Mid-primary school homework

[Otterseatpuffinsdontthey]

Scottish Primary School.
Looking for advice - class teacher (mid school) has recently stated that her pupils, for whatever reason, are no longer required to do the homework she gives out.
However, those pupils who do the homework, she won't be marking it. Therefore, if they do the homework well - there will no credits given. This is, I believe, so that children choosing not to do the homework, aren't unfairly disadvantaged!
Thoughts, opinions and advice on this please.

The children choosing not to do the homework will be disadvantaged regardless if the homework is reinforcing classroom learning and consolidating knowledge. The children who do the homework are learning skills of time management, self-motivation and independent study they will need to flourish regardless.

I’m not sure how common this is throughout Scotland, but I suspect the ‘optional’ homework is widespread. My daughter had this throughout primary school. By the end I think very few did it, probably fewer than 5 in a class of 30. It’s hard to keep up motivation if they don’t need to and the teacher doesn’t mark it. If I were you, I would maybe consider doing school type workbooks at home instead, even just 10 minutes a few times a week. CGP make good ones. I would specifically choose English based ones as they are thorough and progressive/ year based, and it’s nice to see if your child is kind of managing the English curriculum, even if they spend lots of time at school doing lovely but very non-academic stuff. I’m not a pushy parent, but sometimes found myself feeling like I was in reverse - at school they would watch a film on an afternoon loosely linked to a ‘topic’, and I would feel bad that they were having so much screen time at school but could barely write, so I would do letter formation or something at home with them to make up for it.

CarrierbagsAndPJs
Although I agree with what you've posted, I still can't help but feel those children doing the homework are being penalised.

My Stepson’s class is exactly the same, to be honest he was getting no value from the homework so we stopped doing it.

I think it was set for the lower groups in the class and was more about getting them into the habit of homework rather than challenging them.

We use the time to get him to do other homework, Khan Academy and Duolingo are quite good and give more value.

The sad fact is that if you trust Scottish schools to educate your children fully then they’ll be stuck at the level the school decides is appropriate.

The teacher won’t mark it? As in, won’t give feedback? That seems pointless and demotivating.

I’m not sure what you mean by “credits”? I agree children shouldn’t be rewarded for homework, the learning should be the reward, but they need feedback! My god!

Research has shown that homework, beyond reading daily, in primary schools has very little impact. I’m not against scrapping it but it’s a lazy teacher that refuses an eager pupil feedback. I say this as a teacher.

As a parent and teacher, I totally agree with @AnotherBrightSunrise about basing home learning on the English curriculum standards. Scottish schools are a mess. They have adopted a whole load of pedagogy that they like the sound of and don’t understand and therefore have failed in the implementation.

FunnyOrca
Class started in August 2026 - this is just new. And yes, I think she's a lazy teacher.

There's little to no value in homework at Primary School level. The teacher is right. Even better would be not to give it out at all.

FerriswheelsKissesandLilacs
Have to say I disagree with you.
Why would she, for 6 months, give out/mark homework, then just stop.
This is not a young/new/inexperienced teacher.

Because her years of experience have demonstrated that this is not a good use of time and does not improve pupil progress.

FunnyOrca
Should read August 2025 not 2026.
FerriswheelsKissesandLilacs
So why give out/mark homework for 6 months?

There’s probably not much academic value in handing out revision homework in primary school as a stand alone method.

It does serve some purpose though.

It encourages parents to become involved in their child’s education through taking an interest and helping them.

If a child struggles with certain things it will make the parent aware of it and encourage them to provide support.

It also helps the child get used to doing some schoolwork at home so it isn’t a huge culture shock at high school when the move up.

My child’s secondary school didn’t set homework either, perhaps once a term per subject. When it came to revising for exams my child did no work as they hadn’t been used to working at home. I couldn’t make them see how important it was.

For highers I moved them to private where they got the required kick up
the bs Kidds and went from Bs and Cs to straight As at higher.

The Scottish state system really does dumb content down to the weakest child.

I stopped giving out homework years ago when most ignored it and others did it but looked like they’d fed it to the dog first. The final straw was one that came back covered in kebab sauce and honking of weed. The research says it’s of very little value in primary- even now very few parents engage with our online reading/phonics/spelling platform which is our only ‘expectation’

Research shows primary school homework has very little impact. Many teachers have been saying this for decades. Setting homework/ marking it is pretty time consuming for very little impact. This time, in my experience, would be better spent creating resources for lessons or carefully planning.
There will be no consequences available to the teacher should homework not be done. There’s no way to enforce work at home. They’ve most likely decided it is a waste of time. However if your child is doing the optional homework and you’re looking at it with them, then they’re still going to get feedback.

I've just discovered tonight that my P7 ds gets set homework on teams - I never check his school iPad as I have no reason to. When I asked why he hasn't been doing the homework or told me about it he said 'we don't need to do it it's optional.' Checked in with the parents WhatsApp group and only about half knew about the homework and only a few are doing it as it doesn't get marked anyway.

School have never communicated to us that homework is set or how to access it. Ds not completing his homework wasn't mentioned at parents night either. I'm so frustrated, how are we supposed to get reluctant children to engage with something they are told is optional!

My S4 ds gets plenty of homework, but I'd say that only started in S3, early secondary hardly any.

My DC got almost no homework for the first few years of secondary. I think it only really started in S4, when they were doing the mind-numbingly limited and boring exam curriculum and had to learn to regurgitate things in the right places.
I do think that homework is worthwhile at primary school age, but it needs to be useful homework, which ties in with and practises and extends what's learned in the lesson.. And it needs to be at the right level for the child - not at the right level for the weakest child in the class. If other children aren't doing homework, the whole thing collapses, really, as others in the class will be holding the whole class back.
Unfortunately, the Scottish education system is a disaster zone, with incredibly low expectations of children. This encourages the same expectations from parents. My recommendation is to encourage your child to get into reading. Reading lots of books (gradually getting harder) will really help them educationally. And then think about a musical instrument if they like that idea and are prepared to practise, and they can join a music group of some kind. And if you can afford it get them some online lessons in a foreign language, from a native speaker. Even better if it's a language the school doesn't teach, so that the child can really enjoy the process of learning at their own pace rather than a snail's pace. Let them realise that they're actually capable of learning and that learning can be enjoyable, even if it's quite hard work too.

My kids’ primary has a no homework policy. We get an email each week with what they did in the week and suggestions of expanded learning you could do at home, but it’s definitely not expected or required or checked up on. My daughter is s2 now and gets some homework but most kids don’t do it - she’s a massive rule follower though so does it all. I don’t really get the point of it as they don’t get grades anyway.

But it's about learning, not grades. Education isn't about what mark you get or even what exam results you get - it's about the child learning about important things and gaining skills and becoming interested in the world.