I am currently doing my masters on homework and was wondering if anybody did anything different in their schools.

Most people I have spoken to and the schools I have worked at have the general homework timetable, an indication of homework days and length of homework, guidelines for feedback and detentions/sanctions for students not handing it in.

Was looking for any different approaches. Any suggestions?

Not really.

BUT who is homework for? SMT? Parents? Class teacher? Pupil?

Should a pupil who doesn't do the work (no facilities / other demands / ???) be denied access to the full range of knowledge and skills demanded by exam entry requirements?

How much time is devoted to "sorting out" the failures and do they stay "sorted"?

doublehelix:

I'd love to know if homework actually improves attainment. Has there been any meaningful research on this?

I'd like to know the answer to this too.

I'd also like to know if the time spent on kids who haven't done their h/w is actually worthwhile? How does it take away from other tasks the teacher would be doing instead?

I do not think my comment here is really applicable to science, I only use it with mathematics.

I tell parents I only set maths exercises which the students can do, and liken it to the practice required when learning to ,play a musical instrument, for instance. All being well they get all their sums correct, so checking their homework is simple and quick!

At KS3 we have something called Extended Learning Assignments.

What this means is that they get a science ELA once or twice per term and they get a week  to do it. This is a pretty meaty piece of work, usually a booklet of about 10-12 pages.

There is a school wide timetable and each week has a subject allocated to it. So, for example, a pupil might do and English ELA week 1, a French week 2, etc.

There are benefits and drawbacks to the approach. It does give parents a much clearer idea of what their child should be doing and there has been some improvement in parental involvement and support.

The evidence that homework is beneficial is debateable. I suspect that it often does more harm than good.