To think the British educational system is all wrong?

I’m a teacher. I teach year three.
I hate mastering number/ teaching for mastery as advocated by NCETM.
No 7 year old needs to know that this is the addend or this is the subtrahend etc. They just need to be able to add up and subtract and start to understand multiplication in terms of counting in 2s, 5s 3s.
I have to teach maths twice a day - twice a day it’s ridiculous.

I see the Finnish comparison a lot on threads like these. I think it's an irrelevant comparison for England because of totally different scale and the much more ethnically and culturally diverse population here (there may be more relevance for Wales and Scotland with their small, more homogeneous populations, perhaps).

I have a friend who teaches in the Canadian system and I think one of the key differences is choice.

We expect a choice of where kids go here, even if not everyone exercises it. She had to send her own kids to French medium schools to get the kind of education they wanted (even though they are not French speakers and their city, Toronto, is not a French speaking one either).

I mean, that's a bit mad isn't it?! Imagine in London having to study Maths and Science in French as the price of getting to choose an alternative to the nearest comp?

That's their parents' responsibility, not that of the school.

Short days, just 4 hours to begin with, increasing up to 6 by the end of primary school (but variable, some days might be only 3 hours, others 6)

That sounds great for the child but because both parents often need to work full time, school becomes childcare.

Imagine the shortage of labour. A lot of jobs would be left unfilled.
The NHS probably can't afford to have nurses looking after children at home and the schools can hardly afford to have teachers at home as SAHMs.

I live in a country where reading stars a bit later. I know a 5 year old who finds this frustrating. She's definitely ready to learn, is starting to recognise letters for herself and is interested in books.

Then you say the school day is too long, but primary finishes around 3.15 doesn't it? That's not a long day at all. Even in secondary, my school finished at 3.40. That was not a long day for an 18 year old!

To be fair a lot of NT children struggle in British state school. Classes of 32 do no pupil any good.

Well you’d need to sort out the gender pay gap for a start. Who do you think would have to take the hit on future career and pension if one parent stayed at home. It wouldn’t be the historically lower earner!! The cycle would just then continue with women doing low paid part time work, whilst men get to thrive. What happens if the couple split up and the woman has no savings and no pension and on part time low wages?

@Areolaborealis , as I’ve got older I have come to realise that no government truly has our best interests at heart; I share your cynicism.

Trig is fundamental to any higher maths and physics. Without a solid understanding of trig you can’t learn calculus, linear algebra, mechanics etc. So unless you want to determine at a very young age who is going to study those higher subjects, everyone has to do trig in the early years.

Natsku says her 13 yr old DD sat 50 tests in autumn term at her Finnish school. I think they work a lot harder than we think they do.

I'm a teacher and agree. Also, although the current system has apparently improved our PISA scores, that doesn't seem to translate to anything meaningful. Unproductive economy, diminishment of creativity and the arts, lack of opportunity for graduates, diminished opportunities in science and research because of Brexit. There is no point trying to replicate the education systems of China and Singapore because they have completely different cultural and economic structures.

I also agree with PP who have said the system is a complete failure for ND pupils. Both my academically able autistic DC have struggled to access school.

@Icanthinkformyselfthanks "We did always send children to school at a very young age but you would have thought that the passing of many decades and the evidence from Scandinavia would have caused successive governments to reconsider the consequences of this policy, they haven’t because they are addicted to our taxation".

Scotland is testing the water with this and looking at raising school starting age to 6. The problem is that there isn't a properly developed age 5 - 6 pre-school curriculum. Even if "play based" it needs to be thought through and age appropriate. The current plan is that they just stay behind in nursery which is not what they do other countries where they have a kindergarten stage between. (The cynic in me thinks this is more about managing the issue of oversubscribed P1 classes rather than nurturing kids with a gentler start).

School is right, sorry.
DH is a freelancer and works from home, he spends most of his working day in jeans that are held together more by prayers than fabric, but he still puts a suit on to meet clients, because it's a non-verbal signal that you take the other person, and the job they might give you, seriously.
For women in business the situation is even more complex - how you dress and do your hair & makeup has so many connotations re. class and, by bias, education. You need to be aware of how you're presenting yourself. Always be smart, but not over-done, to the interview, then dress to the vibe once you've got the job.

Yes, but it is not unique worldwide.

The difference is discipline. The Finnish school is very disciplined. A lot of UK kids would fail the Finnish school.

In Wales, our children learn through play throughout Foundation Phase (key stage one). Small group work for maths, language and topic takes place and more whole class work comes in as they go through foundation phase mixed in with the play. The play is called continuous provision which is always available. The focus is on skills and not knowledge. I much prefer this method of teaching and learning but Wales always under performs compared to England in the PISA chart so they might do away with it one day which would be a shame.

my nephew left his school in wales to go to a school across the border in year 1 and had the shock of his life. He is a bright little thing but he could not cope with the all day formal learning and sitting still at age 5. The volume of homework was also a shock. It’s taken him until year 3 to adapt.

@CookiePlough , I’m a little bit shocked that more people than not have disagreed with you particularly since all of the scientific evidence points to the fact you are correct. We live in a society where family life is broken and women are made to feel that a traditional role as homemakers is not something to aspire to.
Back in the day one person in a family with an ordinary job could pay the rent or mortgage now in most families both parents have to work to keep bread on the table. Therefore the childcare aspect of school becomes a necessity. I suspect that a lot of those who said you were unreasonable have to believe that because they have no choice, how very sad.
Governments of all colours are dependent upon taxation and instead of cherishing the family and its unarguable benefit to children and therefore society as a whole have encouraged every person to be ‘economically active’ the result has been that with more money to spend the price of housing and rents has risen in real terms to eat up the additional income. We were sold a lie and now it’s no longer a choice for most people for both parents to work.
Of course I believe that women who want to should be able to pursue careers but it doesn’t have to be mum who stays home with the children. This option is only available now to the highest earners and our children suffer as a consequence.
We did always send children to school at a very young age but you would have thought that the passing of many decades and the evidence from Scandinavia would have caused successive governments to reconsider the consequences of this policy, they haven’t because they are addicted to our taxation.
My grandsons are home schooled, their parents are fortunate to be able to live on my elder son’s salary. Lessons which are fun and my grandson really enjoys are in the morning followed by free time to play or trips out to discover. Socialising is abundant with other children who are home schooled with the advantage that children interact with different ages. I’m very supportive of my son and daughter in law’s decision. My younger son has two girls the eldest is in year two, they’d like to home school but despite both earning well cannot afford to, they often don’t have their heating on and I do worry over them but they have that astronomical mortgage to pay.
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I grew up in the Canadian school system and taught in the UK system.

In my opinion, there is far too much rigidity and focus on "scaffolding" in UK primary schools. It limits creativity and doesn't support any kind of individual thought. The huge push on grammar (fronted adverbials, really?) and ever-changing maths strategies are confusing for children who don't naturally thrive in academics.

As for secondary schools, the amount of testing and pressure put on teenagers is insane. Learning doesn't come from exams or memorizing facts. Schools are producing young adults who can't apply their knowledge to real-life situations and need explicit instructions to complete trivial tasks.

I am moving my family to Canada, and am very glad that my children will be educated in Canadian schools.

That said, I do not place any blame on teachers. They have not designed the curriculum and have no say in which methods they are allowed to use in order to teach. The system is broken by a useless government (not to mention Ofsted, which is an utter farce).

I’m sure you’re right, it’s a while since I read the article. Still a very high percentage with Finnish as first language.
The whole pattern and structure of the education system there is interesting, giving teachers much more autonomy and less test based teaching.

Finland is officially bilingual with the national languages Finnish and Swedish.
5.39% of the population declare their mother tongue to be Swedish.
Swedish classes is mandatory language in primary/secondary school. Pupils have the languages Finnish, Swedish and English.

I do, however, agree that the education system needs a good shake-up. I think the school day starts too early (many schools starting at 8.30am or soon after) and children get tired and run down, thus ill. The Autumn term is particularly stupid - it’s hideously long, there are dark mornings, large amount of illnesses one after the other, and children (and staff) exhausted by the end of it. So, things like maybe having a two week half term in Oct/Nov would help, as children could rest and it would also provide an illness break to halt the spread of all the viruses. Then a 3wk Christmas break would set them up for the Spring Term.

Education-wise, the trouble is that the curriculum is so prescriptive now and everything is so rushed (because of all the different things you have to get through) that there’s no time to embed learning or for the children to explore subjects. They might as well have robots gabbling through the work, not teachers. Teachers have no space or time to inspire or support children. Constant interference by successive governments and ridiculous micro-managing by academy trusts has killed teaching.

Sweden does not have compulsory pre-school, most children do attend pre-school from 1-5, but it isn’t compulsory. The curriculum from age three is very very similar to what you would find in England. Our son is 9 and learning what he would have been learning in year 6 in the UK.

Reset the economy by restricting mortgage lending to three times a single salary, so that it becomes economically viable for most families not to need two incomes. Free nursery places means tested, only for those families where both parents do need to work. Make it normal for parents to do their own childcare pre-school and wraparound care for school aged kids. Move school age up to five or even six, and encourage schools to be flexible about part-time school in the first couple of years.

Mortgage lenders have been more cautious since the 2008 crash. House prices have continued to go up. Result has been less home ownership and more rental - often at high rental
rates requiring 2 incomes. It’s not led to flattening house prices that only require a single income for a mortgage!