Primary school pupils should be exempt from homework because it can damage children and create tensions between family members, a private school headmaster in the UK has warned.
Teachers should stop giving pupils homework until the last few years of primary education, said Dawn Moore, head of the King Alfred School, in north London.
"I really question how beneficial homework is, particularly for the younger primary-age children," she said. "I have been quite concerned about this idea of children doing two or three hours of homework a night at the age of eight or nine."
Moore said her school did not introduce children to basic homework until they were nine or 10.
By 11, they are required to do one hour of homework a week, typically receiving a project on a Friday and handing it in the following week.
"I think children have a very busy day at school and when they get home they are often quite tired and need some downtime," Moore said.
She added: "One of the things that worries me most is when families get into situations in which the whole evening gets tense because of the amount of homework that must be done - trying to squeeze homework in between having a bath and going to bed."
Moore said homework should not be about "ticking boxes".
"I say to all of my teachers, set homework only if there is a point to it. Don't set it for the sake of it."
Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "You can certainly overdo homework. There should be some space for children to relax."
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