the amount of home work that secondary schools (and increasingly, primary schools)expect of  their students is phenomenal and unrealistic, as it is only school, generally that requires that much home work,, i mean if you have a job how much of it do you do at home?(not including stay at home parents whom have never known the pleasure of clocking off!!) I think up to one hour per night is plenty, until you get to exams etc in yr 11 and 12, then i suppose it depends on the student and by then they might have learned the value of study! I have a twenty year old son, who completed year twelve in 2004, and He studied up to five hours per night and on Saturdays, (he took Sundays off)during most of that year.  it nearly burned him out, He passed with good scores thankfully but even he doesnt think it was worth all that home work!  When i went to school we had a two hour bus ride each way to and from school, so i did all my home work on the bus and my parents didn't see any of it, but we didn't need the Internet back then, it'd be hard to do home work on the bus these days!  Ian.

I think that children need to have basic homework sent home with them in lower primary school which includes some spelling, addition, and a book to read to the parent/guardian.  Mostly revision work though. Then Grade 5-7 some more detailed homework like reading a novel with more pages and writing about it, or having more difficult maths homework then just revision so that in year 8 they are prepared for assignments. I think kids get enough assignments in high school that they probably don't need homework on top of it.

I also think that no more than 10/15 minutes for lower primary, no more than 1/2 an hour for upper primary and increase that gradually to no more than 1 to 1 1/2 hours a day for year 11 and 12 kids.

We have to keep in mind that many kids in high school are not only at school, they are involved in some kind of recreational/sports activity and many have jobs after school and weekends.  Heck, some even have babies to care for in year 11 or 12!

My brother is in year 12 and although he is doing well in exams and with assignments he is not completing his homework due to other commitments after school. He has a business he runs with our mother from home, he works at the pool weekends and he is Club Captain of the swimming club which means he has a lot of work to do with that. So I think there is far too much homework being sent home.

I think parents/guardians need to be more hands-on with homework in primary school and also help out as much as they can in secondary school. That's my essay for you :)

There is a big push towards no homework for schools throughout Australia. I both agree and disagree with it.

Agree because it gives me an indication of how my children are doing and at what stage they are at, if they need extra help with something, and also keeping up with what methods are being used to teach these days. This goes with both primary and high school. Also, when they get to Uni, TAFE,etc they are going to be expected to do work at home. If they do not learn at the outset, how are they ever to do this then?

Disagree because it can cut into family time, especially with the amount of parents working, sport committments, etc. and can cause great pressure on the child.A lot of parents out there (and I don't mean those on here, because as you are here I am assuming that you care about you child and how they are doing) who just don't want to have or don't care to have the time to sit down and help or supervise their children with homework.

While I fully support homework, once the kids get to high school, the amount of assignments as well as homework can be a drag. In high school, there are a lot more independent students as well these days who have to work to support themselves and this then cuts into their homework time. A child who is spending 5 hours on homework is not going to be in any state to learn the next day.

Sorry for the long answer, but as you can probably tell, homework is something I have strong views about. Cheers

Leisa