I have to admit that I have a (not so) secret hatred of homework. I hated it as a child - and now, as a primary teacher, I am extremely grumpy about setting it. It’s not just the coming up with it. It’s the photocopying, the handing it out, collecting it in, setting up the system for collection, chasing up those who haven’t handed it in, the marking, the feedback...

Everything about it annoys me - and that’s before I get onto having to supervise it with my own children. For teacher-parents, it can sometimes feel as if there is no escape from the clutches of school.

I used to think that ready-made worksheets were the answer to my homework prayers. That is, until I started using them, after briefly reviewing the title of the page and deciding that it looked more-or-less like what I needed.

Parents started popping in to give me feedback that went along the lines of: “How do you do this question? We’ve all had a go, and none of us can work it out!”

After that, I realised that photocopies had their place, but that I needed to be a bit cleverer about how I used them.

Project homework, on the other hand, I only fell out with when I was on the other side of the playground gate. If I never have to make another castle, river valley, blood cell or Ancient Greek amphitheatre, I will be a happy woman. And I say me, because, in the end, that’s what it tends to be.

Of course, all of this is before we address the thorny issues of SEND and of social deprivation.

I, like many of my colleagues, have silently observed those children we know don’t have a quiet place to concentrate on homework - some of whom don’t even have a bed of their own to sleep in - and given them a chance to do the work, no questions, no judgement, at school.

The number of parents I have met and, following a tale of tears and tantrums, reassured that if the reading, spellings and times tables are getting in the way of a decent, happy home life and causing conflict and strife, anger and anxiety, then it is absolutely the right thing to do what you can and leave what you can’t.

Keeping homework simple and manageable has to be the guiding principle. And if you’re going to set castle-making homework in Year 7, can you at least check that they haven’t done it before…in Year 2 and Year 4?

Nancy Gedge is a consultant teacher for the Driver Youth Trust, which works with schools and teachers on SEND. She is the Tes SEND specialist, and author of Inclusion for Primary School Teachers. She tweets @nancygedge