When it comes to excuses for not completing homework, the old ones are still the best!

New technology may have rendered today's schoolwork unrecognisable to our Victorian forefathers, but some things resist change. The favourite homework excuse 'Sorry Miss, I forgot' (27%) would be just as familiar 100 years ago as to teachers today.

Likewise dumb animals - in fact the dumber the better - get a lot of the blame. It would appear that dogs in particular have developed a voracious appetite for paper: 'My dog ate it' is still a traditional favourite, (8%) although a new trend in exotic pets can be discerned with - 'my worms ate it' and 'my snake was sleeping on it'.

'It weren't me, Miss' is a recurrent message through the survey findings with 79% citing reasons beyond their control. In fact, it would appear that uncompleted homework is almost never the fault of the pupil in question, but rather one of his or her family members. Unsurprisingly the preferred culprits are baby brothers and sisters who presumably are less able to defend themselves than Mums.

Boys opt for the simple (and truer) excuses: 'Life's hard, Sir' or 'It was impossible' - and presumably braced themselves to face the consequences, girls came up with ever more exotic and elaborate stories, amongst them:

• 'It was ripped from my hands as the express train shot through the station'
• 'I was at a falconry display and one of the birds swooped down and snatched it from me'
• 'My dad took it to Denmark with him on a business trip'
• 'I left it in Ireland when visiting my Gran'
• 'I was in a car crash and got taken to hospital'
• 'It's currently on a plane to New Zealand'

Notwithstanding, 73% of teachers surveyed cited boys as the main homework culprits.

Fewer than one in ten of the excuses reported are believed by the teachers questioned, a fact that Tim Pearson, CEO of RM who commissioned the SchoolGate Survey, is quick to comment on: 'Homework excuses have always been as much a part of education as pupils, teachers and lessons themselves, so in many ways I find it reassuring that the time honoured excuses that I used to try out still prevail!'

It is likely however that tomorrow's school children are going to have to reinvent the art form: With the increased use of technology as a means of delivering homework, most of the excuses in this survey become unbelievable by default.

After all, in today's paperless world, the preferred 'my dog ate it' will need to commute into something more along the lines of 'Lightning struck our house, and my pc shorted out'...'

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