Every one of the headings below is a sentence a parent has said to us this year. Some of them we agree with. Some of them we do not. Here are the honest answers.
First, the numbers, because they settle several arguments at once.
The Ministry of Education School Bag Policy, which sits behind the CBSE framework, recommends how much homework children should get:
| Stage | Recommended homework |
|---|---|
| Grades 1 and 2 | None |
| Grades 3 to 5 | Up to two hours a week |
| Grades 6 to 8 | Up to one hour a day |
| Grades 9 to 12 | Up to two hours a day |
The same policy says a school bag should weigh no more than a tenth of the child's body weight.
These are recommendations rather than rules a school is inspected against in the Emirates, and schools apply them with judgement. But they are a useful yardstick, and most parents are surprised by how low the primary figures are.
Check it against the table before you decide. Two hours a week across Grades 3 to 5 works out at around twenty five minutes a day, four days a week.
Then time it for a week. Not estimate it, time it. Parents who do this usually find one of two things.
Either the work genuinely exceeds the guide, in which case tell the class teacher, with your week of timings. That is a reasonable conversation and teachers would rather have it than not.
Or the work is within the guide and your child is taking far longer than it should take. That is a completely different problem, and the section further down deals with it.
In Grades 1 and 2, that may well be deliberate. The national policy recommends none, and the thinking behind it is simple. A six year old who has concentrated for six hours has done enough. What helps that child in the evening is talking, playing, being read to and sleeping.
If you want something to do, read with them. Our guide to reading at home in the early years sets out what actually works at each age, and ten minutes of it beats any worksheet.
Sit nearby. Not next to her.
A parent at the table turns homework into a two person activity, and the child stops thinking for herself because someone better at it is right there. A parent in the same room, doing something else, available if needed, gets a very different result.
Useful: being in earshot, answering a question, checking at the end.
Not useful: watching every line, correcting as she writes, reminding her every ninety seconds to concentrate.
By Grade 4 or 5, aim to be in another room entirely for most of it.
This is the single most common complaint we hear, and the homework is almost never the problem.
Work out which of these it is, because the fix differs for each.
He cannot start. The page is open, nothing is happening, forty minutes pass. Usually this is not laziness. He does not know what the question is asking. Read the first question aloud with him, then leave.
He can start but cannot stay. Attention goes after four minutes. Try three short sittings instead of one long one, with the timer visible.
He is distracted. A tablet in the room costs more time than any other single factor. Move it out, not off.
He is a perfectionist. He rubs out and rewrites the same line. Tell him clearly that neat is not the point tonight, and mean it.
He is tired. Homework at eight in the evening after a long bus ride and a full day will take three times as long as the same homework at five. Protect the earlier slot.
Tell him the method. Never the answer.
There is a practical reason beyond principle. The teacher uses homework to find out who has understood the lesson. A page of correct answers produced by a parent tells the teacher that your child is fine, so no help arrives, and the gap widens quietly for weeks.
A page with three wrong answers is far more useful to everyone, including your child.
If he is stuck and you are both getting frustrated, stop. Write a note to the teacher saying where he got stuck. That note is worth more than a finished page.
Sometimes it looks that way, and sometimes a project does need adult help with materials and transport. That is fine.
The line is easy to find. Your child should be able to explain every part of what has been submitted. If he cannot explain the model, the chart or the conclusion, the project belongs to you and he has learned nothing from it.
Help with scissors, printing and the trip to the shop. Leave the thinking, the writing and the mess to him. A slightly wobbly project that a nine year old made is the right outcome.
How much homework should a primary school child get?
The School Bag Policy recommends none in Grades 1 and 2 and up to two hours a week across Grades 3 to 5.
Is it bad to help with homework?
Helping with the method is good. Supplying answers is not, because the teacher then cannot see what your child has not understood.
What if homework causes a fight every evening?
Change the time before you change anything else. Most evening homework battles are about tiredness.
Should homework be done straight after school?
Give a gap first. Food, a change of clothes, half an hour of nothing, then work.
How heavy should a school bag be?
No more than a tenth of your child's body weight, per the same policy.
My child finishes everything in ten minutes and it is all correct. Should I add more?
No. Tell the teacher. Extra work set at home is rarely pitched at the right level, and the teacher can stretch him in class.
If you take one thing from this, take this.
Set a timer for twenty minutes in Grades 1 to 3, or thirty in Grades 4 and 5. When it rings, homework stops, finished or not. Write a short note to the teacher saying how far your child got and where the difficulty was.
Nothing bad happens. No child has ever been harmed by an unfinished worksheet, and the note gives the teacher better information than a completed page ever could.
The families who adopt this rule stop having homework arguments within about a fortnight. If you would like to talk it through for your own child, the class teacher is the right person and no appointment is needed for a quick word.
Our school life page sets out the primary day if you are planning the evening around it, and our guide to the CBSE curriculum in Abu Dhabi explains what your child covers at each stage.
Written by Bright Riders School Abu Dhabi. Last updated 15-10-2026.
