A mother and former primary school teacher from Suffolk is making a stand against homework, calling for it to be abolished across the UK. Abi Clarke, 34, believes compulsory tasks are damaging children's mental health and love of learning.
The Homework Rebellion
Abi Clarke, a parenting coach from Bury St Edmunds, has publicly stated she will not force her eight-year-old daughter, Emily, to complete obligatory reading tasks set by school. The mother-of-two, who also runs the parent mentoring service SparkGuideGrow, argues that homework is particularly harmful for neurodivergent children.
Abi suspects her daughter may have dyslexia and ADHD, and has witnessed her "flip flopped between really loving reading and finding it difficult". She has directly informed the school that she won't enforce homework if it proves detrimental to her child's wellbeing.
Why Homework Doesn't Work
"If you're forcing kids to do it at home when they're tired and want to relax you're just going to stop them developing a lifelong love of learning," Abi explained. She describes homework as a "tick-box exercise" that even teachers despise.
While homework isn't legally mandatory in the UK, many schools continue to assign tasks. Abi challenges this practice, stating: "I know loads of jobs will require people to work at home but when we're trying to move towards a more mindful society, we need to say work is work and home is home."
The Neurodivergent Perspective
The parenting coach highlighted how homework can trigger significant anxiety for children with neurodivergent conditions. "A lot of children with neurodivergence will see a rule as being really black and white," she said.
"They think 'right, I have to do this' and they put it so much upon themselves but at home they need connection and regulation of their nervous system." Abi noted that this pressure often leads to negative self-talk, with children telling themselves "they are rubbish".
She argues that blanket homework rules are "almost an ableist rule" that can have severe effects on children's mental health. Despite studies showing homework can provide a five-month academic improvement for typically able children, Abi believes this gain isn't worth the cost to family life and child wellbeing.
Knowing Your Rights as a Parent
Abi pointed out that parents of primary school children already have the right to let their children skip homework as it's "not enforceable by law at all". However, she acknowledges that schools might use other penalties, such as keeping children in at break or lunch times.
She encourages parents to arm themselves with knowledge: "Ask for the meetings and the paper trail for what's going on, what the policy is and that the school's actually following that."
Many parents approach the issue from "a place of school trauma themselves," Abi noted, but she insists they should feel empowered to advocate for their children. "They think they can't question a teacher, but they can," she stated firmly.