GCSE English Language Paper 2 Question 5: Viewpoint writing

Homework should be banned because it makes students tired and stressed.→ Clear viewpoint early — good — but the opening is blunt rather than crafted for a broadsheet audience. In the evenings many young people already have clubs and family jobs to do. When they get home they still have to open a bag of worksheets. This is unfair.→ Short sentence for emphasis works, yet the argument needs evidence before the judgement. Teachers say homework helps revision but I think it just makes people copy answers online.→ Attempts a counter-view, but 'I think' weakens register; assert the claim with a reason instead. Schools should use lesson time better instead of sending work home. If we stopped homework, students would rest more and maybe learn better the next day.

By the time the final bell rings, the school day is not over — it has simply changed rooms.→ Hook + metaphor establishes voice and viewpoint before any listing of points. For thousands of teenagers, the kitchen table becomes another classroom, and the evening becomes another shift. Homework, we are told, builds independence. Too often it builds only exhaustion. Consider what a typical Tuesday already demands: six lessons, a rehearsal, a bus journey, and then two hours of tasks that rarely deepen understanding. A 2023 survey by a parents' association found that over half of Year 11 students regularly sacrifice sleep to finish set work.→ Plausible invented evidence supports AO5 persuasion without claiming a real AQA source. Sleep is not optional. Learning collapses without it. Supporters argue that practice at home consolidates learning.→ Counter-argument acknowledged, then narrowed — Level 4 structural control. Practice matters — but only when it is short, purposeful and matched to what the student actually needs. Endless worksheets reward compliance, not curiosity. They also widen the gap between pupils who have quiet desks and tutors, and those who share a crowded flat with younger siblings. We cannot pretend that every home is a study centre. What we can do is redesign the day: extend supervised study in school, reduce low-value tasks, and protect evenings for rest, reading chosen freely, and family life. Homework is not sacred. Outcomes are.→ Short sentences after longer periods create rhetorical punch for AO5/AO6. It is time schools measured success by what students understand — not by how late the light stays on.