HOMEWORK

The headteacher of a leading Scottish prep school has banned his teachers from setting homework because he thinks meddling parents are harming children's education. John Elder, who took over at the £12,000-a-year Cargilfield School in Edinburgh earlier this month, said he believed the move would lead to a sharp improvement in grades. Mr Elder said, "I feel it's very important that the teacher is present because, certainly in my experience, parents can be more of a problem than a solution. Especially in subjects like maths and science, parents can be a little out of touch and can do more harm than good."

Mr Elder said almost all parents at the school, which teaches children aged three to 13, had supported the move. It had also been popular among pupils. But Mr Elder said the new approach wasn't a "joyride or an easy option". He hoped many pupils would choose to make the most of their free time by revising what they had been taught in their weaker subjects. "When children leave school, they should be able to organise their own work and not have it organised for them," he said.

"We give the pupils advice on what they should be studying but at the end of the day it is up to the individual pupil to decide what he or she should be doing extra work on. We do teach until 6pm every evening so I feel that's plenty time to do most of the work needed." Mr Elder said he had introduced a similar regime at his previous school, Beeston Hall School in Norfolk, and had seen a 20% increase in grades. Participation in extra-curricular activities had rocketed at Cargilfield since the ban on homework.

Research published by London's Institute of Education early in 2004 found that homework was a cause of "anxiety" and "emotional exhaustion" in many families and said stress was at its highest when parents tried to take too much control of how children were approaching their homework. A survey in 2000 found that parents said they spent an average of seven hours a week on their children's homework.

Mr Elder believed the ban was a boon to parents. he said, "They don't have to suffer the kitchen scene where they have to console their weeping child and do not have the faintest idea how to do the problems themselves. Home is for home life and I believe nearly all work should be completed in school."

Judith Gillespie, from the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, said, "I think Mr Elder is quite right to take parents out of the homework equation. Parents generally know the 'old way' of doing problems in, for example, maths, and trying to help can infuriate an already upset child even further. This method trusts kids to do things for themselves and stand on their own two feet." (Source: The Independent)

Hundreds of schools have barred teachers from marking in red in case it upsets the children. They are scrapping the traditional method of correcting work because they consider it ‘confrontational’ and ‘threatening’. Pupils increasingly find that the ticks and crosses on their homework are in more soothing shades like green, blue, pink and yellow, or even in pencil. Crofton Junior School, in Orpington, Kent, whose pupils range from seven to 11, is among those to have banned red ink.

Headmaster Richard Sammonds said, "Red pen can be quite demotivating for children. It has negative, old-school connotations of 'See me' and 'Not good enough'. We are no longer producing clerks and bookkeepers. We are trying to provide an education for children coming into the workforce in the 21st century. The idea is to raise standards by taking a positive approach. We highlight bits that are really good in one colour and use a different colour to mark areas that could be improved."

Shirley Clarke, an associate of the Institute of Education, said, "Banning red ink is a reaction to years of children having nothing but red over their work and feeling demoralised. When children, especially young children, see every single spelling mistake covered in red, they can feel useless and give up." Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said, "Banning red ink is absolutely barmy. Common sense suggests that children learn by their mistakes and occasionally they need upsetting to teach them to pull their socks up. Self-esteem has to be built on genuine achievement, not mollycoddling, which only harms children in the long-run. Red ink is the quickest way for pupils to see where they are going wrong and raise standards." (Source: Daily Mail, Dec/08)