Changes needed how we teach

[BDUSETW]

I watched years ago on a tv documentary about how children were taught in schools in countries like Sweden, Norway, scandinavia in general, and then thought, our schools are so draconian and self destroying of our pupils. They did not have homework, not like our country, our children coming home with many pieces of homework a night, staying up late to finish it, struggling with it, and the same again every day. Then teachers having to mark not just one classes homework, but many daily, piling up on their desk during teaching hours , and pupils needing any help during class are not able to get the one to one assistance because the teacher is too busy marking homework daily during class.
The amount of homework is huge, and our children are tired, been at school all day, then have to come home, eat dinner and start school all over again, sometimes up to and even beyond midnight 2 to 4 or more lots of homework.
Its unbelievable.
In the other countries they do not believe in homework, the countries in scandinavia. They say their work is finished at the end of the day, and the children go home, to then relax, and come back refreshed the next day. The homework is not even necessary, because it is not going to be of any consequence towards their eventual exams, nothing in the homework is at all worth learning, as what matters are the basic literal knowlwege of common sense in their education.
Yes learn maths, but not maths that becomes so far fetched in respect of it never being part of an adults life at all.
I remember my child asking how to work out a maths question, my husband was good at maths at school but could not comprehend those questions as were just so rediculous, so I asked the teacher about it, she quietly said I do not even understand it. So what is going on ...??
Who are the people who create these newfangled rediculous mathematical questions that even the teachers do not get? Also, the schools are not preparing the children for the real world, all they want is top marks from children in drumming in so much information that they will never need in their life after school.
The other countries ie scandinavia do not do homework, they even stick with the same teacher from primary to leaving school, no uniform but sensibly dressed, the teacher is called by his or her christian name, they learn alot outside the class as opposed to always being in the classroom, so they are hands on in reality of life of what is to come, they also eat fresh good lunch at school, so they eat well, are treated as equals with the teacher, and respect is between both the teacher and pupil, no homework!!!
So the children do not have to be so tired the next day coming into school after doing several pieces of homework every night. So if you wonder how do they do in their exams, well they are the highest achieving in results in europe and beyond. That is why our schools are failing, our teachers are stressed, our children having mental issues and labelled this that and the other, its our way of education that fails.!!! Change it.
No more homework , teach what they need to know in life, do workshops in and out of school that teach different hands on subjects, they will understand and enjoy, but will need. Teach French and if want other countries languages but not one or 2 lessons a week and expect them to take those exams and pass! Teach in primary classes, daily, because all French and other European countries do this so then they can speak fluent English by the time they've left school.!! Ours have to struggle to try and put a sentence together in any other language.!

I'm only a few weeks into being a school parent but I can't see that we'll be getting homework until midnight at primary school!?

Tiredness in teens is probably because school starts too early for their body clocks combined with screens.

DS is in year 11 and has never had homework until midnight. Infact even now he generally spends less than 2 hours a week doing his homework.

Our schools are so draconian? Do you have any idea the discipline problems currently being faced in senior schools.

Not enough disciple or consequences.

My dad tells of getting the cane at school. He said he was a typical cheeky, naughty teen but the threat of the cane kept him in line and he never got it. He openly admits that without the discipline there he'd have been wild.

What makes you think they don't do homework in those countries? Is it the same nonsense that I see online all the time about Finland, saying there's no homework here? Because that is absolutely not true, and I suspect its not true of Sweden or Norway either.

Danish schools have homework from around secondary school. In primary most pupils will have met homework too but yes, most likely less than in England. My children have never done the amount of homework in England you talk about.

Stick with the same teachers? No most Danish pupils will have lots of teachers over the years in Denmark.

Few classes are taught outdoor in Denmark after preschool. The weather over winter is dark, cold and often wet.

Danish pupils graduate 9th grade with two foreign languages and of course Danish. 2nd language is English and 3rd is German or French.

It might be hard to compare the British and Danish education as Danes obviously have a different agenda than UK with languages. A levels and Danish high school/youth education are not easy to compare.

Scandinavian isn't one country but three countries and the education systems aren't the same. Finland isn't Scandinavian if you think about their PISAresultats.

Countries' educational systems don't exist in isolation from the rest of their culture. If you want to know why we have the type of schools we have in the UK, look to our history, our society and our culture.

Aspects of our education system are quite highly regarded. We export it all over the world.

I'm not minimising the issues that exist currently (a lot of which ultimately arise from poverty and lingering effects of Covid) but "we should adopt a style of education from social democratic Scandi countries with much smaller populations, more social cohesion and and higher taxes" is pie in the sky.

Having just had a child go from KS2 to KS3, in the ultra competitive SE, the homework burden actually falls at that stage - a lot of it is centred on SATS and competitive secondary applications.

Then more as GCSE years approach of course.

This isn’t my experience at all in the Uk. No hw in any meaningful way at all in primary, maybe just ten mins of maths to get used to the idea. Reading but we’d do that anyway. Both at secondary grammar now, maybe an hour on some nights, tops.

your experience seems very unusual, maybe switch schools?

Not my experience. Both the DC took firsts, one from Oxford, one from Cambridge.

DD is a secondary teacher - homework is very reasonable and marking is not onerous.

I don't know of any teachers who spend their days marking homework.

Really? All my son's homework in his Secondary is on line quizzes and Maths, automatically marked on submission. The most the teachers have to do is record the mark to give out Merits and Distinctions for it. I was very pleasantly surprised that one of his teachers left an individual comment on how well he had done during the lesson to get a distinction. Even reading is now done via Sparks.

The only homework mine really got at Primary was reading, spelling and a bit of maths practice. But more in year 6.

Then about 30mins per subject per week in KS3. More in Yr10.
Latest they've being doing homework is about 9pm, but that's after they've been at a club, not working solidly from 3pm!

I agree that there are aspects of UK schools that need a lot of changes. However I'm not sure where your impression of UK homework comes from. My child is in year 8, doesn't get homework every night and has never yet got more than two pieces in one night. He's never "staying up" to finish it. Either the children you know go to very unusual schools, or they are very badly organised and don't enough adult guidance to start their homework at a sensible time!

My primary children dont have homework other than reading.

My high school chikd gets set an independent project at the beginning of each half term. Has a selection of about 15 topics to do. Doesn't have to do them all, but gets more reward points for the more effort they put it in. He probably does an hour of homework a week.

When I was teaching, the only homework I set primary kids was their spellings for that week.

Primary homework was reading, TT Rockstars and learn spellings for a test each week.

Have you actually lived in any of the countries you are an expert on? It’s very easy to criticise our education system, but British graduates do very well when looking for jobs overseas. The biggest problem in schools are certain parents, who haven’t taught their children how to behave and respect others. A small minority of pupils ruin it for everyone else. My daughter has just got her first teaching job. She has free periods in the timetable to help plan and mark work. She gets in early every morning to set herself up for the day.
She has set up after school clubs, as do many other teachers. It’s easy to criticise things, have you asked why your children get so much homework and discussed it?

European countries certainly give homework. The entire school system is a bell curve system designed to sort children based on their self-discipline, academic and interpersonal skills. It's essentially a man-made form of natural selection. Many parts of the education system are difficult because they are supposed to be difficult. Only the top 5-10% of children are physically and mentally able to cope with meeting all attendance and academic challenges. These are the same children that will grow into the top 5-10% of adults who do extremely challenging jobs where the margin of error is virtually zero.

I certainly do not want to board a plane flown by a home-schooled pilot or go to a doctor who only attended 50% of their medical school classes. However this obviously won't happen because the entire purpose of the education system is to gatekeep qualifications for the safety and greater good of the community. Obviously if an individual child finds it too hard then there are ways to opt out, or simply choose not to be part of the system. But the solution is not changing the whole system to match the average ability level of struggling children.

If schools were dumbed down to the point that every child finds it easy then there would be a huge societal problem. There will no longer be enough people to do that jobs that are critical for a country to function. You might complain about "complicated maths problems" but those are absolutely used in many industries ensuring that the bridge you walk over every day doesn't collapse. Or that you even have a phone/laptop to access MN with.

I think you’re extrapolating your or your children’s experiences and generalising, which is as ridiculous as your assertion that all schools are draconian.

I have a friend who teaches in Denmark. She’s danish.

she teaches physics. Their secondary system involves lots of different subject teachers just like ours. They also have homework because she complains about marking it.

Danish children do 20 minutes of daily reading at home from 1st grade.

Uk schools give hardly any homework.
They claim on the school website lots is set but the reality is very very little.
Its crap and why standards are so low.
I can't understand teacher claims of marking hours on end of homework when so little is set

I never understand this "exhausted children" trope. DD has an after school club every day and two instruments to practise daily. She has never had to stay up late to finish her homework or struggled to fit in lots of reading time. She also does extra maths work which I set for her to keep her a few years ahead. Perhaps this is more an issue of parents having poor time/ planning skills and being disorganised?

Be happy your child copes with that. A lot can't.

Perhaps they should be encouraged to have more resilience and work ethic (SEN aside).

Yes of course it's the answer...