For several years the Government have been recommending that all primary schools should introduce a programme of homework which they see as a means of raising achievement. This recommendation has been formalised recently with the introduction of home-school agreements, which state that schools should make their policy on homework clear to parents. And indeed that homework should be seen as part of the “wider partnership” between parents and schools.

However, social science research has indicated that whilst parents are expected to become more involved with their children’s education, through initiatives such as homework, there are constraints upon achieving this involvement. Social class, gender and ethnicity have been shown to be differentiating factors. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with a small sample of parents, teachers and children in order to explore their perspectives on homework. From a careful analysis of the data, it has become clear that parents cannot be viewed as a single homogeneous group. There is enormous diversity in family situations that exist nowadays and the individual circumstances and experiences of parents affect their views on issues such as homework. One issue that united all participants in this study was the necessity to maintain an appropriate balance in children’s lives between school and home activities during the primary phase.