These notes record the content of discussions amongst Year 5/6 children (date). These comments were written on PostIt notes by children working alone. Then they worked in groups of about five children each to discuss and organise their thoughts. The headings used here are mine, influenced by the children's suggestions. All comments are shown, even where they are repetitive.
Children's comments
Good or bad?
- Homework is brilliant
- I like homework
- I like homework
- I sort of like homework
- Sort of like it
- I hate it
- Good
- Good
- Homework is very good because you're not just at school doing work, you're at home as well
- I think homework is good
- Homework is good
- It's good to have homework
- It can be good but sometimes bad
- I don't particularly like homework but it's a good idea to help kids learn
- I think some homework is boring
- It's boring
- Homework gets easy sometimes
- I like homework when I can do it
- Sometimes it's hard and I don't want to do it
- Homework gets hard sometimes
- When I can't do it I hate it quite a bit
- It helps you learn at home
- Homework doesn't get me into trouble
- It's sometimes hard and I don't want to do it
- Sometimes it's hard
- Sometimes homework gets annoying
For everyone?
- I think little ones should have homework
- I think little children should have it once a week
- I think little children should do it so they can learn things quicker
- Homework shouldn't be given to young children
- Everyone should have some sort of homework
- Little children get homework, not just us!
- I think Key Stage 1 should do homework
- I think everyone and every class should have homework
- I think every class ought to get some homework
- I think the little ones should have a little bit of homework
- Everyone should have homework, even the little class
- Little kids should have very easy homework
Working at home
- You can choose when you do it in the space of time you have to do the homework in
- Being in your own home helps with concentrating on your school work
Interest of parents
- Homework is good because not just your teachers help; your mum and dad do too
- I like it when my dad talks about maths
- I like it when mum helps me with English
- You can get your mum or dad to help
What tasks you do
- Homework helps you prepare for your next lesson
- Homework should be on something you've done on the lesson before not on something completely new
- Homework can be hard but fun
- Good, exciting homework makes it more fun
- I like active ones
- Sometimes homework is fun
- I like making things
- I like homework when you make things
- I like homework when you have to do things
- Give us things to grow at home for homework
- Every class should have a bit a week about what they had been learning that week
- I like lots of experiments homework
- We should have a bring-stuff-in homework
- More drawing
- Crosswords
- Word searches
- Dot-to-dot
- I like homework with fun things in
- I'd like some homework where we look for facts about a thing or object or we show how much we know about something
- More spellings
- I don't like some types of homework
Same for everyone?
- Give us all the same homework
- I think that sending every one home with the x-table they dread and test them the next weekday etc.
- Teachers should make it slightly easier (?)
- If people need help on 1 certain thing homework can help
- I wasn't very good at reading but now I am
- I need to join my writing up
- I need harder spellings
How much?
- I think we should do more homework
- I think we should have more homework
- Homework 3 times a week on different stuff
- I think we should have twice a week
- Homework shouldn't be given in large quantities because you do a lot of work at school
- Homework amounts should be kept small
- Not too much
- I think we should do more homework
- I think we should have more homework
- More homework
- We should get homework about 3 times a week
- Not so much!
- I like homework if we don't have too much
- I think we should get at least 2-3 pieces of homework every week in Class 4
- More homework
- Have homework 2 days a week
- I think that Class 4 should have homework every week
- More homework
- Get more homework
Getting it in on time
- Homework is good but what if you didn't have time or something and your teacher doesn't believe you?
- Let us have more time
- We should have our homework more spaced out because sometimes we get three pieces of homework a weekend
- Some people might not be able to do it because they've got to do something right after school
- Never get time to do it
- I don't like homework because I don't have enough time
- I have clubs so I can't do it
- Sometimes I do not get to do my homework
- Sometimes we didn't have homework and when we do it's loads
What subjects?
- I hate science homework
- I hate literacy homework
- I think homework is quite good and quite bad but I really like it if it's a subject I like, like art and DT
- I like to do maths homework
- I like maths, art and DT
- I like homework in science
- Have English more often, not just because I like it, but I think we get more maths than English
- Have art homework, not just maths, science, literacy
- I hate maths homework
- I like doing art or DT homework
- I like technology homework
- I like English homework
- I like maths homework
- I like science homework
- Science homework
- Geography homework
- Science
- Maths homework
- More reading
- Reading
- Literacy homework
- Literacy
- I don't like maths homework
- Maths is fun
- Numeracy
Setting homework
- Explain a bit more when you give it out
- I can never understand it
- Homework should be fun and appeal to kids
- When I can't do it I leave it for another day
- I need more help with my spellings
What's it for?
Academic outcomes in the short and long term
- It gives us a good grade in SAT's
- I couldn't draw graphs but I can now because I practised at home
Development of generic skills
- Homework is good: it exercises your brain
- It helps us
- I think homework is good for you if you don't have too much to be done on the same day, because it helps you learn on your own?
- I think homework is good because it gets you ready for secondary school, because you get loads of homework there
- I think homework helps you at school
- It helps us learn at home and at school
- Homework is good because you don't just learn in school but you learn out of school too
- Homework makes you better at the subject
- It helps us to learn
- It helps us
- Good, because get better in school
- It helps us to think
- Sometimes you forget about it and leave it to the last minute
- Homework helps us to learn
- I think homework is good because you learn at home
- Homework helps you to memorise facts
- It helps you not forget what you are doing at school
- I think homework is good because it makes you learn at home
- Homework helps you learn more
- Homework gives you a boost
- Homework is good because it helps you revise over what you done that week at school
- Homework keeps your brain working
- Get better at doing work
- Remind all the things you've done through the year
- Homework is fun because you get to learn
Affective outcomes
- It gives us a goal
Effects of homework
- It makes me tired because of loads of reading and writing which makes me go to bed earlier
- I like playing games before doing my homework
- You can do something when you're bored
- I think some people think homework is boring but sometimes it isn't
- It gets you off your feet on a boring, rainy day
- It takes up time if you are bored
- Homework gives me something to do
