To find this really depressing?

When I was home schooling, I read that it was not a legal requirement to do homework. The education department nor the school can force any child to do homework if they with not to do it.

This may need to be looked into now but I am sure that is what was said a few years back.

I was a teacher and later worked with children who had learning difficulties. It became more and more difficult to motivate them as a result of changes to the curriculum and the dreaded 'targets'. Now I struggle with my DGS (aged 9) who HATES homework. As you say NotTooOld, he prefers football. DGDs are less of a problem as they enjoy the challenges and the rewards and will make the effort. The teachers do their best to set fun and interesting work and Daddy is currently reading Roald Dahl and David Walliams which they love. However the government shows no awareness or understanding of child development or gender differences.
They are turning off the natural love of learning in a generation of children. Hopefully I will not live long enough to see the results.

When 7 yr old GS was last here he had maths homework that had to be completed on line !!

DD often says that if they were allowed to get on and teach according to their ages and ability then the children would learn more - not rocket science is it?

Subordinate clauses for 7 year olds? How ridiculous. I agree with dramatictessa that education is currently damaging the development of children. My 7 year old grandson gets homework every night along with a termly project and he makes very heavy weather of it as he would prefer to be kicking a football round the garden, which IMO would be better for him than staying inside doing school work.

I bet those teachers find it depressing too. I'm fast coming to believe that education as it is now, in England anyway, is actually damaging children's development. It's only due to the excellent teachers that do still exist that the damage is mitigated.

7 year olds should be learning through play - they should be painting and using their imaginations. They should be listening to stories and learning a love of reading.

I find this really depressing too.