Ask pupils – and parents – if they get too much homework and the answer is likely to be yes. Many education experts would agree, with some questioning the value of homework at all.

But the Government believes there is “enormous advantage” in children spending regular periods of time on learning activities devised by schools which supports the work they do in class. At the same time, it insists that “homework need not, and should not, get in the way of other activities which they may do after school”.

Any parent who has been up until midnight with a tearful child constructing a model of the night sky out of polystyrene balls and a cardboard box from Sainsbury’s, can tell you that this simply is not realistic.

One trick in resolving the debate seems to lie in making homework fresh by throwing it forward and getting children to prepare for the next lesson rather than make them repeat what they have done. The other imperative must lie in cutting parents out of the equation. The Institute of Education makes a strong case for homework to be done in out-of-hours clubs run by teachers. In this scenario parents only get involved when invited by their child to do so.

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