In fact the main point of homework, is that it helps your child reinforce what they have done in school and when they are younger, provides a chance for parents to be involved in their learning too. According to the Department for Education, in primary school children should start with one hour’s homework a week in Year 1, building up to half an hour a day by Year 6. By the time they reach secondary school, levels of homework step up from 45 minutes a day in Year 7 to about two and a half hours a day, by sixth form.

Personally, I don't really agree with the whole concept of homework in the early years, on the grounds that once children come home, they should be allowed to play rather than set more work. My basic idea is that children are – or should be – learning new things throughout the day. That tires the brain, leaving less energy for further learning or reinforcement later in the day. Higher up the school different issues come into play, but I'm still not entirely convinced by the arguments, until say Year 9 or 10.

Sometimes children are asked to work on a project at home, to back up the learning happening at school. My son was asked to do one such project at junior school - creating a model of a motte and bailey castle - quite a challenge for a class of 8 year-olds. Inevitably, parents are called upon to help. 

Parents are often under a lot of pressure, so trying to find the time to work on projects can be a big ask. Although these can be viewed as a bonding experience, in which parent and child work together and talk about the project, they still require a huge amount of time and often, a random selection of materials (such as old cereal boxes, coloured paper and toilet rolls), which in reality can be rather overwhelming 

So homework might provide an opportunity for parents to bond and to learn together with their child (that is if they can even do the homework their youngster is set, as in my experience, from around early secondary stage, it often is over my head). Or it might, in an increasingly competitive world, be a way for parents to give their child a helping hand in the rat race.

I think it would be great if, rather than setting homework, more teachers could additionally suggest websites or books or newspaper articles, which children can read if they want to know more and parents need have no concerns about working with their children to explore such extra resources. 

In this way, if children like the subject, they can learn more, but if they have something better to do, then there should be no compulsion to spend more time going over a topic that does not interest them.  

There is no denying it though, that when it comes to the final years of secondary school, there is no way out: homework is key if your child is to succeed in both their GCSEs and A Level/AS Level exams. 

David Shaw is a member of the BBC Parent Panel.

The challenge will be to keep down the hours spent on the various screens. 

We recently bought our 13-year-old son one of the more grown-up consoles and will admit to some surprise at how powerful and flexible they have become. The biggest change is in networking. Nowadays, all these consoles are designed to connect to the web, and permit cooperative gaming. 

On the good side, that makes it possible for players to cooperate; to talk to their friends and to work together on a campaign or to achieve an objective.

On the downside, the console seems to have made his concentration worse. Except in one area - when does he next get to go on the console.

We can ask if he has done all his homework. The answer always seems to be yes, and I guess we should rejoice about that. At least until his teachers start reporting that the work is rushed and sloppy.

We can ask if he has prepared his books for the next day. The answer to that one seems to be, that he was always, just about to do it. The same, of course applies to jobs like laying the table; getting his dirty washing ready for the machine and so on. 

But it's not just the main games console. He takes his hand-held device everywhere. On the good side, we never get the 'Are we there yet?' question. On the bad side, the question we do get it 'Can I get out my console?'  - at friends' houses, on the tube, during a concert, at church. 

If this scenario sounds familiar, one way of tacking it is to introduce some alternative activities. Why not suggest playing cards or some board games. Other distractions could be baking some cookies or helping to cook the family meal. 

I talked to a local sleep advisor recently. Most of our conversation was about babies and parents getting sleep. But as soon as I mentioned the games console generation, she became really fired up about how they are damaging sleep patterns.

As a trained psychologist, she went on about arousal states and brain waves and alpha rhythms, most of which went over my head, but the thing which struck home was that she actively stops her 17 year-old from playing on the console on school days. She will go in there and unplug the machine, saying the constant battles are worth it. 

I think this anecdotal type of evidence, is a common currency among teachers and concerned parents. But it's also there in hard research. In the 11 October issue of Pediatrics, Dr Angie Page of the University of Bristol reports that, “Children who spent more than two hours per day watching television or using a computer were at increased risk of high levels of psychological difficulties.”

Research from Iowa, in America, showed that children who spent  least  time in front of a screen, had much lower blood pressure than their screen-addicted peers. (Archives of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine journal)

The kicker was the high blood pressure, that was not solely due to simply sitting down and not getting exercise; nor was it due to body morphology. It appeared to be due to the excess adrenalin and other hormones, produced as a result of playing games and watching TV.

So that sleep practitioner was right about high states of arousal.

The question really, is not what those games do to our children. I think most of us know the effects are not all positive. The question is how we control access to the consoles and encourage them to get outside and play for hours, rather than spend their lives playing the latest shoot 'em up.

I'm not sure there are any easy answers to that one, though.

David Shaw is a member of the BBC Parent Panel.

Let me say first, I think Gareth Malone is wonderful. He is a slight figure, looking much younger than his 35 years. Gareth is a choir master, who has made it on the small screen thanks to his inspirational ways of dealing with underprivileged children and helping them to overcome their own fears of singing in public.

This time around he is extending his repertoire from singing to literacy by aiming to inspire 30 lads in years 5 and 6 to read, write and articulate their thoughts.

Gareth turns educator for one term. His mission is to re-engage boys who aren't fulfilling their potential at school and who, like many across Britain, lag behind their female peers.

When my own son was in year 6, it seemed that his teacher failed to engage him significantly and he coasted throughout the year, doing just enough to keep out of trouble, but not enough to develop his thinking muscles.

I don't think that is an uncommon experience, and many of the boys in the programme do not appear engaged at any level.

The aim of the new mini-series, part of the BBC School Season, is to redress the balance between the boys and their female counterparts who, according to national statistics, average a lead of between six months and a year over the boys.

It's a big step and a small step.

A small step because Gareth uses the same techniques to engage the boys that we have seen in his previous three projects. He praises; he uses physical activity; he participates; he brings in credible role models. He thinks out of the box.

And that's why it is a big step. Gareth has no formal teaching qualifications.

In the choir business, there is no legal requirement to accomplish certain tasks or to tackle the subject in a prescribed way. Literacy, on the other hand, is at the centre of government policy in schools, and figures strongly in the National Curriculum and all the complex rules that go with that edifice.

In the current project, Gareth has free rein (heath and safety permitting) to take the boys out and chop down trees (a success); play otherwise-forbidden games (not a success) and bring in external role models (another success).

At this stage I don't know whether, at the end of the series, we will be left with the impression that all it takes is a good teacher, or whether we will be left with the feeling that the government is interfering too much in the education system. The signs are toward the latter, as Gareth says teachers are being compelled to teach boring topics in boring ways.

There is no doubt that literacy among boys is an issue and that we as a society need to ensure that boys learn from books just as much as they do from their games consoles.
In that spirit, any positive contribution to the debate is worthwhile. I am sure this will emerge as a positive contribution, if only for the boys at Pear Tree Mead School.

However, the issue is much broader than the relationship between teacher and pupil. It's about parents; government policy and resources, and those have just as much influence over literacy skills as specific teaching techniques and style.

I'll be watching the rest of the series, if only to get some tips on how to deal with unruly 10 year old boys!

David Shaw is a member of the BBC Parent Panel.

Read Gareth Malone's entry on the BBC TV blog. 

Gareth Malone's Extraordinary School For Boys  is part of the BBC Two School Season of programmes.

To find out times of all episodes from this series, please visit the upcoming episodes page.