Looking back to my school days we didn't get homework until high school and then it wasn't every day, just assignment work which was maybe once a week. When my daughters started school they were already giving something like 30mins or 1hr of reading a day, or something like that, in reception! The reason given was getting them used to it.

I started homeschooling when my eldest was about to turn 10, but she went to high school for just over a year when she was 12. The homework was supposedly an hour a night worth, but in order to get any sort of decent grade it was way more than that. She had dance out of school too, so would be up until midnight some nights trying to complete everything. I feel asleep on her bed one night trying to support her through it! To cut her out of school hours workload she would sneak lunch into the library and do as much as she could there in break times.

There is absolutely no reason for the level of homework they get and much of it is either repetition of what they did that day or time fillers. If they didn't grasp it in the day, then repeating isn't going to help unless the parent can teach it. If they did grasp it in the day, then it's just a practice in boredom.

The most ridiculous homework my eldest got was spelling in primary school where she had to look, cover, write and check. Which was fine, except this was repeated twice and the first time she had to individually tick each letter after checking. I used to do the ticks as she wrote so she could get it done and get to bed!