We have talked quite a lot about homework and it’s clearly something that impacts upon parents’ relationships with their children. Since then, we’ve discovered that it’s also a topic that has generated some heated debate in other parts of the world.  Take a look at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/apr/08/scrap-homework-say-primary-teachers andhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2009/apr/08/primary-schools-homework-abolition

In the meantime, here’s an extract from an article available at www.highlightingwriting.com

Goodbye to the Homework Hassles
by Jen McVeity
‘Have you done your homework?’ …    ‘In a minute. I’ll do it in a minute.’ How many times and in how many homes does the refrain ring out each night?  Getting a child to do homework – without nagging – is one of the main problems of parents with school aged children For many parents, it is a nightly balancing act between helping and supporting their child – and standing over them.

How Can Parents Help?
Set a regular time for homework.
This immediately eliminates the most common homework hassle. You and your child might decide it will be after school and a snack, or before school when they are fresher. Once that homework time comes around, cling to your cannons and send them off to do it.
Help them stick to it.
A few subtle reminders such as ‘Do you want help with the African project now?’ are better than the more blunt ‘Time for homework now.’
Provide an area for study.
Some kids can concentrate in the busy family room – just don’t turn on the TV or all eyes go to the flickering screen and the brain quickly follows. Other kids like the seclusion of their bedroom.
Brainstorm Ideas.
Make it a family game. If the project is to design a toy with wheels, it could be a billy cart. Or, with a few zany ideas from you it could be a ferris wheel, a merry go round, a wheel of fortune…
Help them locate information.
Show them the library is not the only place with information about Cairns. The travel agent, Uncle Pete who lives there, the neighbours who holidayed there are all great sources of facts and fun.
Discuss problems.
Two brains are always better than one. Four or five brains all firing at once are fantastic.
Teach time management skills.
Show children how to break up a major assignment into smaller chunks of work. Make a list of things to be done, suggest deadlines and always allow extra for the trivial finishing touches that take up so much time.
Never actually do the work yourself.
It might be difficult to see the headings crooked and the lines smudged, but grit your teeth and let it go. Homework is about learning, not perfection.

The School’s Role
It is up to individual schools to set homework guidelines and amounts. Recent research casts doubts on the assumption that homework increases a child’s learning performance.
Schools guidelines should include the following:-

• If children are to value homework, it must be valuable. ‘Busy work’ will soon be recognised – and just as soon not completed.
• Homework should be linked to classroom activities. If ‘Animals’ are studied in class, a grammar sheet on England is not particularly appropriate.
• Homework should always be assessed and meaningful feedback given. Written comments tell a child more than a mark out of ten.
• There should be a reasonable time period set for completion. Homework due in ‘tomorrow’ does not allow for other events in a child’s life.

Schools should remember that learning takes place in many different environments. After school activities such as chess, tennis, woodwork and music lessons, all extend children in a broad and healthy way.