To think the British educational system is all wrong?

And homework time can be time spent together, we use that time to discuss how their day was, anything they are struggling with etc. We try to get it all done during the week, so weekends can be family/fun time.
Travelling time is also time to chat about their day, any worries etc.
Both mine would like to spend more time at school rather than less, keep asking to attend after school club to spend more time with their friends. As many have pointed out, for lots of children school is fun and engaging, although i appreciate four some it can be very challenging due to bullying etc.

4 year olds learn through play at school op, it's called 'choosing time' or something like that depending on the school. They play all the time!

Time spent preparing for school - get dressed and eat breakfast - need to do that whether going to school or not.

Travelling to school - totally in your control unless live in a very rural area with no schools locally. We used to spend 40 each way travelling to school which was a waste if time, so we purposely moved to an area where school was 5 mins walk away, which is also wind down time.

You're downplaying the time impact here. Much of that time is still in the shadow of school: time spent preparing for school, travelling to and from school, downtime to unwind after school, homework time, and constrained plans because most of the day has been eaten up.

The fact that our education system isn't flexible, kids are expected to do everything at certain ages, they aren't all the same. Some are emotionally & mature enough to do exams at 16, but there are others that would achieve a better outcome if they didn't do their GCSE's until 18. Why not have a system where they can stay in full time education until 20 if they need to & do the exams when they are ready?

Isn't this what the UTCs were aimed at? Practical learning?

Yeah leaving at 15 should never be an option, it used to be allowed in Finland and those kids mostly did not do well (except for one of my collegues, he left school at 16 and became a carpenter and has done well for himself but that's the exception) which is why they made staying in education compulsory until 18 a few years ago.

Doesn't the comprehensive system fail in that a one suit fits all ideology never quite works with people? Do we accept that some are more academic than others and instead of forcing non academic children to ponder on the reasons for Bailey's procrastination or find the complex roots of quadratic equations we identify their skills and abilities at an early age and tube the education to their natural inclanations?

We have gotten rid of the grammar school concept but the comprehensive replacement is not without its faults and gearing teaching to a diverse range of abilities with well documented under resourcing is probably pushing things to the limit.

Perhaps we need to not stigmatise relative lack of educational attainment in traditional academic subjects but make school work for the children as well as children work for the school?

That’s not what some people are saying here though. There are posters on here saying they want the option for children to actually LEAVE school at 15/16 and start work.
It’s not leaving school if you’re still at school and learning all the subjects even if it’s at a lower level.

What stops kids from doing all those things you mention, OP? If this is the case with your kid, why are you stopping them from doing it?

Like you can’t have a system that means ALL children cover ALL subjects until 18 but yet some 15 year olds can move to learning a trade.
Well you can, they continue to cover all subjects at vocational school in Finland but just not to same depth or width as in high school, but to the level that keeps up their academic abilities and knowledge levels.

So going by all comments on here this is how school should be run.

• Starting later around age 7 (but play based care needs to be available so people can actually work)
• Only being at school from 8am to 12pm until secondary age
• Play based learning for first 2 years at least
• No exams at all
• Preparing children for the real world so learning more about mortgages and real life
• NOT just trying to turn kids into workers though
• No uniforms or clothing restrictions at all
• No homework (Except for those who’s parents ask for it)
• No punishments like detention
• Equipment available for all so no one needs to bring their own pens etc
• More general learning UNTIL age 18 for all
• More options for UNDER 18s to go down another route of learning like trades rather than school
• Less academic children to focus on important subjects only
• More increase in arts and creative stuff for EVERYONE
• NO learning about Shakespeare or poetry its pointless
• Generally less pressure for all children
• Individual one on one help for all children
• Following Finland or Germany or other countries systems. (Except the bits people don’t like)

Is that it all covered? As you can see no one will be happy with ANY system that gets used. Like you can’t have a system that means ALL children cover ALL subjects until 18 but yet some 15 year olds can move to learning a trade.
You can’t really have a system where there is zero homework EVER…. unless the parent requests it.
You can’t have school which is meant to be preparing the children for the real world but not prepare them for work as well.

They spend 1140 a year at school, based on 6 hours a day, 5 days a week and 38 weeks a year.
They sleep for 11 hours a day on average, which over a year is about 4000 hours.

Out of a total of 8760 hours in a year

So you have over 3000 waking hours with them per year, or an average of 8 waking hours per day when that number is divided by 365

The thing that really impresses me in medieval texts is the music without key signatures, time signatures and bar lines! Either there was lots of flexibility in performance and/or everyone knew how things should be.

Communication is even more important nowadays because that person reading the BBC article (for instance) could be entirely unfamiliar with the content of the story.

Paragraphs also help the reader physically as it's easier to process dense writing with white space.

Paragraphs are there to group ideas. In an essay you might have say six of them - an introduction, then a few different angles of exploring a subject each in its own paragraph, then some kind of summary or conclusion. It makes an argument or logic easier to follow for the reader.

In a news report, paragraphs might be just two sentences long because the report is covering lots of different pieces of information.

In a novel, a paragraph might be much lengthier because the narrative is detailed and doesn't need as much grouping by idea to follow.

Paragraphs are a relatively new invention though in English. In mediaeval texts ideas were presented as one long sentence only coming to an end with a full stop but weren't started with a new line (must have saved expensive paper?)

You need a quite clear idea of what you're going to write in order to structure it into paragraphs - or to go back and edit at length. But the whole purpose should be to make it clearer for the reader to follow your thinking. It's an aid to communication.

I am a teacher. I spend some time imparting knowledge but a lot more showing what to do with it.

Actually even more time trying to get learners to the stage where they are in a position to do something with it: motivation, organisation, equipment, critical thinking...

Sometimes I wonder whether the AI of the future will want to bother with humans at all...!

No, of course not.

No

Does having knowledge mean you know what to do with it?

One day, everyone will have a chip interface in their brain that will give them instant access to all knowledge. Most jobs will disappear due to AI. The education system will need a radical overhaul.

OP can they not do apps in the car?

They only need to do TTRS until they know whatever they need to know - x3, x4 and x8 in Y3 and the rest in under 6 secs by end Y4. If they are on track they don't need to do as much, if they're behind they perhaps need to do a little more. Re the other poster saying you'd tell the school you're not doing it, I honestly mind very little as a teacher whether children do it or not but ultimately it is their child who either will or won't achieve age expectations in maths. Parents need to make a judgment about what works for their families, what their priorities are and what support their children do or don't need. A child who knows all their times tables should indeed be playing in the park not sitting on an app. If you prefer to practise them in others ways, also fine.

The half day on a poster will just not be expected. Do 30 mins of decent work and call it quits. I very much doubt the majority of the class are devoting much more time to it than that.

@Luddite26 You misunderstand me.

I am absolutely NOT blaming mums. The only reason I was able to spend two years at home with my ds, was that I was 'made redundant' first morning back after maternity leave and spent a year fighting unfair dismissal (which I won).

I didn't plan to be at home, nor could I have afforded it under any other circumstances. But it was definitely of benefit to my ds.

I blame the UK system that offers no tax breaks to couples so one parent can stay at home longer. The UK does not value parenting, and yet I am sure many of our social problems would be reduced by enabling one parent to be at home for longer.

@Meadowfinch absolutely agree with you.
My mum was a SAHM until I was about 7, then she worked school hours only until I was 12. My brother and I could both fluently read and write before we started school at 4, could tie shoe laces and a standard tie. Now I encounter 7/8 year olds still asking an adult to help with their shoe laces!
It's not all on mums to stay at home, can be a Dad, a grandparent etc. But having that focused 1 to 1 time early on is so important for developing basic skills, emotional resilience and security.
My mum tells me about how every child went into school happily on their first day, no tears, to clinging to parents. But on my daughters first day, there were several children who had to be coaxed away from their parents, taking valuable teacher time. They are into childcare at under 1 in many cases, this is the real issue, no the starting school at 4. Maternity/paternity pay should be better so people can delay returning to work, but the challenge is covering this cosy when there are already so many demands on the public purse