does the uk have homework

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https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2018/10/28/education-secretary-i-trust-head-teachers-to-decide-their-homework-policies/

Education Secretary: I trust head teachers to decide their homework policies

Education Secretary Damian Hinds has today written an op-ed for the Sunday Times setting out his position on homework, which has been followed up with a news story . He says that ultimately up to heads and school leaders to decide whether to set homework and what the consequences should be if children do not complete their homework set.

The Education Secretary said:

One of the tougher things I’ve taken on recently was solving a ‘part-whole model’, involving nine ducks and a jagged shoreline. This was, I should clarify, a piece of homework for one of my children, not something called for in my day job. Homework is a staple of school life, and of home life. Parents know this. After all, almost every one of us will have done homework ourselves as a child and most of us will be drafted in to help with it at some point as a parent, carer or grandparent. There has been some high-profile interest of late on social media suggesting that homework is bad for children, at least in the first half of schooling. There have even been subsequent questions about its legal status. 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 head teachers 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. Autonomy for schools, and the diversity that comes with it, is at the heart of this government’s approach to education. Of course, schools should, and do, communicate with parents. Parents need to know where they stand. Teachers obviously need to be realistic about expectations, and they know this. Obviously, no one wants children spending an inordinate amount of time every night doing homework. Clearly, there are other important things to do, too – like playing outside, family time, eating together. Good homework policies avoid excessive time requirements – focusing on quality rather than quantity and making sure that there is a clear purpose to any homework set. In 2011 we helped set up the Education Endowment Foundation as an independent expert body to study and advise on “what works” in education. It has established that, although there are more significant educational improvements derived from homework at secondary school, there can still be a modest but positive impact at primary level. Homework isn’t just some joyless pursuit of knowledge. It’s an integral part of learning. Beyond the chance to practice and reinforce what you’ve learned in class, it’s also an opportunity to develop independent study and application – and character traits like perseverance. Children need to know that what they do has consequences. At secondary school, if a pupil doesn’t complete their homework, they risk falling behind. They may also hold up others – clearly it is harder for the teacher to keep the whole class moving forward if some are doing the homework and others aren’t. At primary school, too, we all want our children to develop their knowledge – but we also want them to develop values. Homework set at primary school is likely to be of relatively shorter duration. But if a child is asked to do it and they don’t, for that to have no consequence would not be a positive lesson. Ultimately, of course, the responsibility for a child’s educational development is a shared one. Parental involvement makes a big difference, from the very earliest stage. In the early years parents can support their child’s development through story telling, singing or reading together. Later on, homework can give an ‘in’ for continued involvement in learning. Homework should not in general require adult help, and with today’s busy lives it certainly can be hard to find the time. But I know as a parent that we are called on as reinforcements if an assignment is especially challenging. Other times, it falls to parents just to give a nudge. I want all children to enjoy their progress through school and they will have a much better chance of doing this if they are not having to play catch-up during the day. Parents need to trust teachers, with all their experience of teaching and learning – and know that their child’s homework is not just proportionate, but will be of lasting benefit. From motivation and self-discipline to the wonder of independent learning, homework can teach children about far more than the part-whole model, some ducks and a jagged shoreline.

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Children doing 2½ hours’ schoolwork a day on average

15 June 2020

Children locked down at home in the UK spend an average of 2.5 hours each day doing schoolwork, new research by UCL Institute of Education (IOE) suggests.

This figure is about half that suggested by a previous survey, implying that learning losses are much greater than previously thought.

In addition, the variability in the amount of schoolwork being done at home is adding to existing regional and socioeconomic inequalities. The study shows one fifth of pupils, which is the equivalent of two million children in the UK, did no schoolwork at home, or less than an hour a day. While 17 per cent put in more than four hours a day.

The working paper, published today by the IOE's LLAKES centre , uses data collected in the last two weeks of April from a special online survey of respondents in the Understanding Society panel, a UK Household Longitudinal Study covering 4,559 children from households throughout the UK.

Study lead, Professor Francis Green, said: “The closure of schools, and their only-partial re-opening, constitute a potential threat to the educational development of a generation of children. This new evidence from the Understanding Society COVID survey paints a gloomy picture of lost schooling and low amounts of schoolwork at home.

“Everyone is losing out in this generation, some much more than others. Better home schoolwork provision, and better still an early safe return to school for as many as possible, should now become a top priority for government.”

In addition to the amount of time spent on schoolwork, each type of schoolwork also varies across the UK. The report shows that pupils in London, the South and East of England and Northern Ireland are receiving more offline schoolwork, such as assignments, worksheets and watching videos, than elsewhere in the UK. In the South East region, for example, 28 per cent of children are receiving four or more pieces of offline schoolwork per day, compared with the countrywide average of 20 per cent.

Offline schoolwork is lowest in the North East of England, where the proportion receiving four or more daily pieces is just nine per cent.

Online teaching is most common in London, with 12.5 per cent of children receiving four or more online lessons or meetings daily, compared with the countrywide average of 7 per cent. The top rate of online provision is especially scarce in Wales, where the proportion is just 2 per cent.

Children from London, the South and the East of England and in Northern Ireland are also spending the most time on their schoolwork.

Children who are eligible for free school meals appear to be additionally disadvantaged during lockdown, with 15 per cent receiving four or more pieces of offline schoolwork compared to 21 per cent of children who are not eligible for support. This difference is reflected in the proportions spending more than four hours on schoolwork: 11 per cent for those on free school meals, 19 per cent among those not eligible.

“We also found that a large proportion of children on free school meals – 20 per cent – have no access to a computer at home. This compares with 7 per cent for other children. The lack of a computer is likely to considerably harm their ability to do schoolwork at home, submit it and have it checked,” added Professor Green.

Gaps in the provision of online lessons and meetings are particularly pronounced between private and state schools: 31 per cent of private schools provided four or more lessons daily, as compared with just 6 per cent in state schools.

Private schools have far more resources, and are expected to provide them by fee-paying parents. Virtually all schoolchildren attending private schools (97 per cent) had access to a computer at home and were provided with more offline work: 31 per cent of private schools provided four or more pieces compared with 22 per cent of state schools. In addition, in a half of private schools, pupils spend four or more hours per day on schoolwork, as opposed to just 18 per cent of state schools.

The study found that time spent on schoolwork differs between boys and girls: 20 per cent of girls put in four or more hours, compared with 14 per cent of boys. However, this sex difference is also true of homework in normal times.

The report concludes by reinforcing calls for government to give education a much greater priority in the management of the pandemic response, and for this response to include a focus on regional disparities.

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Dr Rebecca Caygill, UCL Media Relations T: +44 (0)20 3108 3846 / +44 (0)7733 307 596 E: [email protected]

• Read the paper:  Schoolwork in lockdown: new evidence on the epidemic of educational poverty
• View Professor Francis Green's research profile
• Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES)
• Department of Education, Practice and Society

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The role of homework

Homework seems to be an accepted part of teachers’ and students’ routines, but there is little mention of it in ELT literature.

The role of homework is hardly mentioned in the majority of general ELT texts or training courses, suggesting that there is little question as to its value even if the resulting workload is time-consuming. However, there is clearly room for discussion of homework policies and practices particularly now that technology has made so many more resources available to learners outside the classroom.

Reasons for homework

• Attitudes to homework
• Effective homework
• Types of homework
• Homework is expected by students, teachers, parents and institutions.
• Homework reinforces and helps learners to retain information taught in the classroom as well as increasing their general understanding of the language.
• Homework develops study habits and independent learning. It also encourages learners to acquire resources such as dictionaries and grammar reference books. Research shows that homework also benefits factual knowledge, self-discipline, attitudes to learning and problem-solving skills.
• Homework offers opportunities for extensive activities in the receptive skills which there may not be time for in the classroom. It may also be an integral part of ongoing learning such as project work and the use of a graded reader.
• Homework provides continuity between lessons. It may be used to consolidate classwork, but also for preparation for the next lesson.
• Homework may be used to shift repetitive, mechanical, time-consuming tasks out of the classroom.
• Homework bridges the gap between school and home. Students, teachers and parents can monitor progress. The institution can involve parents in the learning process.
• Homework can be a useful assessment tool, as part of continual or portfolio assessment.

Attitudes to homework Teachers tend to have mixed feelings about homework. While recognising the advantages, they observe negative attitudes and poor performance from students. Marking and giving useful feedback on homework can take up a large proportion of a teacher’s time, often after school hours.

• Students themselves complain that the homework they are given is boring or pointless, referring to homework tasks that consist of studying for tests, doing workbook exercises, finishing incomplete classwork, memorising lists of vocabulary and writing compositions. Where this is actually the case, the negative effects of homework can be observed, typified by loss of interest and a view of homework as a form of punishment.
• Other negative effects of poorly managed homework include lack of necessary leisure time and an increased differential between high and low achievers. These problems are often the cause of avoidance techniques such as completing homework tasks in class, collaborating and copying or simply not doing the required tasks. In turn, conflict may arise between learners, teachers, parents and the institution.

Effective homework In order for homework to be effective, certain principles should be observed.

• Students should see the usefulness of homework. Teachers should explain the purpose both of homework in general and of individual tasks.
• Tasks should be relevant, interesting and varied.
• Good classroom practice also applies to homework. Tasks should be manageable but achievable.
• Different tasks may be assigned to different ability groups. Individual learning styles should be taken into account.
• Homework should be manageable in terms of time as well as level of difficulty. Teachers should remember that students are often given homework in other subjects and that there is a need for coordination to avoid overload. A homework diary, kept by the learner but checked by teachers and parents is a useful tool in this respect.
• Homework is rarely co-ordinated within the curriculum as a whole, but should at least be incorporated into an overall scheme of work and be considered in lesson planning.
• Homework tends to focus on a written product. There is no reason why this should be the case, other than that there is visible evidence that the task has been done.
• Learner involvement and motivation may be increased by encouraging students to contribute ideas for homework and possibly design their own tasks. The teacher also needs to know how much time the students have, what facilities they have at home, and what their preferences are. A simple questionnaire will provide this data.
• While homework should consolidate classwork, it should not replicate it. Home is the outside world and tasks which are nearer to real-life use of language are appropriate.
• If homework is set, it must be assessed in some way, and feedback given. While marking by the teacher is sometimes necessary, peer and self-assessment can encourage learner independence as well as reducing the teacher’s workload. Motivating students to do homework is an ongoing process, and encouragement may be given by commenting and asking questions either verbally or in written form in order to demonstrate interest on the teacher’s part, particularly in the case of self-study and project work.

Types of homework There are a number of categories of useful and practicable homework tasks.

• Workbook-based tasks Most published course materials include a workbook or practice book, mainly including consolidation exercises, short reading texts and an answer key. Most workbooks claim to be suitable for both class and self-study use, but are better used at home in order to achieve a separation of what is done in class and at home. Mechanical practice is thus shifted out of class hours, while this kind of exercise is particularly suited to peer- or self-checking and correction.
• Preparation tasks Rarely do teachers ask learners to read through the next unit of a coursebook, though there are advantages in involving students in the lesson plan and having them know what is coming. More motivating, however, is asking students to find and bring materials such as photographs and pictures, magazine articles and realia which are relevant to the next topic, particularly where personalisation or relevance to the local context requires adaptation of course materials.
• Extensive tasks Much can be gained from the use of graded readers, which now often have accompanying audio material, radio and TV broadcasts, podcasts and songs. Sometimes tasks need to be set as guidance, but learners also need to be encouraged to read, listen and watch for pleasure. What is important is that learners share their experiences in class. Extensive reading and listening may be accompanied by dictionary work and a thematic or personalised vocabulary notebook, whereby learners can collect language which they feel is useful.
• Guided discovery tasks Whereas classroom teaching often involves eliciting language patterns and rules from learners, there is also the option of asking learners to notice language and make deductions for themselves at home. This leads to the sharing of knowledge and even peer teaching in the classroom.
• Real-world tasks These involve seeing, hearing and putting language to use in realistic contexts. Reading magazines, watching TV, going to the cinema and listening to songs are obvious examples, offering the option of writing summaries and reviews as follow-up activities. Technology facilitates chat and friendship networks, while even in monolingual environments, walking down a shopping street noticing shop and brand names will reveal a lot of language. As with extensive tasks, it is important for learners to share their experiences, and perhaps to collect them in a formal or informal portfolio.
• Project work It is a good idea to have a class or individual projects running over a period of time. Projects may be based on topics from a coursebook, the locality, interests and hobbies or selected individually. Project work needs to be guided in terms of where to find resources and monitored regularly, the outcome being a substantial piece of work at the end of a course or term of which the learner can claim ownership.

Conclusion Finally, a word about the Internet. The Web appears to offer a wealth of opportunity for self-study. Certainly reference resources make project work easier and more enjoyable, but cutting and pasting can also be seen as an easy option, requiring little originality or understanding. Conferring over homework tasks by email can be positive or negative, though chatting with an English-speaking friend is to be encouraged, as is searching for visual materials. Both teachers and learners are guilty of trawling the Net for practice exercises, some of which are untried, untested and dubious in terms of quality. Learners need guidance, and a starting point is to provide a short list of reliable sites such as the British Council's  LearnEnglish  and the BBC's Learning English  which provide a huge variety of exercises and activities as well as links to other reliable sources. Further reading Cooper, H. Synthesis of Research on Homework . Educational Leadership 47/3, 1989 North, S. and Pillay, H. Homework: re-examining the routin e. ELT Journal 56/2, April 2002 Painter, L. Homework . English Teaching Professional, Issue 10, 1999 Painter, L. Homework . OUP Resource Books for Teachers, 2003

First published in October 2007

Mr. Steve Darn I liked your…

Mr. Steve Darn I liked your method of the role of the homework . Well, I am one of those laggard people. Unfortunately, when it comes to homework, I definitely do it. Because, a student or pupil who understands new topics, of course, does his homework to know how much he understands the new topic. I also completely agree with all of Steve Darn's points above. However, sometimes teachers give a lot of riff-raff homework, just like homework is a human obligation. This is a plus. But in my opinion, first of all, it is necessary to divide the time properly, and then to do many tasks at home. Only then will you become an "excellent student" in the eyes of the teacher. Although we live in the age of technology, there are still some people who do not know how to send homework via email. Some foreign teachers ask to send tasks by email. Constant email updates require time and, in rare cases, a fee. My above points have been the cause of constant discussions.

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The pros and cons of homework

Should schoolwork be left at the school gate?

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1. Pro: improves academic achievement

2. con: risk of artificial intelligence, 3. pro: other benefits of homework, 4. con: less time with family and friends, 5. pro: parent involvement, 6. con: stress for students and teachers.

Homework should be scrapped to give children more time for “other creative things”, the president of Ireland has said.

UK pupils do more homework than many European countries Irish president Michael D Higgins begins historic UK visit

Speaking to Irish broadcaster RTE, Michael D. Higgins said school work should be “finished at the school” rather than at home, “an utterance likely to be seized upon by children for years to come in classrooms far beyond the shores of the Emerald Isle”, said the Independent .

Here are some of the benefits and some of the negative effects of homework for schoolchildren.

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A 2006 meta-analysis of research by Duke University in North Carolina found that children who have homework perform better academically at school. But it doesn’t benefit all students equally, the research found. The correlation was stronger for older students (12 and over) than younger students.

But the evidence is far from conclusive over whether homework really does increase student achievement. Other studies have found that it has a positive effect only under certain conditions, while others have found negative effects, and some studies suggest homework does not affect student achievement at all.

The arrival of highly sophisticated artificial intelligence chatbots, such as ChatGPT , could make it easier for students to cheat on their essays or homework – or even force teachers and professors to scrap homework altogether.

ChatGPT has been “trained on a gigantic sample of text from the internet” and can “understand human language, conduct conversations with humans and generate detailed text that many have said is human-like and quite impressive”, said the Daily Mail .

Kevin Bryan, an associate professor of strategic management at the University of Toronto, tweeted that he was “shocked” by the capabilities of ChatGPT after challenging the AI to answer numerous exam questions and found that it gave A-grade answers.

Evidence suggests that homework can bring non-academic benefits, particularly for younger school students. These include “learning the importance of responsibility, managing time, developing study habits, and staying with a task until it is completed”, said Reading Rockets , a national public media literacy initiative in the US.

The British Council agreed that it helps to develop “study habits and independent learning”, as well as helping students to “retain information taught in the classroom” and involving parents in learning.

TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp weighed in on the debate recently, urging parents to “enjoy the weekend” with their children, branding homework a “waste of time”.

“Find a book, cuddle up and read it together, or watch Winterwatch, or cook something with kids doing all the weighing and chopping. Then put that in the homework diary and enjoy your weekend with your kids,” she wrote on Twitter .

“There is nothing better for children than spending time with you, talking, doing and learning at the same time,” she said. “Following a recipe is reading, maths, science and fine motor skills in one activity.”

Homework can be a good way for parents to stay up to date with what their child is being taught in class as well as monitor their progress. But the extent to which parental involvement with homework is beneficial for children is still a matter of debate.

According to Reading Rockets, some studies show that homework assignments that require interactions between students and parents are “more likely to be turned in” than assignments that don’t require parental input. But other studies have found that “parent involvement in homework has no impact on student achievement”.

Educators and parents responded to President Higgins’ comments to say homework is a source of stress for all involved.

Replying to a Facebook post by Hull Live , one teacher said it was “a pain sourcing, copying, chasing and marking it”, while other parents said homework placed undue stress on young children. “I think they do enough work in the school hours as it is,” said one parent, while another commented: “Children need to switch off when they get home. No wonder children suffer mental health issues, they are burnt out before they reach secondary school.”

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  Sorcha Bradley is a writer at The Week and a regular on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast. She worked at The Week magazine for a year and a half before taking up her current role with the digital team, where she mostly covers UK current affairs and politics. Before joining The Week, Sorcha worked at slow-news start-up Tortoise Media. She has also written for Sky News, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard and Grazia magazine, among other publications. She has a master’s in newspaper journalism from City, University of London, where she specialised in political journalism.

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I'm a college student from the UK studying abroad in the US. I have a lot more homework here, but it's easier to pass.

• I'm a college student at a university in Scotland who's studying abroad in California right now. 
• I was surprised to learn that in the US, there's a lot more homework but it's easier to pass.
• In the UK, textbooks are free, and we're allowed to use laptops in the classroom.

Because I've lived in three countries throughout my life, I have a unique educational background. I grew up in Poland, which is where I went to school for most of my life. When it came time for college , I moved to the UK to attend the University of Stirling in Scotland.

When I found out it offered study-abroad programs in the US, I immediately wanted to go. Since January, I have been studying at San Diego State University in California, and I'll remain here until June. 

After taking college courses in the US and the UK , I've found five main differences between their college-education systems.

In my classes in the US, there is so much more homework — and it all counts toward my final grade

I was slightly taken aback by the difference in the weekly workload. 

In the UK, I had only three classes a semester, and homework for each of them took no more than a couple of hours to complete each week. Usually, I had to watch video lectures, do the readings, and post something on a discussion board. While most of that was technically mandatory, it never counted toward my grade.

It's very different in the US. Firstly, I have to take at least four classes each semester. Secondly, the professors give us much more homework than I ever got back in the UK. There's about three times as much reading to do on a weekly basis as in Scotland. Additionally, there are quizzes for all lecture videos, more discussion-board posts to write, and exams almost every week. 

While in the UK, I spent about two hours weekly doing homework. In the US, it takes me two hours for each class. And the worst part is the homework counts toward my final grade.

Related stories

Failing a class because I didn't do the reading is something I never had to worry about at my home university.

Writing an essay in the US is much easier for me

In the UK, my grade for each class was solely based on two essays — each counting for 50% of my final grade. The 2,000-word essays required at least six academic sources and a bibliography. It took many hours to do research for these essays — not counting the hours it took to actually write them.

In the US, I have more papers to write — 10 in one semester — but the requirements are less strict. For instance, only one of them required a bibliography, and the sources could've been news articles, which are much easier to find and read than academic sources. This greatly shortened the number of hours it took me to write a paper. In the states, I finish all my papers in half the time, as I don't need to read hundreds of pages I barely understand.

While British professors require you to apply academic sources to prove your arguments, American professors encourage more creative thinking and allow analysis not supported by references.

As for grading, I found it's much more difficult for me to get a high score in the UK

When I was a student in the UK, my grades hovered in the 60% to 70% range — and that's considered very good. For instance, I once wrote an essay that the professor described as "excellent," and they couldn't point out a single flaw; the professor gave me an 80%, and I was ecstatic. 

You can imagine my horror when I got to the US and learned 60% was considered failing. 

When I first learned about the difference in grading, I was quite worried my entire exchange would be spent in the library studying and trying not to fail. Fortunately, it turns out my professors in the US aren't half as harsh while grading papers as mine were back home.

All the resources I needed like textbooks in the UK are available online and for free

In the UK, almost all my required readings were free to read online in the library. The university took care to make sure students had all the resources they might need. I'd had to buy only one textbook since my first year, and I spent $31 on it.

But in the US, I have spent almost $300 on textbooks — just for this one semester. I access most of them online, so it feels strange to pay for something I usually get for free back home.

Some professors I had in the US banned me from using laptops in the classroom

At my Scottish university, almost all the resources I needed were available online, so we accessed them on our laptops in class. 

I was surprised to learn that some professors in the US ban laptops in class. My textbooks are still online, so I've struggled to access the reading several times.

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Why homework isn't working

Amelia Warren, a nine-year-old from Maidstone, Kent, knows about homework. It is 6.20pm by the time she gets home from her after-school club, but she still has to sit down to worksheets covering numeracy, literacy and spelling. At the weekend she fits projects for her teacher in between dance lessons and football games.

'It would really surprise you,' said her mother, Laura. 'Some nights she has sheets with 100 times tables. I don't want it to become a chore because it will put her off. I work full-time; I do not want the time we spend together to be me and her battling about homework.'

Family tension is just one of a string of negative effects of homework for young children, according to an explosive new book which says much of it is pointless. The book, The Homework Myth, to be published in Britain in the spring, also says too much if it turns children off education and does not make them do any better in tests.

The study, by American academic Alfie Kohn, has sparked a huge debate on TV and radio and in hundreds of newspapers. Last week it reached the Wall Street Journal, where it was reported that some of America's most competitive schools were cutting or eliminating work beyond their gates.

'What surprised me is not the downside of homework, but the fact there appears to be no upside,' said Kohn. 'No study has ever shown an academic benefit to homework before high school.'

In the UK, it has emerged that a handful of primary school headteachers have started to drop traditional styles of homework in favour of 'fun' activities and outings that parents and children can do together. One London school has swapped sums and endless spelling for museum trips and cookery tasks.

Even that is too much for Kohn, who will spend his year giving dozens of lectures calling for parents to 'organise' into groups and go into schools to demand changes. 'Kids should have the chance to relax after a full day at school,' he said. In Kohn's eyes, primary schoolchildren should do no more than read for pleasure when they get home.

Soon his message will reach the UK, where the government made homework compulsory nine years ago, starting at one hour a week for five-year-olds. It is likely to reject his arguments.

'Homework is an essential part of education,' said a Department for Education and Skills official. 'A good, well-organised homework programme helps children and young people to develop the skills and attitudes they will need for successful, independent life-long learning.'

It is a view shared by many parents. Andy Hibberd, co-founder of the support group the Parent Organisation, says his sons aged seven and nine benefit greatly from the work they bring home. 'When they go to secondary school, then further and higher education, they will have to do homework,' said Hibberd, from Wingworth, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire. 'I think for primary school children to start bringing home a little bit of homework so they are prepared is a good thing. It does not hurt younger children to do 10 minutes a day.'

However, a recent review by Susan Hallam, a professor at the Institute for Education in London, showed that setting the wrong type of work can be detrimental to pupils. 'It needs to be meaningful,' said Hallam. 'If it is just being set as something schools feel they have to do with no real thought to its purpose, then it is a waste of time. Homework, if taken to the extreme, can completely disrupt family life.'

Some headteachers are sceptical too. 'Many teachers have long suspected homework wasn't beneficial for the children,' said John Peck, head of Peafield Lane Primary School in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. 'Sometimes it is done more for the parents who demand it. It would be a brave school that decided to eliminate homework.'

At Coleridge primary school in north London, the head, Shirley Boffey, has replaced many aspects of traditional homework with 'home learning'. Sums, grammar and spelling have been reduced. Instead worksheets filled with ideas about making models, trips to museums, cookery and art are sent home.

One sheet suggests that parents take their children to nearby Alexandra Palace to look through the telescope; another asks them to make bread together; while one focuses on learning about the local area. 'We did it for all the reasons that they are arguing in the US,' said Boffey. 'We didn't feel homework was working, we wanted children to enjoy learning and not see it as a chore.'

Some parents love the new system; others are yet to be convinced. Vikki Poole, from Muswell Hill, has two daughters at the school, aged seven and 10, and loves the new system. Her girls took home 'very formulaic' work from their last school. Now the family gets together once a week to do the tasks and Poole loves the new system.

But for others, such as Ilana Wegrzyn, the new regime means extra stress. 'I have two boys, eight and 10. One may have to cook a curry and the other one bake bread. Each topic can take an afternoon. I work part- time, but with their music and sport it is a really pressure.'

Wegrzyn prefers more traditional homework, but she could not deny that her boys love the new work.

Try this at home

The old way

· Complete a page of sums out of a textbook

· Learn lists of spellings by rote

· Learn the times tables

· Fill in a wordsearch

The new way

· Parents help their children to design a poster about their favourite toy, label it and write about what it is called, how old it is, what it is made from and why it is particularly special to them

· Create a work of art using only recycled materials

· Devise a multiplication quiz to play with other pupils. As the maker of the quiz, the child will have to know the answers

· Keep a moon diary, drawing a diagram of the moon each night. Notice how the shape of the moon changes and name the phases

• The Observer

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