside it always features model making which ends up being the parent doing it. It would be better if everything on it was doable by the child on their own.

I agree with what is said above, the best sort of homework should be just going over something they have done in class to check if it's gone in or not. I think this plus a list of suggestions for lovely fun things to optionally do as a family would be ideal.

Thanks all, you have provided a good insight to what works well etc. I can now add some useful comments to the consultation questionnaire.