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Homework before screens: how do you make it happen without asking five times?

"Have you done your homework?" Four o'clock, five o'clock, six o'clock. The same question, the same "in a minute", and the phone never leaves their hand. Here is why asking doesn't work, what the evidence says homework is worth, and how to set a rule that holds without you.

Written by the Kairoo team · Published · Updated · 8 min read

A girl doing maths homework at the kitchen table, her phone on the worktop across the room

Key fact

47%

of UK parents argue about the phone getting in the way of schoolwork at least once a month

Source: EE, 2025

In short

Agree a first-then rule in advance: homework first, in a set place with the phone in another room, and screens start when it is done.

Make it a first-then rule, agreed in advance: homework first, in a set place, with the phone out of the room, and screens start when it's done. Homework is worth the effort. The Education Endowment Foundation puts its average benefit at about five months' extra progress a year at secondary school and three at primary, and says quality matters more than quantity. The phone on the desk works against it: in experiments, people did worst on attention and memory tasks when their own phone was in sight and best when it was in another room. Asking repeatedly fails because each ask is a new negotiation. A rule the two of you wrote down, with a fixed time and place, turns five arguments a day into one routine. Nearly half of UK parents argue about schoolwork and the phone at least once a month, and a third of children say clearer rules would help.

Key facts

  • Homework is worth about five months' extra progress a year at secondary school and three at primary; quality beats quantity (Education Endowment Foundation).
  • People did worst on memory and attention tests with their own phone on the desk and best with it in another room, even on silent (Ward and colleagues, 2017).
  • 47% of UK parents argue about the phone getting in the way of schoolwork at least once a month; 31% of 11 to 17-year-olds say clearer rules would help (EE, 2025).

Half past three. The bag hits the floor, the phone comes out, and the question starts. "Have you done your homework?" "I'll do it in a minute." At five it's "after this game". At six it's "I've only got a bit". By the time the homework happens, everyone is tired and nobody is pleased with anyone. Since September 2026 the school day in England is phone-free, so the hours after school are now the only hours the phone and the homework compete for. They are also the hours that are yours to arrange.

Is homework worth the fight?

Yes, and more at secondary school than at primary. The Education Endowment Foundation reviews the research for schools in England. Its Teaching and Learning Toolkit puts the average benefit of homework at about five months' extra progress a year in secondary school and three months in primary, across reading, maths and science.

Three findings from the same review matter at home:

  • Quality beats quantity. The benefit falls as the time spent goes up. The studies with the biggest effects set homework about twice a week in a subject.
  • Homework linked to classwork, with feedback, works best. Copying out or filling time does little.
  • Homework should not be a punishment. The review says so directly, and the same goes for screens: tying the two together as a threat makes both worse.

So the aim is not more hours. It is the homework the school set, done with attention, early enough that the evening is still an evening.

Why does the phone make it so much harder?

Because attention is the whole job, and the phone takes it even when it's silent.

In experiments published in 2017, researchers at the University of Texas asked people to do tests of working memory and problem-solving with their own phone either on the desk, in a bag or pocket, or in another room. Phones were on silent. Scores were lowest with the phone on the desk and highest with it in another room. The people in the study did not report being distracted. Keeping their attention off the phone was using up part of it.

A child doing maths with the phone face up beside the book is doing maths with less of their brain. Moving the phone to the kitchen costs nothing and gives some of it back.

Why doesn't asking work?

Each ask is a new negotiation. Your child decides whether this one counts, and you decide whether to escalate. Five asks is five chances for the answer to be "in a minute". By the fifth, the homework is the least of it.

This is a common fight. EE's 2025 research across thousands of UK families found 47% of parents argue with their child about the phone getting in the way of schoolwork at least once a month, after screen time in general and late-night use. The same research found 39% of parents and 31% of 11 to 17-year-olds think clearer rules would reduce the arguments. The children agree with you more than the afternoons suggest.

The research on how children take rules on board points the same way. Rules that are explained, agreed in advance and applied the same way each time are the ones children make their own. Rules that arrive as a demand in the moment are the ones they fight.

How to set a first-then rule that holds

The shape is simple: first homework, then screens, with the details decided before the day it is needed.

  1. The when. A start time that follows a snack and a breather. The front door is too soon. Half an hour after getting in works for most families. Write the time down.
  2. The where. A table rather than a bed, and the phone in another room while homework happens. That one move is the evidence-backed part.
  3. What counts as done. Done means the work the school set, checked by you or shown to you. Say what happens on a no-homework day too, so "I haven't got any" has an answer already.
  4. Then screens. When it's done, screens start without a further discussion. The rule has to pay out, or it stops being a rule.
  5. Agree it together and write it down. A rule your child helped write, with their reasons heard, is one they will mostly keep. Put it where you both can see it.
  6. Hold it the same way every day. Consistently rather than strictly. The first week is the hard one.

Can an app keep games locked until homework is done?

Apple and Google both let you block apps by the clock. On an iPhone or iPad, Screen Time Schedules let a parent choose which apps a child can use at different times of the day. On Android, Google Family Link has School time and Downtime: weekly schedules that limit which apps are available, with calls always allowed.

Both run on time. Neither knows whether the homework is done. If it is finished early, you change the schedule by hand. If it runs late, the games open on time anyway.

A rule tied to the task needs a way to say the task is done. On paper, that is your child telling you and you checking. Agree which one counts before the first afternoon.

What changes when it holds

The question disappears. You stop being the person who asks and become the person who ticks. Homework moves earlier and takes less time, because there is something at the end of it and nothing competing with it. And the evening gets its shape back: homework, screens, dinner, wind-down, in an order everyone knows.

Watch for two things. If homework starts taking far longer than the school intends, talk to the school; the evidence says more time does not mean more benefit, and the problem may be the work rather than the rule. And if "done" starts to drift into "nearly done", go back to the written rule rather than renegotiating at the table.

If the fight is about stopping screens rather than starting homework, read what to say to "five more minutes". To put the homework rule into a full agreement, read how to write a family screen time agreement.

Kairoo

Homework first. Without asking five times.

In Kairoo the agreement you both sign can say that screens start after homework. Their phone holds it, and you tick it once when it's done.

Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play

Your phone and your child’s don’t have to match. Kairoo works between iPhone and Android, and your child’s app is also available on iPad.

Or start with the free agreement · Free, no card needed.

Questions parents ask

Is homework actually worth the fight?
Yes, at secondary school especially. The Education Endowment Foundation's Teaching and Learning Toolkit, which summarises the research for schools in England, puts the average benefit of homework at about five months' extra progress a year in secondary school and three months in primary. The quality of the task matters more than the time spent, and the benefit falls as the hours go up.
Should the phone be in the room while they do homework?
No. In experiments published in 2017, people scored lowest on working memory and problem-solving tests when their own phone was on the desk, better when it was in a bag or pocket, and best when it was in another room, even though the phones were silent. Keeping the phone off the desk is the single cheapest change you can make.
Why doesn't asking work?
Because every ask is a new decision for both of you. Your child decides whether this ask counts; you decide whether to escalate. A rule agreed in advance, with a time and a place written down, takes the decision out of the moment. EE's 2025 research of thousands of UK families found 47% argue about the phone getting in the way of schoolwork at least monthly, and 31% of 11 to 17-year-olds themselves said clearer rules would reduce arguments.
What if they say they have no homework?
Agree in advance what counts on a no-homework day: reading for a quarter of an hour, or the next day's prep, or nothing at all with screens starting at the usual time anyway. The answer is decided before four o'clock. It is never negotiated at four o'clock.
What if the homework itself is the problem?
If your child is spending far longer than the school expects, or the work is beyond them, talk to the school. The evidence says the benefit of homework falls as the time spent rises, and that homework should never be used as a punishment. A rule at home can hold a routine; it can't fix work that's wrong for the child.
How toHow do you write a family screen time agreement that actually holds?What to sayHow do you get kids off screens without a fight? What to say to "five more minutes"What's changingAre phones banned in schools in England? What the new rules mean for families

Sources

  1. Homework (Teaching and Learning Toolkit), Education Endowment Foundation
  2. Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One's Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity, Journal of the Association for Consumer Research (Ward, Duke, Gneezy and Bos), April 2017
  3. EE launches new free P.H.O.N.E. Contract designed to help parents and children set smartphone boundaries ahead of the new school year, EE newsroom, 12 August 2025
  4. Mobile phones in schools (guidance), Department for Education
  5. A Self-Determination Theory Perspective on Parenting, Joussemet, Landry & Koestner, Canadian Psychology 49(3), 194–200, 2008
  6. How to Make a Family Media Use Plan, HealthyChildren.org (American Academy of Pediatrics)
  7. Use Screen Time to manage your child's iPhone or iPad, Apple Support (UK), 23 September 2026
  8. Set a schedule on your child's device, Google For Families Help, checked 25 October 2026

Last reviewed 25 October 2026. Kairoo checks these pages when the rules or the research change; if you spot something out of date, tell us at hello@kairoo.family.