Primary School Homework - Mini rant

[Dos_Box]

I have two children both in primary school and this has slowly been building up for me having a rant for some time now.

Now, their school is excellent and has been marked as Outsranbding in its last OFSTED evaluation, but there are a couple of things which are beginning to worry me.

Firstly, the levels of homework they receive. Both of them weill have homework everynight which takes about half an hour (sometimes more) to complete. Given their ages of 10 and 8 this digs heavily into their spare time and even on a weekend there is homework to do. This has been going on since they started there.

All of this affects the things we can do as a family as we have to sit with them to help out. It has now on more than a few occasions prevented us from doing 'activities' because there is homework to do. It is particularly bad when their freinds knock on the door to ask them to go out to play and they have to do their work first, often missing out on the short time window they have during the winter months for getting out in daylight or decent weather.

The other thing is that the school often phones home to 'advise' us on things that the children should be learning 'at home'.

Often this is things that they should be getting taught in the school themselves.

I did mention the school is outstanding and I should also add that it is a feeder school for some of the top ranked schools in Lancashire.

 

Does anyone alse here with children or working within a primary school environment see young children overburdened with work that cuts into their time to such an extent?

I certainly didn't get homework until I moved up into secondary education, and even then not at the level my kids get in primary.

Anyway, rant over.

[hardtailstar]

Going from my experience in primary school as a child we had home work twice a week, One given out on a Monday to be in by Friday and one on Friday to be in by Monday.

 

At one primary school i work at, they send work home if not finished in class that day. so potentially a child could have 'homework' everyday if they do not finish work at school.

 

Having said that, there is a homework club on most lunchtimes for them to do it there too.

 

EDIT: Im not sure if any other work is sent home too.

Edited March 11, 2015 by hardtailstar

[elsiegee40]

30 minutes homework per night at the age of your children seems to be what is expected of schools now. Ofsted certainly expects it to be set and, at age 10, they would definitely be expecting it to take 30 minutes. Getting the children into the habit of doing it as soon as they come home from school and before any relaxation is the only way to tackle it.

 

That said, if work is taking longer than it should then perhaps the level of the work is too high. That can only be resolved by talking with the class teachers. Sometimes, extension tasks are set which are there to ensure that there is enough work to be done by the brightest. It may be that your children are completing tasks that they are not required to do beyond the main task. Again, talk to the school.

[Danp]

I have two girls, 8 (nearly 9) and just turned 11. They both have about 20 mins worth of home work to do 6 days a week. I don't mind but there are times where it would be easier if they didn't have it!

[Arreks]

Well I think the whole curriculum is flawed generally, but that definitely does sound like too much workload for a primary school student - I didn't even get that much homework at Secondary school or College..

[witch]

Mine are grown now but even back in the 90s they had homework every night at 10 - not at 8 as far as I can remember. It was a problem if they weren't given long enough to complete it - sometimes they would be given homework on Scout night which meant it was very difficult to fit it in before bed. I did have a word with the school and they changed it so every homework was not due in until at least 2 days after it was set.

 

If I were you I would go and see the school, particularly about the 8 year old as that does seem a bit much and maybe the child is going above and beyond what is actually expected?

[featured_spectre]

My daughter is 5 years old, and she gets 10 minutes of reading a night (which we put before bedtime), and 1x 30 minute homework session usually given on a Friday and has to be completed by the following Wednesday.

 

Next academic year (year 2) it is expecting to go up to 3 pieces of homework a week, and stay like that until she is in year 4, from which she will get 4 pieces of homework at 30 minutes a night, and then year 6 through 8 she will get 5 nights at 30 mins a piece.

 

From year 9, I believe her feeder school will be doing it based on what subjects she picks. As for the homework when its done, I get it done Saturday night with her before bath time, so she has a chance to enjoy the day and relax on Sunday.

[mthomas08]

Does anyone alse here with children or working within a primary school environment see young children overburdened with work that cuts into their time to such an extent?

I certainly didn't get homework until I moved up into secondary education, and even then not at the level my kids get in primary.

Anyway, rant over.

 

I am glad others feel the same way.

 

To be honest, the Country is trying to squeeze every ounce of education in to their minds. I do some times worry that if you take away a child hood from them will it damage them in the longer run. The Gov is trying their best to protect their innocence by destroying it other ways in my view.

 

I can understand in their final Year of Primary just to help that adjustment to Secondary School, sadly what more can you do. Just hope when they grow older they still have a sense of humour and still enjoy bubble wrap!

[Dos_Box]

Interesting replies, thnaks guys, I hadn't realised it was such a widespread practice. I'd much prefer my kids to be playing at that age than trying to cram in even more school work.

Mix this in with Guides, piano lessons, singing, brass, drum and trampoline groups they are both involved with after school hours makes time a very precious resource.

[ChickenDhansak]

The other thing is that the school often phones home to 'advise' us on things that the children should be learning 'at home'.

Often this is things that they should be getting taught in the school themselves.

I find that really intrusive and quite bizarre that they do that. I would have thought occasional homework is not unreasonable, but not 5 or 6 times every week.

Edited March 11, 2015 by ChickenDhansak

[elsiegee40]

Interesting replies, thnaks guys, I hadn't realised it was such a widespread practice. I'd much prefer my kids to be playing at that age than trying to cram in even more school work.

Mix this in with Guides, piano lessons, singing, brass, drum and trampoline groups they are both involved with after school hours makes time a very precious resource.

< Devil's Advocate>

Which then raises the question of how many after school activities kids actually need to do. There may have been no homework when you were in primary and you may have done scouts and perhaps a swimming lesson, but that would have been it for most youngsters then.

 

All the other structured out of school stuff that kids do these days actually impinges on their unstructured family and tree climbing time as well. Parents perhaps are a bit to blame in this too.

Edited March 11, 2015 by elsiegee40

[GrumbleDook]

As pointed out, it is expected and when it is done it can make all the difference to the learning that goes on in school.

 

If people also consider the Flipped Learning model as well ... where a lot of self-study occurs outside of the classroom, then this is effectively homework ... but it is not measured in essays written, questions answered in an exercise book, but by the teacher discovering who has done the prep work for the next lesson.

 

Prep is something that those from a certain set of schools will understand as well.

 

My problem with how homework is done is the lack of understanding that some schools have that the school day does not finish at 3-3.30 for some pupils / students ... after school clubs run by the school are not thing (often finishing around 4.30 from looking at how local primary schools are running atm), activities such as Rainbows / Beavers / St John Ambulance / Young Men's Reformed Cultist of the Ichor God Bel-Shamharoth Association, or in school-based childcare until early evening ... who may not do homework sessions ... and that is not uncommon for some working families.

 

This gives very limited time to do the homework, so you get things mounting up for the weekend and that hits family time too ... and is too much to do in one or two blocks.

 

Some schools get this and structure it better ... others don''t or they put unfair expectations on families.

[DanPTL]

Ofsted certainly expects it to be set and, at age 10

 

They do?

 

Our kids now get a lot of homework or at least my 10 yr old does. This is in part a response to parents pushing for consistency across the school WRT homework. There are plenty of parents who want their kids to have homework and plenty who don't. The former won.

 

I don't think there is much evidence to say that homework helps primary aged kids but it may help to engage parents with their school work. This is obviously a good thing.

 

Getting the children into the habit of doing it as soon as they come home from school and before any relaxation is the only way to tackle it.

 

I don't agree with that.

 

Which school has time or resources to phone parents about what their kids should be learning at home. Surely this is done by Email or letter? Weird.

[abillybob]

We are an "Outstanding" Primary school. Apparently teachers give out 30 minutes of Homework every day to years 5 and above the others get 1-3 pieces a week. So I think it's fairly normal with children of that age group.

[Dos_Box]

< Devil's Advocate>

Which then raises the question of how many after school activities kids actually need to do. There may have been no homework when you were in primary and you may have done scouts and perhaps a swimming lesson, but that would have been it for most youngsters then.

 

All the other structured out of school stuff that kids do these days actually impinges on their unstructured family and tree climbing time as well. Parents perhaps are a bit to blame in this too.

 

One 'issue' I have is that many of the things that used to be done as extra-curricular but during school hours are now done as after school activities. All of the music classes my children go to are run by the Lancashire Music Service but take place well out of school hours rather than as a part of them as my instrument (I learnt cornet) used to be.

It is only guides and their trampoline club which are activities independant on services run by the Lancashire education services.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I'm definitely not looking forward to my kids starting school and bringing homework home.

 

With the exception of a little homework in their final year before secondary school I firmly believe that younger kids should be able to leave work behind when they leave school and come home.

 

There's too much pressure on kids anyway and a little family time or time with friends is worth much more in my eyes.

[arwen]

I have to agree and say homework every night for kids below 10 is a lot. When I was in primary school in the 90's I got home once or twice a week and it would take around 40min tops. We might have also gotten a reading exercise, but I cannot really remember them as they were never classes as homework in my mind, I have always loved to read.

 

Young kids should be mostly free from school when they are not physically there in my opinion. Most of my social skills came from going to beavers/cubs/scouts, brownies and playing various sports. If I always had 30min of homework to do each night then I would have struggled to go to these things and also get quality family time as well.

 

But then, I don't have kids so my opinion probably doesn't count for much.

[foofighterjim]

I have heard many conversations in schools where the justification for X, Y & Z is that kids only get one chance at an education. I'm sure many of use here would agree that this is utter rubbish, people have countless opportunities to be educated / learn.

 

One thing is fact, you do only get one childhood. You miss that and it is gone forever!

 

Kids just aren't allowed to be kids anymore, its very sad.

[GrumbleDook]

I have heard many conversations in schools where the justification for X, Y & Z is that kids only get one chance at an education. I'm sure many of use here would agree that this is utter rubbish, people have countless opportunities to be educated / learn.

 

One thing is fact, you do only get one childhood. You miss that and it is gone forever!

 

Kids just aren't allowed to be kids anymore, its very sad.

 

Strongly disagree with this.

 

Whilst there are exceptions, the research shows that how well you learn at school sets you up for the rest of your life. Whilst there are countless opportunities to learn, they are not always accessible to everyone. Struggle to read when a child and that will set you back for the rest of your life.

 

As much as many of us hark back to when we could go off with a few friends and catch a bus to the countryside, play all day with no adult supervision and creep back home as the sun was setting ... that doesn't exist now, if it ever really did!

 

Schools have their curriculum heavily squeezed and so have to offer a lot of activities outside of the normal school day. This is also related to how some of the activities are funded and controlled. It is not the fault of the schools, but yes, I agree that they should consider this and adapt homework policies around it.

[tekins]

I really don't think under 6's should get regular homework, yes the odd project now and again is fine, I remember Daughter #1's dinosaur project was good fun when she was 5. At my 4 year olds parent evening last week I told the teacher I don't think 4 year olds should get homework, when asked why, I told her she doesn't have time, plus is always completely exhausted and ready for bed by 6 on a school night and we give her all the homework she needs.

 

She has "youth" club, Friends for dinner, swimming, we are often over the park, in the garden, playing board games - Proper Kids stuff and family time, just like what I and many generations before used to do.

 

I, like many parents tend to "teach" most of the time, try doing this, what do you think this does, can you help with this.....

 

I can only repeat what @foofighterjim says - you do only get one childhood. You miss that and it is gone forever!

 

Let kids be kids!

[GrumbleDook]

Some of the homework schools give out to Years R and 1 are also things to help parents get into the rhythm of helping their children with schoolwork.

 

This will be around reading, formation of letter, phonics, etc ... it is to also help the parents understand about the education their child is getting. And the worst people in the world for teachers to deal with are others in the education system!

[MatthewL]

Funny this topic comes up I was only thinking the same the other day after speaking to some friends.

 

I remember when I was at primary school back in the early 90's and we had bits of a book to read or a few spellings to learn but it would have a weeks period on it and it was great you could do that and still go out and play but I notice more and more its far more than that now, can a kid not be a kid now and it does ask the question what are they teaching them in school?

 

I was also looking at my old secondary school website the other day at the newsletter and there was a link to the homework timetable with 20 mins for year 7, 30 mins for year 8-10 and then 40 mins for year 11 for each subject and that varied between 3 and 5 subjects a night. I always remember it at school of a maximum of 30 mins a night at secondary school in total not hours and hours.

 

I think its wrong with the amount been put on kids, when are they supposed to be kids??

[jmak]

I have heard many conversations in schools where the justification for X, Y & Z is that kids only get one chance at an education. I'm sure many of use here would agree that this is utter rubbish, people have countless opportunities to be educated / learn.

 

One thing is fact, you do only get one childhood. You miss that and it is gone forever!

 

Kids just aren't allowed to be kids anymore, its very sad.

 

This is probably closest to how I feel. The vast majority of studies show no correlation between whether/how much homework is set and educational outcomes (will update with citations when I get home).

 

The (infant) school I work at sets weekly homework - usually a fairly open topic based task so that if the child is interested and has time they can get quite involved, but not too onerous to do the minimum.

 

We do send out a weekly update of what we have been teaching them - this was in response to parent requests to enable them to support what we teach in school. While I'm not convinced I would have done much teaching at home on the basis of that, it would have helped with the "what did you do at school today?" conversation. At our school it's not intended to be extra homework.

 

My 11 year old at junior school gets two pieces of homework on a Friday, due in the following Tuesday. Maths is usually revision and literacy is usually research/making notes on what they will be writing about the following week. This seems relevant and reasonable, so I don't have a great issue with it.

 

My 13 year old gets virtually nothing. I have to fight against my instinct that he should get more (having read the research). I think the main problem is that he does virtually nothing all day and gets away with it. If I thought he was working hard at school, I probably wouldn't worry about the lack of homework.

 

I think the only significant learning gained from homework is how to work independently - which is valuable, but not going be appreciated by an 8 year old.

[Dos_Box]

Strongly disagree with this.

 

Whilst there are exceptions, the research shows that how well you learn at school sets you up for the rest of your life. Whilst there are countless opportunities to learn, they are not always accessible to everyone. Struggle to read when a child and that will set you back for the rest of your life.

 

As much as many of us hark back to when we could go off with a few friends and catch a bus to the countryside, play all day with no adult supervision and creep back home as the sun was setting ... that doesn't exist now, if it ever really did!

 

Schools have their curriculum heavily squeezed and so have to offer a lot of activities outside of the normal school day. This is also related to how some of the activities are funded and controlled. It is not the fault of the schools, but yes, I agree that they should consider this and adapt homework policies around it.

 

Yes Tony, but they are children. not employees of the school or research subjects and having a childhood is just as, if not more, important than any homework. My kids cry if they have forgotten a piece of homework (sometimes they get more than one lot to do per evening). Not funny at all to put that kind of pressure on them at that age.

And as regards to having a childhood they way you describe it really was how I had mine (except I lived next to the countrysde and didn't have to get a bus)

I just don't subscribe to the school is everything train of thought that seems to persist in some minds.

I want my kids to play out, to socialise with other kids and to learn how to use their imaginations. Not be lumbered with increasing amounts of extra school work after the bell goes at 3:30.

It also impacts on us as parents. That half an hour is the one where you could have been cooking the evening meal, having to do the extra work you brought home with you or general housework.

It's not just the childrens time being taken up here.

[jmak]

This is probably closest to how I feel. The vast majority of studies show no correlation between whether/how much homework is set and educational outcomes (will update with citations when I get home).

 

The first place I came across this was on the BBC radio 4 programme "the educators". Well worth a listen and the whole series still seems to be available.

 

Professor John Hattie has done a massive study of outcomes over 20 years resulting in lots of information about what works and what doesn't.

 

http://visible-learning.org/2014/09/john-hattie-interview-bbc-radio-4/

 

Quote from that website:

 

“Homework in primary school has an effect of around zero. In high school it’s larger. (…) Which is why we need to get it right. Not why we need to get rid of it. It’s one ofthose lower hanging fruit that we should be looking in our primary schools to say, “Isit really making a difference?” If you try and get rid of homework in primary schoolsmany parents judge the quality of the school by the presence of homework. So, don’tget rid of it. Treat the zero as saying, “It’s probably not making much of a differencebut let’s improve it”. Certainly I think we get over obsessed with homework. Five toten minutes has the same effect of one hour to two hours. The worst thing you can dowith homework is give kids projects. The best thing you can do is to reinforcesomething you’ve already learnt.”

 

So essentially it's to make parents think more highly of the school...