Homework, especially for primary age pupils, has become the subject of an increasingly ferocious debate. Despite government guidelines that primary school pupils should do at least 30 minutes of homework a day, some unions and academics doubt its efficacy, and protest that the home lives of pupils are becoming increasingly ‘schoolified’, robbing children of free time to play. One headline-grabbing best-seller, The Homework Myth, argues that frustrated children are made weepy, anxious and stressed by the demands put on them after a long day at school. 

Politicians justify homework for primary school children on the basis on evidence suggesting that what happens in the home is of vital importance to education. In the new ‘Children’s Plan’, ‘family learning’ is presented as pivotal to academic achievement, and schools have been tasked with eliminating ‘barriers to learning’ within the home. While some parents relish being surrounded by worksheets in numeracy, literacy and spelling, others prefer to spend time with their children doing other things: at parents’ evenings, those mums and dads can expect a ticking off from Miss Broom for not reading the right books for the right amount of time with their kids at home. Even those rebellious primaries that have abandoned formal homework have replaced it with ‘fun’, but teacher-directed, ‘activities that children can do with their parents’, such as making models, trips to museums or cookery.

How important is homework for primary age students, and what form should it take? Should parents take more responsibility for their children’s education, or are they being blamed for deficiencies in schooling? Is the government’s enthusiasm for homework is as much about disciplining parents as pupils.