Thursday 22 January 2015

Homework: Too much or not enough?

 
School pupils in the UK get more homework than many other countries in Europe including Finland, Germany, Sweden and Austria but countries like Finland and South Korea have the shortest homework hours but are top performers in international tests....

    In the research by OECD it was found that UK pupils had on average 5 hours of homework per week.

Ellie who is 7 each week has spellings to learn, reading to do, some numeracy and literacy homework to complete...She gets it on a Friday and it has to be completed by the following Wednesday.....All in all I would say she has about a two hours worth if you count the reading and I think it is the right amount for her being only 7 years old....

There was a letter sent home from school a couple of weeks ago saying any child not completing their homework will have a detention on a Thursday after school which I actually agree with after speaking to one of the teachers....

There was a homework club on a Friday lunchtime where the children not completing their homework would go to do it.....Now it's got to the point where there are so many children not doing their homework it's over crowded.... Parents were supposedly not bothered about making their children do their homework and took homework club as the easy option.....Now I'm guessing there are some unhappy parents who've had to make their kids do their homework to stop them getting a detention after school....Especially those who have to pick up more than one child...

Becky on the other hand who's in Year 7 at Secondary school does not get enough homework in my opinion.....You may remember my post about the "Unfair Summer Homework" where before even starting in Year 7 she had a huge list of homework to do....

Since starting secondary school in September she has had barely any to do....A couple of numeracy tests, a little written work, a few drawings to do and that's about it....Nothing compared to what she had over the summer holidays.... Obviously I wouldn't wish for that amount again all at once but some extra would be nice...Even if it's just for me to see what she is learning about.

When I was at secondary school I would have homework most nights to complete....I think my girls have it easy but nowhere near the 5 hours a week that some children get.

Do your children get much homework from school?

13 comments :

  1. My daughter is in Year Two and has math, reading and spelling each week. It seemed like a lot in the beginning of the year but I think she's finally gotten used to it. It is tough trying to do it at the weekends as we're normally so busy. But I guess that's something we have to get used to.

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    1. Ahh...Glad she has got used to it....We used to only have the weekend to do it but the school must have realised weekend is family time and extended it until Wednesday x

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  2. My son is still in foundation stage so no homework for us yet but just book reading. When I am a student most of my life is spent doing assignments (how we call homework in my country). My weekdays will be full of them too. I would have different assignments in every subject in addition to reviewing for NCEE (which is probably your GCSEs). Its hard and I am so happy that I am finished with school already! #pocolo

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    1. My girls have had homework since they started nursery at 3 years old....It only started with reading and drawing and it has got them used to doing it....

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  3. It's difficult. I have three views:

    As a teacher:
    Homework, to the level you described, is an important part of their understanding also well as their development. Potentially, homework reinforces the child's previous learnt understanding out of the class environment. So in that case I think it's not too much.

    As a Parent:
    It's too much. Most of the time the child needs help and support to get through it which subsequently doesn't show any reinforcement of learning and is deceiving the teacher to what the child is able to do. Make homework a more realistic achievement which can support the child's understanding but will also allow them to cope, complete and get positive regard. So maybe not the amount of homework but the levelled quality.

    As a Home school educator:
    Homework sucks. There's too much of it. Children are regimented into a 6+ hour day to learn. Adding an additional 1+ to your child's day (in higher year groups 5+) or 4+ to a child's weekend is too much. Let kids have a chance to be kids. We as adults hate bringing work home and try to avoid it so why force it on children. Cut all but spellings and reading out if the week with maybe an achievable amount on the weekend that doesn't disrupt family time.

    Sorry for the long comment but homework has always been split with me lol.

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    1. What a great comment! Very interesting to read! I can see why you are split 3 different ways. You have had experience from all the angles.

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  4. When my two were in middle school they got crazy amounts of homework to do on a daily basis. I would say the work they were getting was taking two hours a day at least and it wasn't easy. Here in Greece it is quite normal to go to extra lessons to help with homework.

    As they've got older the amount of homework they get has lessened and my son who is in his last year at school barely has any, although we do encourage him to study off his own back. He goes over lessons as best he can on his own for an hour or more most days.

    I think that they should have got less when they were younger and more now when they are older...Although my daughter gets around seven hours of homework a week and she's 15, which is probably about right.

    #PoCoLo.

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    1. Wow! Two hours of day seems excessive for middle school....You would think they would do more towards the end of their schooling not less.

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  5. I absolutely hate big man having homework. I don't mind a few spellings, but the other bits are either too easy or too hard. None of it is exciting. As a teacher I didn't feel setting it was worth the hassle of collecting it in. I have blogged about it ;-) So in answer, I'm not a fan

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    1. I have found that with my girls that their homework is either too easy or too hard.....

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  6. It is a tough one, my daughter has started in reception and she has daily reading and spellings to learn as well as a letter formation book where she has to write letters learnt or pairs of sounds etc, some days she is just too tired to want to do it and we have to make her do it or end up doing it at breakfast as she was just messing about with big silly writing rather than writing nicely like I know she can. She has had other things set over the holidays like to build a cardboard castle but we are given plenty of time for that. I think some homework is good but every day when just starting school is too much as they are just so tired. #pocolo

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  7. Homework for primary school children drives me bonkers. Ours typically goes 'we are studying X next week. Research this and write five sentences about it'. Very ocasionally it is 'draw an annotated picture about it'. I like the fact that it gives us an insight into what he is doing at school. The research bit allows us to talk about what he has been doing/ is doing and so on. But the write up, on top of the spelling and the reading, and especially on top of the stuff we do outside of school, including supporting his learning of his other mother tongue, is too much for kids who already spend so long in school.

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  8. My son isn't in school yet, and while I'm not a fan of homework at a young age, it is important for older kids because it helps in strengthening their learning.

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