Homework does work. It can save disadvantaged kids

I CAN’T lie – the homework debate concerns me.

I’ve written here before about my own background.

My dad arrived here in the 60s from the Caribbean and he worked as a builder. My mum was a seamstress. We lived in Hackney, then the poorest borough in the country.

Never will I ever have a single regret that education was non-negotiable for me from an early age. My parents wanted me to have choices and independence.

I’m the same with my kids. A culture of education can never begin soon enough. Rejecting it is not an option.

Discipline, consistency, and a commitment to learning are just some of the qualities that will serve you well your whole life. Likewise the knowledge that investing in yourself in your own time is the best outlay you will ever make.

So I’ve been fascinated by the views of TV housing expert Kirstie Allsopp.

Last week she cited data supporting her view that homework for kids under 10 has, in her words, “zero benefit”.

She tweeted: “It is my greatest regret as a parent that I wasn’t stronger in my opposition to homework. Why don’t the teaching unions take a stand against it?”

Set against that last sentence, the factual context of her background is relevant. Kirstie is the eldest child of Charles Henry Allsopp, 6th Baron Hindlip and the former chairman of Christie’s the auctioneers.

There is nothing to suggest she hasn’t worked incredibly hard to carve out a media career for herself.

But a report last month found that 106,000 five-year-olds in England each year don’t meet the expected standard for literacy. Two-fifths of those kids live in deprived areas. We live in a country within which the statistical disadvantages for Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage people are well documented.

Figures last year from the Centre for Social Justice revealed 41% of Year 6 kids in England left primary school without meeting expected standards in literacy and maths.

Under-resourced teachers across the country have around 30 children in their classes with little time – despite their best efforts – to help those unable to keep up.

The way in which homework is set for under-11s varies. Some are stringent, others relaxed.

But typically it is a maths or an English exercise, sometimes both, once a week for no longer than 30 minutes. Is that so tough?

“For many parents it causes nightly upset…” Kirstie tweeted.

Not mine. Nothing gave them greater satisfaction than to see me pester them for help. As a parent now, I’m the same.

Kirstie calls it “daily unhappiness”. Fair enough. But many of the things we don’t enjoy doing provide us with the most long-term benefit.

For working-class friends of mine, education was a way out of their circumstances. A key to a better future.

Black and Brown people in the UK know all about hiring policies that have little to do with qualifications and everything to do with who you know.

Bullingdon and Garrick clubs exist because the world isn’t fair. The Race Relations Act came in because hiring policies were not fair. Pay and gender gaps exist because employers – despite all their big talk – are not fair.

So I, like many other parents with education as our weapon of choice, have always told my kids: “Work hard. Work at home. Be so good they can’t reject you”.

It starts at home. It starts young. It will never, ever be too soon.

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Many of the things we don’t enjoy doing benefit us the most

EFFORT Education is key to a better future

UPSET Allsopp