No homework at this UK school

From TODAY, World
Tuesday September 30, 2008

British education

LONDON — Homework is to be scrapped due to the amount of tension it causes, at a school set to become the biggest in the United Kingdom.

Nottingham East Academy, which will have 3,570 pupils when it opens next year, says it will replace homework with an extra lesson and after-school activities. It claims to be the first school in the country to take such a stand.

Mr Barry Day, who is set to become principal at the new academy, believes the move will help children from poorer or illiterate families and those whose parents do not speak English.

“If you ask most heads what most detentions are for, they will tell you for non-completion of homework,” he said.

“Homework causes an enormous amount of home conflict … It is often set simply because there is an expectation it should be set. It does not help with education at all.“

Earlier this year, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) called for an all-out ban on homework in primary schools, saying that forcing pupils to work at home was counter-productive.

Ms Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL, said in March: “I think a lot of homework is a waste of time. It puts a huge amount of stress, particularly on disadvantaged children from disadvantaged homes.”

The new academy, which plans to scrap homework in 2011, will retain some homework for exam revision and coursework, but otherwise it will ask parents to encourage their children to read books in a relaxed manner, and report twice a term on what they have read.

Government guidance suggests between 45 and 90 minutes of homework a night for pupils in the first year of secondary school.

But some leading schools ask 11 and 12-year-olds to complete three or four hours’ homework.

Nottingham East academy will cost about £50 million ($129 million) and educate children from nursery age to 19.

Last week, Tiffin Boys’ School in southwest London decided to scale back homework schedules amid fears that it was leaving pupils “depressed”.

The top-rated grammar school wrote to parents telling them it will limit homework to one 40-minute assignment, along with 20 minutes of independent study.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH