Is homework legally enforceable in state secondary school?

[Firecarrier]

Would appreciate any factual answers regarding this.

I'm not particularly interested in debating the merits (or lack thereof) of homework, I have done lots of reading around this subject and my desire is to tell his high school that I will not permit our evenings to be dominated by homework when he has been there all day.

They have a rather ridgid system with class teams which sends us pie charts etc showing behaviour points etc.

Their system means a child will get a detention if they do not hand a piece of homework in.

For clarity, my son's behaviour in school is not in any question whatsoever and he is doing quite well, it is literally just the homework and possible consequences I am asking about. I say this to clarify that this specific thing I am asking about need not negatively affect other pupils.

I am in England if it makes any difference.

Thanks in advance!

Although I find homework a pain in the arse, it really does help reinforce learning.
If your child ends up at university, they will need to be able to study in their own spare time.
If you are struggling because you are busy in the evenings, could you put your child in a homework club straight after school?

If you want your child to access state funded education, then you accept the terms of the school - eg abide by uniform and homework guidelines, along with other policies.

Don't want to engage with them on this? Don't use it.

Homework is often unpopular with pupils and occasionally with parents. But doing it gets your children used to doing things they don't want to do, which stands them in very good stead for work, because there are always parts of a career you like less than other parts. Why don't you withdraw him from school and Home Educate him OP. I think that would suit you and the school much better.

OP is right in believing that some homework is fairly useless, but schools are a package deal.

If you believe homework is optional, then what about dress code, sports day, prize giving etc? And you will often be set pointless work by your boss later in life.

If you believe that school just trains you for the 'matrix' and stifles creativity, then go ahead and home ed.

It would be far better to just make a quick effort on homework you regard as pointless and focus on what you regard as important. But you had better be a really good judge.

DC have generally done homework I’ve been pretty relaxed if they’ve taken their foot of the pedal. I’ve no idea on the legal position but I’ve always allowed my DC to find their way. No homework in primary and do what worked for them in secondary. Top sets, achieving, exemplary behaviour no detentions ever. Good relationship with the school, no antagonism on either side and happy children.

I don’t get people using home school contracts as a gotcha? It’s a basis for a conversation if something is out of whack. It makes sense to focus on the output not the input and not be officious if you don’t think of education as a factory.

My parents were the same and had 4 children, 2 with PHDs, an Oxford graduate and all gainfully employed with happy families of their own.

You can say he isn't doing it. They can apply their sanctions. The sensible thing would be to discuss the problems with the school. I would imagine that if your child does not do any homework they will have difficulty completing their exams. They will need to work at home at some point.

Why send your child to school if you disagree with the school's policies and wish to educate your son according to your own views? If you wish to do things differently, then home educate him.

I don't really know what you mean by legally enforceable...I suppose the question is, are detentions legally enforceable? If a detention is given out for not doing homework, what actually happens if your dc refuses to attend the detention?

This is one reason why I favour PS over the state option.

Having all the parents fully engaged and supportive of what a school is doing makes a huge difference.

It sounds like you're going to have to home-educate this one as well.

@Charlie2121 very true. There are never any parental grumbles about whether a detention is fair/uniform rules/homework load/behaviour policies etc.at DDs PS. It requires massive parental buy in and you can choose the school that best suits your personal values.

My DS gets a detention if he doesn't complete homework after one extension. I can't be relaxed about this as I get app notifications if he doesn't do it. He doesn't want to do detentions but he does sometimes lack the organisation skills to get the correct homework in on the correct day.
I do kind of see the home school contract as a gotcha, a school with hundreds of children can't negotiate with every parent on what their child will do. My child works well without a blazer, but we've agreed he'll wear one like everyone else. I think he should do his homework, it's generally useful stuff consolidating the learning in class. There probably are kids in the school who'll make it to Oxford without doing homework but my DS will have a better chance if he does it.

Homework is often a way of consolidating a student's learning in a particular topic area and it's used as a means of seeing if the the student can apply what they've learned to a different situation.

This is extended learning. Merely regurgitating facts is not a pathway to good grades. Being able to manipulate the facts is the way to get good grades... ask any grammar school.

Knew a family of five children where they were home educated all the way through.
Appalling manners, no self awareness and no motivation whatsoever.

I think that’s my point there was no negotiation everyone just reasonable and pragmatic. If DC are achieving then I didn’t worry about homework and neither did DCs school seem to either. There was no app. It didn’t affect their learning, behaviour or ability to succeed at life and it didn’t lead to chaos at the school.

It’s my perspective and I want to add it for balance. In my experience not doing homework sometimes doesn’t affect whether you can hold down a job or study for higher education. I should also say I wore a pelmet rather than a skirt aged 14 but I’ve never struggled to dress appropriately as an adult.

It’s not really about what’s legally required OP. If the school is handing out homework in line with its policy, child will get in trouble. You had a choice to send him there - if you want zero homework home educate?

It's sounds from the OP that their school is more like that of my DS, handing out behaviour points and detentions. So the point is more about dealing with the here and now rather than whether they will be functioning adults.
You are lucky to have a school like that. It will probably bring out more functioning adults than the app/behaviour points/detention approach.

I have not read the whole thread. However, the answer to the question in the title is that the school has wide powers to set behaviour policies including penalties for non-compliance (Education and Inspections Act 2006). This can include policies that affect pupils outside school time. So, whilst homework, like school uniform, is not directly legally enforceable, the penalties for failing to complete homework or not wearing the correct uniform are legally enforceable.

You cannot legally overrule the school behaviour system, so if the penalty for a missed homework is a detention, you cannot say that your child isn't doing the detention.

If your child doesn't do the detention because you tell them not to, then the school can escalate the sanction according to their behaviour policy (e.g. to an after school detention).

You sound like hard work.

Love the anecdote about knowing ONE family who home educated and produced rude children.

Schools never turn out rude, badly behaved children....

Mental health issues among young people is at its highest levels. Why are we promoting young people doing 10 hour days - with travel and 3 hours homework? Why are we allowing our children's childhoods to be dominated by work.

We have allowed primary aged children to have homework when they should be playing, socialising, having time with family and time to relax.

Children are now data. Homework data. Progress data. Attendance data.

Why are we not pushing back or supporting people like OP to push back.

Why are we promoting young people doing 10 hour days - with travel and 3 hours homework?

Who is promoting that?

I would say that schools never turn out rude or badly children, that would be the parents.
Schools cope with rude and badly behaved children and parents all the time.

Schools don’t turn out rude, badly behaved children. Parents do.

I would actually argue there is insufficient time to cover the science curriculum in the time I'm given by the school I work at. Or rather, we have the time to cover the curriculum, but not enough time for practice. Pretty much every lesson I have to introduce a new topic, a new boat load of key words, a new concept, a new equation etc etc.

Obviously it does depend a bit on the class, but for e.g. an upper-middle set who are capable of grasping the content, but need a bit of time to go over it, ask questions, for me to check understanding and correct what's wrong, etc, there's not much time in class for them to get recall practice or to practice their exam technique.

Therefore, they get set homework, for my GCSE classes this might be past paper questions, it might be recall practice on Seneca, it might be to create a revision resource for a topic we've just finished etc- all things that unfortunately we don't have enough time to do in class. I do think the homework is worthwhile, or I wouldn't bother to set it.

If we did all these things in class, I think we would genuinely struggle to cover the whole course before exams start, and my Y11s are already asking me when we will "finish the course" and start revising (the answer to this is "soon" but they need to be revising in their own time too).

Unfortunately, I can't change the curriculum, or the way my students are assessed, so homework is really the only viable solution.

BTW, normally we don't have a TA in class unless we teach an individual child with a specific need, but even if I did, I'm not sure how that would help me cover content faster? Should myself and the TA deliver two separate lessons on two different topics? I'm not sure that would work well!