- Beaulieu teacher has carried out research into student homework
- A video has now been produced outlining her findings
- Are students given too much homework? Take part in our poll
- Watch the video below
A JERSEY teacher has carried out a study into whether the amount of homework that students are given is appropriate.
Susan Parker, the head of business studies at Beaulieu Convent School, set up a ‘Rethinking Homework’ focus group which has been looking into the issue over the past year, and a video has now been produced in which she outlines the group’s findings.
‘Over the past 12 months, Beaulieu staff have been involved in professional development focus groups on various subjects,’ she explained. ‘I’m particularly passionate about the issue of homework – I did my Masters study on it – so I decided to look into the issue.’
The focus group met several times over the past year, during which time all of the school’s staff, as well as 250 students from Years 7, 8 and 9, completed a survey on the subject.
Commenting on the results, Ms Parker said: ‘Our study shows that students at Beaulieu are actually generally happy with the amount of homework that they are set and how long it takes them to do it.
‘We found that in Years 7 to 9, students are spending an average of three to six hours a week on homework, which is in line with the OECD average of five hours.
‘The only complaint students made was that they wished they had longer to do it, and they wished that homework was more regular, as some weeks they have none and other weeks they have loads.
‘Homework impacts on a child’s resting and family time, and the biggest gripe we found was about homework being set during holiday time.
‘While some parents were happy that the children had something to do in the holidays, others said it impacted on their family time, and said that if they had planned trips then the children had to rush it before they went away.’
The video, which is presented by Ms Parker and is available to watch online, was edited by 19-year-old Alex Watson, a 19 year-old television and broadcasting student at the University of Portsmouth, and filmed by Channel Television’s Daniel Wickham.
Explaining the reason for it, Ms Parker said: ‘Rather than standing and doing a power point video for my colleagues about my findings, I decided to produce a video as a way of feeding back to them instead.’
Commenting on why she had decided to carry out the study, she added: ‘Homework is a much wider issue than just our school, so we thought it was worth investing the time in looking into it, as it is something that affects every child and that everyone has got a view on.
‘It has been such a worthwhile thing to do and it’s ongoing. We are so pleased that this debate has now been raised nationally too.
‘We didn’t call it a homework review as we’re not looking to change things – it was a research study as we were just aiming to find out what we were doing and whether it was working.
‘Beaulieu feels a strong obligation to wellbeing issues – it’s all part of the school package.
‘This is the first phase of research and we are considering what to do next – the next step would be to consult the parents.’
