Do we think the uk over complicates early years primary?

[mam29]

Typical end of year when everyone tried to decipher the grades on school report and what they mean.

Even harder I guess when they bring in new system or move the goalposts criteria leaves parents feeling stressed , confused sometimes bit down by it all.

I dont know why but dident look too close at r grades all seemed fine.

was shock to system at end of year 1 that nc levels existed and what they meant.Then followed by lots of work and stess as was behind.

luckily shes caught up and ended year 2 where she needs to be,well behaved, happy with lots of freinds and looking forward to year 3 and i think to myself where did the last 3years go?

She coudent read before r
she couldent read at the end of r

but slowly this year the writings got neater the reading just seemed to click.


So then I started thinking about dd2 shes september birthday so due start next september when shes 5 if she gets a place.
I she does not get place, decided will home educate until place came up.

Which led me thinking during infants years what do I want or need her to know and do and came up with quite a simple list.

letter and sounds/phonics
reading books together.
trying to learn how to write
covering the alphabet

numbers -counting
adding and taking away
money maybe using buying stuff in a shop ect.
shapes
colours.
measuring ad weighing maybe through fun activity like baking cakes.
maybe using lego as a useful maths tool.
simple fractions -maybe make a pizza demonstrate this.

arts

drawing, painting, model making, playdough, taking photos

music-singing songs. nursery rhymes, learning and instrument, making and instrument so how different glasses of water and other stuff can make sounds.

other things

seasons
months of year.
telling the time
doing up shoe laces
learning how to swim-life saver
riding bike without stabilisers.

faith learning what faith we are as family, visiting various religious places and covering the religious festivals and what they do.

showing basic ict how do search on computer, keeping self safe online, online bbc bitesize ect.

How to cross rd safe.

being nice to each other


maybe a 2nd language but just simple basics.

pe-lots going park, playing football , skipping,riding bike, trampoline in garden.

science maybe nature journal, simple things about the body , visit nearby science museum, lots ol experiments off pinterest.

history and geography maybe start of simple by doing local history and just covering uk. simple weather stuff.

Lots of play , games, cookery, forest school.

I mean in uk we have early age start at 4.

make foundation and key stage 1 lot less academic
reduced the subjects
reduce the hours maybe
have more flexibilty on what hours child does and not just go by their date of birth.
scrap end of year scoring, phonics tests and year2 sats,.

then start formal learning in juniors at year 3
maybe now rules changed on kids staying education until 18 rather than 16 we configure some sort of middle system.

where we have first schools.

middle schools from year 3-9

then maybe ancother higher school for gcses and alevels.

Oz start at 6 as do usa.

I did think ahh kindergarden must be like r and grade one year one must be same.

But no grade 1 us is same as year 2 over here.

They have kindgergarten and always wonder if thats same sort of framework as efys looks quite academics in some parts to me similar to our year 1.

I saw on news about norway at 7 but they dont always stay at home until 7 same in germany they have a kindergarten again not sure how this differs from american kindergarten but they do some sort of early years education and seem to do pretty well maybe its comes down to childcare most exopensive and non subsudised here.

There seems to be appetite at moment to go with french system which is very academic lacks creativity and not as good as other countries.

Just dont think current systems working.

we start too early
theres too much pressure
kids get tired
some kids younger in year at disadvantage mayeb 5th or 6th birthday be better time to start then everyone least starts the same age.

[lljkk]

That was a long OP.
Bet you would find a soulmate in Ken Robinson.
But yes, we live in an era suffused with mantra of "choice" and "transparency" and other such nonsense. Pretending that too much choice != paralysed by choice, But hey ho, we're all supposed to be sophisticated consumers now.
So there are simpler ways to do things and if you would enjoy HE then fair enough.
I was 4 when I started school in California btw. The changing dates have changed slightly since then. The US system is widely said to have too low expectations, mind.

[mam29]

Sorry about length point is

we stress about getting them into a school
we stress about their efys grades
we then spend year 1 stressing over year 1 levels
year 2 sats and end keystage 1 levels.

they do such vast amount of stuff,

my dd found leap from rceptiion to year 1 quite hard going.
but even in reception they were grouped by ability and had homework.

we keep hearing about other countries as example.
but in reality have no idea how their system works other than starting later.

we dont know how our curriculum compares to them although the more relaxed countries seem to be high up in league tables.

im not ant schools or pro home ed open to both.

reading all the reception threads make me think so mucb worry so early on in their school lie for kids and parents.

I guess what I should have asked is if we had a consultation in changing system.

what would you want in early years curriculum.

as I wonder if theres not enough time for sport, music or arts as they fixated with the 3rs and more academic side of things.

Maybe im a odd hippy alone with my thoughts dd 1 just ended year 2 so had 3years to digest the faults with the system and see the stress and upset its caused and spoken to few stressed out teacher freinds.

maybe we just need to chill out a bit more be more flexible.

[mam29]

maybe as now they in scool until 18 tet can overhaul gcses and alevels to give them bit more breaathing space in fisrt few years of primary then year 3 onwards be more academic when they 7 seems air enough why does it have to be all guns blazing from age 4 educations not a race.

[mrz]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20498356

[mrz]

As you can see four of the top five countries have very formal "regimented" education systems thelearningcurve.pearson.com/articles/article/the-secrets-of-asian-education-success

[AlienAttack]

And none have to apply in England either. The stress of getting into a school is very dependent on where you live and whether you are satisfied with your nearest school. And stressing about EYFS grades and year 1 levels seems to be a parents' choice. I'm not saying you have to live in ignorance but I think some parents "stress" about levels far more than others, irrespective of whether their DC are achieving above or below expectations.

[mrz]

Agree I don't see any of this angst IRL in my area ... parents send child to nearest school and rarely (never) ask about levels

[FannyFifer]

All the stuff I read on here re Primary schools, starting at barely turned 4, grading primary 1's makes me glad Scotland has a separate education system.
I often read these threads and just think wtf.

[trixymalixy]

You mean England, not the UK OP .

Same here Fanny. We deferred DS's entry into P1 so he started when he was 5 1/2, and much more ready for school. If we were in England DD would be starting school in September, aged just 4. Instead she starts in a full year's time aged 5.

The catchment areas just work so much better in Scotland, I read all the threads with everyone stressing over school places like this .

[wheredidiputit]

we stress about getting them into a school
we stress about their efys grades
we then spend year 1 stressing over year 1 levels
year 2 sats and end keystage 1 levels.

Nope my only concern with my children are that they are happy and enjoying their learning. I don't care what levels they are on.

[mam29]

Well scotland seems better system and envy you guys at times.
But we live in england yes city.
my family are in wales so slightly different there.
but not sure its much better than here.

maybe mumsnet given me skewed idea.

dds last school the parents were fixated with grades.
on mumsnet its popular cause of worry.

was just thinking there has to be a better way.

not sure testing is way forward welsh assembly paniced and now brought in annual tests for every year despite scrapping sats ages ago.

as for school places lots people put their nearest school down andont get its not question of being overly fussy pressures in some parts of england are great.

[mrz]

I think Mn gives a very skewed view of life in general

[lljkk]

MN is suffused with quite invested & involved parents. Agree that's not real life.

[mrz]

I think RL is suffused with involved and interested parents too

[AlienAttack]

I think MN does give skewed idea. Many parents seem able to be aware of how their DC are doing at school without "stressing" about it. I'm sure there are a myriad of reasons why they are able to do so. So I would encourage everyone not to automatically assume there is some new unavoidable stress out there unless someone can provide some evidence to support that assertion.