Headmistress of 'world's top school' in Finland discusses homework at Valencia education conference
Saturday, November 12, 2016 @ 9:50 PM
HALF an hour of homework a night is more than enough, and should be based upon play and fun activity as far as possible as well as adapted to the individual pupil, the headmistress of 'the best school in the world' told Spanish teachers in Valencia this weekend.
Hanna Sarakorpi, of the Saunalahti School in Finland – ranked number one in the world in PISA tests – gave a talk at an education conference in Valencia right in the middle of Spain's first-ever 'homework strike', whereby parents have told teachers their kids will not do any extra-curricular work set for them at weekends.
Homework is important, Ms Sarakorpi stresses, because it enables parents to see first-hand how their children are managing in school and where their academic strengths and weaknesses lie.
“But we're talking about half an hour – a maximum of an hour – and every child is different with different abilities, so it's important that the teacher assigns the appropriate type of homework and that this is not excessively difficult for the pupil,” the Finnish headmistress told 200-plus teachers at the conference.
Parents and teachers work very closely together in Finland, meeting up several times a year on a one-to-one basis and devising active, tailor-made education plans together which are regularly reviewed.
“If we do give homework, it's always the bare minimum necessary and is tailored to improving the child's performance and giving the parents, when they supervise them, the chance to see what problems their youngsters are having and where they are doing best,” explains Ms Sarakorpi, who has been a head teacher for over 17 years and a classroom teacher for decades before then.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com