Over the summer holiday my son, who is in Primary Five, was given what I consider to be an unreasonable amount of homework by his teacher at the international school he attends. He brought home a large wad of mostly uninspiring, mundane worksheets. It encroached on our time in Australia, during which we usually focus on visiting relatives and doing family activities, and it certainly put a damper on the holiday.
Teacher Julie McGuire replies:
My first question would be to ask if you checked that the homework was compulsory. Many international schools give little or no homework over the summer. Teachers often informally encourage children to make scrapbooks of their holidays or start researching topics they will be studying the following term, but this is usually optional.
However, in this case, whether the homework was compulsory or not may have made little difference to your son as he may have felt the need to complete it anyway out of loyalty to his teacher or simply to keep up with his classmates.
Schools often get different messages from parents about the quantity of homework they would like their child to receive.
Some parents complain if no homework is given out in the holidays as they think the continuity of practising skills and instilling self-discipline is important.
