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The Great British Homework Debate 2024 – Is It Necessary At Primary School?

Alexander Athienitis

The homework debate is never much out of the news. Should homework be banned? Is homework at primary school a waste of time? Do our children get too much homework?

Not long ago, UK-based US comedian Rob Delaney set the world alight with a tweet giving his own personal view of homework at primary school. We thought, as an organisation that provides maths homework support on a weekly basis, it was time to look at the facts around the homework debate in primary schools as well as, of course, reflecting the views of celebrities and those perhaps more qualified to offer an opinion!

Here’s how Rob Delaney kicked things off

Gary Lineker leant his support with the following soundbite:

And even Piers Morgan weighed in, with his usual balance of tact and sensitivity:

A very experienced and knowledgeable Headteacher, Simon Smith, who has a well-earned following on Twitter (for someone working in education, not hosting Match of the Day) also put his neck on the line and, some might think controversially, agreed with the golden-heeled Crisp King of Leicester…

Fortunately Katharine Birbalsingh, Conservative Party Conference keynote speaker and Founding Headteacher of the Michaela School, was on hand to provide the alternative view on the importance of homework. Her op-ed piece in the Sun gave plenty of reasons why homework should not be banned.

She was informative and firm in her article stating: “Homework is essential for a child’s education because revisiting the day’s learning is what helps to make it stick.”

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How much homework do UK primary school children get?

Sadly, there’s little data comparing how much homework primary school-aged children in the UK and across the globe complete on a weekly basis. A study of teenagers used by The Telegraph shows that American high-schoolers spend an average of 6.1 hours per week compared with 4.9 hours per week of homework each week for UK-based teens.

Up until 2012, the Department of Education recommended an hour of homework a week for primary school Key Stage 1 children (aged 4 to 7) and half an hour a day for primary school Key Stage 2 children (aged 7-11). Many primary schools still use this as a guideline.

Teachers, parents and children in many schools across the land have seen more changes of homework policy than numbers of terms in some school years.

A ‘no-homework’ policy pleases only a few; a grid of creative tasks crowd-sourced from the three teachers bothered to give their input infuriates many (parents, teachers and children alike). For some parents, no matter how much homework is set, it’s never enough; for others, even asking them to fill in their child’s reading record once a week can be a struggle due to a busy working life.

Homework is very different around the world

We’d suggest that Piers Morgan’s argument for homework in comparing the UK’s economic and social progress with China’s in recent years based on total weekly homework hours is somewhat misguided – we can’t put their emergence as the world’s (if not already, soon to be) leading superpower exclusively down to having their young people endure almost triple the number of hours spent completing homework as their Western counterparts.

Nonetheless, there’s certainly a finer balance to strike between the 14 hours a week suffered by Shanghainese school-attendees and none whatsoever. Certainly parents in the UK spend less time each week helping their children than parents in emerging economies such as India, Vietnam and Colombia (Source: Varkey Foundation Report).

Disadvantages of homework at primary school

Delaney, whose son attends a London state primary school, has made it plain that he thinks his kids get given too much homework and he’d rather have them following more active or creative pursuits: drawing or playing football. A father of four sons and a retired professional footballer Gary Linaker was quick to defend this but he also has the resources to send his children to top boarding schools which generally provide very structured homework or ‘prep’ routines.

As parents Rob and Gary are not alone. According to the 2018 Ofsted annual report on Parents Views  more than a third of parents do not think homework in primary school is helpful to their children. They cite the battles and arguments it causes not to mention the specific challenges it presents to families with SEND children many of whom report serious damage to health and self-esteem as a result of too much or inappropriate homework.

It’s a truism among teachers that some types of homework tells you very little about what the child can achieve and much more about a parent’s own approach to the work. How low does your heart sink when your child comes back with a D & T project to create Stonehenge and you realise it’s either an all-nighter with glue, cardboard and crayons for you, or an uncompleted homework project for your child!

Speaking with our teacher hats on, we can tell you that homework is often cited in academic studies looking at academic progress in primary school-aged children as showing minimal to no impact.

Back on Twitter, a fellow teacher was able to weigh-in with that point:

Benefits of homework at primary school

So what are the benefits of homework at primary school? According to the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) (the key research organisations dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement) the impact of homework at primary is low, but it also doesn’t cost much.

They put it at a “+2 months” impact against a control of doing nothing. To put this into context, 1-to-1 tuition is generally seen as a +5 months impact but it’s usually considered to be expensive.

“There is some evidence that when homework is used as a short and focused intervention it can be effective in improving students’ attainment … overall the general benefits are likely to be modest if homework is more routinely set.”

Key to the benefit you’ll see from homework is that the task is appropriate and of good quality. The quantity of homework a pupil does is not so important. In this matter Katharine Birbalsingh is on the money. Short focused tasks which relate directly to what is being taught, and which are built upon in school, are likely to be more effective than regular daily homework.

In our view it’s about consolidation. So focusing on a few times tables that you find tricky or working through questions similar to what you’ve done in class that day or week often can be beneficial. 2 hours of worksheets on a Saturday when your child could be outside having fun and making friends probably isn’t. If you really want them to be doing maths, then do some outdoor maths with them instead of homework !

At Third Space Learning we believe it’s all about balance. Give the right sort of homework and the right amount at primary school and there will be improvements, but much of it comes down to parental engagement.

One of our favourite ways to practise maths at home without it become too onerous is by using educational games. Here are our favourite fun maths games , some brilliant KS2 maths games , KS1 maths games and KS3 maths games for all maths topics and then a set of 35 times tables games which are ideal for interspersing with your regular times tables practice. And best of all, most of them require no more equipment than a pen and paper or perhaps a pack of cards.

Homework and parents

One of the key benefits cited by EEF is in regard to parental engagement. Time after time, the greatest differentiator between children who make great progress at school – and those, frankly – who don’t is due to the same factor in the same studies: parental engagement .

It is a fair assumption that if a parent is engaged in their child’s learning, they’re probably going to be the same parents who encourage and support their child when they’re completing their homework.

Whereas parents who are disengaged with their child’s school and schooling – for whatever reason (sorry, Piers, it’s rarely due to laziness), are highly unlikely to be aware of what homework gets set each week, let alone to be mucking in with making sure it gets handed in completed and on time.

We also encounter time and again, the issue of parents’ own lack of confidence in maths. A survey by Pearson found that:

• 30 percent of parents “don’t feel confident enough in their own maths skills to help their children with their primary school maths homework”
• 53 per cent insisted they struggled to understand the new maths teaching methods used in modern classrooms. Fortunately that’s what we’re here to address.

Setting the right homework at primary school can be tricky

Although we disagree with Piers, we can see what he may be driving at in terms of setting appropriate homework.

The question quickly becomes what would Piers think of as being ‘interesting’ homework, and if all four of his children would agree upon the same thing being ‘interesting’.

That’s the problem.

One would imagine Piers would find it hard enough finding one task to satisfy the interest of all of his four children – it’s almost impossible to find a task that will engage the interest of 30 or more children in their out of school hours.

Each with different emotional, behavioural and learning needs, then sprinkle in the varying levels of poverty each family suffers (be it financial or in terms of time), and you can see how it isn’t just about being a good or bad teacher – whatever that means – in regards to being able to set Morgan-approved homework tasks.

What does this mean for my child?

Ultimately, the question at the top of mind whenever a parent thinks about homework is a more general one – am I doing the best for my child?

Although the world is changing at a faster pace than ever before in human history, what’s best for children hasn’t changed that much (if at all).

One-to-one support is best, and young people benefit most from adult-child conversations where they acquire new vocabulary and language structures to form and share their thoughts and opinions.

These insights – that one-to-one support is best and that regular, structured adult-child conversations are life-changing within a child’s development – are what inspired us to create Third Space Learning.

A platform where children can engage with a community of specialist tutors in a safe, structured learning environment where they are able to engage in one-to-one conversations that enable them to progress in their learning with confidence.

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DO YOU HAVE STUDENTS WHO NEED MORE SUPPORT IN MATHS?

Every week Third Space Learning’s maths specialist tutors support thousands of students across hundreds of schools with weekly one to one tuition designed to plug gaps and boost progress.

Since 2013 these personalised one to one lessons have helped over 150,000 primary and secondary students become more confident, able mathematicians.

Learn about our experience with schools or request a personalised quote for your school to speak to us about your school’s needs and how we can help.

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Think Your Child Is Getting Too Much Homework? Here's What You Can Do

Life editor at HuffPost UK

More than one in ten primary school children are spending more than five hours on homework each week, according to a study. Research by home education provider Oxford Home Schooling revealed that a quarter of parents believe that too much homework is set for their children.

The survey of 1,000 parents found that 13 per cent of primary school pupils spend five hours or more on homework a week, compared to 39 per cent of those at secondary school and more than half (55 per cent) of sixth form or college students.

On average, children spent three and a half hours each week on homework — 2.2 hours for primary, 4.3 hours for secondary and 5.3 hours for sixth form.

A report for the Department for Education in 2014 found that Year 9 students who spent two to three hours on homework on an average week night were almost 10 times more likely to achieve five good GCSEs than students who did no homework at all. But is this realistic?

Previously, the Department for Education advised that Key Stage 1 children should do an hour of homework each week, rising to half an hour per night in Key Stage 2. This advice was scrapped in 2012, giving schools more freedom.

So what should parents do if they feel their child is getting too much homework? Michelle Doyle-Wildman, acting CEO of Parentkind , a charity championing parents and teachers in education, says homework is often the subject of lively debate. In their most recent annual survey, two in five parents felt their (primarily older) child was experiencing stress due to homework.

“The bottom line is children do best when teachers and parents work in partnership,” she says. “So if you remain concerned about the amount or type of homework that is set do talk this through with your child’s form teacher or head of year in the first instance.

“You should also seek to share your views in any consultations on the school’s homework policy directly or through your parent council and governing body.”

Dr Nick Smith, principal of Oxford Home Schooling, agreed adding that if parents feel their child is getting too much homework, it is important that they feel comfortable discussing this with their children’s teachers and raise their concerns about the amount of homework.

Doyle-Wildman did reinforce that parents should be positive about education at home, by setting out time in the evening or weekends to do worksheets, read, cook, play and talk together.

“For older children you can support by taking an interest in what homework has been set, making sure your child has a quiet and orderly place to study and spending time together to talk about current affairs or play board games,” she adds.

Parentkind has put some guidance together for mums and dads on giving feedback to schools on its Parent Hub .

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STUDY MOTIVATION

Is Homework In Schools a Good Thing?

• October 12, 2021

• What are the pros of homework in school?
• What are the cons of homework in school?
• How much homework do UK students get?

For decades (and even centuries, according to some anthropological evidence ), homework has been considered an essential part of formal education . It’s believed that it provides you with the opportunity to ‘learn by doing’ and test and apply what you’ve been taught during school hours. 

However, some modern studies suggest that the practice of homework in schools might not be as helpful as we think it is. According to statistics on homework, homework over a certain level (the 10 minutes per grade standard) has been linked to excessive stress and disruption of personal and social habits in adolescents. It may surprise you to find out that the average amount of homework that kids from countries like the US, UK, France, and Germany currently get is above the standard limit . 😮

If you’re currently a student in the UK, you may be wondering whether homework actually does kids and teenagers any good. Keep reading to find out more about the pros and cons of homework.

What are the pros and cons of homework in school?

Pros: , homework encourages practice.

The primary purpose of homework in schools is to reinforce the habit of practising what you’ve learned in school. Some subjects like maths and languages require daily practice even outside of school hours for you to strengthen the fundamentals you’re learning. 

Practising these subjects regularly from a relatively young age can help equip you for secondary school and college courses like economics and literature, which require a strong knowledge of the basics. Also, independent learning in your own time is a fantastic way for you to identify the subjects you’re most interested in – who knows, you may even find your preferred field of study at an early age through homework! 👍

It allows your parents to be actively involved in your 

A healthy learning environment requires your parents to take an active interest in your education. Your parent or guardian helping you with your homework can help you gain a better understanding of what you’re learning and working on, since you’ll benefit from having anything you’re unsure of explained to you by someone other than your teacher at school. 

Helping you with your homework also makes it possible for your parents to stay involved and keep track of your progress in school in a non-intrusive manner. Additionally, it fosters good communication as you’ll talk to your parents more about the classes you’re attending and other school-related activities that they should know about. ✔️

It’s a great lesson in time management 

Homework in secondary school can be a great way for you to learn how to manage your time better. Older students are often actively involved in academics, sports , and several other extra-curricular activities that facilitate their all-round development. 

Therefore, completing homework outside of school from an early age can help you learn beyond the classroom and gradually get used to managing your time and responsibilities well. ⏰

Homework research encourages independent critical thinking 

Many schools are now opting for homework research as opposed to the traditional practice homework. In fact, it forms the very base of the flipped classroom structure where the students are given review materials before the class to grasp the concepts more quickly once they’re in school.

Homework research allows you to conduct your own research on a topic and form your own thoughts and opinions on what you’re learning. It encourages independent critical thinking from a young age, which is very beneficial for you. 💡

Not every child has a supportive enough home environment 

While most kids in school might have a supportive and peaceful home environment that allows them to study, some children and teenagers aren’t that lucky. Difficult domestic environments can be extremely stressful for kids, which can make independent learning outside of school challenging.

It might be difficult for kids without strong support at home to muster up the time and concentration needed to do the kind of homework that requires independent research and critical thinking. 

It adds to an already packed day 

Homework in schools, especially secondary school, often adds to your already busy days. While time management is an important virtue to learn, homework in secondary school can feel nearly impossible to manage with all the extra-curricular tasks you’re expected to juggle. 😰

Stress related to school can have a negative impact on young people’s mental health . If you find yourself struggling with your workload at school, you should speak to your parent or caretaker, or bring it up with your teacher so that you can get some extra support to help you through it. It’s not unusual for kids and teens to sometimes feel overwhelmed in their learning journey, so don’t be afraid to reach out if you need help!  

There’s no evidence that suggests the extra work produces better academic results for younger kids

A study conducted by the University of Michigan concluded that younger children (below 12 years of age) benefit more from activities such as reading for pleasure and not stipulated school homework. In fact, school homework might lessen the chances of a child reading or writing outside of school as a hobby. 

Research suggests that in many cases, kids having too much homework assigned to them stunts their overall personality development.  

How much homework do UK students get? 

Research on homework shows that the average British school student spends around 3.5 hours on their homework per week. Of these, primary students spend 2.2 hours; secondary students spend 4.3 hours; and sixth form students spend 5.3 hours on homework per week on average. While these numbers aren’t worrisome, they are still over the standard limit prescribed by most child health bodies. ☝️

It’s important for children and young people to communicate with their caretakers if they find that their workload is excessive. If you find yourself getting worried or stressed out over school , we would recommend speaking to your parents or bringing it up with a teacher. The most important thing is your wellbeing, and you need to be able to cope with your homework and make academic progress without increasing your stress levels. 

At GoStudent, we believe learning is a two-sided process that involves active participation from both students and tutors. We have thousands of top tutors available, so if you need any help with learning and homework, GoStudent may be just the ticket. Book a free trial lesson today to try us out! 

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How Much Homework Is Too Much?

If you’re a parent, you probably have an opinion when it comes to your child’s homework. Do you feel that they have too much work to do or has the amount of work children bring home decreased over the course of time? How much homework is too much, and is there ever a way of answering this question that satisfies every parent and educator?

In 2013, the Council of Ministers of Education Canada started work on a report entitled, ‘Assessment Matters!’ The aim was to analyse and evaluate the importance of homework and to gain an insight into how much homework is sufficient to achieve results. The council used four different assessments to compile the results. These include:

• The Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP)
• Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
• Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS)
• Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)

The council used data obtained from these national and international assessments to learn about the impact of homework and evaluate trends linked to the amount and type of homework set for students. Their findings are outlined below:

Grade 4 reading

The results of PIRLS analysis indicate that setting Grade 4 students more than 15 minutes of reading homework per day has a negative impact on reading ability. Reading more doesn’t correlate with higher achievement, and the conclusion offered by Canadian teachers was “more does not necessarily mean better.” Data shows that children who read for up to 15 minutes per day as part of their homework have significantly higher reading scores than those who read for 60 minutes or more. The score fell from 562 for 15 minutes to 535 for 60 minutes.

Grade 8 maths

According to the PCAP test, students who do no maths homework have the poorest results. Graphs show that the average PCAP score is highest in those who do more than two hours of maths homework per week. The median score rises from 454 for no maths homework to 507 for 2 hours or more. It is worth noting that the difference between 1-2 hours and 2 hours or more is just a single point.

Maths at 15 years old

The results of PISA analysis support the findings for grade 8 maths. Results are lowest in students who do no maths homework and highest in those who do 2-3 hours of maths homework per day. The average score rises from 481 in students who do no maths homework to 548 in pupils who do 2-3 hours per day. Interestingly, the score falls to 538 in those who do more than 3 hours per day.

So, how much homework is too much?

The study conducted in Canada suggests that it is beneficial for students to do homework, but there’s a limit to how much can be achieved. It isn’t always the case, as the data shows, that doing more homework leads to better results. The perfect scenario seems to be finding a balance that suits the individual student and enables them to learn without feeling overwhelmed or overworked.

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The Homework Debate 2021: Do Primary Schoolers Really Need Homework?

The homework debate resurfaces every year without fail. It is a popular topic with parents, primary school teachers, online tutors, and politicians alike. Should homework be banned? Is homework at primary school necessary? Do pupils receive enough education in class that homework is nothing but a waste of time? – These are all questions that you have no doubt heard before.

Is the homework debate even relevant in the context of COVID-19? As an  online maths tuition service  for KS1 and KS2 pupils, we believe so! Sometimes we set our students homework. We believe that this debate is more relevant now than it has ever been. Let’s discover why…

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“Homework should be banned!” – The call to action

Our children are too tired!

Is it the case that we put too much pressure on children these days? At the age of 7, UK primary school pupils are expected to sit their Key Stage 1 SATs test. This continues in primary school up until Year 6 when they are expected to prepare for and sit their Key Stage 2 SATs test.

Some parents argue that this leaves little time for kids to wind down at home. When can they find the time to indulge in sports, hobbies, and creative interests if their time is consumed by homework? Let’s not forget the added stress caused by the UK Coronavirus lockdown.

Primary school homework does more harm than good:

A BBC Newsround report from 2018 consulted education experts on their views of the homework debate. Nansi Ellis, Assistant General Secretary at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers argued that homework gets in the way of all the good things kids enjoy. It does not always boost performance in class.

She also highlighted that it demands a lot of parents, not only their time but also of their own educational understanding. This sometimes backfires as the methods of learning in school twenty or thirty years ago are likely not the same as those taught nowadays. This can risk causing further confusion.

BBC Newsround’s own survey of the homework debate and how much homework primary school pupils receive found that parents thought:

Where is the proof?

The same BBC report saw Ellis claim that while teachers setting homework is in theory supposed to better results, there is no proof of this being the case. Rosamund McNeil from the teacher’s organisation NUT highlighted that cases abroad support this. In Finland, pupils are set minimal homework but it remains one of the most educationally successful countries in the world.

The homework debate is not just about students – it’s about teachers too!

Homework is time-consuming. Teachers must plan it and mark it, in addition to preparing their classroom lessons and reporting on pupils’ progress. Time constraints can force teachers to work late into the night at home which opens an entirely new can of worms. Overworked teachers are less effective in class. Perhaps it would be more efficient for schools to ban homework altogether.

The other side of the homework debate: Why our kids need homework

It has long been the view that homework acts as a supplement to what has been taught in class. It is an opportunity for pupils to review areas of work they might not understand, focusing their learning.

Homework for primary school students is a good thing!

Homework can be fun and imaginative, an opportunity for parents to bond with their children over education. Take the classic example of counting peas on the dinner plate to learn multiplication tables. Homework does not always have to be completed in a book or on a worksheet. It can often reflect the creativity of the teacher who can inspire children to take their learnings and apply them to the real world. Pricing a shopping list is an awesome way to practise maths while acquiring life skills!

In May 2021 we asked our social media community for their thoughts on this debate. More than two-thirds agreed that homework should not be banned. 

The UK is falling behind the rest of the world:

Once upon a time the UK may have had the best education system in the world. Now is not that time. Studies suggest that  UK literacy and maths rates are falling  while in other countries they continue to rise.

As a result, many teachers and parents agree that our children require further encouragement. This is not the time to ban homework in the UK. Especially when we take into consideration the months of lost learning caused by the COVID-19 UK lockdown. This is the time to help primary school children catch up, and homework can support the effort.

The homework debate in the context of COVID-19

We touched on this earlier before considering both sides of the argument in the UK homework debate. However, with home learning more popular than ever, is there still a place for homework in UK primary school education?

The homework debate solution: Online tuition

It’s engaging for children; it reflects what they have been learning in class and saves time for both parents and teachers.  Online tuition has soared in popularity through 2020  and 2021, and could be the solution for people on both sides of the homework debate.

Read more :  How online maths tutors are helping KS1 & KS2 pupils succeed.

In the UK there are tons of tuition services helping to provide kids with a competitive edge using an extracurricular push. You can view a list of the top 15 here:  Discover the UK’s best online tutors.

If you have any comments or questions regarding this topic, please feel free to let us know in the comment below or in our Facebook group  UK Primary School Maths – Tutoring & Tips,  we will reply to you as soon as we can.  

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NEWS • 13 May 2022

Primary school children get little academic benefit from homework

Paul Hopkins, Lecturer and Researcher in Education, on the usefulness of homework for primary school pupils.

Homework: a word that can cause despair not just in children, but also in parents and even teachers. And for primary school children at least, it may be that schools setting homework is more trouble than it’s worth.

There is evidence that homework can be useful at secondary school. It can be used to consolidate material learnt in class or to prepare for exams.

However, it is less clear that homework is useful for children at primary school (ages 5 to 11) or in early years education (ages 3 to 5).

What is homework for?

There are no current guidelines on how much homework primary school children in England should be set. In 2018 then education secretary Damien Hinds stated that “We trust individual school head teachers to decide what their policy on homework will be, and what happens if pupils don’t do what’s set”.

While there is not much data available on how much homework primary school pupils do, a 2018 survey of around 1,000 parents found that primary pupils were spending an average of 2.2 hours per week on homework.

The homework done by primary school children can include reading, practising spellings, or revising for tests. Charity the Education Endowment Foundation suggests that the uses for homework at primary school include reinforcing the skills that pupils learn in school, helping them get ready for tests and preparing them for future school lessons.

Homework can also act as a point of communication between home and school, helping parents feel part of their child’s schooling.

However, the 2018 Ofsted Parents’ Panel – which surveyed the views of around 1,000 parents in England on educational issues – found that 36% of parents thought that homework was not helpful at all to their primary school children. The panel report found that, for many parents, homework was a significant source of stress and negatively affected family life.

Little academic benefit

Not much academic research has been carried out on the impact of homework for children in primary school. The available meta-studies – research that combines and analyses the findings of a number of studies – suggest that homework has little or no positive benefit for the academic achievement of children of primary school age. A central reason for this seems to be the inability of children to complete this homework without the support provided by teachers and the school.

Some research has suggested that primary pupils lack the independent study skills to do homework, and that they are not able to stay focused on the work.

What’s more, homework may actually have a negative effect if parents set unrealistic expectations, apply pressure or use methods that go counter to those used at school.

Homework may also increase inequalities between pupils. High achievers from economically privileged backgrounds may have greater parental support for homework, including more educated assistance, higher expectations and better settings and resources.

However, it is possible that setting homework for primary school children has benefits that cannot be easily measured, such as developing responsibility and independent problem-solving skills. It could also help children develop habits that will be useful in later school life.

A common task set for homework in primary schools is for children to read with their parents. There is some evidence that this has a positive impact as well as providing enjoyment, but the quality of interaction may be more important than the quantity.

If the purpose of homework is to develop the relationship between home and school and give parents more stake in the schooling of their children then this may well be a positive thing. If this is its purpose, though, it should not be used as a means to improve test scores or school performance metrics. For the youngest children, anything that takes time away from developmental play is a bad thing.

Rather, any homework should develop confidence and engagement in the process of schooling for both children and parents.

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The beginner's guide to primary-school homework

What’s the point of homework?

For many families, homework is a nightly battle, but primary schools set it for a variety of reasons. ‘It helps to consolidate the skills that are being taught at school, and provides children with additional revision opportunities,’ explains head teacher Steph Matthews of St Paul’s CofE School, Gloucester .

‘It also gives children an opportunity to explore learning in an unstructured setting, encouraging them to be independent and follow their own lines of enquiry.’ In addition, homework creates a partnership between school and family, giving parents an insight into what their child is learning.

How much homework should my child get in primary school?

In the past, the Department for Education advised that Key Stage 1 children should do an hour of homework each week, rising to half an hour per night in Key Stage 2. This advice was scrapped in 2012, giving schools more freedom, but many still follow the old guidelines.

In Reception , formal homework is rarely set. However, children are likely to bring home books to share with the family, first reading books, and/or keywords to learn.

In Years 1 and 2 , children are likely to have one or two tasks per week. This could be literacy or numeracy worksheets (for example an exercise where children have to compare the weights of different household items), a short piece of writing (such as a recount of a school trip) or work relating to the class topic (find out five facts about the Great Fire of London ).

In Years 3 and 4 , most schools set two homework activities each week: typically, one literacy (such as a worksheet on collective nouns, or a book review ) and one numeracy (a worksheet on bar charts).

In Years 5 and 6 , children may have two or three pieces of homework each week. ‘The amount begins to increase to prepare children for SATs and the transition to secondary school,’ says Steph. These activities might include maths worksheets, researching a topic, book reviews and grammar exercises.

Alongside formal homework tasks, most children bring home reading scheme books from Reception onwards, with weekly spellings and times tables from Year 1 or 2.

Learning logs and homework challenges

Not all schools rely on handing out worksheets. Learning logs or challenges are becoming more popular: children are given a folder of suggested activities – from writing a poem to building a model castle – and must choose a certain number to complete throughout the term.

Other schools ensure that homework ties in with the current class topic. ‘We have a themed approach, and set homework activities that give opportunities to explore the topic in a fun way, for example, designing a method of transport that Phileas Fogg could use to travel the world,’ explains Steph.  

Modern homework methods

Unsurprisingly, technology is playing an increasingly important part in homework. Some schools use online reading schemes such as Bug Club , where teachers allocate e-books of the appropriate level, or subscription services like SAM Learning  to set cross-curricular tasks.

A growing number also set homework electronically , with children logging into the school website to download their task.

What if the homework is too much – or too hard?

If you feel your child is overloaded with homework, speak to the teacher. ‘Forcing children to complete homework is counterproductive, because they come to perceive it as a chore,’ says Rod Grant, head teacher of Clifton Hall School, Edinburgh . ‘This makes learning appear boring, arduous or both, and that is really dangerous, in my view.’

Most schools publish their homework policy on the school website , telling parents exactly what to expect. ‘Teachers should make their expectations very clear in terms of deadlines and how long it should take, and should also differentiate tasks to suit the level of the pupil,’ adds Steph.

No homework at all?

If your child doesn’t get any homework, you may feel out of touch with his learning, or concerned that he isn’t being challenged. But there are good reasons why some schools don’t set homework, or set it only occasionally, says Rod. ‘Although homework can be beneficial, family life tends to suffer as a result of it being imposed,’ he explains. ‘ If a school isn’t providing homework, there’s plenty that parents can do at home instead : reading with their children, doing number puzzles on car journeys, using online resources, and so on.’

Parents may also worry that without doing homework, children won’t develop study habits for later life. ‘There is genuinely no need for a six-year-old to get into a routine of working at home; there’s time to learn that later,’ Rod advises. ‘Parents need to relax and encourage children to love learning – and that comes when learning is fun, relevant and engaging, not through doing homework tasks that are unchallenging, or secretarial in nature.’

Homework: advice and support for primary-school parents

For information and support on all aspects of homework, from managing other siblings to helping with specific subjects, head to our Homework area.

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More than two hours of homework may be counterproductive, research suggests.

A Stanford education researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.   "Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope , a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education .   The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students' views on homework.   Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.   Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.   "The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students' advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being," Pope wrote.   Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.   Their study found that too much homework is associated with:   • Greater stress : 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.   • Reductions in health : In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.   • Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits : Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.   A balancing act   The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.   Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as "pointless" or "mindless" in order to keep their grades up.   "This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points," said Pope, who is also a co-founder of Challenge Success , a nonprofit organization affiliated with the GSE that conducts research and works with schools and parents to improve students' educational experiences..   Pope said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.   "Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development," wrote Pope.   High-performing paradox   In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. "Young people are spending more time alone," they wrote, "which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities."   Student perspectives   The researchers say that while their open-ended or "self-reporting" methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations – some might regard it as an opportunity for "typical adolescent complaining" – it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.   The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

Clifton B. Parker is a writer at the Stanford News Service .

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How Much Homework Is Too Much? How Can Parents Push Back?

12-step plan for smarter, happier, healthier, young children in a too-busy world.

Posted September 16, 2016

Confidence , intelligence , creativity , and happy productivity depend on ample time for unstructured play and imagination . This is true throughout childhood , but especially critical in the early years, until about the age of seven.

The National Education Association and the National Parent-Teacher Association both recommend that children be asked to do no more than 10 minutes a day of homework in Grade One, then move up incrementally from there, with second graders doing a maximum of twenty minutes a day, third graders thirty minutes, and so on. For younger ones (Kindergarten and below) just lasting through a structured day of school or daycare is demanding enough.

In too many schools, the ten-minute rule is being broken, not by a little, but by a lot. Too many children are showing signs of stress , and too many parents are finding precious family time eaten away by homework demands.

Recently, I heard from a mother of a four-year-old. She said that one week into Junior Kindergarten (for four-year-olds), her little boy had already been assigned five different kinds of homework. She had no problem with the weekly reading session. “That’s good for all kids,” she said. But she wondered whether it was okay that her son’s teacher had also told him to (1) prepare for a show-and-tell presentation, (2) participate in a daily home program of reading games, (3) have a conversation at home every day about what he’d read at school that day, and (4) learn and memorize the background to his name. I told the mom that that sounded like way too much.

In addition to using the ten-minute rule as a guideline (clearly violated in this case), how do you decide if your young child is getting too much homework?

• Enough time for play? Just getting to school on time, spending all day there, knowing and following all the rules, then getting back home again, is a lot of structure and demand for a young child. Adding homework to the mix can leave insufficient time and energy for important developmental demands like running, playing outside, chatting, dreaming , imagining, and inventing.
• Signs of Stress? Look for changes in appetite , sleep, temperament, interest, patience, neediness, emotional responsivity. If there are signs your little one is feeling worried, think about homework demands. They may be causing the problem, or adding to the burden.
• Family time? When homework interferes with pleasurable family activities, it’s almost certainly time to push back.

It’s important to your child’s education that you support the teacher, but if your child’s time is being scheduled by adults and gobbled up by electronic devices, if they don’t have enough time for imagination, exploration, and collaborative invention, it’s your job to push back. How do you do that?

• Balance . Before pushing back against homework, look at the other activities in your child’s life. Electronic devices and extracurricular enrichments—lessons, sports, and other scheduled activities—can provide great learning experiences, but are most beneficial in moderation.
• Talk to other parents. Talk to parents of some of your child’s classmates. Find out what they think about the homework situation. Talk also to parents of children in other classrooms, other schools, with other teachers. See what their experience is.
• Meet with the teacher. Listen and learn. Make an appointment. If other parents agree with you, ask one or two of them to attend the meeting with you (okaying that with the teacher ahead of time). Use the first meeting as an opportunity to find out the teacher’s perspective. Let the teacher know your concerns, calmly and respectfully. Quite often, this is all it takes to make the changes you need.
• Resist passively . Don’t insist your child do any homework you think unnecessary or excessive. If your child is worried about not completing assignments, explain your concerns in child-friendly terms (you want to make sure they have all the time they need for playing, relaxing, and spending time with the family) and let them know you’ve spoken to the teacher about it, and will sort it out if needed.
• Wait and watch. Give the teacher a week or two to change their practice. If they lighten up sufficiently on the homework, then your advocacy work is over for now.
• Regroup. If the troubling situation persists, get together with like-minded parents to define simple goals and a reasonable timeline. If you have trouble finding allies, proceed to the next step.
• Gather your evidence . Over the past few years, a lot of research has accumulated on the benefits of the ten-minute rule, and the evils of homework for little kids. I’ve included links below to some of the evidence, and you can find lots more by googling ‘Homework.’
• Prepare carefully. Put your ideas in writing, as briefly and simply as possible. Whether you’ve found allies at your school or not, discuss your ideas with others. Make sure your requests are specific, practical, and clear.
• Set another meeting with the teacher. Ask the teacher to include the principal this time. As before, go into the meeting respectfully and calmly, in a small group if possible. Communicate your concerns, and ask for the changes you want. Provide some supporting documentation (see #7 above, about gathering evidence).
• Take it to the top. If you meet with resistance at the school level, and if you think the situation calls for it (if there’s a damaging amount of homework, and children’s health and happiness are at stake) take it up a notch, to the board of education, the school’s governing board, the school trustee, as high as you need to go to get the necessary action.
• Blog, write, or talk to the media about your generic concerns. You’ll be an expert now on the impact of homework on little kids. Your story might help others. If you choose to do this, do your best to protect your child from any adverse effects. That almost certainly means avoiding naming names—teacher, school, etc.
• Talk to the media about your specific concerns. This is a last resort, and not one I’d recommend unless the circumstances are egregious. Before taking something like this public, make sure you have a back-up plan—another school where your child can go and not be punished for their parent’s noisy advocacy.

Effective advocacy is built on patient, thoughtful respect for all the players. It can take a long time (or not), but it's worth doing. I’ve seen many examples of one parent’s concerns for a child’s welfare leading to changes in practice, and eventually, to changes in policy.

Homework isn’t always a problem. Some little kids love it, as long as the demands are reasonable. But in other cases, homework interferes with more important activities like playing, daydreaming, sleeping , and spending time with family and friends. When that happens, parents should think about acting for healthy change in their child’s life.

1. Homework for Young Children

• “Research Spotlight on Homework,” by the National Education Association
• “ Hints to Help Reduce Homework Stress ,” by Cathy Vatterot
• “ Too Much Homework Stifling Your Kids? Let Them Just Say No ,” by Leah McLaren
• “ Is Homework Bad for Kids? ” by Anna Maria Tremonti
• “ Too Much Homework? Study Shows Elementary Kids Get 3 Times More than They Should ,” by Jordan Muto
• “ These Kids Now Have a Life with No Homework ,” by James Vaznis and Nicole Fleming
• “ Homework Could Have an Effect on Kids’ Health. Should We Ban It? ” by Gerald LeTendre
• “ Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids ,” by Denise Pope, Maureen Brown, and Sarah Miles

2. Parents Advocating for Change

• “ The Role of Educational Advocacy ” by Karen L. Schiltz
• “ Parent Advocacy: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly ,” by Annie Kidder
• “ 10 Ways to Be an Effective Advocate for Your Child ,” by Geri Coleman-Tucker
• “ Advocacy in Action: How to Change the World for Your Child ,” by Dona Matthews and Joanne Foster

3. Children’s Development: What Matters Most in Early Childhood?

• Beyond Intelligence: Secrets for Raising Happily Productive Kids by Dona Matthews and Joanne Foster
• “ Protect Your Child’s Playtime: It’s More Important than Homework, Lessons, and Organized Sports ,” by Dona Matthews
• “ Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills ,” by Alix Spiegel
• “ Six Ways to Protect Our Child’s Playtime ,” by Andrea Nair
• “ Stressed Out in America: 5 Reasons to Let Your Kids Play ,” by Katie Hurley
• “ How Nature Makes Kids Calmer, Healthier, Smarter ,” by Laura Markham

Dona Matthews, Ph.D. , is a developmental psychologist and the author of four books about children, adolescents and education.

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Schoolsmith

Schoolsmith. For parents choosing a school for their children. What to look for. Find a school. Compare

How much homework should my child be doing?

Schoolsmith · Published: May 17, 2017 · Updated: Apr 10, 2019

Most answers to the homework question start with “it depends”. Here’s why.

Who likes homework? No-one. Children certainly don’t. After a long day at school they are tired and grumpy about it. After a long day at work parents are tired and grumpy at the prospect of making their children do it. Cue the familial tensions and arguments that play out across the land on every weekday night. Except, of course if your children board. In which case you can relax with your glass of Pinot Grigio and feel smug.

Or is that really true? You see, we parents also love homework. We want loads of it. We think that our children won’t succeed without it. So we think badly of a school that doesn’t set enough of it. And we get anxious if we think that the school down the road is setting more than ours.

What is homework for?

There are three main reasons for homework. The first is to prepare for the next lesson (“ flipped learning “). This will be background reading or research to facilitate an informed discussion in the next lesson.

The second reason is by far and away the most common. Consolidating what has been covered in class with essays, exercises and problem solving. If the classroom is for teaching, homework is for practicing and committing to memory.

The third reason is gaining in popularity. It’s the “opportunity for pupils to explore independent lines of enquiry in an unstructured setting”. OK, sounds promising for more senior pupils. But the reality might be more “Mum, can you (help me) make my Tudor house please?”

Is homework important?

The evidence is that at secondary school, homework is beneficial and improves achievement. For example, a study by the Institute of Education quantified that students who averaged two to three hours per night in their two GCSE years were ten times more likely to achieve five good GCSEs than those who didn’t.

As for primary level, studies of the benefits range from inconclusive to doubtful. The exception to this is reading practice with a parent, which is outside the usual definitions of homework.

Does more homework mean better outcomes? Is it linear? Do outcomes improve with each 15 minutes spent doing it?

Research suggests so, but it is age and personality dependent. If “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” then there must be a point of limited return. Headteachers who advocate less homework suggest that children should spend the extra time getting fresh air. They also emphasise the value of quality family time. Not stuck in front of the telly or the iPad then…

How much homework should my child be getting?

The English Department of Education used to provide a guide for how much homework children should be getting, by age. At primary school children should be getting 10 minutes per night for Years 1 and 2, rising to 30 minutes per night in Years 5 and 6. At senior school children should be getting 1.5 hours per night for Year 7 rising to 2.5 hours per night in Years 10 and 11. Although the guide was voluntary it did have the effect of increasing the percentage of state primary schools who set homework at all from 60% to 95%. The guidance was scrapped in 2012 and now homework is left to the discretion of individual headteachers.

Unfortunately none of this includes revision for exams which can be significant in a school that does regular testing. It is certainly significant for national exams.

Another guideline is the 10 minute rule; 10 minutes per night for each Year of Education. So Year 1 would have 10 minutes, Year 6 would have 1 hour and Year 11 would have 1 hour 50.

Yet another guideline is the 20 minutes per subject rule for ages 7 to 14 (Key Stages 2 and 3). There are two subjects per night in Key Stage 2 (last four years of primary school) making 40 minutes. There are three subjects per night in Key Stage 3 (first three years of senior school) making 60 minutes. In the two GCSE years the number of subjects stays at three but the time for each doubles to 40 minutes; a total of 2 hours per night.

These time guides are useful, but the reality is often very different. Some children take longer than others to do the same piece of homework. Some teachers set more than others. Furthermore, some children in the same class get more homework if they are considered more able.

You may have the occasional grumble about too much homework. But the chances are that you’re more likely to grumble about too little homework in the months leading up to important exams.

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How much homework is too much?

Published in 2015, a recent study of 7,451 teenagers in Spain examined the correlation between time spent on homework and academic achievement in mathematics and science. Results showed that homework done by the student independently for 60-70 minutes a day yielded the best results. The students had a mean age of 13.78.

They were given a questionnaire asking about frequency and duration of homework by subject, and whether they did homework independently or with parental help. Academic achievement was determined using mathematics and science standardised test scores adjusted for gender and socioeconomic status.

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August 16, 2021

Is it time to get rid of homework? Mental health experts weigh in

by Sara M Moniuszko

It's no secret that kids hate homework. And as students grapple with an ongoing pandemic that has had a wide-range of mental health impacts, is it time schools start listening to their pleas over workloads?

Some teachers are turning to social media to take a stand against homework .

Tiktok user @misguided.teacher says he doesn't assign it because the "whole premise of homework is flawed."

For starters, he says he can't grade work on "even playing fields" when students' home environments can be vastly different.

"Even students who go home to a peaceful house, do they really want to spend their time on busy work? Because typically that's what a lot of homework is, it's busy work," he says in the video that has garnered 1.6 million likes. "You only get one year to be 7, you only got one year to be 10, you only get one year to be 16, 18."

Mental health experts agree heavy work loads have the potential do more harm than good for students, especially when taking into account the impacts of the pandemic. But they also say the answer may not be to eliminate homework altogether.

Emmy Kang, mental health counselor at Humantold, says studies have shown heavy workloads can be "detrimental" for students and cause a "big impact on their mental, physical and emotional health."

"More than half of students say that homework is their primary source of stress, and we know what stress can do on our bodies," she says, adding that staying up late to finish assignments also leads to disrupted sleep and exhaustion.

Cynthia Catchings, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist at Talkspace, says heavy workloads can also cause serious mental health problems in the long run, like anxiety and depression.

And for all the distress homework causes, it's not as useful as many may think, says Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, a psychologist and CEO of Omega Recovery treatment center.

"The research shows that there's really limited benefit of homework for elementary age students, that really the school work should be contained in the classroom," he says.

For older students, Kang says homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night.

"Most students, especially at these high-achieving schools, they're doing a minimum of three hours, and it's taking away time from their friends from their families, their extracurricular activities. And these are all very important things for a person's mental and emotional health."

Catchings, who also taught third to 12th graders for 12 years, says she's seen the positive effects of a no homework policy while working with students abroad.

"Not having homework was something that I always admired from the French students (and) the French schools, because that was helping the students to really have the time off and really disconnect from school ," she says.

The answer may not be to eliminate homework completely, but to be more mindful of the type of work students go home with, suggests Kang, who was a high-school teacher for 10 years.

"I don't think (we) should scrap homework, I think we should scrap meaningless, purposeless busy work-type homework. That's something that needs to be scrapped entirely," she says, encouraging teachers to be thoughtful and consider the amount of time it would take for students to complete assignments.

The pandemic made the conversation around homework more crucial

Mindfulness surrounding homework is especially important in the context of the last two years. Many students will be struggling with mental health issues that were brought on or worsened by the pandemic, making heavy workloads even harder to balance.

"COVID was just a disaster in terms of the lack of structure. Everything just deteriorated," Kardaras says, pointing to an increase in cognitive issues and decrease in attention spans among students. "School acts as an anchor for a lot of children, as a stabilizing force, and that disappeared."

But even if students transition back to the structure of in-person classes, Kardaras suspects students may still struggle after two school years of shifted schedules and disrupted sleeping habits.

"We've seen adults struggling to go back to in-person work environments from remote work environments. That effect is amplified with children because children have less resources to be able to cope with those transitions than adults do," he explains.

'Get organized' ahead of back-to-school

In order to make the transition back to in-person school easier, Kang encourages students to "get good sleep, exercise regularly (and) eat a healthy diet."

To help manage workloads, she suggests students "get organized."

"There's so much mental clutter up there when you're disorganized... sitting down and planning out their study schedules can really help manage their time," she says.

Breaking assignments up can also make things easier to tackle.

"I know that heavy workloads can be stressful, but if you sit down and you break down that studying into smaller chunks, they're much more manageable."

If workloads are still too much, Kang encourages students to advocate for themselves.

"They should tell their teachers when a homework assignment just took too much time or if it was too difficult for them to do on their own," she says. "It's good to speak up and ask those questions. Respectfully, of course, because these are your teachers. But still, I think sometimes teachers themselves need this feedback from their students."

©2021 USA Today Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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What’s the optimum amount of homework to set a teenager?

Director of the Centre for Professional Education, University of Warwick

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Adam Boddison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Coaxing teenagers to sit down and do their homework is never an easy task. But is it actually worth their while to slave away for hours on end every evening? Not according to a new study of Spanish secondary school students which has concluded that the optimum amount of homework for children is around one hour a day.

Researchers at the University of Oviedo studied the maths and science homework and test results of 7,451 adolescents with an average age of around 13. They found a relationship between the amount of homework completed and children’s attainment. But the authors acknowledge they can’t say definitively that one hour of homework a night in total actually causes better test results.

Previous research in this area is both inconsistent and inconclusive. Some has shown the positive effects of homework and some its negative effects. In 2012, The Guardian reported on Department of Education research showing that two to three hours per day produced greater effects on achieving the highest results. In 2014, research at Stanford University found that too much homework can have a negative impact on children.

Homework can help to establish a routine and to develop independent learning skills that will be useful for professional life. Conversely, it could be argued that working at home in the evenings is the beginning of an unhealthy work-life balance and that there are academic drawbacks in studying instead of sleeping.

Not all children need to study the same

It’s unclear whether the children in the Spanish study achieve more as a result of doing the “optimum” amount of homework. Children of different abilities may take different amounts of time to complete their homework. If we subscribe to the idea that there is an “optimum” time, then we are effectively saying that children who work more quickly should complete more homework than children who work more slowly, which is arguably a disincentive for the fastest – and probably the most able – children.

The study also acknowledges that the nature of the homework has more influence over the outcomes than the time taken to complete it. This is an important point and is underpinned by a common sense view that an hour of inappropriate homework will be less effective than 45 minutes of appropriate homework.

It is only through understanding what the goals of homework are that we can properly consider how much should be set. There has been much disagreement about this among researchers: some argue that homework is about consolidating new knowledge and improving test scores, while others argue that homework is about developing skills .

The reality is that teachers set homework with different purposes, so any optimal amount of homework is unlikely to apply to all situations. In the context of mathematics, homework is often about practising a particular process – such as solving equations – whereas in other subject areas there may be a more conceptual focus, such as research into a particular aspect of history.

Giving some an advantage

Even if we accept that there is an optimum amount of homework, there are numerous other factors that need to be considered, including the subject area, the length of the school day, the socio-economic background of the student and the age, gender and culture of the student. With so many factors to consider, it is challenging to ensure both equity and excellence – and it is most likely impossible to generalise about an optimum amount of homework.

For example, parents from middle-class families are more likely to be able to support their children with homework or to hire a tutor. This means those children from disadvantaged backgrounds become further disadvantaged as they are likely to have less academic support at home.

The cultural variations between children are also significant, not only from the family perspective, but from the expectations of society. For example, children in China and the UK have very different expectations and experiences in terms of the volume of homework set. It has also long been argued that girls outperform boys in coursework , which is not dissimilar to homework.

So it is difficult to generalise that all 13-year-olds should be set no more than one hour of homework a day. Every child has a unique set of individual needs that may vary over time. There has been much discussion in recent years about personalised learning in the classroom, but less so about the benefits of personalised learning through homework. One hour a day may well be the optimum amount of homework for some children in some circumstances, but let us not forget that every child has different needs.

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How Much Homework Is Too Much for Our Teens?

Here's what educators and parents can do to help kids find the right balance between school and home.

Does Your Teen Have Too Much Homework?

Today’s teens are under a lot of pressure.

They're under pressure to succeed, to win, to be the best and to get into the top colleges. With so much pressure, is it any wonder today’s youth report being under as much stress as their parents? In fact, during the school year, teens say they experience stress levels higher than those reported by adults, according to a previous American Psychological Association "Stress in America" survey.

Odds are if you ask a teen what's got them so worked up, the subject of school will come up. School can cause a lot of stress, which can lead to other serious problems, like sleep deprivation . According to the National Sleep Foundation, teens need between eight and 10 hours of sleep each night, but only 15 percent are even getting close to that amount. During the school week, most teens only get about six hours of zzz’s a night, and some of that sleep deficit may be attributed to homework.

When it comes to school, many adults would rather not trade places with a teen. Think about it. They get up at the crack of dawn and get on the bus when it’s pitch dark outside. They put in a full day sitting in hours of classes (sometimes four to seven different classes daily), only to get more work dumped on them to do at home. To top it off, many kids have after-school obligations, such as extracurricular activities including clubs and sports , and some have to work. After a long day, they finally get home to do even more work – schoolwork.

[Read: What Parents Should Know About Teen Depression .]

Homework is not only a source of stress for students, but it can also be a hassle for parents. If you are the parent of a kid who strives to be “perfect," then you know all too well how much time your child spends making sure every bit of homework is complete, even if it means pulling an all-nighter. On the flip side, if you’re the parent of a child who decided that school ends when the last bell rings, then you know how exhausting that homework tug-of-war can be. And heaven forbid if you’re that parent who is at their wit's end because your child excels on tests and quizzes but fails to turn in assignments. The woes of academics can go well beyond the confines of the school building and right into the home.

This is the time of year when many students and parents feel the burden of the academic load. Following spring break, many schools across the nation head into the final stretch of the year. As a result, some teachers increase the amount of homework they give. The assignments aren’t punishment, although to students and parents who are having to constantly stay on top of their kids' schoolwork, they can sure seem that way.

From a teacher’s perspective, the assignments are meant to help students better understand the course content and prepare for upcoming exams. Some schools have state-mandated end of grade or final tests. In those states these tests can account for 20 percent of a student’s final grade. So teachers want to make sure that they cover the entire curriculum before that exam. Aside from state-mandated tests, some high school students are enrolled in advanced placement or international baccalaureate college-level courses that have final tests given a month or more before the end of the term. In order to cover all of the content, teachers must maintain an accelerated pace. All of this means more out of class assignments.

Given the challenges kids face, there are a few questions parents and educators should consider:

Is homework necessary?

Many teens may give a quick "no" to this question, but the verdict is still out. Research supports both sides of the argument. Personally, I would say, yes, some homework is necessary, but it must be purposeful. If it’s busy work, then it’s a waste of time. Homework should be a supplemental teaching tool. Too often, some youth go home completely lost as they haven’t grasped concepts covered in class and they may become frustrated and overwhelmed.

For a parent who has been in this situation, you know how frustrating this can be, especially if it’s a subject that you haven’t encountered in a while. Homework can serve a purpose such as improving grades, increasing test scores and instilling a good work ethic. Purposeful homework can come in the form of individualizing assignments based on students’ needs or helping students practice newly acquired skills.

Homework should not be used to extend class time to cover more material. If your child is constantly coming home having to learn the material before doing the assignments, then it’s time to contact the teacher and set up a conference. Listen when kids express their concerns (like if they say they're expected to know concepts not taught in class) as they will provide clues about what’s happening or not happening in the classroom. Plus, getting to the root of the problem can help with keeping the peace at home too, as an irritable and grumpy teen can disrupt harmonious family dynamics .

[Read: What Makes Teens 'Most Likely to Succeed?' ]

How much is too much?

According to the National PTA and the National Education Association, students should only be doing about 10 minutes of homework per night per grade level. But teens are doing a lot more than that, according to a poll of high school students by the organization Statistic Brain . In that poll teens reported spending, on average, more than three hours on homework each school night, with 11th graders spending more time on homework than any other grade level. By contrast, some polls have shown that U.S. high school students report doing about seven hours of homework per week.

Much of a student's workload boils down to the courses they take (such as advanced or college prep classes), the teaching philosophy of educators and the student’s commitment to doing the work. Regardless, research has shown that doing more than two hours of homework per night does not benefit high school students. Having lots of homework to do every day makes it difficult for teens to have any downtime , let alone family time .

How do we respond to students' needs?

As an educator and parent, I can honestly say that oftentimes there is a mismatch in what teachers perceive as only taking 15 minutes and what really takes 45 minutes to complete. If you too find this to be the case, then reach out to your child's teacher and find out why the assignments are taking longer than anticipated for your child to complete.

Also, ask the teacher about whether faculty communicate regularly with one another about large upcoming assignments. Whether it’s setting up a shared school-wide assignment calendar or collaborating across curriculums during faculty meetings, educators need to discuss upcoming tests and projects, so students don’t end up with lots of assignments all competing for their attention and time at once. Inevitably, a student is going to get slammed occasionally, but if they have good rapport with their teachers, they will feel comfortable enough to reach out and see if alternative options are available. And as a parent, you can encourage your kid to have that dialogue with the teacher.

Often teens would rather blend into the class than stand out. That’s unfortunate because research has shown time and time again that positive teacher-student relationships are strong predictors of student engagement and achievement. By and large, most teachers appreciate students advocating for themselves and will go the extra mile to help them out.

Can there be a balance between home and school?

Students can strike a balance between school and home, but parents will have to help them find it. They need your guidance to learn how to better manage their time, get organized and prioritize tasks, which are all important life skills. Equally important is developing good study habits. Some students may need tutoring or coaching to help them learn new material or how to take notes and study. Also, don’t forget the importance of parent-teacher communication. Most educators want nothing more than for their students to succeed in their courses.

Learning should be fun, not mundane and cumbersome. Homework should only be given if its purposeful and in moderation. Equally important to homework is engaging in activities, socializing with friends and spending time with the family.

[See: 10 Concerns Parents Have About Their Kids' Health .]

Most adults don’t work a full-time job and then go home and do three more hours of work, and neither should your child. It's not easy learning to balance everything, especially if you're a teen. If your child is spending several hours on homework each night, don't hesitate to reach out to teachers and, if need be, school officials. Collectively, we can all work together to help our children de-stress and find the right balance between school and home.

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Do our kids have too much homework?

by: Marian Wilde | Updated: January 31, 2024

Print article

Many students and their parents are frazzled by the amount of homework being piled on in the schools. Yet many researchers say that American students have just the right amount of homework.

“Kids today are overwhelmed!” a parent recently wrote in an email to GreatSchools.org “My first-grade son was required to research a significant person from history and write a paper of at least two pages about the person, with a bibliography. How can he be expected to do that by himself? He just started to learn to read and write a couple of months ago. Schools are pushing too hard and expecting too much from kids.”

Diane Garfield, a fifth grade teacher in San Francisco, concurs. “I believe that we’re stressing children out,” she says.

But hold on, it’s not just the kids who are stressed out . “Teachers nowadays assign these almost college-level projects with requirements that make my mouth fall open with disbelief,” says another frustrated parent. “It’s not just the kids who suffer!”

“How many people take home an average of two hours or more of work that must be completed for the next day?” asks Tonya Noonan Herring, a New Mexico mother of three, an attorney and a former high school English teacher. “Most of us, even attorneys, do not do this. Bottom line: students have too much homework and most of it is not productive or necessary.”

Research about homework

How do educational researchers weigh in on the issue? According to Brian Gill, a senior social scientist at the Rand Corporation, there is no evidence that kids are doing more homework than they did before.

“If you look at high school kids in the late ’90s, they’re not doing substantially more homework than kids did in the ’80s, ’70s, ’60s or the ’40s,” he says. “In fact, the trends through most of this time period are pretty flat. And most high school students in this country don’t do a lot of homework. The median appears to be about four hours a week.”

Education researchers like Gill base their conclusions, in part, on data gathered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests.

“It doesn’t suggest that most kids are doing a tremendous amount,” says Gill. “That’s not to say there aren’t any kids with too much homework. There surely are some. There’s enormous variation across communities. But it’s not a crisis in that it’s a very small proportion of kids who are spending an enormous amount of time on homework.”

Etta Kralovec, author of The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning , disagrees, saying NAEP data is not a reliable source of information. “Students take the NAEP test and one of the questions they have to fill out is, ‘How much homework did you do last night’ Anybody who knows schools knows that teachers by and large do not give homework the night before a national assessment. It just doesn’t happen. Teachers are very clear with kids that they need to get a good night’s sleep and they need to eat well to prepare for a test.

“So asking a kid how much homework they did the night before a national test and claiming that that data tells us anything about the general run of the mill experience of kids and homework over the school year is, I think, really dishonest.”

Further muddying the waters is an AP/AOL poll that suggests that most Americans feel that their children are getting the right amount of homework. It found that 57% of parents felt that their child was assigned about the right amount of homework, 23% thought there was too little and 19% thought there was too much.

One indisputable fact

One homework fact that educators do agree upon is that the young child today is doing more homework than ever before.

“Parents are correct in saying that they didn’t get homework in the early grades and that their kids do,” says Harris Cooper, professor of psychology and director of the education program at Duke University.

Gill quantifies the change this way: “There has been some increase in homework for the kids in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. But it’s been an increase from zero to 20 minutes a day. So that is something that’s fairly new in the last quarter century.”

The history of homework

In his research, Gill found that homework has always been controversial. “Around the turn of the 20th century, the Ladies’ Home Journal carried on a crusade against homework. They thought that kids were better off spending their time outside playing and looking at clouds. The most spectacular success this movement had was in the state of California, where in 1901 the legislature passed a law abolishing homework in grades K-8. That lasted about 15 years and then was quietly repealed. Then there was a lot of activism against homework again in the 1930s.”

The proponents of homework have remained consistent in their reasons for why homework is a beneficial practice, says Gill. “One, it extends the work in the classroom with additional time on task. Second, it develops habits of independent study. Third, it’s a form of communication between the school and the parents. It gives parents an idea of what their kids are doing in school.”

The anti-homework crowd has also been consistent in their reasons for wanting to abolish or reduce homework.

“The first one is children’s health,” says Gill. “A hundred years ago, you had medical doctors testifying that heavy loads of books were causing children’s spines to be bent.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems. There were also concerns about excessive amounts of stress .

“Although they didn’t use the term ‘stress,'” says Gill. “They worried about ‘nervous breakdowns.'”

“In the 1930s, there were lots of graduate students in education schools around the country who were doing experiments that claimed to show that homework had no academic value — that kids who got homework didn’t learn any more than kids who didn’t,” Gill continues. Also, a lot of the opposition to homework, in the first half of the 20th century, was motivated by a notion that it was a leftover from a 19th-century model of schooling, which was based on recitation, memorization and drill. Progressive educators were trying to replace that with something more creative, something more interesting to kids.”

The more-is-better movement

Garfield, the San Francisco fifth-grade teacher, says that when she started teaching 30 years ago, she didn’t give any homework. “Then parents started asking for it,” she says. “I got In junior high and high school there’s so much homework, they need to get prepared.” So I bought that one. I said, ‘OK, they need to be prepared.’ But they don’t need two hours.”

Cooper sees the trend toward more homework as symptomatic of high-achieving parents who want the best for their children. “Part of it, I think, is pressure from the parents with regard to their desire to have their kids be competitive for the best universities in the country. The communities in which homework is being piled on are generally affluent communities.”

The less-is-better campaign

Alfie Kohn, a widely-admired progressive writer on education and parenting, published a sharp rebuttal to the more-homework-is-better argument in his 2006 book The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing . Kohn criticized the pro-homework studies that Cooper referenced as “inconclusive… they only show an association, not a causal relationship” and he titled his first chapter “Missing Out on Their Childhoods.”

Vera Goodman’s 2020 book, Simply Too Much Homework: What Can We Do? , repeats Kohn’s scrutiny and urges parents to appeal to school and government leaders to revise homework policies. Goodman believes today’s homework load stresses out teachers, parents, and students, deprives children of unstructured time for play, hobbies, and individual pursuits, and inhibits the joy of learning.

Homework guidelines

What’s a parent to do, you ask? Fortunately, there are some sanity-saving homework guidelines.

Cooper points to “The 10-Minute Rule” formulated by the National PTA and the National Education Association, which suggests that kids should be doing about 10 minutes of homework per night per grade level. In other words, 10 minutes for first-graders, 20 for second-graders and so on.

Too much homework vs. the optimal amount

Cooper has found that the correlation between homework and achievement is generally supportive of these guidelines. “We found that for kids in elementary school there was hardly any relationship between how much homework young children did and how well they were doing in school, but in middle school the relationship is positive and increases until the kids were doing between an hour to two hours a night, which is right where the 10-minute rule says it’s going to be optimal.

“After that it didn’t go up anymore. Kids that reported doing more than two hours of homework a night in middle school weren’t doing any better in school than kids who were doing between an hour to two hours.”

Garfield has a very clear homework policy that she distributes to her parents at the beginning of each school year. “I give one subject a night. It’s what we were studying in class or preparation for the next day. It should be done within half an hour at most. I believe that children have many outside activities now and they also need to live fully as children. To have them work for six hours a day at school and then go home and work for hours at night does not seem right. It doesn’t allow them to have a childhood.”

International comparisons

How do American kids fare when compared to students in other countries? Professors Gerald LeTendre and David Baker of Pennsylvania State University conclude in their 2005 book, National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling, that American middle schoolers do more homework than their peers in Japan, Korea, or Taiwan, but less than their peers in Singapore and Hong Kong.

One of the surprising findings of their research was that more homework does not correlate with higher test scores. LeTendre notes: “That really flummoxes people because they say, ‘Doesn’t doing more homework mean getting better scores?’ The answer quite simply is no.”

Homework is a complicated thing

To be effective, homework must be used in a certain way, he says. “Let me give you an example. Most homework in the fourth grade in the U.S. is worksheets. Fill them out, turn them in, maybe the teacher will check them, maybe not. That is a very ineffective use of homework. An effective use of homework would be the teacher sitting down and thinking ‘Elizabeth has trouble with number placement, so I’m going to give her seven problems on number placement.’ Then the next day the teacher sits down with Elizabeth and she says, ‘Was this hard for you? Where did you have difficulty?’ Then she gives Elizabeth either more or less material. As you can imagine, that kind of homework rarely happens.”

Shotgun homework

“What typically happens is people give what we call ‘shotgun homework’: blanket drills, questions and problems from the book. On a national level that’s associated with less well-functioning school systems,” he says. “In a sense, you could sort of think of it as a sign of weaker teachers or less well-prepared teachers. Over time, we see that in elementary and middle schools more and more homework is being given, and that countries around the world are doing this in an attempt to increase their test scores, and that is basically a failing strategy.”

Quality not quantity?

“ The Case for (Quality) Homework: Why It Improves Learning, and How Parents Can Help ,” a 2019 paper written by Boston University psychologist Janine Bempechat, asks for homework that specifically helps children “confront ever-more-complex tasks” that enable them to gain resilience and embrace challenges.

Similar research from University of Ovideo in Spain titled “ Homework: Facts and Fiction 2021 ” says evidence shows that how homework is applied is more important than how much is required, and it asserts that a moderate amount of homework yields the most academic achievement. The most important aspect of quality homework assignment? The effort required and the emotions prompted by the task.

Robyn Jackson, author of How to Plan Rigorous Instruction and other media about rigor says the key to quality homework is not the time spent, but the rigor — or mental challenge — involved. ( Read more about how to evaluate your child’s homework for rigor here .)

Nightly reading as a homework replacement

Across the country, many elementary schools have replaced homework with a nightly reading requirement. There are many benefits to children reading every night , either out loud with a parent or independently: it increases their vocabulary, imagination, concentration, memory, empathy, academic ability, knowledge of different cultures and perspectives. Plus, it reduces stress, helps kids sleep, and bonds children to their cuddling parents or guardians. Twenty to 30 minutes of reading each day is generally recommended.

But, is this always possible, or even ideal?

No, it’s not.

Alfie Kohn criticizes this added assignment in his blog post, “ How To Create Nonreaders .” He cites an example from a parent (Julie King) who reports, “Our children are now expected to read 20 minutes a night, and record such on their homework sheet. What parents are discovering (surprise) is that those kids who used to sit down and read for pleasure — the kids who would get lost in a book and have to be told to put it down to eat/play/whatever — are now setting the timer… and stopping when the timer dings. … Reading has become a chore, like brushing your teeth.”

The take-away from Kohn? Don’t undermine reading for pleasure by turning it into another task burdening your child’s tired brain.

Additional resources

Books Simply Too Much Homework: What Can We do? by Vera Goodman, Trafford Publishing, 2020

The Case Against Homework: How Homework is Hurting Children and What Parents Can Do About It by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, Crown Publishers, 2007

The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing by Alfie Kohn, Hatchett Books, 2006 The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning by Etta Kralovec and John Buell, Beacon Press, 2001.

The Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents by Harris M. Cooper, Corwin Press, 2001.

Seven Steps to Homework Success: A Family Guide to Solving Common Homework Problems by Sydney Zentall and Sam Goldstein, Specialty Press, 1998.

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What’s the Right Amount of Homework?

Decades of research show that homework has some benefits, especially for students in middle and high school—but there are risks to assigning too much.

Many teachers and parents believe that homework helps students build study skills and review concepts learned in class. Others see homework as disruptive and unnecessary, leading to burnout and turning kids off to school. Decades of research show that the issue is more nuanced and complex than most people think: Homework is beneficial, but only to a degree. Students in high school gain the most, while younger kids benefit much less.

The National PTA and the National Education Association support the “ 10-minute homework guideline ”—a nightly 10 minutes of homework per grade level. But many teachers and parents are quick to point out that what matters is the quality of the homework assigned and how well it meets students’ needs, not the amount of time spent on it.

The guideline doesn’t account for students who may need to spend more—or less—time on assignments. In class, teachers can make adjustments to support struggling students, but at home, an assignment that takes one student 30 minutes to complete may take another twice as much time—often for reasons beyond their control. And homework can widen the achievement gap, putting students from low-income households and students with learning disabilities at a disadvantage.

However, the 10-minute guideline is useful in setting a limit: When kids spend too much time on homework, there are real consequences to consider.

Small Benefits for Elementary Students

As young children begin school, the focus should be on cultivating a love of learning, and assigning too much homework can undermine that goal. And young students often don’t have the study skills to benefit fully from homework, so it may be a poor use of time (Cooper, 1989 ; Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). A more effective activity may be nightly reading, especially if parents are involved. The benefits of reading are clear: If students aren’t proficient readers by the end of third grade, they’re less likely to succeed academically and graduate from high school (Fiester, 2013 ).

For second-grade teacher Jacqueline Fiorentino, the minor benefits of homework did not outweigh the potential drawback of turning young children against school at an early age, so she experimented with dropping mandatory homework. “Something surprising happened: They started doing more work at home,” Fiorentino writes . “This inspiring group of 8-year-olds used their newfound free time to explore subjects and topics of interest to them.” She encouraged her students to read at home and offered optional homework to extend classroom lessons and help them review material.

Moderate Benefits for Middle School Students

As students mature and develop the study skills necessary to delve deeply into a topic—and to retain what they learn—they also benefit more from homework. Nightly assignments can help prepare them for scholarly work, and research shows that homework can have moderate benefits for middle school students (Cooper et al., 2006 ). Recent research also shows that online math homework, which can be designed to adapt to students’ levels of understanding, can significantly boost test scores (Roschelle et al., 2016 ).

There are risks to assigning too much, however: A 2015 study found that when middle school students were assigned more than 90 to 100 minutes of daily homework, their math and science test scores began to decline (Fernández-Alonso, Suárez-Álvarez, & Muñiz, 2015 ). Crossing that upper limit can drain student motivation and focus. The researchers recommend that “homework should present a certain level of challenge or difficulty, without being so challenging that it discourages effort.” Teachers should avoid low-effort, repetitive assignments, and assign homework “with the aim of instilling work habits and promoting autonomous, self-directed learning.”

In other words, it’s the quality of homework that matters, not the quantity. Brian Sztabnik, a veteran middle and high school English teacher, suggests that teachers take a step back and ask themselves these five questions :

• How long will it take to complete?
• Have all learners been considered?
• Will an assignment encourage future success?
• Will an assignment place material in a context the classroom cannot?
• Does an assignment offer support when a teacher is not there?

More Benefits for High School Students, but Risks as Well

By the time they reach high school, students should be well on their way to becoming independent learners, so homework does provide a boost to learning at this age, as long as it isn’t overwhelming (Cooper et al., 2006 ; Marzano & Pickering, 2007 ). When students spend too much time on homework—more than two hours each night—it takes up valuable time to rest and spend time with family and friends. A 2013 study found that high school students can experience serious mental and physical health problems, from higher stress levels to sleep deprivation, when assigned too much homework (Galloway, Conner, & Pope, 2013 ).

Homework in high school should always relate to the lesson and be doable without any assistance, and feedback should be clear and explicit.

Teachers should also keep in mind that not all students have equal opportunities to finish their homework at home, so incomplete homework may not be a true reflection of their learning—it may be more a result of issues they face outside of school. They may be hindered by issues such as lack of a quiet space at home, resources such as a computer or broadband connectivity, or parental support (OECD, 2014 ). In such cases, giving low homework scores may be unfair.

Since the quantities of time discussed here are totals, teachers in middle and high school should be aware of how much homework other teachers are assigning. It may seem reasonable to assign 30 minutes of daily homework, but across six subjects, that’s three hours—far above a reasonable amount even for a high school senior. Psychologist Maurice Elias sees this as a common mistake: Individual teachers create homework policies that in aggregate can overwhelm students. He suggests that teachers work together to develop a school-wide homework policy and make it a key topic of back-to-school night and the first parent-teacher conferences of the school year.

Parents Play a Key Role

Homework can be a powerful tool to help parents become more involved in their child’s learning (Walker et al., 2004 ). It can provide insights into a child’s strengths and interests, and can also encourage conversations about a child’s life at school. If a parent has positive attitudes toward homework, their children are more likely to share those same values, promoting academic success.

But it’s also possible for parents to be overbearing, putting too much emphasis on test scores or grades, which can be disruptive for children (Madjar, Shklar, & Moshe, 2015 ). Parents should avoid being overly intrusive or controlling—students report feeling less motivated to learn when they don’t have enough space and autonomy to do their homework (Orkin, May, & Wolf, 2017 ; Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008 ; Silinskas & Kikas, 2017 ). So while homework can encourage parents to be more involved with their kids, it’s important to not make it a source of conflict.

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Trump says Melania is ‘I think, OK’ and trial did not take too much of a toll

Trump sits down with tv host dr phil to discuss the impact that the trial, as well as his 2024 election campaign, has had on his family, article bookmarked.

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Donald Trump has admitted it has not been “easy” for his wife Melania given his presidential campaign and his criminal trial.

Trump recently became the first former president in US history to be criminally convicted after he was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a 2016 campaign scheme to pay hush money to women claiming they had affairs with him. The former president denied the affair and pleaded not guilty to all charges, and has vowed to appeal the verdict, calling the ruling a “disgrace.”

His family —including his son Barron, his daughter Ivanka, and Melania— were notably absent at the trial, with Melania and Barron opting to stay at their home in Mar-a-Lago - something that reportedly “definitely” bothered the former president.

Melania’s silence following her husband’s conviction was also noted by observers, with some mocking the former president on social media for it.

The trial is one of four criminal cases that Trump is involved in, on top of multiple civil cases, as he campaigns to be reelected to the White House.

Amid his time in the spotlight, Trump sat down with TV host Dr Phil , real name Phil McGraw, to discuss the impact that the trial, as well as his 2024 election campaign, has had on his family.

During the interview, McGraw asked Trump how the former first lady was “holding up through all this.”

“I think good,” he replied. “But I don’t think it’s an easy thing for her, and I think if it wasn’t good, she wouldn’t want to tell me about it, to be honest.

“Because, you know, she sees that I’m fighting like hell, I’m trying to become president and make America great again,” he added.

He continued: “I have a wonderful wife - it’s not easy for her to read about this stuff, that’s fake - fake stuff.”

Trump also offered a similar assessment of how his youngest son Barron was handling the difficulties of his father being in the spotlight - especially after turning 18 years old.

“I think he doesn’t say because he doesn’t want to hurt me and thinks it’s a possibly a hurtful conversation, but it has to affect my family,” he said.

Ultimately, though, the former president believes his family “tolerate” his 2024 campaign out of patriotism and their faith in Donald Trump.

“I think to a certain extent, my family wants me to do it. Our country’s in trouble. We could be in a world war very soon,” Trump told the host , adding, “My family loves this country and I think they feel I do a good job.”

Melania and Barron Trump were spotted leaving Trump Tower in New York on Thursday for the first time since the former president’s guilty verdict. The New York Post reported that the pair had several luggage bags in tow and drove off in a bulletproof Secret Service SUV. They are believed to be staying at the family’s residence in Bedminster, New Jersey.

In private, Melania reportedly considered the trial a “disgrace” and election interference, a source close to the Trump family told The New York Times .

Meanwhile, in an interview with Fox & Friends on 2 June, Trump admitted that the hush-money trial had been “very hard” on the former first lady.

“It’s tougher. I think it’s probably in many ways—it’s tougher on my family than it is on me,” he said.

He added: “She’s fine, but I think it’s very hard for her. I mean, she’s fine. But it’s, you know, she has to read all this c***.”

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NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Traffic lights could be getting a new colour

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Red, amber, green – traffic lights are pretty much the same the world over, and have been for more than a century.

However, they could one day have a fourth colour added to help traffic flow around driverless vehicles, scientists have proposed.

Autonomous vehicles (AV) are still a relatively new concept, with no fully driverless cars on the road yet. In California and Arizona self-driving taxi firm Waymo has come close, achieving what is known as SAE4, of five levels. Other AVs including Teslas are also becoming popular.

Self-driving vehicles are not currently allowed on UK roads with the exception of a few trials , but could be as soon as 2026 under the Automated Vehicles Act.

All this means that soon, there will be a mix of human-steered cars and driverless vehicles mingling on the streets.

To help make this merger smoother, engineers at North Carolina State University are proposing a ‘white light’ at traffic lights, which will allow self-driving cars to help with traffic flow and let human drivers understand what is going on. 

Study lead Dr Ali Hajbabaie said idea was to tap into the computing power of the AVs themselves to figure out which vehicles are where.

‘The white phase concept incorporates a new traffic signal, so that human drivers know what they are supposed to do,’ he said. ‘Red lights will still mean stop. Green lights will still mean go. And white lights will tell human drivers to simply follow the car in front of them.’

Dr Hajbabaie and his team created a series of computer simulations that helped visualise how the new traffic light system would work. 

The concept would see AVs communicate wirelessly to each other and with the computers that control the traffic signals. When enough AVs are approaching the intersection, the new traffic light system will be activated. 

The white light would indicate to people that the AVs are coordinating their movements to move traffic through the intersection, and any non-automated vehicles would just need to follow the vehicle in front of them. 

But for the majority of the time, until almost all cars are AVs, the standard red, yellow and green lights will be used and the system will be function as it has for over a hundred years.

The researchers further expanded their work to include pedestrians, and they found that the white phase concept still improves traffic efficiency for both vehicles and pedestrians. 

A history of traffic lights

Traffic lights have a long history and first appeared more than 150 years ago, first outside the Houses of Parliament on December 10, 1868. This rudimentary version saw red and green gas lights being operated during the night, controlled by a police constable. 

Unfortunately, a few weeks later on January 2, the gas lines exploded. 

The first electric traffic lights were first installed in Ohio in 1914, and the three colour system was first used in Detroit in 1919. 

In the UK, three colour manually operated traffic lights first appeared in Piccadilly, in 1926 and automatic traffic lights appeared in Princes Square, Wolverhampton in 1927. 

He said implementing this system would improve travel time, fuel efficiency and safety for all people using the roads. 

Dr Hajbabaie said: ‘If at some point in the future we see almost universal adoption of AVs, our models suggest that delays at intersections would decrease by more than 25%.

‘More realistically, we will eventually see a lower percentage of wirelessly connected AVs on the road, but there would still be meaningful improvements in traffic time.’ 

The paper was published in the journal of Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering. 

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