Homework in Primary Schools
The discussion
Priya: I think primary schools should stop setting homework altogether. Research on younger children shows almost no link between homework and achievement, and it mostly creates conflict at home. My neighbour's eight-year-old cries over spelling lists most evenings.
Tomasz: I disagree, at least partly. Ten minutes of reading or a few maths problems builds routine, and children who never practise at home arrive in secondary school without any study habits.
Amara: My concern is fairness. Homework rewards children whose parents have time and a quiet kitchen table, so it widens the gap rather than closing it. Some of my pupils share a bedroom with three siblings and have nowhere to work.
Priya: Exactly, and teachers spend hours marking worksheets that tell them nothing new about a child's progress. That time would be better spent planning lessons.
Tomasz: That's fair about worksheets. Maybe the answer is to keep daily reading but drop everything else, since reading can be done with any adult or even alone.
Amara: I could support that, as long as schools provide the books and don't record who completed it. Otherwise we're back to punishing the children with the least support.
Priya: Reading only, no tracking, books supplied by the school. I'd accept that compromise.