homework questionnaire for parents primary school

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Top 50 Parent Survey Questions for Questionnaires

What are Parent Survey Questions?

Parent survey questions are survey questions asked to parents to understand their opinions, attitudes, perceptions, and points of view about topics that concern their children. Such questions are used by schools, psychiatrists, and the government to collect information that can be beneficial for the issues that affect young minds. A student interest survey helps customize teaching methods and curriculum to make learning more engaging and relevant to students’ lives. The classroom response system allowed students to answer multiple-choice feedback questions and engage in real-time discussions instantly.

LEARN ABOUT: Self-Selection Bias

Schools and government institutions most widely use parent survey questions. By understanding parents’ opinions and perspectives on topics such as schools, their involvement in the education system, and involvement in their child’s life, such survey questions help the learning environment in many ways. Various studies have proven that parents involved in their child’s life or educational life have a significant impact on their grades, social skills, and improved behavior.

LEARN ABOUT: Testimonial Questions

For example, a school wants to know the perception of parents about the school and its administration. In such a case,   school survey questions for parents  can help the management of the school reassess various aspects of the school, such as innovation, process streamlining, and better learning initiatives.

LEARN ABOUT: Open-Ended Questions

Top 50 Parent survey questions for questionnaires

Parents need to be confident in their roles. From time to time, it is good to evaluate yourself about topics concerning your child and your role as a parent. The following are some questions that can shed some light on these topics.

Parent survey questions for self-assessment

• On a scale of 1-5, please rate yourself for the ability to make decisions about your child’s education. (1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest)
• On a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you think you can help in motivating your child? (1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest)
• Completely agree
• Somewhat agree
• Somewhat disagree
• Completely disagree
• Extremely capable
• Very capable
• Somewhat capable
• Somewhat incapable
• Very incapable
• Extremely incapable
• Not confident at all
• Slightly confident
• Somewhat confident
• Quite confident
• Extremely confident

The above questions can help parents to reassess their confidence and capabilities as a parent. Such questions can help the parent understand where they are lacking, and appropriate measures can be taken to modify their approaches.

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Parent survey questions to understand academic stress caused to the child

• On a scale of 1 to 5, do you think that your child has too much academic work even after school?
• No, I don’t get the time
• No, It is not needed

Parent survey questions to understand academic stress helps parents evaluate the mental health of their child. As the saying goes, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” is very true considering the academic pressure that is being put on today’s children. Poor mental health and physical health can impact the child’s behavior and well-being.

LEARN ABOUT: Survey Mistakes And How to Avoid

Parent survey questions to understand the relationship with their child

• Very little
• Yes, all the time
• No, don’t get the time
• No, it is not needed
• To a great extent
• Yes, All the time
• Yes, only if they make sense
• No, it is annoying
• No, he has to learn on his own

Parent survey questions about discipline in their children

• In your opinion, do you think a mobile phone is necessary for your child at all times?
• What rules have you implemented regarding mobile phones at home?

The above questions can be used to understand the parent’s opinions and attitudes toward disciplining children. Such questions can be used to evaluate the types of rules and approach a parent uses. Using this information, changes can be made to alter the child’s behavior and teach good habits.

LEARN ABOUT: Event Surveys

Parent survey questions for school feedback

Please state your level of agreement for the following questions

• Strongly agree
• Strongly disagree
• The school administration
• The teacher
• The child themselves
• Academic counseling
• Career counseling
• School library services
• Voluntary service to help out the community
• Physical activities
• Language skills
• Overall, how would you rate the school on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest)?
• Considering your overall experience with school, would you recommend the school to a friend or a colleague?

LEARN ABOUT:  Behavioral Competency

LEARN ABOUT: System Usability Scale

Parent-Teacher Meeting Resources

Use below free survey templates for parent-teacher meeting and learn more about your child as well as teachers and schools. You can customize them as per your needs.

• 60 Parent-Teacher Conference Survey Questions
• Free Parent-Teacher Conference Feedback Survey Template
• Free Parent-Teacher Conference Survey Template for Teachers
• Free Parent-Teacher Conference Survey Template for Parents
• Social Communication Questionnaire

Learn more about academic surveys here !

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• 33 School Survey Questions + [Template Examples]

School surveys are an excellent tool for understanding what people (students, teachers, and parents) think about your school policies, teaching methods, etc. It fosters communication between the different educational stakeholders and provides valuable information that improves teaching, administration, and learning.  

When conducting a school survey, you must be intentional about asking the right questions for each respondentㅡin other words, be sure that the respondent has the right answer to your question. In this article, we will discuss 33 school survey questions and show you how to conduct school surveys with Formplus. 

What is a School Survey?

A school survey is a tool that is used to collect feedback from different stakeholders about their experiences and well-being in the school. It is a data collection method that provides insights into the experience of students, parents, teachers, and other staff members.  

A school survey typically asks open-ended and closed-ended questions that allow stakeholders to provide objective feedback about the school. It gathers opinions from parents and guardians about their thoughts on the academic performances of their wards.

One of the most important reasons for conducting a school survey is it serves as a window for students, parents, and guardians to communicate their perceptions of different school policies. The information collected via this process helps you improve best practices in your school. 

11 School Survey Questions for Students  

1. How would you rate your teacher?

This question helps you to track the teacher’s performance within and outside of the classroom. You can also ask students to provide justifications for their ratings. 

2. How many hours do you spend learning on your own? Including this question in your school survey gives you a fair idea of how students prioritize their personal development. Students should be able to expand their knowledge by learning independently. 

3. Do you partake in any extracurricular activities?   This also hints at personal development because learning is not restricted to the classroom. Responses to this question help you to create and maintain a balance between academic work and out-of-classroom learning.

4. How much time do you spend on homework and quizzes every day? Use this question to gather feedback from students about their academic workload. If students spend all of their time on homework and quizzes, they may not have the time to focus on personal development. 

5. What classroom activities do you enjoy the most? Use this question to find out the multiple activities that students enjoy in the classroom. Classroom activities include evaluation and Q and A sessions. 

6. What is your greatest learning accomplishment so far? This question helps you to track students’ progress and to clearly outline how your school has supported them to achieve this goal. 

7. What would you like us to teach you next year? Use this question to gather suggestions from students that will go a long way to shaping future educational policies. 

8. Do you have any other suggestions and observations about the teaching method? With this open-ended question, you can collect useful information that will help you improve your teaching methods.

9. What advice would you give to students in next year’s class? This is another open-ended question that allows students to freely communicate their thoughts and share advice. You can use this information to improve the learning program for new and existing students. 

10. Did you have access to all the learning materials you need? For effective learning, students should have access to primary and secondary learning materials. Including this question in your school survey allows you to gather feedback from students concerning your teaching methods.    

11. What learning area did you find most challenging? This question allows you to identify different challenges students face as they learn. You should leverage this data to improve teaching and learning methods in your school. 

11 School Survey Questions for Teachers

1. How long have you worked with the school? With this question, you would be able to gauge employee retention in your school and staff growth. High employee turnover often hints at several structural lapses in your organization. 

2. How well does the school support your growth? Answers to this question give you a clearer idea of the growth and career patterns of your teachers and the role your school can play in this. 

3. Does the school allow you to innovate teaching methods? In other words, does this school micromanage its teachers or allow them to lead ideation and implementation of different strategies? Allowing teachers to innovate teaching methods gets them more involved in the overall pedagogic process in the school.  

4. How often do you receive critical feedback on your work? You must review employee performance regularly. Feedback is important for growth and so, this question allows you to track teacher assessment and evaluation in your school. 

5. Are you satisfied with the compensation you receive here? This question bothers on compensation and remuneration packages for your staff. In addition to listing this question in your school survey, you can carry out a salary survey to help you decide on workplace remuneration and benefits for your staff. 

6. Do you enjoy working with our school? This is a simple question that helps you to gauge employee satisfaction. You can ask respondents to provide more context around their answers to this question by outlining what they like or do not like about your school.

7. What major goals have you achieved since you started working with us? The responses provided here would help you assess the growth of your employees and to outline the contributions of your school to this growth process. 

8. Do you think the school’s administration treats you fairly? This question ties to employee satisfaction, remuneration, and workplace benefits. It helps you to identify any grey areas in the school administration’s relationship with employees. 

9. How would you describe your relationship with the students? Use this question to evaluate the teacher-student relationship in your school. 

10. How would you describe your relationship with other teachers? This question allows you to assess the workplace relationship between teachers in your school. A positive workplace relationship creates an exciting relationship for growth and learning. 

11. What teaching methods do you adopt? Teachers should be able to outline their teaching methods and more importantly, show why these methods are great for teaching and learning. 

11 School Survey Questions for Parents

1. Are you satisfied with your child’s performance? This question allows you to gauge parents’ satisfaction with your school’s standard of education. Ask parents to provide reasons for their answers too.

2. On a scale of 1-10, how involved are you in your child’s education? Parents’ involvement in their ward’s education is important for growth. More than gathering responses, you should also plan to provide support for parents who are lacking in this area. 

3. Do you think you are capable of supporting your child’s after school learning? Responses to this question help you to decide on after school learning programs for students. If many parents are not capable of providing support for students, then you can create an after school learning program that caters to this. 

4. How would you rate your child’s overall academic performance? Here, parents can provide feedback on their child’s classroom performance and highlight any areas needing improvement. 

5. How well do you think the school caters to your child’s learning needs? This question allows parents to assess the school’s performance. The responses you get here would enable you to implement new policies to improve learning.  

6. On a scale of 1 to 5, do you think that your child has too much academic work after school? This question points to the work-play balance of your school. If parents think that their children have too much after-school academic work, you need to balance this. 

7. Are you worried about the balance between academic workload and the school’s extracurricular activities? If parents are worried about the work-play balance in your school, they may begin to seek alternatives by going to your competitors. 

8. Do you help your child with his or her homework? This is a simple yes/no question that helps you to determine the degree of parental support the child gets after school in terms of learning. 

9. Does the school provide an opportunity for you to discuss your child’s academic performance? This question points to the parent-teacher relationship in the school. Usually, you should provide multiple avenues for parents to discuss their wards’ performance within and outside the classroom.  

10. Do you think the school should increase activities for out-of-school learning? This question gets the parents involved in decision making which makes them more likely to support policy changes in your school. 

11. The school administration and processes are very smooth and effective.

This question allows parents to provide direct feedback on the school administrative process. You should use these responses to improve the different organizational processes within your school. 

Importance of School Surveys  

• A school survey helps you to recognize trends in teaching and learning behaviors. Based on the responses provided by participants in your school survey, you would be able to identify any patterns in the thoughts, experiences, and ideas of your stakeholders. 
• Data collected via school surveys typically show the strengths and weaknesses of your school system from a stakeholder perspective. This makes it easy for you to identify challenges and address them at the right time. 
• It helps you to optimize your school’s communication by providing the public with the latest information about developments. Having accurate and up-to-date school data allows administrators and officials to distribute accurate information to the public and the press.
• A school survey allows for inclusive decision making: This means that you can get the opinions of different parties involved before going ahead to implement a significant change or policy in your school. Collecting and analyzing survey data from stakeholders provides a wealth of information that can help the school administration implement data-driven decision making.
• A school survey gets everyone involved. For instance, it allows the school administration to find out what parents think about the teachers, community, or school. 

How to Conduct School Surveys with Formplus  

To conduct school surveys with Formplus, log in to the form builder and create from scratch or edit an existing survey template. Formplus allows for seamless data collection and you can do this in 5 easy steps. 

• Access your Formplus dashboard via www.formpl.us if you have a Formplus account. If you do not, visit the website to create one. 

• On your dashboard, click the “create new form” button located at the top left side of the page. This will take you to the form builder. 

• The Formplus builder is an easy-to-use drag and drop tool that allows you to add different fields to your school survey. You can also edit each field by clicking on the pencil icon located just beside it.

• Save the form template you’ve created to access the builder’s customization section. Use the options you like to tweak the outlook of your form. 

• Copy your form link and share it with respondents. 

Conclusion  

Before creating your school survey, you need to identify your audience; that is, who should fill out the survey. Doing this helps you to choose the right type of questions to include in the survey and also collect valuable information from respondents.  

Next, you need to decide on the type of survey design you would adopt – Do you want to use paper forms or online forms? If you choose to do your school survey online, then Formplus is an effective data collection tool that can help you create and administer school surveys easily. 

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The Great British Homework Debate 2024 – Is It Necessary At Primary School?

Alexander Athienitis

The homework debate is never much out of the news. Should homework be banned? Is homework at primary school a waste of time? Do our children get too much homework?

Not long ago, UK-based US comedian Rob Delaney set the world alight with a tweet giving his own personal view of homework at primary school. We thought, as an organisation that provides maths homework support on a weekly basis, it was time to look at the facts around the homework debate in primary schools as well as, of course, reflecting the views of celebrities and those perhaps more qualified to offer an opinion!

Here’s how Rob Delaney kicked things off

Gary Lineker leant his support with the following soundbite:

And even Piers Morgan weighed in, with his usual balance of tact and sensitivity:

A very experienced and knowledgeable Headteacher, Simon Smith, who has a well-earned following on Twitter (for someone working in education, not hosting Match of the Day) also put his neck on the line and, some might think controversially, agreed with the golden-heeled Crisp King of Leicester…

Fortunately Katharine Birbalsingh, Conservative Party Conference keynote speaker and Founding Headteacher of the Michaela School, was on hand to provide the alternative view on the importance of homework. Her op-ed piece in the Sun gave plenty of reasons why homework should not be banned.

She was informative and firm in her article stating: “Homework is essential for a child’s education because revisiting the day’s learning is what helps to make it stick.”

KS2 Maths Games and Activities Pack

A FREE downloadable games and activity pack, including 20 home learning maths activities for KS2 children to complete on their own or with a partner.

How much homework do UK primary school children get?

Sadly, there’s little data comparing how much homework primary school-aged children in the UK and across the globe complete on a weekly basis. A study of teenagers used by The Telegraph shows that American high-schoolers spend an average of 6.1 hours per week compared with 4.9 hours per week of homework each week for UK-based teens.

Up until 2012, the Department of Education recommended an hour of homework a week for primary school Key Stage 1 children (aged 4 to 7) and half an hour a day for primary school Key Stage 2 children (aged 7-11). Many primary schools still use this as a guideline.

Teachers, parents and children in many schools across the land have seen more changes of homework policy than numbers of terms in some school years.

A ‘no-homework’ policy pleases only a few; a grid of creative tasks crowd-sourced from the three teachers bothered to give their input infuriates many (parents, teachers and children alike). For some parents, no matter how much homework is set, it’s never enough; for others, even asking them to fill in their child’s reading record once a week can be a struggle due to a busy working life.

Homework is very different around the world

We’d suggest that Piers Morgan’s argument for homework in comparing the UK’s economic and social progress with China’s in recent years based on total weekly homework hours is somewhat misguided – we can’t put their emergence as the world’s (if not already, soon to be) leading superpower exclusively down to having their young people endure almost triple the number of hours spent completing homework as their Western counterparts.

Nonetheless, there’s certainly a finer balance to strike between the 14 hours a week suffered by Shanghainese school-attendees and none whatsoever. Certainly parents in the UK spend less time each week helping their children than parents in emerging economies such as India, Vietnam and Colombia (Source: Varkey Foundation Report).

Disadvantages of homework at primary school

Delaney, whose son attends a London state primary school, has made it plain that he thinks his kids get given too much homework and he’d rather have them following more active or creative pursuits: drawing or playing football. A father of four sons and a retired professional footballer Gary Linaker was quick to defend this but he also has the resources to send his children to top boarding schools which generally provide very structured homework or ‘prep’ routines.

As parents Rob and Gary are not alone. According to the 2018 Ofsted annual report on Parents Views  more than a third of parents do not think homework in primary school is helpful to their children. They cite the battles and arguments it causes not to mention the specific challenges it presents to families with SEND children many of whom report serious damage to health and self-esteem as a result of too much or inappropriate homework.

It’s a truism among teachers that some types of homework tells you very little about what the child can achieve and much more about a parent’s own approach to the work. How low does your heart sink when your child comes back with a D & T project to create Stonehenge and you realise it’s either an all-nighter with glue, cardboard and crayons for you, or an uncompleted homework project for your child!

Speaking with our teacher hats on, we can tell you that homework is often cited in academic studies looking at academic progress in primary school-aged children as showing minimal to no impact.

Back on Twitter, a fellow teacher was able to weigh-in with that point:

Benefits of homework at primary school

So what are the benefits of homework at primary school? According to the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) (the key research organisations dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement) the impact of homework at primary is low, but it also doesn’t cost much.

They put it at a “+2 months” impact against a control of doing nothing. To put this into context, 1-to-1 tuition is generally seen as a +5 months impact but it’s usually considered to be expensive.

“There is some evidence that when homework is used as a short and focused intervention it can be effective in improving students’ attainment … overall the general benefits are likely to be modest if homework is more routinely set.”

Key to the benefit you’ll see from homework is that the task is appropriate and of good quality. The quantity of homework a pupil does is not so important. In this matter Katharine Birbalsingh is on the money. Short focused tasks which relate directly to what is being taught, and which are built upon in school, are likely to be more effective than regular daily homework.

In our view it’s about consolidation. So focusing on a few times tables that you find tricky or working through questions similar to what you’ve done in class that day or week often can be beneficial. 2 hours of worksheets on a Saturday when your child could be outside having fun and making friends probably isn’t. If you really want them to be doing maths, then do some outdoor maths with them instead of homework !

At Third Space Learning we believe it’s all about balance. Give the right sort of homework and the right amount at primary school and there will be improvements, but much of it comes down to parental engagement.

One of our favourite ways to practise maths at home without it become too onerous is by using educational games. Here are our favourite fun maths games , some brilliant KS2 maths games , KS1 maths games and KS3 maths games for all maths topics and then a set of 35 times tables games which are ideal for interspersing with your regular times tables practice. And best of all, most of them require no more equipment than a pen and paper or perhaps a pack of cards.

Homework and parents

One of the key benefits cited by EEF is in regard to parental engagement. Time after time, the greatest differentiator between children who make great progress at school – and those, frankly – who don’t is due to the same factor in the same studies: parental engagement .

It is a fair assumption that if a parent is engaged in their child’s learning, they’re probably going to be the same parents who encourage and support their child when they’re completing their homework.

Whereas parents who are disengaged with their child’s school and schooling – for whatever reason (sorry, Piers, it’s rarely due to laziness), are highly unlikely to be aware of what homework gets set each week, let alone to be mucking in with making sure it gets handed in completed and on time.

We also encounter time and again, the issue of parents’ own lack of confidence in maths. A survey by Pearson found that:

• 30 percent of parents “don’t feel confident enough in their own maths skills to help their children with their primary school maths homework”
• 53 per cent insisted they struggled to understand the new maths teaching methods used in modern classrooms. Fortunately that’s what we’re here to address.

Setting the right homework at primary school can be tricky

Although we disagree with Piers, we can see what he may be driving at in terms of setting appropriate homework.

The question quickly becomes what would Piers think of as being ‘interesting’ homework, and if all four of his children would agree upon the same thing being ‘interesting’.

That’s the problem.

One would imagine Piers would find it hard enough finding one task to satisfy the interest of all of his four children – it’s almost impossible to find a task that will engage the interest of 30 or more children in their out of school hours.

Each with different emotional, behavioural and learning needs, then sprinkle in the varying levels of poverty each family suffers (be it financial or in terms of time), and you can see how it isn’t just about being a good or bad teacher – whatever that means – in regards to being able to set Morgan-approved homework tasks.

What does this mean for my child?

Ultimately, the question at the top of mind whenever a parent thinks about homework is a more general one – am I doing the best for my child?

Although the world is changing at a faster pace than ever before in human history, what’s best for children hasn’t changed that much (if at all).

One-to-one support is best, and young people benefit most from adult-child conversations where they acquire new vocabulary and language structures to form and share their thoughts and opinions.

These insights – that one-to-one support is best and that regular, structured adult-child conversations are life-changing within a child’s development – are what inspired us to create Third Space Learning.

A platform where children can engage with a community of specialist tutors in a safe, structured learning environment where they are able to engage in one-to-one conversations that enable them to progress in their learning with confidence.

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DO YOU HAVE STUDENTS WHO NEED MORE SUPPORT IN MATHS?

Every week Third Space Learning’s maths specialist tutors support thousands of students across hundreds of schools with weekly one to one tuition designed to plug gaps and boost progress.

Since 2013 these personalised one to one lessons have helped over 150,000 primary and secondary students become more confident, able mathematicians.

Learn about our experience with schools or request a personalised quote for your school to speak to us about your school’s needs and how we can help.

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Privacy Overview

Does homework really work?

by: Leslie Crawford | Updated: December 12, 2023

Print article

You know the drill. It’s 10:15 p.m., and the cardboard-and-toothpick Golden Gate Bridge is collapsing. The pages of polynomials have been abandoned. The paper on the Battle of Waterloo seems to have frozen in time with Napoleon lingering eternally over his breakfast at Le Caillou. Then come the tears and tantrums — while we parents wonder, Does the gain merit all this pain? Is this just too much homework?

However the drama unfolds night after night, year after year, most parents hold on to the hope that homework (after soccer games, dinner, flute practice, and, oh yes, that childhood pastime of yore known as playing) advances their children academically.

But what does homework really do for kids? Is the forest’s worth of book reports and math and spelling sheets the average American student completes in their 12 years of primary schooling making a difference? Or is it just busywork?

Homework haterz

Whether or not homework helps, or even hurts, depends on who you ask. If you ask my 12-year-old son, Sam, he’ll say, “Homework doesn’t help anything. It makes kids stressed-out and tired and makes them hate school more.”

Nothing more than common kid bellyaching?

Maybe, but in the fractious field of homework studies, it’s worth noting that Sam’s sentiments nicely synopsize one side of the ivory tower debate. Books like The End of Homework , The Homework Myth , and The Case Against Homework the film Race to Nowhere , and the anguished parent essay “ My Daughter’s Homework is Killing Me ” make the case that homework, by taking away precious family time and putting kids under unneeded pressure, is an ineffective way to help children become better learners and thinkers.

One Canadian couple took their homework apostasy all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. After arguing that there was no evidence that it improved academic performance, they won a ruling that exempted their two children from all homework.

So what’s the real relationship between homework and academic achievement?

How much is too much?

To answer this question, researchers have been doing their homework on homework, conducting and examining hundreds of studies. Chris Drew Ph.D., founder and editor at The Helpful Professor recently compiled multiple statistics revealing the folly of today’s after-school busy work. Does any of the data he listed below ring true for you?

• 45 percent of parents think homework is too easy for their child, primarily because it is geared to the lowest standard under the Common Core State Standards .

• 74 percent of students say homework is a source of stress , defined as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss, and stomach problems.

• Students in high-performing high schools spend an average of 3.1 hours a night on homework , even though 1 to 2 hours is the optimal duration, according to a peer-reviewed study .

Not included in the list above is the fact many kids have to abandon activities they love — like sports and clubs — because homework deprives them of the needed time to enjoy themselves with other pursuits.

Conversely, The Helpful Professor does list a few pros of homework, noting it teaches discipline and time management, and helps parents know what’s being taught in the class.

The oft-bandied rule on homework quantity — 10 minutes a night per grade (starting from between 10 to 20 minutes in first grade) — is listed on the National Education Association’s website and the National Parent Teacher Association’s website , but few schools follow this rule.

Do you think your child is doing excessive homework? Harris Cooper Ph.D., author of a meta-study on homework , recommends talking with the teacher. “Often there is a miscommunication about the goals of homework assignments,” he says. “What appears to be problematic for kids, why they are doing an assignment, can be cleared up with a conversation.” Also, Cooper suggests taking a careful look at how your child is doing the assignments. It may seem like they’re taking two hours, but maybe your child is wandering off frequently to get a snack or getting distracted.

Less is often more

If your child is dutifully doing their work but still burning the midnight oil, it’s worth intervening to make sure your child gets enough sleep. A 2012 study of 535 high school students found that proper sleep may be far more essential to brain and body development.

For elementary school-age children, Cooper’s research at Duke University shows there is no measurable academic advantage to homework. For middle-schoolers, Cooper found there is a direct correlation between homework and achievement if assignments last between one to two hours per night. After two hours, however, achievement doesn’t improve. For high schoolers, Cooper’s research suggests that two hours per night is optimal. If teens have more than two hours of homework a night, their academic success flatlines. But less is not better. The average high school student doing homework outperformed 69 percent of the students in a class with no homework.

Many schools are starting to act on this research. A Florida superintendent abolished homework in her 42,000 student district, replacing it with 20 minutes of nightly reading. She attributed her decision to “ solid research about what works best in improving academic achievement in students .”

More family time

A 2020 survey by Crayola Experience reports 82 percent of children complain they don’t have enough quality time with their parents. Homework deserves much of the blame. “Kids should have a chance to just be kids and do things they enjoy, particularly after spending six hours a day in school,” says Alfie Kohn, author of The Homework Myth . “It’s absurd to insist that children must be engaged in constructive activities right up until their heads hit the pillow.”

By far, the best replacement for homework — for both parents and children — is bonding, relaxing time together.

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Homework for primary school students

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Homework is defined as tasks assigned to students by school teachers that are intended to be carried out during non-school hours [i] .  Homework is a unique educational practice as it is the only learning strategy that crosses the boundary between the school and the home. Much virtue has been attributed to the practice of homework that has not been borne out by research. Both teachers and parents have strong feelings, both positive and negative, about the value of homework, and parents and teachers alike still confuse homework load with rigour, and compliance with responsibility. To further complicate matters, most teachers have never been trained in the effective use of homework, so tend to rely on the traditional types of tasks they experienced as students.

In recent years, the practice of homework has come under critical review, with public attitudes around the globe changing, and with the following international trends emerging:

• Eliminating homework in the first 2-3 years of primary school.
• Limiting homework to reading only in the first 6 years of primary school.
• Eliminating weekend or holiday homework at all levels.

Many of these changes in policy have occurred at the school or district level, but some countries have instituted these changes through government mandate.

Homework and families

The diversity of families makes the practice of homework even more complicated. Parents within the same community may differ in their beliefs about the place of academic work in life. Some parents prioritise academics (wanting more homework), others want a balance of academics and chosen activities, and others prioritise leisure and happiness (wanting less or no homework). There is also a growing parent activism around the world, driven by the role homework plays in children’s stress levels and an awareness of the need for balance in work, play, downtime and sleep. Parents are speaking out with concerns about ‘academic stress’ and work/life balance for students and, as a result, are demanding more control over their child’s free time.  Parents are also pushing back against using extra homework as punishment for misbehaviour in the classroom and practices that punish students for not completing homework.

There are also concerns about homework as an equity issue. Economic differences can entrench privilege as children from wealthier families enjoy ready access to technology, tutors, and educated parents, while children of poverty may lack access to technology, materials, and favourable working conditions.  A study by the OECD [ii] of students from 38 different countries showed that students from higher social classes did more homework than students from lower social classes. More affluent parents are also more likely to help with homework than less affluent parents, and families living in poverty often need to prioritise family responsibilities and paid work over homework.

In an effort to address the widening economic diversity of families and to accommodate different parental preferences, some traditional homework practices, such as punishing students for incomplete homework or for a parent’s failure to sign homework, assigning extra homework to students as punishment for classroom misbehaviour, and including homework as a prerequisite for grade or year completion, are being discontinued in primary schools. Other homework practices are gaining popularity in primary schools, such as:

• Allowing flexibility in when homework is due, moving away from daily homework to homework that may be turned in over several days.
• Differentiating homework for parents—providing additional resources for parents who desire additional work for their child (challenge packets, lists of websites) and allowing other parents to ‘opt out’ of homework, or to choose to limit the amount of time their child spends on homework.
• Providing more time during the school day or after school for students to complete homework at school. Some schools, especially those in high poverty communities, are extending the school day, so that all homework is completed at school.

The research on homework

The results of research about the benefit of homework to academic achievement are mixed, inconclusive, and sometimes contradictory. These results are not surprising given that homework involves the complex interaction of a number of factors, such as differences in children, teachers, tasks, home environments, measurements of learning, and the unique interaction between homework and classroom learning within individual students [iii] . The pervasive flaw of the early homework research was that it focused almost exclusively on the correlation between time and achievement, with no consideration of the type or quality of the homework task.  That research failed to show that homework improves the academic performance of primary school students, and revealed that, up to a point, the correlation of homework time and achievement appeared positive, but past the optimum amount of time, achievement either remained flat or declined [iv] .

What was the optimum amount of time spent on homework? Curiously, the appropriate amount of homework for different year levels was consistent with a longstanding guideline called the 10-minute rule (origin unknown).  The 10-minute rule is a guideline many schools follow that homework should not exceed 10 minutes per year level per night, all subjects combined. That is, a student in year one should be expected to complete no more than 10 minutes per night, while a student in year six should be expected to complete no more than 60 minutes per night [v] . Interestingly, there is no recommendation for any amount of new entrants’ homework by any educational group.

However, while the 10-minute rule may be helpful as an upper limit, it fails to take into account the quality of the task and differences in students’ working speeds. It is important to remember that correlation of time and achievement is not causation: it is impossible to show that homework causes higher achievement. Correlating time and achievement also ignores many any other variables that may affect achievement. After controlling for motivation, ability, quality of instruction, course work quantity, and some background variables, no meaningful effect of homework on achievement remained [vi] . 

Due to such discrepancies and other flaws in homework studies, researchers disagree as to whether or not homework enhances achievement. While many hold strongly to their assertion that homework is beneficial, others point to newer studies that seem to discount early research. A new generation of homework studies using more sophisticated analyses and controlling for more variables often fail to find a significant relationship between homework time and achievement, especially with primary students [vii] .

Teachers should view the research through the lens of what they intuitively know about their students and apply the same principles of effective teaching and learning to homework that they would apply to the classroom. Teachers know that organisation and structure of learning matters, that feedback about learning is critical, that the quality of a learning task matters, and that student differences in developmental levels, learning preferences and persistence must be considered. Achievement is related not to the amount of homework or the time spent on it, but to the quality of the homework task, the student’s perception of the value of the task, and how interesting the task appears. In other words, task quality is what really matters.

Purposes of homework

If homework is given, it should be purposeful and meaningful, not just given for the sake of assigning homework. Before designing a homework task, teachers must first determine the purpose of the task.  This may include pre-learning, diagnosis, checking for understanding, practice, or processing. Homework should not be used for new learning.

• Pre-learning: traditional preparation homework, such as reading or outlining a chapter before a discussion, was often used as background for a more in-depth lesson. A more engaging use of pre-learning would be to discover what students already know about a topic or what they are interested in learning about (such as asking them to write down questions they have about the digestive system). The most valuable use of pre-learning homework may be to stimulate interest in a concept (such as listing eye colour and hair colour of relatives for a genetics lesson).
• Diagnosis: how do we design learning if we don’t know where students are?  Diagnostic homework may include pre-tests, a checklist of ‘I can’ statements, or a practice test to assess prerequisite skills. Diagnostic homework saves time—once teachers know where students are in their skills or knowledge, they can plan instruction more efficiently.
• Checking for understanding: this is probably the most neglected use of homework, yet it is the most valuable way for teachers to gain insight into student learning. For instance, journal questions about a science experiment may ask the student to explain what happened and why. Asking students to identify literary devices in a short story shows the teacher whether the student understands literary devices. Asking students to do a few sample problems in math and to explain the steps lets the teacher know if the student understands how to do the problem.
• Practice: the traditional use of homework has been for the practice of rote skills, such as multiplication tables, or things that need to be memorised, such as spelling words. Although practice is necessary for many rote skills, there are three mistakes that teachers sometimes make with the use of practice homework. First, teachers may believe they are giving practice homework when, in fact, the student did not understand the concept or skill in class. The homework then actually involves new learning and is often quite frustrating. Second, if teachers skip the step of checking for understanding, students may be practising something incorrectly and internalising misconceptions. For instance, students should practise math operations only after the teacher has adequately checked for understanding. Third, distributed practice is better than mass practice—that is, practice is more effective when distributed over several days. A smart practice for math is two-tiered homework: Part One is three problems to check for understanding of a new skill, and Part Two is 10 problems to practise a skill previously learned.
• Processing. Processing homework asks students to do something new with concepts or skills they have learned – to apply skills, reflect on concepts that were discussed in class, think of new questions to ask, or synthesise information. Processing homework may be a single task such as applying maths skills to a new word problem, or a long-term project such as demonstrating writing skills in an original essay or creating a schematic to show the relationship between major concepts in a unit.

Designing quality homework tasks

Creating quality homework tasks requires attention to four aspects:

• Academic purpose — Tasks should communicate a clear academic purpose.
• Efficiency — Tasks should help students reach the learning goal without wasting time or energy.
• Competence — Tasks should have a positive effect on a student’s sense of competence. Homework tasks should be designed so that even young students can complete the task without adult help.
• Ownership — Tasks should be personally relevant and customised to promote ownership [viii] .

Academic purpose: all homework should clearly state the learning goal for the assignment. Sometimes homework tasks are well-intentioned attempts to have students do something fun or interesting, but the academic focus is not apparent (for instance, what exactly is the learning purpose of a word search?). Writing out definitions of vocabulary words or colouring in a map may sound like good homework, but one might question whether those tasks are appropriate to a focus on higher level thinking. Best practice suggests that students shouldn’t just write spelling words – they should use them to write declarative essays. They shouldn’t merely define the parts of the cell – they should create an analogy for the cell parts and functions. They shouldn’t just complete 20 identical math problems – they should apply math skills to new problems. Instead of reading logs which simply ask students (or parents) to document that they spent time reading, a better task would be to have the student write a reading blog to talk about what they have been reading.

Efficiency: sometraditional tasksmay be inefficient—either because they show no evidence of learning or because they take an inordinate amount of time.  Projects that require non-academic skills (like cutting, gluing, or drawing) are often inefficient.  Classic projects like dioramas, models, and poster displays are created by teachers with all the best intentions – they see them as a fun, creative way for students to show what they have learned.  But unless content requirements are clearly spelled out in a rubric, projects can reveal very little about the student’s content knowledge and much more about their artistic talents.

Competence: an important objective of primary homework is to ensure that students feel positive about learning and develop an identity as successful learners. Homework tasks should be designed not only to support classroom learning but also to instill a sense of competence in the learner. In fact, when students feel unsuccessful in approaching homework tasks, they often avoid the tasks completely as a way to protect their self-esteem. Teachers should adjust homework difficulty or the amount of work based on their assessment of the student’s skill level or understanding. Struggling learners may need simpler reading material or tasks that are more concrete or more scaffolded.  For students who work more slowly, the remedy should be to give the student less work rather than expecting them to work longer than other students. A simple differentiation for struggling learners is to make homework time-based (‘spend 20 minutes on this task, draw a line’) rather than task-based (finish the task regardless how long it takes). Just as checking for understanding is an important purpose for homework, teachers also need to check for frustration. Teachers should solicit feedback from students, finding out how students feel about approaching certain tasks and how they feel after they’ve attempted those tasks.

Ownership.  Another important objective of homework is independent learning, but often homework is not structured with enough agency to allow for that independence.  Perhaps that is because teachers believe the tasks they prescribe will naturally lead to the learning they desire for all students. But one-size-fits-all-homework rarely fits all.  When we give students more ownership of the homework task, we make it more efficient and students are more motivated. Choice is at the heart of that student ownership. Homework choice can be as limited as ‘pick any 10 of the 30 problems’, as specific as having students work only on learning goals that they are struggling with, or as wide open as a self-selected and self-designed project. Students may not always have a choice about the learning goal, but they can almost always be given some agency in designing the best task for them to reach the goal.  For instance, suppose the learning goal is for all students to memorise their multiplication tables. The homework might look like this:

• Create your own method to memorise your multiplication tables. Here are some ideas other students have tried – writing, reciting, making note cards, drawing a colour-coded chart, or creating a song.
• Share your idea with the class tomorrow.
• Practise your method this week.
• Evaluate how well your method worked after the quiz on Friday.

It may be helpful to think of the amount of ownership students are allowed in homework as a continuum from traditional to differentiated to personalised. Traditional homework is designed by teachers with no student input – prescribed tasks such as practice math problems or assigned reading in their science book. As we give students more ownership, we may give choices or we may differentiate. For instance, all students need to read, but they may be given choices of what they read. Students may need to practise subtraction, but they may create their own problems based on items in their home.

For the ultimate ownership, we may allow students to pursue personalised homework. Personalised homework involves students in goal setting (typically based on academic standards), planning a specific homework task, and planning how they will demonstrate learning. The personalised homework most familiar to teachers is probably genius hour (also called passion projects), which involves giving students a block of time to learn more about something that they are curious about, or that excites or inspires them.  These long-term research projects often start in the classroom, with students transitioning to working on them as homework, bringing them back periodically for feedback, and eventually presenting their results to an audience.   

What makes sense for many teachers is a balance of traditional homework, differentiated homework, and personalised homework over the course of a term or year.  Often, some personalised homework will be blended into day-to-day learning in tandem with other more teacher-directed assignments.  Many teachers reserve personalised homework for times when student motivation wanes, such as before the holidays or near the end of the school year. 

Should homework be graded?

Research has shown the effect of feedback to be more powerful than many other factors that influence learning [ix] . As more primary schools focus on mastery learning, homework is increasingly viewed as formative feedback. The current consensus among researchers is that homework’s role should be as formative assessment—assessment for learning that takes place during learning [x] .  Homework’s role is not assessment of learning – therefore, it should not be graded. Ideally, homework is given feedback, monitored for completion, and reported separately as a work habit.

Homework is just one part of an overall instructional plan. As our curricula, teaching strategies, and assessment strategies evolve to better meet student needs, so should our homework practices. Only by creating assignments that are effective and equitable can we make homework a valuable part of instruction and learning.

[i] Cooper, H. (2007).  The battle over homework: Common ground for administrators, teachers, and parents. (3 rd edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

[ii] Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2014). Does homework perpetuate inequalities in education?    www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf . Retrieved 8-4-17.

[iii] Horsley, M. and Walker, R. (2013). Reforming homework: practices, learning and policy. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Palgrave Macmillan.

[iv] Cooper, H. (2007).  The battle over homework: Common ground for administrators, teachers, and parents. (3 rd edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

[v] Vatterott, C. (2018). Rethinking homework: Best practices that support diverse needs , 2 nd edition. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).

[vi] Trautwein, U., & Koller, O. (2003). The relationship between homework and achievement—still much of a mystery. Educational Psychology Review, 15 (2), 115–145.

[vii] Vatterott, C. (2018). Rethinking homework: Best practices that support diverse needs , 2 nd edition. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).

[viii] Vatterott, C. (2010).  Five hallmarks of good homework.  Educational Leadership, 68(1), 10-15.

[ix] Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning .  London: Routledge.

[x] Vatterott, C. (2018). Rethinking homework: Best practices that support diverse needs , 2 nd edition. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).

 By Dr Cathy Vatterott

PREPARED FOR THE EDUCATION HUB BY

Dr. Cathy Vatterott

Dr. Cathy Vatterott is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and a former teacher and school principal. She is the author of four books, most recently Rethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs, 2nd edition (ASCD, 2018), and Rethinking Grading: Meaningful Assessment for Standards Based Learning (ASCD, 2015). She frequently presents at national conferences and serves as a consultant and workshop presenter for K-12 schools on homework, grading practices, and teen stress. Dr. Vatterott has been researching, writing, and speaking about K-12 homework in the United States, Canada, and Europe for over 20 years and is considered an international expert on homework. She first became interested in homework in the late 1990s as the frustrated parent of a 5th grader with learning disabilities. Her work with schools has been the catalyst for her latest research on teen stress.

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What’s the Right Amount of Homework?

Decades of research show that homework has some benefits, especially for students in middle and high school—but there are risks to assigning too much.

Many teachers and parents believe that homework helps students build study skills and review concepts learned in class. Others see homework as disruptive and unnecessary, leading to burnout and turning kids off to school. Decades of research show that the issue is more nuanced and complex than most people think: Homework is beneficial, but only to a degree. Students in high school gain the most, while younger kids benefit much less.

The National PTA and the National Education Association support the “ 10-minute homework guideline ”—a nightly 10 minutes of homework per grade level. But many teachers and parents are quick to point out that what matters is the quality of the homework assigned and how well it meets students’ needs, not the amount of time spent on it.

The guideline doesn’t account for students who may need to spend more—or less—time on assignments. In class, teachers can make adjustments to support struggling students, but at home, an assignment that takes one student 30 minutes to complete may take another twice as much time—often for reasons beyond their control. And homework can widen the achievement gap, putting students from low-income households and students with learning disabilities at a disadvantage.

However, the 10-minute guideline is useful in setting a limit: When kids spend too much time on homework, there are real consequences to consider.

Small Benefits for Elementary Students

As young children begin school, the focus should be on cultivating a love of learning, and assigning too much homework can undermine that goal. And young students often don’t have the study skills to benefit fully from homework, so it may be a poor use of time (Cooper, 1989 ; Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). A more effective activity may be nightly reading, especially if parents are involved. The benefits of reading are clear: If students aren’t proficient readers by the end of third grade, they’re less likely to succeed academically and graduate from high school (Fiester, 2013 ).

For second-grade teacher Jacqueline Fiorentino, the minor benefits of homework did not outweigh the potential drawback of turning young children against school at an early age, so she experimented with dropping mandatory homework. “Something surprising happened: They started doing more work at home,” Fiorentino writes . “This inspiring group of 8-year-olds used their newfound free time to explore subjects and topics of interest to them.” She encouraged her students to read at home and offered optional homework to extend classroom lessons and help them review material.

Moderate Benefits for Middle School Students

As students mature and develop the study skills necessary to delve deeply into a topic—and to retain what they learn—they also benefit more from homework. Nightly assignments can help prepare them for scholarly work, and research shows that homework can have moderate benefits for middle school students (Cooper et al., 2006 ). Recent research also shows that online math homework, which can be designed to adapt to students’ levels of understanding, can significantly boost test scores (Roschelle et al., 2016 ).

There are risks to assigning too much, however: A 2015 study found that when middle school students were assigned more than 90 to 100 minutes of daily homework, their math and science test scores began to decline (Fernández-Alonso, Suárez-Álvarez, & Muñiz, 2015 ). Crossing that upper limit can drain student motivation and focus. The researchers recommend that “homework should present a certain level of challenge or difficulty, without being so challenging that it discourages effort.” Teachers should avoid low-effort, repetitive assignments, and assign homework “with the aim of instilling work habits and promoting autonomous, self-directed learning.”

In other words, it’s the quality of homework that matters, not the quantity. Brian Sztabnik, a veteran middle and high school English teacher, suggests that teachers take a step back and ask themselves these five questions :

• How long will it take to complete?
• Have all learners been considered?
• Will an assignment encourage future success?
• Will an assignment place material in a context the classroom cannot?
• Does an assignment offer support when a teacher is not there?

More Benefits for High School Students, but Risks as Well

By the time they reach high school, students should be well on their way to becoming independent learners, so homework does provide a boost to learning at this age, as long as it isn’t overwhelming (Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). When students spend too much time on homework—more than two hours each night—it takes up valuable time to rest and spend time with family and friends. A 2013 study found that high school students can experience serious mental and physical health problems, from higher stress levels to sleep deprivation, when assigned too much homework (Galloway, Conner, & Pope, 2013 ).

Homework in high school should always relate to the lesson and be doable without any assistance, and feedback should be clear and explicit.

Teachers should also keep in mind that not all students have equal opportunities to finish their homework at home, so incomplete homework may not be a true reflection of their learning—it may be more a result of issues they face outside of school. They may be hindered by issues such as lack of a quiet space at home, resources such as a computer or broadband connectivity, or parental support (OECD, 2014 ). In such cases, giving low homework scores may be unfair.

Since the quantities of time discussed here are totals, teachers in middle and high school should be aware of how much homework other teachers are assigning. It may seem reasonable to assign 30 minutes of daily homework, but across six subjects, that’s three hours—far above a reasonable amount even for a high school senior. Psychologist Maurice Elias sees this as a common mistake: Individual teachers create homework policies that in aggregate can overwhelm students. He suggests that teachers work together to develop a school-wide homework policy and make it a key topic of back-to-school night and the first parent-teacher conferences of the school year.

Parents Play a Key Role

Homework can be a powerful tool to help parents become more involved in their child’s learning (Walker et al., 2004 ). It can provide insights into a child’s strengths and interests, and can also encourage conversations about a child’s life at school. If a parent has positive attitudes toward homework, their children are more likely to share those same values, promoting academic success.

But it’s also possible for parents to be overbearing, putting too much emphasis on test scores or grades, which can be disruptive for children (Madjar, Shklar, & Moshe, 2015 ). Parents should avoid being overly intrusive or controlling—students report feeling less motivated to learn when they don’t have enough space and autonomy to do their homework (Orkin, May, & Wolf, 2017 ; Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008 ; Silinskas & Kikas, 2017 ). So while homework can encourage parents to be more involved with their kids, it’s important to not make it a source of conflict.

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The beginner's guide to primary-school homework

What’s the point of homework?

For many families, homework is a nightly battle, but primary schools set it for a variety of reasons. ‘It helps to consolidate the skills that are being taught at school, and provides children with additional revision opportunities,’ explains head teacher Steph Matthews of St Paul’s CofE School, Gloucester .

‘It also gives children an opportunity to explore learning in an unstructured setting, encouraging them to be independent and follow their own lines of enquiry.’ In addition, homework creates a partnership between school and family, giving parents an insight into what their child is learning.

How much homework should my child get in primary school?

In the past, the Department for Education advised that Key Stage 1 children should do an hour of homework each week, rising to half an hour per night in Key Stage 2. This advice was scrapped in 2012, giving schools more freedom, but many still follow the old guidelines.

In Reception , formal homework is rarely set. However, children are likely to bring home books to share with the family, first reading books, and/or keywords to learn.

In Years 1 and 2 , children are likely to have one or two tasks per week. This could be literacy or numeracy worksheets (for example an exercise where children have to compare the weights of different household items), a short piece of writing (such as a recount of a school trip) or work relating to the class topic (find out five facts about the Great Fire of London ).

In Years 3 and 4 , most schools set two homework activities each week: typically, one literacy (such as a worksheet on collective nouns, or a book review ) and one numeracy (a worksheet on bar charts).

In Years 5 and 6 , children may have two or three pieces of homework each week. ‘The amount begins to increase to prepare children for SATs and the transition to secondary school,’ says Steph. These activities might include maths worksheets, researching a topic, book reviews and grammar exercises.

Alongside formal homework tasks, most children bring home reading scheme books from Reception onwards, with weekly spellings and times tables from Year 1 or 2.

Learning logs and homework challenges

Not all schools rely on handing out worksheets. Learning logs or challenges are becoming more popular: children are given a folder of suggested activities – from writing a poem to building a model castle – and must choose a certain number to complete throughout the term.

Other schools ensure that homework ties in with the current class topic. ‘We have a themed approach, and set homework activities that give opportunities to explore the topic in a fun way, for example, designing a method of transport that Phileas Fogg could use to travel the world,’ explains Steph.  

Modern homework methods

Unsurprisingly, technology is playing an increasingly important part in homework. Some schools use online reading schemes such as Bug Club , where teachers allocate e-books of the appropriate level, or subscription services like SAM Learning  to set cross-curricular tasks.

A growing number also set homework electronically , with children logging into the school website to download their task.

What if the homework is too much – or too hard?

If you feel your child is overloaded with homework, speak to the teacher. ‘Forcing children to complete homework is counterproductive, because they come to perceive it as a chore,’ says Rod Grant, head teacher of Clifton Hall School, Edinburgh . ‘This makes learning appear boring, arduous or both, and that is really dangerous, in my view.’

Most schools publish their homework policy on the school website , telling parents exactly what to expect. ‘Teachers should make their expectations very clear in terms of deadlines and how long it should take, and should also differentiate tasks to suit the level of the pupil,’ adds Steph.

No homework at all?

If your child doesn’t get any homework, you may feel out of touch with his learning, or concerned that he isn’t being challenged. But there are good reasons why some schools don’t set homework, or set it only occasionally, says Rod. ‘Although homework can be beneficial, family life tends to suffer as a result of it being imposed,’ he explains. ‘ If a school isn’t providing homework, there’s plenty that parents can do at home instead : reading with their children, doing number puzzles on car journeys, using online resources, and so on.’

Parents may also worry that without doing homework, children won’t develop study habits for later life. ‘There is genuinely no need for a six-year-old to get into a routine of working at home; there’s time to learn that later,’ Rod advises. ‘Parents need to relax and encourage children to love learning – and that comes when learning is fun, relevant and engaging, not through doing homework tasks that are unchallenging, or secretarial in nature.’

Homework: advice and support for primary-school parents

For information and support on all aspects of homework, from managing other siblings to helping with specific subjects, head to our Homework area.

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{{item.title}}, my essentials, ask for help, contact edconnect, directory a to z, how to guides, going to school, primary school homework tips.

Teachers design primary school homework to be relevant, rewarding and even fun for your child. A little preparation and planning can make it even more beneficial.

Input from parents and carers is crucial to learning outcomes, and homework is also a great opportunity for this to occur.

However, families are busy and having the right structures in place helps keep it from becoming an additional source of stress. Below you'll find tips, information and resources to achieve this.

At a glance

• Homework is usually revision of concepts already covered in class.
• Get into a routine of doing homework at a set time.
• Ask your child to tell you about their homework.
• Don't jump in and give them the answers. Homework is also about teaching kids to be independent learners.
• If your child is struggling with homework, talk to their teacher.

Video: Helping with homework

Duration: 4:20mins

Transcript from Helping with homework video

Aims and benefits

Homework is effective when it reinforces content already covered in class, which is why it often takes the form of revision.

But it's not meant to be dull and repetitive, learning by rote. Quite the opposite, it's intended to help children retain new information by revisiting similar material in a different environment.

Homework brings children's school experience into the home, allowing families to understand their progress and engage more closely with the curriculum.

What if there's a problem?

If your child is struggling, try to work out if it's a time management issue or something to do with the content:

• You can address time management by following some of the advice below.
• If it's related to content, discuss it with their teacher. They'll be able to offer advice, or perhaps recommend an appointment with your GP to check for hearing, eyesight or other potential issues.

Right time, right place

To get them started it helps to create the right environment.

We can't expect perfectly quiet homes all the time but we can minimise distractions by switching off televisions and music and asking children to put devices aside.

For older children the best place to work could be their bedroom or some other quiet corner of the house but younger ones may be better off with parents or carers nearby.

Wherever they are, ensure they have access to all the right equipment such as:

• scrap paper
• laptop/tablet
• internet access and a printer (but only if required by the task).

Deciding when and how to structure homework time is important too. Does your child work best straight after coming home or after they've had a chance to wind down?

Younger children can only sustain relatively short bursts of concentration, usually about 15 minutes. Those in Kindergarten aren't necessarily expected to fully complete all their formal homework. They may only need to read books.

Even older children often need breaks. It's okay to allow these but try not to let it interfere with the workflow - suggest a few neck stretches or finger wriggles, for example. If there's no homework assigned, encourage them to read.

Learning good habits

However homework is structured, it's important to be consistent. Students with a regular routine are more confident and achieve better results.

It's inevitable some disruptions will occur and when they do it helps to keep track of things by staying organised.

You can help children learn organisational skills via the various homework planning apps available or by downloading our term planner (DOCX 47.04KB) .

It also helps if they start work on tasks as soon as they?re assigned, giving them more leeway for unforeseen delays and avoiding the prospect of night-before meltdowns.

How much help is too much?

Once children are settled and ready to begin, it's time to grapple with the content itself.

While it's true parent and carer support helps, this has to be balanced against the fact that homework is partly there to let children develop independent working habits.

There's a danger of parents or carers effectively completing tasks themselves, negating any educational benefit for the child.

This has the added disadvantage of obscuring learning gaps that may need to be addressed in class by the teacher.

In the end what it means is that parents and carers have to be prepared to see their children fail sometimes.

Today teachers view mistakes as an important part of the learning process, and they try to help children to see it that way too.

Support, encouragement and a positive attitude

Achievement should always be recognised and praised but it's just as important to focus on effort.

The best thing parents and carers can do is provide encouragement, a positive attitude towards challenging tasks and the right environment.

Talk to your child about what is being asked to do and try to help them come up with a solution themselves.

A few tips for reading, writing, spelling

The following can help your child become a more effective reader:

• Predicting - use information from the text, images or your own experience to try and predict what might happen next.
• Questioning - ask and answer questions about the text to help children understand it.
• Monitoring - if something doesn't make sense, stop, reread and think or discuss.
• Visualising - it can help to paint a picture in our head of things being described or explained.
• Making connections - compare what you're reading to something in your own life, another text or something happening in the world.
• Summarising - notice the most important things in the text and use your own words to describe it.

Help your child think about who they are writing for and why. For example, there's a difference between writing a letter during a holiday and a tourism brochure or story or film set in the same location.

Read your child's writing or have them read it to you. Praise them for trying new words. Encourage writing at home by:

• asking your child to keep a diary of special events
• having them label photos or pictures with captions
• writing notes, letters and stories regularly.

When your child asks how to spell a word, encourage them to have a go first, then discuss their effort. If you are using an online dictionary, make sure it is Australian. The same goes for a spell check on the computer - check language is set as Australian English.

Look, say, cover, write, check

The following can help with difficult words:

• look carefully at the word
• say it aloud
• write from memory
• uncover and check spelling

A few tips for maths

Maths today is about understanding number patterns, not learning by rote.

Consider the following when helping your child:

• Stay positive and try to avoid lowering expectations by saying, "I was bad at maths too."
• Don't jump in with the answer.
• Ask: "What is the question asking you?" or "How should we go about working this out?"
• Practise times tables. Children who know them are more confident with maths.
• There is always more than one way to get the right answer.
• Teaching and learning

Business Unit:

• Communication and Engagement

St. Patrick’s National School, Glencullen

Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí

National Parents Council Primary – Homework survey (Parents)

We will also send you  separate email with  a link to the Children’s Homework Survey, it would be great if you could ask your child/children to complete this survey or help them to complete the survey . This will give us a great insight into the whole area. We will present the results of this survey at our Annual Conference at the end of May 2016 and the results will also be available on our website  www.npc.ie

Please complete this survey so that we get an accurate view of parents’ opinions.

All three  surveys will close at midnight on the 22nd of May 2016

Please pass this email on to other parents of children in your child’s school and any other parents of primary school children you know.

Many thanks

Mount Carmel Primary School

Parent/carer homework questionnaire.

Please remember to complete our homework questionnaire.

Following on from last years Homework Survey we would like to gather your thoughts on our current homework provision.  Your views will help to shape our future homework provision.  This survey will close at midnight on Tuesday 16th November and it should take around 5 minutes to complete.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to this.

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