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Homework is a normal part of school life, but should tutors be setting it too?
There isn’t a straightforward answer. Homework can be a useful way to consolidate learning, develop independent study skills, and give tutors a better understanding of a student’s progress. However, students may already have a significant workload from school, and adding more work won’t necessarily help.
Rather than setting homework simply because you feel you should, it’s worth considering what you want the student to achieve and whether homework is the best way to do it.
In this article, we’ll look at when homework can be useful, what makes an effective task, and when it may be better not to set any at all.
Why set homework?
Before setting homework, ask yourself: what do I want my student to gain from completing this?
Homework can be used to:
- consolidate something covered during a lesson
- practise applying knowledge or skills independently
- identify gaps in knowledge or misconceptions
- develop exam technique
- stretch a student beyond what you’ve covered together
- prepare for a future lesson
- build effective study and revision habits
Encouraging independent practice
One of the biggest benefits of homework is that it gives students an opportunity to apply what they’ve learnt independently. During a tutoring session, you’re there to explain concepts, give prompts, and step in when a student gets stuck. This support is valuable, but it can also make it difficult to tell whether a student could complete the same task on their own.
Making better use of lesson time
Some tasks simply aren’t a good use of lesson time. If you’ve been working on essay-writing skills, for example, having a student spend 30 minutes silently writing an essay isn’t necessarily the best use of a tutoring session. Asking them to write it independently afterwards allows them to put those skills into practice, while giving you something you can use to assess their progress.
What makes good tutoring homework?
Start with a purpose
Effective homework should have a clear purpose and be relevant to what the student is currently working on.
Choose the right task
The task itself should reflect what you’re trying to achieve. This could include exam questions, an essay, retrieval practice, correcting previous work, or preparing for the next lesson. For example, if you want to check whether a student can apply a method independently, a short set of practice questions may be useful. If you want them to prepare for the next lesson, you might ask them to read through some material or complete a short retrieval task beforehand.
You may have homework planned, but be prepared to adapt it based on how the lesson goes. The session may reveal an area that would be more useful for the student to work on independently.
Consider your subject
What effective homework looks like will also depend on the subject you teach. In maths or the sciences, regular practice questions can help students develop fluency and apply what they’ve learnt. In essay-based subjects, homework might involve planning or writing an extended response, while language students may benefit from vocabulary practice, reading, or writing tasks. Think about which skills your student needs to practise independently and choose the task accordingly.
Make it appropriately challenging
Homework should also be manageable, and the difficulty level should suit the individual student. For someone who lacks confidence, a few achievable questions can reinforce their understanding and give them a sense of progress. If they have quickly mastered something, you might instead set a more challenging task that requires them to apply their knowledge in a new context.
Prioritise quality over quantity
Set enough work to achieve the purpose of the homework, but avoid adding unnecessary volume. A short, targeted task can often give you a clearer picture of a student’s understanding than a large amount of repetitive work.
Adapt homework throughout the year
The type of homework you set may change as the year progresses. Earlier in a course, you might focus on consolidating new content and developing skills. As mocks or final exams approach, independent work may shift towards exam questions, timed practice, and revision of weaker topics.
Does every student need homework after every tutoring session?
Not necessarily. Whether you set homework, and how much you set, should depend on the individual student and their circumstances.
Consider the individual student
Their age, ability, confidence, and motivation can all affect what is appropriate. An A Level student, for example, should be ready for longer, more complex, or more independent tasks than a GCSE student.
The level they are currently working at, and the grades they are aiming for, should also shape what you set: a student targeting the top grades may benefit from more challenging application or exam questions, while another student may need more focused practice to secure the core skills first.
Consider their workload
It’s also worth finding out what else your student has going on. If they’re already juggling school homework, coursework, and revision for several assessments, another lengthy piece of work from their tutor may add to their stress rather than improve their learning. They may rush it, complete it poorly or simply not do it.
What our tutors say
I take quite a flexible approach to homework rather than setting it automatically after every lesson. For me, it needs to have a purpose and actually help that particular student, whether that’s consolidating something we’ve worked on, addressing a weakness or preparing for the next lesson. I might ask students to learn a handful of key quotations or some context, plan an essay response, or create bespoke ‘worksheets’ that cover a range of skills or practise one particular skill.
I’m a big fan of short, focused homework rather than setting something just for the sake of it! I also really value student input. As they get closer to their exams, I like to make sure my students know exactly what we’re working on and why, and I want them to have some ownership over their tuition. Equally, if they’ve got three tests and a mountain of school homework that week, adding another hour of work probably won’t achieve much.
I also think you have to consider what the parent or billpayer wants from tuition. Some really value regular homework and independent practice, while others specifically don’t want tuition to add to the student’s workload. I try to establish that early and find a balance between their expectations, the student’s views and my own judgement as a tutor. We might agree that they’ll plan a question, choose three strong quotations, and write one really good analytical paragraph. The billpayer can see that meaningful independent work is happening, the student feels that the task is manageable, and I’ve got something useful to work from in our next lesson.
I take a similar approach if homework isn’t completed – I find out why and adapt accordingly. Ultimately, I don’t think there’s one rule for whether tutors should set homework. If it’s purposeful, manageable, and genuinely going to help that student make progress, I’m all for it!
Amy C., English tutor with PMT Education
Don’t forget about marking
Before you set homework, you should also think about what you’re going to do with it afterwards.
Decide how you’ll review it
Not every piece of homework needs detailed written marking. You might ask a student to self-mark some exam questions and bring their mistakes to the next lesson, or you might go through their answers together. For an essay or another extended piece of work, you may want the student to send it to you in advance so you can review it before your next session.
Be realistic about your own time
Be realistic about your own time, too. Regularly setting lengthy pieces of homework that take considerable time to mark outside lessons may not be sustainable. Again, a smaller amount of carefully selected work can often tell you everything you need to know.
Communicating homework
Make sure students leave the lesson knowing exactly what you’ve asked them to do, when it needs to be completed, and what to do if they get stuck.
You may also want to share the homework with their parent, particularly if they are involved in supervising the student’s study at home. This can help them keep the student on track and avoid any confusion about what has been set or when it is due.
Setting homework through PMT
If you tutor through PMT Tuition, you can use the Feedback box in the classroom to record any homework you’d like the student to complete. Feedback is visible to both the student and billpayer from their dashboards and is also emailed to the billpayer, making it easy to communicate what has been set.
You can also use the Resources box in the classroom to share worksheets, questions, or other materials the student needs for their homework. Once finished, they can upload their completed work to the classroom for you to review.
Should homework be compulsory?
If you’ve decided that a piece of homework is genuinely useful, students should usually be expected to complete it. Otherwise, it’s worth asking whether it needed to be set in the first place.
Explain why it matters
Students are more likely to engage with homework if they understand why you’ve asked them to do it. Rather than simply telling a student to complete an essay for next week, explain that you want to see how well they can apply the techniques you’ve been practising independently, and that you’ll use it to decide what to work on next.
Agree expectations early
It can also help to agree expectations around homework with students and, where appropriate, their parent at the beginning of tuition. This is particularly useful if independent work is going to form a regular part of your approach.
What our tutors say
As an A Level Maths tutor, I consider homework essential. A one-hour weekly session is great for demonstrating techniques, but long-term retention relies on students independently retrieving and applying knowledge. Without that independent practice, students can mistake short-term, in-session performance for true learning.
After every session, I assign one to two hours of homework. This takes two forms: targeted problem sets to build procedural fluency and consolidate the taught concepts, and mixed-topic quizzes that leverage spaced retrieval. To keep marking manageable, I use auto-marked platforms like DrFrost, or provide PDFs with solutions. This gives students immediate feedback and helps prevent them from reinforcing incorrect habits. I encourage students to flag any tricky questions, framing homework as a low-stakes diagnostic tool rather than a test. I use this data to pinpoint misconceptions and gaps, which dictates the starting point for our next session.
Because independent practice is crucial, I track homework completion in my weekly parent feedback. If a student misses a deadline, I address it with them directly first. If it becomes a pattern, I contact their parents; I explain that without practice between sessions, I am working with an incomplete picture of what they’ve retained and what gaps remain.
George B., Maths tutor with PMT Education
What if your student doesn’t do their homework?
If a student occasionally doesn’t complete their homework, there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation. If it happens regularly, however, it’s worth finding out why rather than continuing to set more work.
Is the homework taking too long? Are they struggling to complete it without your help? Are they forgetting about it? Or are they already overwhelmed by schoolwork?
Once you understand the problem, you can adapt your approach. You might set shorter tasks, give clearer instructions, or reduce the difficulty. If organisation and independent study are the problem, this may also be something you and their parent can help them work on.
If homework is repeatedly not being completed, discuss it with the student and, where necessary, their parent. Keep the focus on the student’s learning: explain what you’ve been setting, why you’ve been setting it, and how completing it would support their progress.
Homework can be a valuable part of tutoring, but more homework doesn’t automatically mean better tutoring. What matters is whether the work has a clear purpose and is appropriate for the individual student.
Used well, homework gives students the chance to practise independently, helps you identify areas that need more attention, and can develop useful study habits. Used without much thought, it can simply become another task on an already busy student’s to-do list.
Before setting homework, ask yourself: What do I want my student to gain from this? Is this the right task to achieve it? And what will I do with their work afterwards?
If you don’t have a good answer to those questions, you probably don’t need to set homework that week.
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