Is the school right to ban homework?

YES

By Jennifer Barnes SPOKESWOMAN FOR VOICE THE UNION

WEEKNIGHT evenings are very short for families, particularly with earlier bed-times fo for primary-aged children.

As such there is the risk of homework pushing out family time and extracurricular activities, which children benefit g greatly from.

It’s positive to see that Inverlochy Primary School’s decision was reached as a result of consultation with parents.

This is not to say that children should be discouraged from activities such as reading after school.

Also, parental engagement in a child’s ed education is to be encouraged at all st stages.

There will be times when home projects maym be beneficial for primary pupils as part of parental involvement.

However, at the primary school stage, children should be encouraged to undertake any home-based activity, rather than taking the approach of setting mandatory homework and penalising pupils for failure to complete it.

If you let children choose what they want to read – whether that be a comic or a book – it encourages them to read.

If you tell them to read something they don’t want to, you turn it into a chore and can put them off learning altogether.

It’s more important to encourage them about learning.

NO

By Chris McGovern CAMPAIGN FOR REAL EDUCATION CHAIRMAN

HOMEWORKHOME is often portrayed as some sort of punishment.

ManyMan primary pupils, however, want to learn

True, they should not be overburdened but they do need homework.

Young children need to read with their parents and learn number bonds and tables to reinforce the work being done at school.

A problem only emerges when children are given meaningless, poorly thought-out, homework.

It needs to effectively support what is going on in class.

People who want to ban it often point to Finland as an example of somewhere pupils are given much less homework.

But it’s a different culture there. Finland has a high-quality teaching force and children also benefit from the high levels of adult literacy.

In comparison, there are a large number of parents in Britain who do not have the necessary reading and numeracy skills.

And if you want to see the benefits of homework, then you should take a look at China.

Pupils in Shanghai do the most homework and lead the field in international student assessment.

If you ditch homework in Scotland, children from the most deprived areas will lose out the most.