Why is there no Homework??

This article gives an overview of John Hattie

The short answer is that there is. Please refer to the information on the class blogs about Te Kotiritiri and how this is linked to the New Zealand Curriculum. We are fostering the Key Competencies identified in the Curriculum which is considered to be leading the way internationally in terms of where other countries see their curriculums heading in the future.

This page is dedicated to showcasing some of the large amounts of evidence supporting our approach and some other schools which are also proceeding in this direction.

John Hattie is cited by the current Government as supporting their approach with the National Standards. Internationally respected and sought after as a speaker for his evidence based approach to teaching he is happy to say that the education sector is an incredibly frustrating place.

"Last year he published Visible Learning, a book which analysed the results of 50,000 educational studies covering 83 million students around the world. Hattie concluded that many of the topics which dominate the headlines - including class size, amount of homework and even which school a child attends - had very little effect on children's learning."

Fortunately the book (Visible Learning) and its conclusions are summarised here as a presentation. Even better, the presentation is also available on youtube.


In essence - homework at the Primary Level is one of the least effective practices we can do as educators for our children.

For a different study and other researchers that reached the same conclusions, you can listen to a radio phone in here. Alfie Kohn author of "The Homework Myth" is interviewed and goes head to head with the counterargument which he pretty conclusively debunks.

Windsor School has successfully implemented their PRIDE programme and we would like to acknowledge both Windsor and Clarkville Schools for inspiring us to implement the new curriculum and allow our Merrin STARs to shine.

Windsor Schools website has a lot of supporting information on their justifications for taking this approach. You can read, listen and watch these here. The Core education presentation is particularly informative and we'll be developing a similar supporting document incorporating our STAR values, for parents later this year.