Homework - is it mandatory?

[lilacmamacat]

I was reading somewhere recently - could have been on here - that primary school children are not obliged to do homework, so even if it's set, a parent can tell the school that their child is not going to do it. Is this correct and is it the same for secondary schools? Yes, I know they're studying for GCSEs but what's the legal position (if there even is one)?

Legally, homework is not enforceable. However, a school can implement their sanctions if it’s not done because the parent signs a contract with them when the child takes the place, agreeing to abide by school policies. In theory, a pupil could be asked to leave the school if they consistently don’t abide by the school policies, including homework.

Primary, homework does not have to be done. At least for us, we have never had an issue about not turning it in etc. But my dc are also doing really well in every subject. The early years they mostly did their homework, but did not always remember to turn it in. The later years when focusing on the 11+ we just dropped the homework all together as it became way too easy and busy work. The teachers understood the 11+ was more difficult material so they never said anything. Secondary, it depends on the school. My dd got a few sanctions the first year because she forgot homework. However, she learned after the first two terms and is on top of doing all her homework now.

Homework in secondary is usually to consolidate learning or to finish a piece of writing or to use research skills or to prepare a talk. It all has value towards certificates in later school and helps with study skills. Why would you not encourage your children in that?
I've had a few parents telling me their child doesn't want to do homework and I've always directed them to the contract they sign annually which clearly indicates that they agree with the school's policy on homework.

Secondary school can and will set sanctions, but relaxing homework requirements is a pretty common adjustment for children who are struggling, have SEN etc.

Being allowed to skip homework can be a double edged sword, especially in a school that assumes everyone does it and builds on completed homework in the next lesson. If they can manage homework, doing it is a much easier path in the long run.

You can also ask for other adjustments, eg if the task is to design a poster and creativity is the blocker, the student could write some notes instead. But that should be only if needed.

Some schools are more flexible than others, and any decisions are case by case.

@Moglet4 a school can implement their sanctions if it’s not done because the parent signs a contract with them when the child takes the place, agreeing to abide by school policies

What? No! Some schools ask parents to sign some kind of agreement / contract.
It is absolutely not compulsory to sign it, and the school cannot withdraw a school place or punish the child if the parents refuse to sign it.

At the same time, most secondary schools have - and rightly so! - policies to punish students who don't do their homework

Reasonable schools do it as a way to involve the parents, ensure they are familiar with the school policies and in the hope parents will help theit chidlren respect these policies.

Unreasonable schools do it as a way to silence parents, and to convey the message that the school decides, parents have no say and must shut up and suck it up.

The country is full of schools, especially academies (most secondary schools are academies anyway) which exploit the fact that they are virtually unaccountable (not even the secretary of education can overturn their decisions) and take discipline too far. There is a long running thread on emotional abuse at Mossbourne, east London. Holland Park school in London was assigned to a different trust after an investigation uncovered similar cases of emotional abuse.

In my experience, the more reasonable secondary schools will appreciate that not all primary schools assign the same amount of homework, and gradually assign more homework over time, to facilitate the transition. Unreasonable schools don't care and don't do this.

Don’t believe so.

Why would anyone not encourage their secondary child to do homework, though? Not going to help them.

Yes, totally.
And, if your current primary school gives little to no homework, then it might be a good idea to get your child to do some additional revision / exercises etc, to get them ready for what may be a bit of a shock at secondary school.

If instead you feel that certain secondary schools give too much homework, realistically you won't be able to do anything about it.

Trust me, I know what some schools are like. I trained in Mossbourne. I also said ‘in theory’. Absolutely in theory they can - persistently not following rules etc etc. Ultimately, if you sign a contract and don’t stick to it, the school can afk your child to leave. In practice, of course a school is extremely unlikely to take it that far unless it’s in combination with other factors. However, they can (and some will) make your child’s life a living hell if they consistently refuse to do it.

I wholeheartedly believe in homework and frankly don't think my DC gets enough, but I'm from the world of 1980s O levels so probably have a different outlook on things.

My question was prompted - as a sort of theoretical side issue - by the fact that my DC was give a strike and a 40 minute after-school detention (which they termed an 'intervention' to make it sound less harsh 🙄) because he forgot one piece of homework. I think that's disproportionate, but the longer he's at this school the more I feel they use borderline bullying to enforce discipline because they don't have enough staff to use more individualised strategies.

I think many secondary schools do this for forgotten homework. Dd got a warning because she forgot a folder twice. If they get three warnings they get a detention. But it worked and she learned fast. Problem was primary was so lax, so she was not used to being organized. But, I think it is nice primary was relaxed and secondary is the right time to be more strict. Teaches them to be responsible.

Ah. That does seem a little harsh. Is he in year 7? Sometimes teachers come down harder in year 7 (don’t smile until Christmas / zero tolerance on talking, homework etc) to avoid them escalating the problems later

He's Year 9, and they do GCSEs over 3 years so he's in his first year. It's also the first piece of homework he's ever forgotten so it's not like he's a serial offender.

@moglet4 No, I do not trust you :)
Let's see, in your opinion:

• what can a school do if a child's parent refuse to sign these "agreements"?
• what difference does signing or not signing these agreements make? In what way can a school treat differently a child whose family signed it vs one whose family didn't?

Off-rolling and asking children to leave is illegal (unless the school kicks them out for legitimate reasons, like unacceptable behaviour). Yes, many schools do it, especially academies which take great pride in their "my way or the highway" approach, but it remains illegal.

https://educationinspection.blog.gov.uk/2019/05/10/what-is-off-rolling-and-how-does-ofsted-look-at-it-on-inspection/

Schools often engage in illegal off-rolling as a way to improve their scores
https://www.ibblaw.co.uk/insights/what-is-off-rolling#:~:text=Is%20off%20rolling%20illegal%3F,considered%20to%20be%20bad%20practice.

For reference, I made a thread about these "agreements" last year
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/5176436-what-if-parents-refuse-to-sign-contracts-or-pledges-to-support-certain-school-policies-united-learning-wants-kids-to-attend-even-when-unwell

Homework and the wording behind it seems to be a way as training for answering GCSEs questions. So if there is knowledge gap for teachers to see and track pupils progress. Pupils getting use to time management which is important for art, drama, DT, sport and music GCSEs with lots coursework components that need to be given in time for taking it to the next stage.

@lilacmamacat a 40 minute after-school detention (which they termed an 'intervention' to make it sound less harsh 🙄) because he forgot one piece of homework. I think that's disproportionate

A lot will depend on the context. My understanding is that the more reasonable schools are unlikely to give a detention at the very first offence, but plenty of schools do.

In fairness, it is perfectly legitimate to expect students to do their homework and to punish those who don't.

If anything, I would wonder about the school ethos in general.
This kind of punishment at the first offense is the kind of punishment that can be applied both by the more reasonable and by the batshit crazy schools, like Mossbourne, Holland Park etc

Hmm, yes, time management. He needs to work on that, but unfortunately it's an inherited trait from my DP so there's not a lot of hope there.

Expecting a child to complete an assignment then sanctioning if they don’t is hardly borderline bullying. It’s teaching a child who is perfectly old enough to understand that actions (or inactions) have consequences.

Next time, do the homework. Problem solved.

Teacher

At my Most recent school, if a child didn't do homework we would ask them to come back at lunchtime to catch up.

Catch up was staffed by two teachers and at catch up they could either hand in the homework if they had magically managed to do it at break or the teacher would sit with them and help them do it.

If they didn't come to catch up to get help doing the homework they would be given a detention.

Students were welcome to bring their packed lunch. If they were school dinners they needed to either do catch up first or check in to catch up, get their lunch and come back.

We wanted kids to do their homework.

Ah I see. Zero tolerance on this stuff is pretty common at the moment. At one point our school was handing this punishment out for failing to take a calculator to an English lesson. It's ridiculous but I think it's very unhelpful for me to get exercised about it with an anxious, perfectionist high achiever child. Decatastrophise the detention, commiserate and model just handling it without beating themselves up. Ah that's a pain DC, bad luck, we all forget stuff sometimes. I've said to my kids it's like forgetting your pass at work and having to wear the bright red temporary pass of shame. No one likes wearing one, but most of us do at some point. Just deal with it.

It's not at all fair because my other child is simply excused from all such sanctions.

Do you have a copy if the detention policy and did they follow it?

There isn't one. There's a "behavior management and bullying" policy which bullet points a load of sanctions but is not specific about individual behaviors. They call these "fair sanctions" to be doled out consistently by every teacher, but they're not.

I agree.

I'm not specifically saying that this incident is borderline bullying, but that the general attitude of the school is. It's very much a case of "I'm the adult/teacher, you do what I say" regardless of how relevent it is to the crime, or whether it was actually child A who did the deed or not. There have been a couple of other incidents with similar or more extremely disproportionate punishments. To me it's a screaming signal that the school is stooping to the lowest common denominator because it is under-staffed and/or under-trained.

Why are you being so deliberately antagonistic?! I literally agreed that some schools behave appallingly when it comes to behaviour management - you cited Mossbourne as an example yet you don’t ‘trust’ that I know what I’m talking about when I literally experienced it first hand, worked there and had to implement the policies. Ok then.

Of course parents can’t be compelled to sign the contracts. However, invariably the ones who don’t are the ones whose kids end up constantly in trouble and in some cases, are eventually removed. The vast majority sign them. By doing so, they’re agreeing to abide by the school rules and policies. If the child doesn’t, they’re agreeing school is perfectly within their rights to apply sanctions. Eventually, those sanctions, whether by sheer number accrued or because of refusal to conform to them, can lead to exclusion as a behaviour issue. Obviously, this very rarely happens because of homework alone but in theory, it could do.
A specific example is a child who never did their hw. They eventually were fetched from their final lesson of the day, every day, so they could sit and do it in detention. A few times they refused, did a runner etc, eventually resulting in a stint in the behavioural PRU. Totally avoidable, totally ridiculous but hw was the catalyst for the behaviour that landed them there. The long and short of it is, if you’re not going to support the school then pick another school more in line with your beliefs, home school or ensure your child behaves even though they’re unprepared for the lesson and don’t moan if they eventually have poor outcomes.
Anyway, none of this applies to OP. The long and short of it is yes, it seems a bit harsh for a first offence but that could be school or teacher policy and most of the time it’s best just to suck it up and make sure hw is done on time in future!

@moglet4 You said that a (state) school can implement sanctions because parents sign a contract. No, that's nonsense: these agreements that state schools want parents to sign mean nothing, and the ability to impose sanctions doesn't derive from that, but from the fact that the law allows schools to apply certain punishments for children who break their rules.

The fact that you worked in a school doesn't change any of that.
The school would be in its legal right to apply the same sanction to a child whose parents signed the agreement and to one whose parents didn't.

I don't mean to be antagonistic but, sorry, facts are facts. It's not because parents sign an agreement that schools can implement sanctions. That's wrong, and your experience in a school doesn't change any of that. If you thought that, you are wrong. If the headteacher told you that, they were wrong.
That's what I meant when I said I did not trust you: you said something which was clearly wrong.

Now, if you want to say that the parents who refuse to sign the agreements are more likely to not care about discipline etc, yes, I can see that, but that is a separate argument.

The long and short of it is, if you’re not going to support the school then pick another school more in line with your beliefs, home school or ensure your child behaves even though they’re unprepared for the lesson and don’t moan if they eventually have poor outcomes.

Well, here we need to distinguish between i) strict but fair discipline and ii) strict and batshit crazy. Schools like Mossbourne, Holland Park etc fall in the latter category.

And, on choice: not every family has a choice.

Also, as I said in my long-running thread about Mossbourne: some families have a choice not to send their children there, but as taxpayers we do not have a choice not to fund these schools. These schools are funded entirely by the taxpayers but are accountable to no one - not even the department of Education can overturn their decisions. The matter has been discussed at length in my thread on Mossbourne.

Just to be clear on the law...

There is no specific power to impose homework, nor is there any requirement to do so. However, any school has the power to set and enforce standards of behaviour. This can include requiring pupils to complete homework and imposing sanctions on those who don't. This power is set out in the law and is independent of any agreement the parents do or don't sign with the school.

These schools are funded entirely by the taxpayers but are accountable to no one - not even the department of Education can overturn their decisions

No-one other than the courts can overturn the decision of any school. The governors always have the final say. Contrary to what many seem to believe, an LA has no power to overturn any decision taken by a community school (other than on admissions). Indeed, there is no requirement for parents to be able to complain to the LA about a decision. At many schools, the complaints process ends with the governors. At an academy, you can always refer the matter to the ESFA, but the most they will do is ask the academy to reconsider if they haven't dealt with the complaint properly.