Homework – what is it good for…

girl thinking about how to solve a math problem clipart

I was listening with great interest to Craig Barton’s brilliant 2 hour podcast interview with Bruno Reddy when they moved onto the topic of homework. It has been a personal bugbear of mine for years as I observe the fraught attempts by my two children (currently in Year 3 and Year 7) to complete tasks which often require parental help. Mulling over the issues discussed by Bruno and Craig, I was intrigued to hear about the approach taken by King Solomon Academy in which only a narrow range of key subjects (mainly numeracy and literacy) have homework assignments in Year 7 to 9.

What a breath of fresh air!

If only my son’s secondary school would take a leaf out of their book. Large quantities of art and science homework in which projects are given out that couldn’t possibly be completed in class time due to time constraints. So why give them out for homework? My son is an active kid who has a busy social and sporting life – he doesn’t enjoy a 2 hour project any more than you, the reader, would. So why give it in the first place?

I could rant on for ages about how I would prefer the school to focus on numeracy and literacy in these early secondary school years, or how giving out less homework, but of a higher quality, would reap so many benefits for all stakeholders: teachers, parents and pupils.

But I won’t…I’ll just throw it out there for others to respond. Interested to hear whether there is any justification for making a complicated atomic model which requires not only parental help but also money spent on glue, card and other stationary equipment. Or the unfairness of how some parents have the time to indulge their child with too much assistance while others don’t and end up with a poorer grade and an inferiority complex as a result…oops, still ranting…apologies!

But very interested to hear both sides of the argument from interested readers.

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