Homework At Primary School: Time For A Re-Think?

In 2024, homework at primary school is often a given, with roughly 90% of schools setting some sort of homework. During my fifteen years of teaching across two state schools and three private schools, as well as my experience as a primary school governor and parent of primary-aged children, I’ve noticed that many parents judge the effectiveness of a school by the amount of homework set, with private preparatory schools often setting the most homework at the primary level: five 30-40 minute homework tasks per week is not unusual for a Year 3 child. But how often have you stopped to consider the purpose of homework and whether its perceived benefits have evidence to back them up?

In previous generations, it was the norm not to give homework out in primary school. In 1937, the Board of Education set out its view on homework and recommended that none should be set to children under 12. It argued that fixing the hours of compulsory school attendance was done on the basis that the curriculum could be completed within the school hours, thus leaving adequate time “for recreation and for fresh air, without shortening the proper hours of sleep”. As a child of the 1980s, I wasn’t given any homework in primary school, nor was anyone else I surveyed from my generation or the generation before. Fast-forward to 2020 and a leading preparatory school in West London (The Mulberry House School) has gone homework-free “to give our children more time and space to call their own”. So why do 90% of primary schools in 2024 set homework? A common answer from my parent survey was “it raises achievement” but is this true?

In 2009, John Hattie, Professor of Education at Auckland University, examined five different meta-analyses on homework and its relation to student achievement. Across these five, there were 161 studies involving more than 100,000 students. The finding was that if you took two classes and gave only one of them homework, only 21% of the students in that class would gain in achievement over those in the other. That percentage difference might sound like it’s worth the effort of homework, but dig a little deeper and one learns that the positive impact of homework on student attainment is four times greater in secondary schools than in primary schools. The impact of homework at primary level is minimal.

Katharine Birbalsingh of the Michaela School (often dubbed Britain’s strictest school), however, thinks homework is essential for a child’s education because “revisiting the day’s learning is what helps to make it stick”. Whilst I don’t disagree with the pedagogical approach of retrieval practice she is advocating (brains need to revisit learning to bring the particular knowledge and skills from the working memory to the long-term memory), is it right or helpful for it to be done a) once the school day has ended and b) by someone who is not the child’s teacher?

John Hattie’s exploration into the impact of homework also stressed that only certain types had a positive effect. The more specific and precise the task was, the more likely it was to impact all learners. An example from my own child’s experience was being set the 9, 11, and 12 times tables as a homework task over Christmas on Times Table Rockstars, having just worked on those particular times tables in the last few weeks of term. I allowed him a maximum of ten minutes per day for two weeks and now, 18 months later, they are most certainly in his long-term memory, especially judging from the speed with which he can still deliver his answers. But, to pose the alternative, did that times table practice have to take place outside of the school day for him to achieve such proficiency? Might ten minutes per day, fitted into the school day for Times Table Rockstars, with teacher supervision to live monitor which questions kept tripping students up, have been more effective?

Another commonly cited reason for homework is that it helps cement the relationship between home and school, giving parents greater awareness of what their child is learning and thus making it easier to explore the curriculum further at home. Can this relationship only be fostered through homework though? And can homework actually sour the key relationship – that between the child and the parent? A host of celebrities certainly think so. The US comedian, Rob Delaney, declared: “Why do they give 7-year-olds so much homework… I want my kid frolicking and drawing and playing football”. Gary Lineker joined in, saying: “Homework is a waste of time. Brings stress to the home, stress to the child… stress to the parent-child relationship”. A headteacher form East Whitby Academy joins the discussion saying: “I’m a headteacher and I’m with Gary”. Katharine Birbalsingh, however, vehemently disagrees, arguing that “teaching is not just the teacher’s job”.

I look at it differently again. Teaching is the teacher’s job. Creating a home environment conducive to learning – minimal screen time, conversations at the dinner table, toys and games that encourage curiosity, strategic thinking and perseverance – is the job of the parent of a primary-aged child. Parents should know what topics their child is studying and create opportunities for further learning at home, rather than having to create a weekly slot for Maths and English homework.

If I’m honest, I didn’t question homework at primary school before writing this article. Both my sons currently enjoy doing their homework. My Year 3 son takes about 45 minutes per week to complete his. It hasn’t been a stress in our lives. Yet. But everything comes with an opportunity cost. I often have to interrupt my children’s flow in a game to remind them it is time to complete their homework. They are often practising their Maths and English in much more imaginative ways than the homework tasks they are set. They are writing a menu for a restaurant, making calculations with money in a game of Monopoly, or working out a complicated scoring system in yet another new football activity they have created.

I’m not necessarily in favour of stopping all homework at primary school, but is it time for a rethink? John Hattie thinks so, and I do too.

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