and I say that as a parent! Having to sit a six and a seven year old down to do several pages of cribbing for SATS, and then having to teach them how to do some of the sums etc on the sheets, just about sucks the fun out of what has been about the nicest Sunday of the spring (weather wise at least) so far. How come little’uns get homework now? I’m sure I didn’t get any until senior school, and even then I was broken in gently to it…

But if you’d done it with them on Fri they would have had the whole weekend ahead of them with no homework…

True, but there are reasons* why that didn’t happen.

*not very good ones, admittedly

Just get your kids to do it.. it’s theirs after all.

If I leave them to it, it takes fooorrreevvvvver…

What’s worse is that there’s no evidence that homework leads to increased attainment.

I’m a primary teacher, my wife is a primary teacher, and we will use the “opt out” option when it comes to our own children being set homework in years to come.

That sounds like a lot for little ones right enough.

My eldest is 7 and her weekly homework usually consists of spelling (learn to spell a dozen words), some maths exercises and a one page English, Maths or Science worksheet.

Have you thought why your six and seven year old are cribbing (cramming?) for SATs exams? Do ten minutes and then write a note in their homework diary saying how you don’t feel that your child’s education is in anyway benefitting from being caught up in a teacher evaluation exercise. As for spellings, it’s not the 1950s, these kids are going to have way bigger challenges when they hit the labour market in 10-15 years time.

As for spellings, it’s not the 1950s, these kids are going to have way bigger challenges when they hit the labour market in 10-15 years time.

I’m sure they will – but being able to spell seems a pretty basic skill for that market as well as a good life skill.

Homework at six? WTF. I recall having nap time during school at that age. Kids should learn through play, not sitting around like it’s high school. Sad times.

They need to learn as much as they can now, when they hit secondary school all home work stops and they learn very little (academicly).

Son (10) gets homework most nights and is resolving fractions that some of my 16yr old students cant do.

Nephew (14) gets no homework at all.

I am sure Bigdean is academically being ironic.

I’m assuming that his 14 year old nephew gets a lot of homework and just tells bigdean lies.

Yup! 7&8 year old kids here.  It does our head in .

They seem to get some stuff that is the kind of homework you would get in 1st year secondary school.  We have some battles in in our house to get it done. I’m not surprised as 7 year old me had better things to do like, errrr be a kid and play, so I feel their pain. We already do reading and shorts periods of maths with them (like my parents did with me) .I’m not sure why they need mount homework each week .

SATs are the most pointless experience in primary school. They are a government assessment on 5he school,  not the child. The schools put sooo much pressure on children and parents to do well but it’s ultimately for the government to ‘prove’ to the public which are good or bad schools and not in the interest of the children.

My daughter went to two different primary schools, one inner city, one rural. Both were Ofsted excellent – but bot were shocking when it came to homework and especially SATs.

The secondary school she’s now at is miles apart in attitude and teaching. Homework is a much larger part of her life, but she deals with it so much better.

“I am sure Bigdean is academically being ironic.”

A little bit but probably not as much as you hoped.

“I’m assuming that his 14 year old nephew gets a lot of homework and just tells bigdean lies.”

This is probalby true as well but i teach quite a few +16 year old who say similar things and are shocked that work has to be done at home and they can’t just get told the answers.

There is genious in their effort to not do work though, co writing a document in real time on word on line, wats app groups “sharing” notes (though they dont like the online submission that checks against other submissions).

We already do reading and shorts periods of maths with them (like my parents did with me) .I’m not sure why they need mount homework each week .

Because a lot of parents dont do what you do.

We already do reading and shorts periods of maths with them (like my parents did with me) .I’m not sure why they need mount homework each week .

Because a lot of parents dont do what you do.

Sadly, this.

In my son’s first year at primary he was given loads of homework.  The teacher said it should only take 20 minutes or so each day (Mon-Thu) but that only happened on a good day when he was motivated.  When he was tired from being at school all day and bouncing round like a loon with his mates in every spare second (so, most days) it was a mission.  He hated it, and it put him off school to be honest. His teacher was relatively newly qualified and I think a bit over-zealous.

His teacher in the second year is an old hand, has been teaching primary for decades.  She’s set some goals for the year, and has said she’ll let us know if she thinks he’s not on track.  If that happens, he’ll get some tailored homework to get him back on course, but none otherwise apart from bringing a book home now and again.

Funnily enough, without the homework he has loads more enthusiasm for school in general, and enjoys classwork.

Friend is deputy head at a local high school, when she first arrived (4-5 yrs ago?), they didn’t give the pupil any home-work, as it was easier then dealing with the students who didn’t do it!

Big shock for my children when we moved to France Last year. Lots of homework to do.

My kids (Wales if it matters) have always had homework from year 0 which is basically tokenistic. Even in year 4 it’s only 10 mins’ worth a week. Or it would be if they got on with it 🙂

A popular one is doing some kind of report on something which they do on PowerPoint and really enjoy.

What confuses me is when my lad comes home with homework with new stuff for Maths that it seems they’ve not actually been taught. Long multiplication for example “Daddy, how do we do this..?”…

“Have you not done it at school?”

“No, we’re doing it in a few weeks”..

Why on earth are we doing homework on a topic they’ve not been taught ? Weird.

I did get 4 team points for our recent Dinosuars homework that made me quite proud… I thought it would be laughed out of class,… but it seems to have gone down well.

Hugo………

No evidence for Homework increasing attainment???

You need to read this:

https://v1.educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/uploads/pdf/Teaching_and_Learning_Toolkit_(July_12).pdf

Homework widens the attainment gap between rich and poor

Simon semtex

From your link

It is certainly the case that schools whose pupils do homework tend to be successful schools. However it is
less clear that the homework is the reason why they are successful. A number of reviews and meta-analyses
have explored this issue. There is some evidence that when homework is used as a short and focused
intervention it can be effective in improving students’ attainment (some studies showing up to eight months
positive impact on attainment). Overall the general benefits are likely to be modest if homework is more
routinely set. There is clear evidence that it is helpful at secondary level, but there is much less evidence of
benefit at primary level.

I like the sound of the system in Finland

Weeksy…..

It’s called “Flipped Learning.”  It has been shown to have a very big impact on a students learning.  Essentially, it is what you described.  Students are set a piece of homework (usually a piece of research or a video to watch).  This turns out to be preparation for the next classroom based session where students get a chance to prove how much they have learnt and set their own agenda for that session.

It’s designed to foster qualities of self-motivation, curiosity and enquiry.

The traditional view is that teachers are the “gate-keepers” of knowledge.  Problem is, and any teacher will attest to this, the traditional view creates students who cant think for themselves, who constantly cry “Sir, Sir, SIR SIIIRRRRR!” for minor problems such as not having a pen or computer not switching on, when actually they are more than capable of sorting out these problems themselves.

Students need to start thinking (and acting) for themselves because one day the teacher will not be there. (Think Nanny McPhee with elbow patches.)

“Flipped Learning” turns all this on its head and puts the learner in charge of their own learning.

If you are interested in this stuff, check out “The Learning Pit.” on Youtube.  (Tried to put the link in but damn thing isn’t working!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh7SRvQeCAI

THanks for the explaination…. It seems my lad is crap at that bit 🙂

The impact at primary is much lower than at secondary and is based on less evidence. Secondary, the impact of homework is much greater, based on a little more evidence.

The reason why homework is given is due to it being a rather low cost intervention for some gain. However, it just widens the gap potentially between groups. Parents who are engaged with their children’s education will get them to complete homework, thus doing slightly better. Kids from disadvantaged backgrounds may not have parents who are as engaged and may fall behind due to it. Especially if homework builds upon and reinforces class work (which it should do)

In schools where the parents are generally engaged, they also see homework as something generally kids should be doing in the evenings when they get in. So many press teachers to set homework/more homework.

Weeksy….

Growth mindset my boy!   “He can’t do it……….. YET!”

One day he will.

kids get homework from a very early age – it helps them learn.  Got no issue with it and not come across anything I can’t do yet (eldest only in second year though).  Without homework they wouldn’t get the practice.

In schools where the parents are generally engaged, they also see homework as something generally kids should be doing in the evenings when they get in.

We are nice middle-class engaged parents – but it can be a busy week when you have to fit homework around  swimming, karate, cubs, beavers, piano practise, trumpet practise, ukulele practise, recorder practise, ballet, coding club, climbing and kayaking, as well as actual free fun play time. Especially if one of you is on 14 hour shifts.

Most of our homework gets done at the weekend, so I’m glad the school have a once-a-week policy.

“Flipped Learning” turns all this on its head and puts the learner in charge of their own learning.

Interesting. I can see how that applies to stuff where they go out and research a topic etc (i.e. “Okay we’re doing the Romans next week class, so for your homework research and write about a Roman remain near your house”), but in my experience it is less helpful when applied to things like maths, as my kids cry they are stupid for not knowing it (despite actually being pretty numerate).

The other issue I have is that our kids are set these tasks, but we’re not told what methodology they are meant to use to solve it. So, for example, I spend time showing them column arithmetic, which just confuses them because they’ve been doing partitioning in class.

Growth mindset my boy!   “He can’t do it……….. YET!”

Its like SLT bullshit bingo in here!

Its like SLT bullshit bingo in here!

It’s certainly a list of things that I’ve ignored for the last 16 years 🙂

I hope the kids with a growth mindset are writing down SMART differentiated learning objectives before they start their inquiry based learning using higher order Blooms skills for the jobs that don’t exist yet.

Homework widens the attainment gap between rich and poor

how does that work?  I’m “poor” and my kids are doing exceptionally well at school.

Homework widens the attainment gap between rich and poor

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>how does that work?  I’m “poor” and my kids are doing exceptionally well at school.</span>

Studies show that homework enables the better off kids who, on average, are more likely to have a nice space to do homework, parents who help them to do it, Internet access, etc. are helped more by homework than less well off kids who, on average, might be doing homework unsupervised and without access to tools or support.

On average.

‘Trendy’ teaching methods – not doing phonics, encouraging creativity, no rote learning, group working, flipped learning, etc. (all the stuff you see Sir Ken Robinson talk about in his TED talks) – tend to favour the nice middle class kids.

Studies show that homework enables the better off kids who, on average, are more likely to have a nice space to do homework, parents who help them to do it, Internet access, etc. are helped more by homework than less well off kids who, on average, might be doing homework unsupervised and without access to tools or support.

so good parenting rather than being poor.

… because not having a kitchen table and internet access is a sign of bad parenting rather than poverty?

Also, and perhaps more controversially, parents on lower incomes may not have done that well academically themselves, so they may not be as well placed to help their kids with homework.

(Averages though! There are obviously plenty of well educated poor parents out there, as well as plenty of thick but posh ones).

Flipped learning (groan) .I have to deal with this but with 16+. It works to a point, some students love it, others have a nightmare with it.  But it’s the new bestest thing ever and everyone needs to make it work………

how does that work?  I’m “poor” and my kids are doing exceptionally well at school.

Firstly you may not be as poor as you think and secondly its all based on a normal distribution.