Dear [name of head teacher / head of year / other relevant contact]
[I am/We are] the parent[s] of XXXXX in Year XX. [I/We] have concerns about the setting [and completion] of online homework. We would like to explain our concerns and make a related request.
The impacts of screentime on children’s physical and mental health have been well-documented. As parents we have chosen to limit screentime and [I/we do not allow [my/our] [child/children] routinely to use] / [are careful to limit the use of] touchscreen devices at home.
[We are delighted that the school [has introduced / is planning to introduce] a smartphone free school policy.] But we are finding that the school’s approach to setting homework that requires access to a screen is undermining our efforts to limit screentime while, from all that we can see, will add far less to the home learning experience than paper-based reading and writing.
In particular, our experience has been … [describe here your own family’s experience of the issues caused by homework being set and/or required to be completed/handed in online. These might include for example;]
- the negative impacts of or the amount of time spent having to log on in order to find the homework
- difficulties of sharing your own devices at home between multiple children or if parents need to use them for work
- the temptation to look for other ‘more interesting’ distractions on the device while doing homework
- tensions in relationships with siblings and/or parents associated with device use
- difficulties in supporting/supervising homework or being unable to help solve technical issues with devices
- observations about your child being less interested in homework topics or appearing to understand less, or of your child being slower to get to sleep after using a touchscreen device, or of their quality of sleep declining
- arguments about having access to other devices (phones/gaming consoles) if online homework has normalised device use in the evenings
- noticing your child is rushing through homework to achieve a gamified reward
- noticing your child is less inclined to want to read books or is not progressing as well with eg. spellings and/or times tables
[I am/We are] deeply sceptical that homework completed through online applications leads to better learning outcomes for school children. If you have any independently-produced assessments or studies (as opposed to promotional materials produced by or for educational technology providers) to explain how the applications being used for homework will enhance learning and knowledge retention, please could you share them with [me/us]?
Our own experience indicates that online and app-based educational programs are not intuitive to a child’s needs and can end up ‘testing not teaching’. Many applications that claim to be educational incorporate gamified elements which encourage pupils to focus on the fleeting reward that appears when they complete a task or question, rather than on cementing learning from the school day or enhancing knowledge and confidence in the content.
Indeed, [I/we] understand that research has now confirmed that reading from a screen encourages skimming and scanning whereas reading from a book promotes deeper understanding and comprehension and that the process of handwriting, unlike typing, stimulates distinct brain areas that improve memory and retention of knowledge.
On top of these many child wellbeing and educational concerns, we are also concerned about the data privacy issues surrounding edtech platforms and applications.
For all of these reasons, [I/we] would like please to opt [my/our] child out of online homework and [I/we] would be grateful if you could please ensure instead that [my/our child] receives, and is permitted to complete, homework in a non-digital form.
Please could you kindly confirm that XXXX (insert child’s name) will now be opted out of online homework as [I/we] have requested?
Yours sincerely,
[Your name]