A primary school in Dublin has got rid of homework, in an effort to reduce the pressure on pupils and parents.
(Source: www.pixabay.com)Loreto in Rathfarnham says it has scrapped written homework, in an effort to make things easier for its students and their parents or guardians.
However it's not letting the children slack off, as it still expects them to do spellings and times tables.
Teachers at the school say they have noticed an improvement in the abilities of students in these areas.
Sister Maria Hyland, who is the principal of the school, says the move was in response to the demands faced by parents:
"We're being responsive and relative to present reality for parents who are very busy. Maybe both parents [are] working and they're coming home late in the evening and children are tired. So we decided [to take away] the written homework, which seems to take forever for some children, [and] that we would leave the spellings and a little bit of oral work."
Marc Ó'Cathasaigh, who is a primary school teacher in Waterford, says he's not a fan of mountains of homework:
"I'm all for spellings being learned at home, reading to be done at home, I think reading is incredibly important to do at home, but unless I had a specific reason for assigning written homework, I'd probably prefer not to give it to be honest."
However he believes there is a time and place for some assignment work to be done at home:
"Then you get the other side of the story, parents worry if there's not homework coming home. Some people make the argument it's a good way of having home/school communication so that parents know what's going on within the classroom."
