What's the point of homework?

[MrsSnape]

I'm not for or against homework...I'm genuinly just interested what purpose it serves.

DS1 used to do his homework without fail everytime he brought some home and would take it back to school the next day. Thing is it was never acknowledged and when I asked DS if his teacher had been pleased with his homework he replied "dunno, she never read it".

Also, children who never did their homework were never told off or anything, it was as if the teacher didn't care either way.

So in the end I relaxed on it, some weeks he'd do it, some he wouldn't.

Now DS2 is in year 2 and he's the same, most of the time he does it, sometimes we don't bother. But today in the phase newsletters there was a note stressing the value of homework and how it should be encouraged for our children's benefit.

So...what exactly are the benefits of homework?

To encourage independent learning?

For us homework is a bonding time and I get to see what my son has been learning at school.

I get very angry if his teacher does not mark the homework. I would be against young children been told off for not doing their homework. In infant school it is responsibly of the parents to make sure the home work is done. Its unfair to punish the child.

Prehaps certificates should be given in assembly to children regularly do their homework each half term, a bit like attendence certificates.

steal time from children so they can be brainwashed by the state as they are never with their families?
Apart from that, no idea
ds (14) is in charge of his own homework.

I hate homework.

my lot never did any in primary school (then we home edded for years n years)
ds1 probably gets some from secondary school and does it at 9pm as quick as he can get away with.

To address exactly the situation you're talking about Mrs Snape - ie. not knowing whether your homework has even been looked at, The last school I taught at used to set aside one session each week for children to be given back their homework (marked) and have the opportunity to look at it again, discuss it with the teacher, make any corrections etc.

Unless this happens, I think homework is really of limited value, except, as Reallytired says, as an opportunity to spend time with your child at home, re-inforcing something that's been introduced at school.

I'm convinced it is an evil plot to punish parents and make the weekends a misery.
I NEVER had homework in primary, and have turned out fine - with the DC it is a nightmare...
Resorted this weekend (loads of stuff on including DS1's birthday outing) to almost dictating DS1's homewrok essay for him (he is 9, in a state primary) - just waiting now for it to be marked to see how many 'team points' I have scored

purpose:

i) to give child a chance to do work independently at home and get one-to-one support at home if they find it hard (for easy stuff)
ii)to let parents see what their child is doing in class that week

I am not a fan of homework either

I thought it was to reinforce what has been learnt/taught at school during the week.

And to encourage parents involvment/interest in their child's education.

dd is in Yr2 and has about one hour's homework per week (although it's actually less than that)

god knows waht it's like for secondary school children though (dreading it]

omg, home work, cause of major shouting and arguing, me chucking it in the recycling bin in despair, ds fishing it out again, more shouting, me promising (myself) to never get involved again (till the next time).

My son rarely spends more than 20 minutes a week. I set a timer and if the task takes longer than 20 minutes I tell him to leave.

I never chuck work in the recylce bin. I think my son would be deeply hurt. Its better that the homework is his effort than done my me.

Oops, I meant leave the home work, not him leave the house!

I object when homework is not differentiated for the child's ablity.

ok, only did it once when I was really pissed off for him not listening to my explanation, and it all got a bit heated...

@art work@ that is really nice is keopt in a box, the rest is chucked when dc are not watching!! and

There is very little point to it. Research consistently shows that it makes stuff all difference to learning.

No point and I'm a teacher apart from keeping parents and ofted happy.

I know this is an old thread, but HURRAH! A delight to read about how pointless homework is and I'm so relieved everyone else also ends up shouting. I shall take it far less seriously from now on.

Hi Mrs. Snape:

Value of homework? I've been on asking for ideas and realised for me the value was about ensuring that core learning (I value) is actually taught because our school is shaky to say the least (2nd lowest and lowest quintile on School Data dashboard and serious declining SATs scores over last 5 years).

So for me value of homework is as follows:

Ensure key elements of curriculum are covered

Ensure reading age at end of primary is age 11 = chronological age

Ensure full range of calculation skills: +, -, multiplication & division

Ensure basic chronological knowledge of UK history

Ensure basic understanding of seasons, time, universe, plants

Ensure some chemistry understanding: properties of water (freezing, boiling, liquid states) and some physics (magnets, lights, mass).

School is patchy at all of this and waivers from tons of homework (OFSTED) year to none at all (post Gove removing homework targets).

I have DDs do any homework from school but I take it upon myself to check it through because all teachers do is tick it once with green pen (that's marking at our school & yes they're complaining about it).

Every now and then the school gets grumpy about no homework being done by some pupils but actually not a lot happens to pupils who do nothing. My view is they only hurt themselves. I treat homework as a opportunity to review, consolidate and hopefully extend learning.

What I remain very unclear about is what is the affect on pupils who have had no homework (or very little) in primary and then start secondary with lots of homework? I hope they adapt, but wonder if it is a shock to the system.

There's no evidence that it's a "shock to the system" and kids won't be able to cope. In my own experience I went from zero homework at primary (remember that?) to a couple of hours per night as routine at secondary and coped fine. It's a step up, a sign of maturity and responsibility and a rite of passage. Kids don't need to be trained to be able to cope with homework, if anything, that can be offputting, and they have had years to craft imaginative excuses (a dragon ate my homework) so are quite cynical about it all.

As you may glean from this, I'm basically anti-homework. But we do a LOT of learning at home. Always reading, consolidating maths skills, music, etc. But the crap that gets sent from DD's school for homework doesn't focus on core skills - it's all project based lunacy, which I see as a waste of time. I refuse to do it and let the school know my feelings as diplomatically as possible.

I guess it depends on the homework. If it's the three rs then I've no problem with it. If it's anything else then maybe it's OK and maybe it's not.

I don't mind the weekly homework. It takes DD1 in Y3 up to 15 minutes per task - one sheet of literacy, one sheet of project work, a couple of exercises on MyMaths and 1 page of mental arithmetic book, so a maximum of an hour a week. What I do mind is that the teacher just doubles it in holiday time. I wouldn't mind a bit of homework, say findng out about something and writing a few paragraphs, but she gets this plus double of everything else, and if you are actually going away somewhere it is pretty difficult to manage.

I think if you were going away on holiday and the children couldn't do their homework it would be acceptable to explain this to the teacher directly.

Primary school homework is there to keep the parents off the streets.

We have parents who complain about no homework/ having homework/ want worksheets not projects/ want projects not worksheets/ not enough spellings and tables/ too many/ too hard/ too easy...

Just can't win.

If I had my way they would have reading, spellings and tables to learn in primary and that would be it.

Hi whistleahappytune;

we get 10 minutes homework tops - on the weeks they bother to send it along (very irregular). roughly 10 maths problems - same problems for entire class. At first when DD1 was shaky at maths these were tricky, but she is much improved and can usually finish this work in under 5 minutes.

Spelling - irregular - but occasional word exploration work (Think of -ough words that end like dough (oh sound), rough (uff sound) or through (ooo sound)/ Think of words ending in 'tion' sound (-tion/ -sion) and can you think of any that have -shun sound but don't end in -tion/-sion; Find 10 Viking words in English, etc....)

Reading at home is classed as homework by school (the recommend around 2 hours a week) but then make no attempt to monitor, confirm or indeed discuss what reading is going on. We don't sign books or make lists of books read. Just down to us. I have DD read because 1) it's relaxing and a lovely thing to do. 2) We enjoy reading together, taking turns reading stories. 3) her reading out loud is very weak (very underconfident speaking in class) so reading aloud at home gives very useful practice.

We have no writing homework whatsoever (reports, book reviews, creative writing, poetry, etc....). DD is weak writer so we get her to write by stealth - postcards, thank you letters, letters for competitions, birthday invites, etc...

At tops this extra homework we do (worksheets marked by green tick regardless of answers/ spelling being correct or not) amounts to 30 minutes a day or so and keeps things simmering along. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I think it means there's no big deal when senior school asks her to do slightly more from Y7 onwards. I also feel strongly DD1 needs the practice and DD2 wants to do 'homework' too, because she thinks its fun.

forgot to add we do use Mathsfactor for maths support - DD1 was struggling terribly end of KS1 and school were unable to provide any suggestions for support materials for work at home, so we went our own way. At present DD1 working about 10 to 20 minutes 5 x a week on this. DD2 does this as well & practices her violin daily [30 minutes, sometimes longer if working out notes to new song].