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Homework: is it worth the hassle?

Parents and educators question the value of setting assignments for students. But what does the neuroscience say?

Like all teachers, I’ve spent many hours correcting homework. Yet there’s a debate over whether we should be setting it at all.

I teach both primary and secondary, and regularly find myself drawn into the argument on the reasoning behind it – parents, and sometimes colleagues, question its validity. Parent-teacher interviews can become consumed by how much trouble students have completing assignments. All of which has led me to question the neuroscience behind setting homework. Is it worth it?

Increasingly, there’s a divide between those who support the need for homework and those who suggest the time would be better spent with family and developing relationships. The anxiety related to homework is frequently reviewed.

A survey of high-performing high schools by the Stanford Graduate School of Education, for example, found that 56% of students considered homework a primary source of stress. These same students reported that the demands of homework caused sleep deprivation and other health problems, as well as less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits.

Working memory?

When students learn in the classroom, they are using their short-term or working memory. This information is continually updated during the class. On leaving the classroom, the information in the working memory is replaced by the topic in the next class.

Adults experience a similar reaction when they walk into a new room and forget why they are there. The new set of sensory information – lighting, odours, temperature – enters their working memory and any pre-existing information is displaced. It’s only when the person returns to the same environment that they remember the key information.

But education is about more than memorising facts. Students need to access the information in ways that are relevant to their world, and to transfer knowledge to new situations.

Many of us will have struggled to remember someone’s name when we meet them in an unexpected environment (a workmate at the gym, maybe), and we are more likely to remember them again once we’ve seen them multiple times in different places. Similarly, students must practise their skills in different environments.

Revising the key skills learned in the classroom during homework increases the likelihood of a student remembering and being able to use those skills in a variety of situations in the future, contributing to their overall education.

The link between homework and educational achievement is supported by research: a meta-analysis of studies between 1987 and 2003 found that: “With only rare exceptions, the relationship between the amount of homework students do and their achievement outcomes was found to be positive and statistically significant.”

The right type of work

The homework debate is often split along the lines of primary school compared with secondary school. Education researcher Professor John Hattie, who has ranked various influences on student learning and achievement, found that homework in primary schools has a negligible effect (most homework set has little to no impact on a student’s overall learning). However, it makes a bigger difference in secondary schools.

His explanation is that students in secondary schools are often given tasks that reinforce key skills learned in the classroom that day, whereas primary students may be asked to complete separate assignments. “The worst thing you can do with homework is give kids projects; the best thing you can do is reinforce something you’ve already learned,” he told the BBC in 2014.

So homework can be effective when it’s the right type of homework. In my own practice, the primary students I teach will often be asked to find real-life examples of the concept taught instead of traditional homework tasks, while homework for secondary students consolidates the key concepts covered in the classroom. For secondary in particular, I find a general set of rules useful:

• Set work that’s relevant. This includes elaborating on information addressed in the class or opportunities for students to explore the key concept in areas of their own interest.
• Make sure students can complete the homework. Pitch it to a student’s age and skills – anxiety will only limit their cognitive abilities in that topic. A high chance of success will increase the reward stimulation in the brain.
• Get parents involved, without the homework being a point of conflict with students. Make it a sharing of information, rather than a battle.
• Check the homework with the students afterwards. This offers a chance to review the key concepts and allow the working memory to become part of the long-term memory.

While there is no data on the effectiveness of homework in different subjects, these general rules could be applied equally to languages, mathematics or humanities. And by setting the right type of homework, you’ll help to reinforce key concepts in a new environment, allowing the information you teach to be used in a variety of contexts in the future.

Helen Silvester is a writer for npj Science of Learning Community

Follow us on Twitter via @GuardianTeach . Join the Guardian Teacher Network for lesson resources, comment and job opportunities , direct to your inbox.

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Homework - Yes Or No?

Blogger, Writer & Serial Hobbyist

I was just reading 'Is Homework Worth the Hassle? ' on the BBC news website and it reminded me how much I hate the concept of homework, as directed by schools. As a home schooling mum you could be forgiven for thinking I am anti establishment. But I'm not. Each case for attending/not attending school should be considered on an individual basis, and that is why when given the opportunity to try out a brand, spanking new secondary school in our local area we gave it a shot. One form entry, nice and small and a good gentle introduction back into the mainstream.

As much as we loved being at home together and enjoyed the outdoor life and freedom to set our own course, there is always that element of doubt about the end goal, can I do what needs to be done to ensure my son achieves his potential. So I handed him over to people I trusted to undertake that task.

The alarm bells first started ringing when we attended a meeting of parents as an introduction to the school. The freedom of expression in the way I dressed that I had come to love in my role as a home ed mum was the first thing that came under the spotlight. Apparently, having been taken aside by another parent, Union Jack Doctor Martens immediately labelled me as a racist. I had quite a collection of DM's back then and thought myself, in my other life, to be on point in my choice of footwear. They went on Ebay the next day and I stuck to the Lime, pink and floral selection from then on.

During this meeting the deputy head (who I grew to dislike with a passion I didn't know I was capable of) was driving home the inclusion policy, 'Inclusion, Inclusion, Inclusion' he chanted over and over. And then when asked what the school's policy was, and what they would do about any children who were very, very 'naughty' he said they would be out on their ear....'exclusion'... he bellowed. Hmmm?

And so we began. From Monday to Wednesday the children had compulsory extra curricula activities which meant the school day ended anytime between 5-6pm, we were told that they wouldn't have homework on those evenings. They lied. It became clear that the teachers didn't know the school's policy on homework. I found myself reminding them from time to time. They also had a policy about not having 'whole class' detentions, again this was something I had to remind them about. My son had detention 3 times in his first 2 weeks because other people were 'playing up'.

We spent a term at this school and during that time my son who enjoyed reading and had a passion for History did very little to follow his own interests and hobbies. He was tired, pale, and had more coughs and colds than he'd had in about 5 years. There was no time for family life in the evenings, it became a never ending round of eat, homework and bed.

If you follow social media you may have seen the message that went viral from a Texan teacher, who wrote to parents saying:

"After much research this summer, I am trying something new. I ask that you spend your evenings doing things that are proven to correlate with student success. Eat dinner as a family, read together, play outside, and get your children to bed early."

I whole heartedly agree with this teacher. You need time as a family to talk, because learning to talk to each other is what can save you great heartache during those teenage years. In a society that appears to be breeding a new generation of anti-socialism through excessive engagement with multimedia (another blog here) communication of the verbal kind is getting little enough practice as it is.

My son was given the opportunity to spend time pursuing and actively engaging in his own interests; fair enough he had the time as he didn't attend school for most of his educational career, but give the other kids a chance to do the same outside of school hours. Goodness only knows what they might discover about themselves or for themselves.

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Is Homework really so much Hassle?

Published 29th September 2016 by admin

This week homework has been hitting the headlines due to a secondary school in Essex deciding to ban homework. This is an interesting stance and one which the Headteacher has taken due to the workload it adds to her teachers.

In an interview Catherine Hutley, Headteacher at Phillip Morant Secondary said “’The job of a teacher is impossible. There are not enough hours in the day for a teacher to teach, set homework, mark homework, and plan their lessons.”  

But the bigger question is, does homework really aid learning?

Research from the Department for Education shows that pupils who do homework perform considerably better in exams than those that don’t. There’s a really helpful article from the Guardian summarising some of this research .

So it would seem the answer is simply a big yes. But as with all these things, it just isn’t that simple. It’s not really about homework, it’s about quality homework.

Ofsted have outlined in their School Inspection Handbook that they expect homework that aids learning.

So what does that mean? It means that homework for the sake of homework just doesn’t cut it anymore. Anyone over the age of 20 will remember colouring in endless maps and making enough posters to fill the Tate Modern, but this effortless homework doesn’t aid learning.

So what’s the solution?

Taking another look at the case of Philip Morant Secondary School, it’s not as clear cut as it seems in the headlines, the Headteacher has outlined that this “ban” on homework isn’t that black and white. Catherine Hutley has said that home learning is very much encouraged, and prizes will be given to the most dedicated students. This is simply a way to reduce teacher workload and stop homework that has no value.

So where does technology come into it?

We feel that without technology teacher workload will become unmanageable. Frog builds technology with the aim to remove paperwork associated with teaching, and our perspective is that homework can be an effortless task for teachers. Frog gives teachers:

• 250,000 questions made by education experts in line with the curriculum which can be assigned in a couple of clicks
• Automatic marking
• Homework linked to your curriculum (in line with Ofsted requirements)

So how does Frog really aid learning?

This quiz based style of learning provided by Frog has been show to improve performance in the classroom. A year 7 student at a Frog School named Lok-Yi has highlighted that using Frog for home learning gave her the confidence to participate in class.

Lok-Yi has recently moved to the UK and English isn’t her first language, but through her homework she has been able to work on her reading and writing skills with the help of game based learning covering a range of topics. You can read Lok-Yi’s full story here .

The same school also implemented Frog to help with their flipped learning strategy meaning they have pupils undertaking home learning and so they can make the most of their contact time with students in class.

For us, cases like Lok-Yi’s are why we come to work, and we wouldn’t invest so much in homework if we didn’t believe in it’s ability to aid learning, but we do think it needs to be done in the right way.

You can read the full story about Philip Morant Secondary School here .

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Homework: friend or foe?

By Hannah Fowler

Ask any student, parent or teacher about homework and you’re sure to get conflicting opinions. A quick search on Google brings up millions of results with eye-catching headlines: ‘Should homework be banned?’, ‘Is homework a good idea?’, ‘Is homework beneficial?’, ‘Is it worth the hassle?’

“I’ve sometimes heard it said that if a headteacher tells you there’s no bullying in their school, they’re mistaken. But to be honest, the same may well be true of homework . If a headteacher tells you they don’t have any issues with homework in their school, they’re probably mistaken too.”

That’s what one Liverpool City Region secondary headteacher told me when I asked them about this very topic. In fact, they wanted to remain anonymous with their views. For the purpose of this piece, they will be called Anonymous Head throughout.

There’s been many reports commissioned to determine ‘is homework worth the hassle?’. In 2014, the Department for Education concluded that students in year 9 who spent between two to three hours on homework on an average week night were almost 10 times more likely to achieve five good GCSEs than students who did not spend any time on homework.

This is backed up, in part, with the Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF) Teaching and Learning toolkit, which concludes that homework is more effective in secondary schools than primary, with secondary school pupils gaining +5 months progress compared to +3 months for primary school aged children. However, the EEF stresses that the quality of homework appears to be more important than the quantity of work required by students.

But the benefits of homework are also more anecdotal, improving parental engagement for example, and teaching children the importance of self-development, time management and responsibility.

But it’s a common misconception that schools are required to set homework by the government, or Ofsted. In 2012, then education secretary Michael Gove scrapped the guidelines for home study, following parents’ complaints that too much homework was limiting family time and opportunities for sport and play. The previous guidelines recommended an hour a week for seven-year olds and rose to 2.5 hours per night for students aged 14-16.

Instead, the power was handed over to schools themselves. In 2018, education secretary Damian Hinds clarified: “Just to be clear: schools are not obliged to set homework, and some don’t. But when schools do set homework, children do need to do it. We trust individual school headteachers to decide what their policy on homework will be, and what happens if pupils don’t do what’s set. Policy and approach won’t be the same in all cases.”

Sounds easy enough right? But as Anonymous Head tells me, having an effective homework policy in place takes a lot of thought. Schools need to “ensure that it is set consistently – ideally, even if the teacher is off; they need to ensure that teachers check that the homework is done, and that there’s a robust system in place for dealing with students who don’t do it. It needs to be reviewed and/or marked and there needs to be support for those whose domestic circumstances make it generally difficult, or impossible, to do homework.”

The discussion on the value of homework has become even more complicated since the COVID-19 pandemic began. When classrooms became living rooms and kitchens, it became harder to distinguish homework from the day to day online learning routine. Add to this the complexities and disparities of home life, is it really fair to set homework when some children don’t have a safe space to complete it?

Anonymous Head recalls speaking to one student whose school bag contained little more than a pair of pyjamas and a toothbrush, because they didn’t know where they would be spending the night. Homework was the last thing on their mind.

“For me this has always been an issue: home life, free time, parental support and attitudes to learning vary so much within a single class,” says Matt Nice, deputy headteacher at Devonshire Park Primary School. “There are so many factors and we as teachers and leaders need to be aware of what we are asking our pupils to do at home.”

Adrian Whiteley, headteacher at The Mosslands School, agrees that family engagement, which has been cited as key to positive student outcomes, varies considerably. “We are conscious that some learners are not able to access their work at home for a multitude of reasons,” he explains. “So, we make sure that homework does not mean that learners are left behind. Despite our best efforts however, those in households where barriers exist will find that they are further behind than ever before.”

Over the last two years, we’ve become obsessed with the notion of ‘catching up’ on lost learning and many headteachers are using homework, tutoring and additional lessons to close the gap. “We have to maintain a sensitive balance between expectations and wellbeing, setting work that improves recall and strengthens skills but does not place the burden of ‘catching up’ onto learners and families who are not equipped to do so,” explains Adrian.

With 50% of The Mosslands School cohort eligible for pupil premium and 25% of students with special educational needs (SEN), Adrian says they are still trying to understand the impact that the pandemic has had and will continue to have on students. “What is absolutely clear from my experience is that, over this period, gaps have widened between learners based on their home situation, and that in the return from various states of lockdown and restriction, many students are now struggling to cope with the normal demands of school life,” adds Adrian.

Add to this the pressures of homework and it’s easy to see how some students could feel overwhelmed. “A few headteachers have tried innovative solutions. Some have tried to ‘flip’ homework, so that instead of being a necessary follow-up to what’s happened that day in the classroom, it’s necessary preparation before the next lesson (so teachers aren’t ‘starting from scratch’ with a new topic),” explains Anonymous Head.

“Others set aside time at the end of the day so that students can do their homework in a supervised room in school (in which case, should it really be called homework?). The fact that so many heads are prepared to experiment with different ideas for homework probably shows that the traditional model doesn’t always work as smoothly as we might like!”

The primary school homework debate is arguably even more fraught. While many people can get their heads around the idea of homework for exam preparation at secondary level, many wonder what benefit homework has in primary schools.

In fact, in 2018, US comedian Rob Delaney, who resides in the UK, tweeted: “Why do they give 7-year olds so much homework in the UK and how do I stop this. I want my kid frolicking and drawing and playing football. Who knows more about stopping this madness and can help me?”

“Homework is a graduated approach at Devonshire Park Primary School,” says Matt. “Children collect stickers on a bookmark for reading and reading is the core of our homework. The time expected to spend on homework increases as the children get older, but we always encourage reading at home no matter what age.”

It’s no surprise that reading is the foundation of Devonshire Park’s homework policy. Reading skills allow children to access the breadth of the curriculum, improve their communication and language skills as well as providing a fun and imaginative activity to enjoy at home. More than a quarter of children said they enjoyed reading more in lockdown (National Literacy Trust, 2020).

Homework that is closely linked to what is being taught in the classroom has been found to be more valuable than unrelated or routine homework tasks. Professor John Hattie, a leading researcher in education, argues that homework should be used to reinforce something that has already been learned.

In primary school, this could be learning a set of spellings following an English lesson or practising division at home after being taught a new technique. This reinforcement helps to transfer this knowledge from the working memory to the long-term memory, to ensure learning becomes firmly embedded.

Matt agrees that homework that is properly connected to lessons, works best. “I’ve always believed that homework should be about consolidating what has gone on in the classroom, a chance to practice skills learnt,” he explains.

“Personally, I’d be worried about a skill or topic just left to be done at home. But there is value in any form of skills practice that keeps the mind sharp, applying skills already learnt and revisiting things. There is certainly value in sharing children’s learning with their families.”

Anonymous Head agrees that the case for having some sort of system for homework is compelling. “The national curriculum is, rightly, an ambitious curriculum. There’s lots in it, and ensuring it’s all covered in sufficient depth is a challenge. Some of the more routine aspects, such as learning French vocab or practicing Pythagoras, can be done away from the classroom,” they said.

For Adrian, one significant impact of the pandemic is that Mosslands are now fully prepared to offer structured remote learning to reinforce its homework provision. “We have used our remote learning platform to ensure that all learners have access to the content of all lessons across the relevant subject and key stage,” he explains. “Homework tasks are set at revisiting the lessons, completing activities and reviewing the learning as it has been delivered, rather than breaking new ground.”

Debate about homework, and in fact any element of school life, is important to keep students at the heart of policies that impact their outcomes. Leaders need to do their own homework to find the right balance between the demands of setting work outside of school hours and students’ wellbeing.

“The disruptions to school life of the past two years have really sharpened the mind on the value of homework,” says Matt. “It’s a good time for teachers and schools to re-evaluate what is effective. Children are now more digitally comfortable with accessing set work online, but with this, teachers have seen how children have struggled to fully embed new learning remotely.”

So, is there a right approach to homework? “To be honest, I don’t think there is an answer – it depends on the context, which varies from school to school,” says Anonymous Head.

“A skillful school leader will, after careful thought and consultation, put together an effective Homework Policy which is manageable for students, teachers and leaders, and which maximises the impact on students’ learning.

“But what is right for one school may well not be right for the school down the road. Unfortunately, I think that this particular wheel needs to be reinvented in each individual school. Such are the joys of school leadership!”

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Homework: is it worth the hassle?

Homework has long been questioned by parents and educators alike who ponder the value of setting assignments for students. In this article, neuroscientist Helen Silvester looks in what neuroscience says about homework.

Author: Helen Silvester Neuroscientist and head of science at Mentone Girls’ Grammar in Melbourne, Australia

Like all teachers, I’ve spent many hours correcting homework. Yet there’s a debate over whether we should be setting it at all.

I teach both primary and secondary and regularly find myself drawn into the argument on the reasoning behind it – parents, and sometimes colleagues, question homework’s validity. Parent-teacher interviews can become consumed by how much trouble students have completing assignments. All of which has led me to question the neuroscience behind setting homework. Is it worth it?

Increasingly, there’s a divide between those who support the need for homework and those who suggest the time would be better spent with family and developing relationships. The anxiety related to homework is frequently reviewed.

A survey of high-performing high schools by the Stanford Graduate School of Education, for example, found that 56% of students considered homework a primary source of stress. These same students reported that the demands of homework caused sleep deprivation and other health problems, as well as less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits.

Working memory? When students learn in the classroom, they are using their short-term or working memory. This information is continually updated during the class. On leaving the classroom, the information in the working memory is replaced by the topic in the next class.

Adults experience a similar reaction when they walk into a new room and forget why they are there. The new set of sensory information – lighting, odours, temperature – enters their working memory and any pre-existing information is displaced. It’s only when the person returns to the same environment that they remember the key information.

But education is about more than memorising facts. Students need to access the information in ways that are relevant to their world and to transfer knowledge to new situations.

Many of us will have struggled to remember someone’s name when we meet them in an unexpected environment (a workmate at the gym, maybe), and we are more likely to remember them again once we’ve seen them multiple times in different places. Similarly, students must practise their skills in different environments.

Revising the key skills learned in the classroom during homework increases the likelihood of a student remembering and being able to use those skills in a variety of situations in the future, contributing to their overall education.

The link between homework and educational achievement is supported by research: a meta-analysis of studies between 1987 and 2003 found that: “With only rare exceptions, the relationship between the amount of homework students do and their achievement outcomes, was found to be positive and statistically significant.”

The right type of work The homework debate is often split along the lines of primary school compared with secondary school. Education researcher Professor John Hattie, who has ranked various influences on student learning and achievement, found that homework in primary schools has a negligible effect (most homework set has little to no impact on a student’s overall learning). However, it makes a bigger difference in secondary schools.

His explanation is that students in secondary schools are often given tasks that reinforce key skills learned in the classroom that day, whereas primary students may be asked to complete separate assignments. “The worst thing you can do with homework is give kids projects; the best thing you can do is reinforce something you’ve already learned,” he told the BBC in 2014.

So homework can be effective when it’s the right type of homework. In my own practice, the primary students I teach will often be asked to find real-life examples of the concept taught instead of traditional homework tasks, while homework for secondary students consolidates the key concepts covered in the classroom. For secondary in particular, I find a general set of rules useful:

• Set work that’s relevant. This includes elaborating on information addressed in the class or opportunities for students to explore the key concept in areas of their own interest. • Make sure students can complete the homework. Pitch it to a student’s age and skills – anxiety will only limit their cognitive abilities in that topic. A high chance of success will increase the reward stimulation in the brain. • Get parents involved, without the homework being a point of conflict with students. Make it a sharing of information, rather than a battle. • Check the homework with the students afterwards. This offers a chance to review the key concepts and allow the working memory to become part of the long-term memory.

While there is no data on the effectiveness of homework in different subjects, these general rules could be applied equally to languages, mathematics or humanities. And by setting the right type of homework, you’ll help to reinforce key concepts in a new environment, allowing the information you teach to be used in a variety of contexts in the future.

Helen Silvester is a writer for npj Science of Learning Community

This article first appeared in The Guardian

404 Not found

Homework – Is it worth the hassle?

by Richard Endacott | Oct 6, 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 comments

“Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good,”  Denise Pope, Senior Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Education

The study by Denise Pope found

 Greater stress:  56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor. Reductions in health:  In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems. Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits:  Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were “not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills,” according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy. Stanford Graduate School of Education https://news.stanford.edu/2014/03/10/too-much-homework-031014/

So that’s it then homework is bad for your health and your happiness and should be banned? As a teacher I have spent hours marking the same work, correcting errors according to the fashionable marking policy of the time and then handing back to the student for their feedback to my feedback, ready for me to feedback on their feedback to my feedback… and so it continues, but does it have any value?

John Hattie, in his excellent book Visible Learning suggest a different approach. His research highlights that homework for secondary school children is much more effective than for primary school children. This could be that primary school children are less able to work independently and cannot filter irrelevant information as effectively, however as Helen Silvester from the npj science of learning community, in a recent Guardian interview argues that homework is only effective if a teacher:

Set work that’s relevant. This includes elaborating on information addressed in the class or opportunities for students to explore the key concept in areas of their own interest. Make sure students can complete the homework. Pitch it to a student’s age and skills – anxiety will only limit their cognitive abilities in that topic. A high chance of success will increase the reward stimulation in the brain. Get parents involved, without the homework being a point of conflict with students. Make it a sharing of information, rather than a battle. Check the homework with the students afterwards. This offers a chance to review the key concepts and allow the working memory to become part of the long-term memory. https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2017/feb/07/homework-is-it-worth-the-hassle

So is the setting of homework worth the hassle? The simple answer is yes, but only if it serves a purpose and is checked by both the teacher and the parent. A big  report for the Department for Education , published in 2014, concluded that students in Year 9 who spent between two and three hours on homework on an average week night were almost 10 times more likely to achieve five good GCSEs (A*-C) than students who did no homework at all.

At Castle Tutoring we use a platform called ‘Loom’ which enables a flipped learning approach to homework, encouraging the student to learn the content before the session and allowing for a focus on skills in the lesson itself. Homework is an integral feature of school life and can be enriching, but there are definitely limitations and teachers should be aware of these.

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Homework: why it's worth the hassle and how to make it work in your family.

Some kids want to do homework, others want to do anything but.  Some schools want students to work on several subjects every evening, others have abandoned any homework requirement at all.  We want our kids to play, have free time, contribute to the home and keep making good progress growing their brains academically, too.  Phew!  Life is definitely a balancing act.

As parents, it can be hard to know what helps your kids learn when they're already tired from a day's worth of activity and learning.  What is necessary beyond what they do in their school hours?  What should they do in their ages and stages? How can you capture their progress across subjects and see where they might need a little something extra?

LearnWell can help!

Should we bother with homework in our home?

Completing homework (or home  learning ) regularly is strongly linked to higher academic achievements in subjects such as English, Maths, and Science. Completing some homework plays a crucial role in developing essential skills in children that will benefit them throughout their schooling and future careers.  

These skills include:

• improved grades,
• discipline,
• time management,
• learning to use resources effectively,
• better communication,
• problem-solving abilities.

You'd have to work hard to find evidence that hours and hours of homework a night is beneficial though.  It's about reinforcing learning, and making sure your kids get maximum benefit - while still having plenty of headspace for other parts of life.

Breaking down the benefits

The importance of homework can be broken down into the following benefits.

• Practice Discipline:

Pushing yourself to complete a task is a discipline we must all learn as adults, and is a transferrable skill for every job, career and life. No one wants to do laundry or tidy their room! Having the discipline to put some time aside and just do it is a vital skill.

• Time Management Skills:

Homework teaches children to manage their workload and meet deadlines independently. It helps them to judge how long a task will take and make a plan.

• Communication:

Homework can help teachers and parents gain deeper insights into children's learning. As a parent, when you help with homework, you start to understand more about how your child learns or where they are at across different subjects. It puts the teacher and parent on the same page.

• Comfortable Work Environment:

Not every child finds the high-stimulation environment of a busy classroom helpful for learning. Homework offers a familiar and comfortable learning environment, giving the child more time to practice new skills and evolve their understanding of new concepts. 

Well-resourced

As always, providing your kids with something interesting, fun and fulfilling is really a key to helping them want to keep up a habit.  

For juniors and kids at intermediate, LearnWell has a homework book for every level from Year 1 to 8 . Each of these books works is written by New Zealand teachers for the New Zealand Curriculum.  These resources keep kids up to date with snippets across different parts of the curriculum, so you're changing it up and getting a picture of what they should know and what they might need a little extra support with.  Engaging characters and NZ context really help solidify learning.

If you want to concentrate on Science, Maths, English or other key parts of the curriculum, Start Right resources give Year 1-8s chunks of learning they can work through on a time basis that suits your family. 

For secondary learners, the LearnWell range offers something for every student.

Find your preferred digital or print resource:

• Study Guides support classroom learning with full-coverage of a subject,
• Learning Guides are interactive resources available in digital or print,
• Learning Workbooks are the most effective resources for revision of a topic,
• AMEs are the best for exam preparation.

Or, simply get in touch with us to discuss your specific family situation.  We can help you choose a resource that will add home learning in the right balance for your schedule.

• Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.