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?

I like that they get a grid and get to choose a task a week . They are all quite interesting and different subjects . I also like they don't expect homework every day except reading . Im
Not home from work till 6 and it's hard to get anything done at that time .

Avoiding tasks which lead to parental one up manship....eg a worksheet/ specific tasks rather than make a poster or do whatever you want on x ( which is done by the parent...)

Not too much. year 2 here - we have spellings, reading (ds beyond reading scheme now but he reads from his library books), maths sheet per week and occasional other bits.

year 3 and 5 we get
Times tables
Spelling
Reading x 4 Accelerated reading
Maths
Topic
SPAG - I think this is pointless and has errors when marking.

I think we get too much. The teachers only mark all of this with a "well done" stamp. So no feedback and no ticks etc. I don't see the point of homework if it isn't going to get marked properly. The teachers don't listen to the children read one on one as we do the accelerated reading scheme and so they do a quiz on the books they have read at home. Not too keen on the monitoring of this and if children continue to fail reading 4 x a week they receive a detention. I am all for being a proactive parent when it comes to my children's education but I think a lot of our homework involves far too much parental input.

I am really glad we don't get any design your own model of...if we did we wouldn't do it.

I would also agree homework should be what they have been taught in class. A LOT of our homework usually involves me going through it or teaching my children the topic before they can get on with it.

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!

^^^ This^^

We get the usual maths and reading but we also have a 'discussion topic'. The class will be talking about, say, teamwork the following week so there'll be a home work that says 'discuss teamwork with child. When is your child involved in teamwork?' Or similar. I think it's excellent.

For older kids carefully defined piece of extended writing can be good - is write for 15 mins or write half a page - story or description or whatever as long as criteria clearly spelled out to them.
Likewise consolidation ex in maths practising skills already covered is good good for 15 mins.
Simple and short comprehension.
Topic based worksheet involved highliging info or shading maps or diagrams etc.

These are for Juniors not Infants.

Learning tables, spellings esp if a technique is given.

No to endless open ended projetcs esp if making g ones - should be school policy on how many per year allowed.
No to tasks that parents will have to do and kids cannot do.
No to huge lengthy deadlines or next day.

YES to clarify of task and expectations.
YES to it being marked(peer markinv fine) and feedback given.
NO to it vanishing to never be seen or heard of again -what is the point?

I loathe project work that is really homework for me rather than the kids. I'd also like to see homework that is directly connected to what the kids have already done in class, rather than what they are about to do over the next few weeks.

I love the schools approach to reading. They call the scheme "give me 10" children are asked to read for 10 minutes at home every day. Each time is marked in a diary and ticked off. At 25, 50, 75 and 100 reads they get awarded a book. At 200 they become a reading champion with a nicer book as a reward and 275 a reading ambassador with an even better book.

They have levels for times tables with certificates awarded.

Spellings - meh!

I don't like the homework menu which is project based for reasons described above.

I like the idea of retrospective worksheets though....

We get a sensible balance of homework but most of it drives me insane.

My year 1 child gets homework on a Thursday, to be returned on the following Tuesday.

We get reading (as often as possible), and then one homework which is either English/maths/science.

Apparently we are also getting spellings after half term.

I love sheets where DD can work mainly independently. I hate projects and diary keeping as it takes hours.

Homework should take no more than 15 minutes max in my book!