Schools and Covid 19 (part 5) **Mod warnings in OP**

There's only 2 full weeks left of school for this term and more generally it's a good move on the schools part.

Smiling reduces stress levels and stimulates endorphins as does being smiled at. Babies and young children love to see smiles 🙂

Our School has become fairly lite on homework too, I am delighted, homework achieves nothing, gives parents a pain their ass, causes nothing but stress, my girls walk to school and walk home and according to their teacher put in a great effort at school and work hard. They are shattered by 4pm and up at 7am. About time schools gave it up completely.

It was all a pack of lies to keep them open. And the really dopey lapped up the unscientific nonsense about how it was play dates and sleepovers were the issue.

Our govt and nphet have nothing but contempt for us, they really think we are absolute gombeens.

On the homework debate, I can understand the parents view that the teachers/school are just looking for an easy life. I’m a teacher with 15 years of experience and I’ve tried every approach to homework that I could within my current place of works policy. Some things I’ve learned (these are generalisations which obviously don’t cover every child/parent/teacher, just some general trends). Also worth noting I’ve worked mainly with senior classes where lots of written work would be the norm.

1. The important homework (reading, phonics, learning of tables etc) usually gets the least attention at home but is the only homework that really benefits the child long term. And I’ve found when there is no written homework this stuff doesn’t get done at all. Makes no sense to me but it’s what happens.
2. Parents like predictable, repetitive work which isn’t all that beneficial to the child. And generally both parents and children hate anything that might require their child to think outside of the box - I’m talking problem solving, project work etc. I’m not criticising here, parents are busy and kids have after school activities etc. If I deviate from the standard homework I give most weeks at all, I get all kinds of complaints.
3. Homework takes up a shocking amount of school time. Last year when we went back to school after covid we gave no homework at all for September. I was stunned at how much class time I suddenly got back. The 20/30 writing down homework, giving out books and worksheets, explaining what had to be done. The 30/40 minutes (on a good day) correcting homework, giving feedback, dealing with the child who missed a week and couldn’t do the homework, dealing with the child who forgot to bring something home/back into school. And don’t get me started on the rows with the child who never does their homework. Never mind the poor child who is inconsolable because they forgot to do something and they think they are going to be in major trouble. That’s an hour minimum of my day that I gained where I could actually teach something new! It was eye opening.
4. A huge number of parents just give their children the answers to their homework which is a giant waste of everyone’s time.
5. Teachers spend a huge amount of time organising homework that they think your child should be able to do alone. Yes it’s part of our job but there is only so much time I’m going to give to my job after school hours. Id much rather be organising more interactive/engaging lessons that will actually benefit my students.

So my current approach to homework is I give homework but it’s optional. If the children do it, great! I’ll correct it, give feedback etc. If they don’t, fine. I record that it hasn’t been done, keep the parents informed and that’s the end of it. And you know what? The child who doesn’t do the homework achieves just as well as a similar ability child who spends up to an hour each doing homework. Tables and reading are the only things that really make any real difference to a child’s achievement in my experience.