'Family' homework

[Potatocycle]

Slightly put out to discover that (alongside spellings and times tables) the DCs' school is now setting homework tasks intended as a 'collaboration' for the whole family, which is optional but heavily encouraged.

As a family we are engaged with schoolwork, don't believe education stops at the classroom door etc but this feels like a bit of an imposition. DH and I both work full-time so weekends are our family time.

DS1 is pretty enthused though so hopefully it won't be too much of a battle!

And that's why I'm glad my children go to school elsewhere, where the homework is for the children, not the parents, and schools have plenty of time to spend on handicrafts and children learn to make all kinds of things themselves, without their parents doing most of the work

Seriously, yes. We sadly have to do things like this, because guess what, parents don’t parent! We have to deal with it all. Also it gets the kids off their devices for a little while and gives them ideas. The kids love it and the parents have given great feedback about.

I think I can confidently speak for ALL teacher when I say - all we want to do is teach! Recent survey suggest only 28% of our job is teaching. Yesterday I had to deal with a safeguarding issue which has taken about 4 hours of my personal time and took me 2 hours of my lesson (affecting learning) because of children in Year 3 sharing explicit images and videos on Snapchat at home. Honestly, if only I could JUST TEACH!

Oh and your one child experience is very limited. Children are far far more advanced in terms of literacy and maths at the point of leaving primary school than when I was educated and even in the time of my career. I have taught concepts to young pupils that are taught at GCSE foundation level. The primary curriculum is very ambitious!

The simple tasks like ‘make a sandwich’ on our home learning sheets start from age 4 and encourage children to learn life skills. So these simple tasks you say children can’t do, these days is because parents just don’t have time for it and if we ‘just teach’ this leads to these kids not knowing basic shit like tying shoelaces & using cutlery - because yes, we’re having to do that now, oh and potty train!

I detest this sort of "homework".

1. It's intrusive on family life and nearly always ends up mum's job.
2. When your child has SEN (or just isn't very studious) all homework ends up family homework anyway.
3. I'm busy marking my sixth formers' essays!
4. It's set so the school can demonstrate school-home engagement for Ofsted so it's not even for the child really.

Wow.
just fyi; the reason why schools set this type of homework is parents like you.

That’s me and I wasn’t being funny.

We never did anything like that (just maths and English stuff) before and parents moaned.

we started adding the odd one like that in and parents moaned.

kids hated it, parents hated it, we teachers hated it. It took up too much time.

what we do now is write a list of ideas out (19 + a wild card where kids can tell us about something they did like a karate belt or swimming badge or something)

these ideas include things like ‘make a Viking longship, make a sandwich, go for a walk and spot deciduous trees, buy something and check your change, learn how to whistle, investigate capacity, write a diary about xyz’

there are 20 altogether and the kids choose 4 to do. All 4 can be the wildcard ‘kids choice’ we make sure there is at least one from every element of the curriculum eg a history task, writing task, social task, RE task.

some are long projects (again choose it or don’t choose it) and some take 5 mins (write down 5 things a pet dog needs)

this way kids and parents can say ‘we’re busy this weekend so let’s do the one about reading a book about dragons’

but for the creative parents out there that LOVE making a Viking longship - it’s there for them if they want!

kids get dojo points (merits) if they do it and there’s no chasing or embarrassing if they do not.

teachers don’t mark it but we do let them share with the class if they wish (99% do) and for those that are not confident in public speaking can choose to share with a chosen adult or a chosen friend or just hand in for us to see it) so we see it all and give verbal feedback and ask questions about it ‘wow, did you find it difficult swimming 100m?’ For example.

Ps it’s a whole school approach so those that say they’d hate me being the teacher and blaming me, I didn’t decide upon it. But it’s been gratefully received and the majority of children do it willingly. Many many children do more than the 4 projects and just share their skills that they already do at home like showing us a keepy uppy or a picture of their new hamster or something.

and for those that do say ‘how does that help teaching and learning?’ Well the social aspect is important and there are things from the entire curriculum- so the history lovers can focus entirely on the history tasks or maths or writing. Whatever.

it was designed to be as stress free as possible but we have to set homework. As a parent and a teacher and from feedback received, it works. Well for our school anyway.

My kids school did this. At one point I had 4 in primary. I told the HT that I wasn't doing it as I didn't have time. I encouraged spelling maths and reading plus music practice. That was more than enough for us as a family.

That sounds quite nice @Josienpaul.

Although DD's school tried that in year 1 or 2, DD was completely unable to access it and so DH and I ended up challenging ourselves to do one task a week through the medium of Lego. DD learnt nothing from it but we did find it quite fun...

Oh for goodness sakes. I’m a school governor - I’m as involved in the school as I am able to be. I still don’t have time for this shit.

In my job, I have to do things that are not strictly the pure job description - because those things also form part of my job on a wider level. I have to deal with difficult people, I have to work past my contracted hours. These things are not issues only teachers face. But as a parent, I have my own job and I don’t want to do some stupid project set by the school in my free time with my children - and it is my right not to. It doesn’t make me a bad parent, it makes me someone who values my time with my family.

Ahh that’s a shame. We only have 4 projects a term so means about 1 every 3 week.
We also tailor ours for each year group. My son is in reception and there are things like learn a new nursery rhyme, roll down a hill, count objects in groups, order your toys from smallest to largest’

my DD is Y2 and she has other things like ‘find objects that float and sink, write a postcard from a holiday or fictional place, practise typing on a device, tell a joke about pirates’

I teach Y4 and I have set things (linked to topics) ‘use Google earth to locate XYZ, play a board game and read the instructions, create a poster about dental health’ but there are some much simpler and difficult ones thrown in too.

genuinely the majority of children love it and I’ve only (in 4 years of doing it) had one parent, who was actually a teacher, say ‘I’m not prepared to do it as it’s extra time we don’t have and we do loads of things like teaching languages at home and we play games all the time, hike up mountains etc’ I said I loved that and some parents just need ideas or request more but the wild card option means they don’t need to do any extra, and we agree children need to be children, but we would also love to see them share their activities, the odd photo or chat about some of the exciting things they get up to but there was no pressure to do so if they were too busy.
that child now proudly shares so many lovely things.

My DC attend what is considered quite a “pushy school.” DS currently has an hours worth of homework per night, as I pointed out just the other day this equates to another full school day. He is bright and academic but it is still a battle. I attended a parents evening in September when other parents challenged why so much homework was necessary, the teacher explained that she taught in a previous school that stopped homework and there was uproar, well the parents in attendance literally laughed out loud! I have 2 great sleepers, in bed for 8pm 😅 by the time we arrive home at 4pm, get caught up, make dinner, do homework, shower, there’s literally no free time to enjoy each others company. It’s really becoming quite wearing!! Have to say my son does enjoy the homework’s that are “a break from the norm” but these are few and far between and are generally independent thankfully! I really do feel a lot of the education system need ripped up and started again but that’s a different story for a different day. KS1 within our school is fabulous immersive education, KS2 just falls flat on its face and unravels everything 🤦‍♀️ we’ve had an atrocious year, with a teacher who cannot teach ks2 maths and basically that’s been left down to the parents to do as the kids are coming home with homework they don’t understand (yes I went the extra mile to help him….shocking I know). When I (and others) queried the issue, suddenly the teacher has now been off sick from Easter 🙄 thankfully a fabulous sub teacher was found!

So homework is set for crafty parents who love making a Viking longship. Since when is school homework set for parents??? It’s utterly ridiculous. Parents and dc don’t like doing maths and English homework so they are asked to make a sandwich. All because the parents don’t have time to teach such skills but will miraculously find time when the school sets the task as homework. In whose dreamworld does this happen?

I would strongly suggest schools do a bit of DT and Food technology to bridge the learning gaps. I’ve never seen a teacher potty train any child. TAs tend to help out with this and, by the way, it’s not new. Home visits often sussed this out decades ago. Just add potty training to the homework menu.

@Ghyur They cannot punish anyone for not doing the homework and an hour is too long. My DC did lots of activities after school which were fun and learning skills at the and time, eg music lessons, orchestra, choir, dance etc. This is what gave them a broad education. Other dc we know did sports. My DDs did swimming and netball as well as skiing occasionally. I don’t agree that primary age dc should have a narrow diet of work, eat and sleep after school. At DDs prep, some after school clubs were included in the fees. Think God the wasn’t an hour of prep on top!

Sounds like he'll 😂

@TizerorFizz thanks for this! I was beginning to think it was just me 🤣 As you have said this is exactly where we run into the problem. My son competes at international level in sports and my daughter is a budding and enthusiastic gymnast. This year for the first time I basically told the teacher, if homework’s there mark it if not we haven’t had the time and I’m not stopping them doing what they enjoy to rehash what they’ve already learned in school 🤷‍♀️ The irony was when parents pointed out that homework takes an hour, they were taken aback. One parent broke it down for them and they tried glossing over it. Hopefully it’ll be rectified the next academic year as there is definitely an uprising afoot with it all.

My children's primary school did this when my DC first started, under a different Head. We didn't do them, I complained about them, and I wanted to throttle the parents who put pictures of their creations on Facebook. Then that headteacher was sacked, because he was, to be blunt, crap. Lots of stuff was done for "show", these homework projects included, but the actual nitty gritty of running a school effectively, like covering the curriculum, was not done. We then got a very experienced senior headteacher in the trust parachuted in to replace him. She had the courage or her convictions, and she scrapped all homework apart from reading and times tables practice. There's no evidence of any benefit of it at primary age, so there's no point to it, she said. Yes some parents complained, but my feeling on that is, if they want to spend their weekends doing arts and craft projects with their kids, noone is stopping them, it doesn't need to be set by the school. Not having homework to do has taken such a pressure off us and our kids, I probably would advise people that when looking at primaries, to choose one that does not set homework. It's been a policy for nearly 5 years now, and the academic results from the school have improved massively and they're now one of the top schools in the country. The new headteacher clearly knows what she's doing. Having already started at the school, it's unfortunate that they've now decided to do this sort of homework. Emailing to complain might be an idea, the teachers might not like the hassle of it either, and parental complaints help their case.

Ours ran this sort of crap for 2 years to ‘encourage family time’ and the same happened- professional-looking puppets made by 6 yr olds. I think they got the message and binned it off after the second run.

eta what really pissed me off (after having to spend time on this instead of on the stuff we would have liked to have been doing as a family) was that there was zero feedback. Utterly bloody pointless all round.

@Hayliebells Yes. There’s no evidence to support lots of homework at primary makes any difference. In YR we had timed getting undressed and dressed for PE including putting on shoes. Then the teddy bear task and then reading, spelling and some maths. In junior it was next to nothing and as @Ghyur has found, dc discover hobbies and things they really enjoy that define them as people. School should not direct everything. We had weekends for reading but I didn’t want DDs to recoil from learning.

@Hayliebells @TizerorFizz

I have heard that the school is in fact responding to requests from parents as part of reconsidering its approach. The written homework has been toned down to 'core' spelling and number/times tables work, which I like.

Because the school has stressed that it's optional I won't be complaining unless they start leaning on the DCs. I know it's impossible to please everyone.

Anyway, we started it this past weekend and got through a reasonable volume of stuff, but only because we had very little else on.

Spellings for both - ~30min (just testing to check they know them)

Maths - none (DS1 is confident on tables; will need to devise something for DS2 as sheet just gives an overview eg number bonds)

Baking - 2 hours all in
1x creative activity DS2 (30min)
1x creative activity DS1 (1hr largely independently)

So around 4 hours excluding daily reading.

I've told the DC that the core work comes first, and that the project work needs to be done independently as far as possible to stop it taking over (much more achievable for my 8yo than my 5yo). Will revisit approach next term when we start to tackle 11+ prep...

If this is weekly then it’s still too much in my opinion. I think once or twice per half term but not each week. I wouldn’t have time to do this with my kids and I work part time (although 40 hours of work as in a teacher)

@Josienpaul I agree. This weekend was pretty busy so we literally did the basics (spelling/reading/TTRS)

They are a handy diversion from screens (if DC are amenable) but I wasn't prepared to take the DC away from their gardening/craft projects to shoehorn in something from the list

It’s a shame that they can’t use their craft and gardening projects as their home work. We allow things like this in our ‘list’ because ultimately is learning life skills.

@Potatocycle

I would not do the project work every week. My DDs used to do so much more after school and these were activities they chose. Not imposed. Also they did need time to play. That’s what dc should do too!

You are fortunate to have the time to do this. However, I by the time a child is 13 (and certainly by the time they are at university!), they need to take responsibility for their own learning and homework. My DS is 13. I have a full time job and 2 other kids so there is no way I could sit next to him and hold his hand while he did his homework even if I wanted to. However, he knows that I am on hand and will help if he gets stuck, and I always check that homework is actually completed. He also knows that I am here and happy to chat things through with him, while cooking dinner, eating etc.

It's actually really important that children take responsibility for their learning as they get older. It's not healthy or helpful to have a parent hovering over them. They have to be capable of doing it themselves.

By the time they are at uni, they are young adults. Academic work should not require supervision from a parent. That actually sounds quite stifling.

I sit with him while I do my work and help him when he needs it, or wants to discuss it. I also I give him maths tuition and his father science tuition. As for my eldest son being at uni during covid and lockdown where he wasn't allowed to collaborate with his peers I tutored him in the maths he needed for his economics degree. I'm just doing the same as my mother did for me. Always being on hand to help ( in her case it was just as a sounding board as she had no formal qualifications).
As for being stifled I've just told my son's that, they think it's hilarious!!! 🤣🤣🤣

@Grah My DDs boarded. I didn’t do homework with them. We value independence and, before you say it, we have a very close relationship! As for doing their degrees with them! Words fail me. No wonder some dc are not employable! I’m proud my DC achieved their degrees without a single murmur from me! They are resilient and work things out for themselves. It’s not good parenting to keep helping. It spoils them.