Is the school curriculum still full of useless bollocks?

[Feelingcrappy2]

Hoping that things have changed since I was at school. I hated school. Perhaps because it was an all girls school so was incredibly bitchy and full of hormonal girls. I have friends who went to mixed schools and they were never as boy obsessed as me because they were just so used to them always being in their day-to-day lives. I truly believe that alone let me down. I started college and was a bit like...oh...BOYS!

Any way, back to the curriculum - my eldest will be starting soon and I'm wondering what to expect. Not so much what to expect in primary school but senior school.

I can imagine that many people will have other opinions on what I am about to point out here - but this is just how I feel.

Algebra, King Henry VIII's wives names, going to box hill in the freezing arse cold freezing our tits off to measure some grass (literally)... I mean, I have an ENDLESS LIST OF SHIT that I had to endure throughout my time at school. I would go as far as saying that the vast majority of what I 'learnt' was bollocks and I have never, ever used/needed to remember it.

Basic maths - absolutely. (In fact, wish they would have focused on basic math more than all those impossible mathematical equations etc, as basic math is what we use day to day, right?)

Basic science - absolutely.

English Lit & Lang - absolutely.

The rest of the subjects - yes to a certain extent, but in my honest opinion should be minimised. I could have really benefitted from things such as:

• Career choices (and I don't mean the one-time hour career choices class we sat through in year 11 when we were about to leave, absolutely clueless as of what to do next - I mean, in depth informative career options - delving into the potential job opportunities out there, along with information on different industries. Starting from say, Year 9/10.
• Classes on wellbeing (not just mental health, but the importance of self care, how to deal with big feelings, certain and specific situations, educating kids on social media - in fact, social media should be heavily taught about considering the amount of time kids spend on it).
• Credit ratings (my DP screwed himself over for 6 years due to an unpaid parking fine aged 18) and things like budgeting and the value of money. I remember blowing each and every payslip when I started working - do you know why? I NEVER knew I could buy a house. Not from a wealthy family and assumed it was only for the mega rich - we were never taught in school about these sorts of possibilities.
• Similarly to the above - debts and importance of credit & credit cards

Again, I could go on and on and on. Like I said, I really don't feel as though I got much out of my time at school. I started to learn once I got my first full time job aged 17. I was thrown into an adult only environment. It was client facing and I had no choice but to grow up, learn on the job and become a woman. I loved it and thank goodness - because even college taught me zilch.

I just hope things have changed - or will do in the future at least. I hope kids are still not sat learning about how to draw a circle with a compass and leaving clueless, lost, spending every penny they get, depressed over social media and not knowing what is actually out there for them to achieve.

As much as parents should be helping to teach their kids my above list, schools should too, in my opinion.

This
I loved all the stuff mentioned; history , plays..not so much lakes but l like knowing it..difficult maths that were a challenge and very satisfying when you managed to solve them. All exciting stuff. My parents taught me resilience..mostly by example,..they taught me how to budget etc and generally how to be a decent citizen. They discussed careers and possibilities with me even though they weren't highly educated people themselves but they appreciated education and enjoyed seeing us learn. Remember parents are the first educators of their children so much can be learned at home.
It's awful if parents have a negative attitude towards their dcs school .

Sorry to disappoint you OP.

My ds is working towards his gcses, this summer. He is head down in algebra, Macbeth, the different tropisms, German verb declensions, oxbow lakes and the integrated transit system of redeveloped Bristol.

And he loves it (except for German). 😀

Money management, self care and potential careers, we deal with at home. He's been on short courses in hands-on skills such as slating, metalwork and cycle maintenance, and done works experience in land management, farming and environmental conservation. He wants to do a degree in some sort of engineering.

Your idea of education would leave him bored to tears. Every child is different, you need to add what you can at home, to suit your child's interests.

i think there is value in a lot of the subjects that you were not interested in. However, career choices at school most definitely should not be taught by teachers as they quite often have no experience outside school, university and then back to teaching in school. I think it’s important private sector companies come into schools to give a real idea of working in various industries.

I'm with you OP not to mention the out dated bank manager uniform. But you're always going to hear from the ones who's children 'love school'.

You don't sound very ambitious or curious op. How's that working out for you in your career? It's like you want a really basic education but you you don't say what you think that will mean for your children's prospects. It's pretty grim.

I wish there had been some stuff on DIY, even an afterschool club or something
We did design technology etc but nothing sort of useful... I use YouTube and Google a lot now for stuff
Food tech also useless, all about package design and labelling

Having got DD through her GCSEs last year, I think her PSHE lessons were a waste of time. She spent far too long on "Don't Join A Gang".

Luckily her dad and I talked to her about drugs, sex, relationships, religion, and basic finances. We're selling up and I explained equity to her with our residence as an example.

I found about 30% of the rest of the curriculum was absolute guff, to be honest. When she moved on to A' levels she was pleased she no longer had to felgn interest in subjects she hated and found no value in. Also it was very much teach-to-test, so DD found she could pass her Science exams just by learning a script. She had no real understanding of it. She just learned words & diagrams by rote.

And no, neither her dad no I could do the maths homework, since Year 7.

OP feel like we went to the same school! And you’ve given me flashbacks of box hill-hadn’t thought of that in years.

PP - adults are melting down left right and centre. Yes people may always have been depressed as fuck since the Industrial Revolution, perhaps before, but they weren’t allowed to moan about it. Now we are. Like it or not. SO it seems sensible to teach ways to cope - in schools, because lots of parents don’t have these skills. In fact most of us don’t BECAUSE of the whole stuff upper lip thing we were raised with.

there are so many amazing ways to deal with things. It has been scientifically proven that people who keep a journal for three months are happier 9 months down the line than those who didn’t keep one, even if they stop journaling. This is just one example of something that could be taught we effectively, and actioned, at school which would actually increase positivity in the long run. And I feel like if we use the common sense school gave you, we can see that a world full of happy people is going to be more innovative, more respectful, more collaborative.

as for money, yes there are tonnes of stuff we could learn that’s relevant to everyone and makes sense to learn. What a mortgage is and how it works. How banks work. How raising money for business happens. How to stock control your house.

also, if everyone was enabled to explore the subjects that interest them (and usually are good at), we would have a far more functioning society. When you place some subjects at a higher level of importance, you neglect others which are actually equally important.

Other than the ability to read, write & do arithmetic, I forgot everything I learnt the minute I walked out of school.

Experienced teacher here. Have never taught a careers lesson. Always done by outside speakers, work experience, presentations prepared by external companies etc.

I'm a history teacher and I've had years of both kids and parents telling me it's their favourite subject and why do we only get an hour a week?
So ner.

OP I think you’ve read too much right wing scaremongering. Most kids are fine.
Children with low attendance are not refusing to come in because they don’t want to learn about Henry viii. In fact all the research shows that once you get them into lessons and learning something their attendance goes up.
It’s getting them through the front door in the first place. Too much social media, not enough parental encouragement and/or enforcement.

schools can’t do everything.

In my opinion it’s a parents job to help children navigate the things you have listed above!! I don’t think a school can teach 30 children in a class how to buy a house when every child has a different background and will have different means in buying houses. Giving every child a basic understanding of all topics lets them figure out for themselves what they enjoy and what they are good at, if for example my daughter absolutely loved history and English (she doesn’t to be fair!!) I would help her look into possible job roles where she could use these topics and then enjoy what she went on to do later in life.

I went to an all girls school and loved it and didn’t come out boy obsessed!!!

I can assure you that in the classroom the kids at Eton will be learning pretty much exactly the same stuff as state school students. They all have to sit the same exams. They’ll just have more art and drama and sports facilities and offer some subjects like Latin and Greek that few state schools offer. But the basic curriculum content will be identical.

In a World where religion causes more issues than almost any other issue - surely it is vitally important that children grownup with respect for, tolerance and understand of all religions?

Simple and compound interest have been on the maths curriculum for at least the last 30 years and probably longer.

You were taught it in school.

thirdspacelearning.com/gcse-maths/number/simple-interest-and-compound-interest/

Most teenagers din't give a shit because it doesn't impact their lives.

There are two levels of Maths kids can take at GCSE, Foundation and Higher. Living in a Grammar school area, the questions in the Foundation paper are no harder than kids are learning in Year 5 for the 11+. I can’t believe kids fail foundation Maths at GCSE. If they can’t pass Foundation Maths I don’t see how they can ever budget, understand interest rates, loans, mortgages.

Good point, I'm a early 80s teenager, I was taught these at school but still didn't understand it. My family experience of money management was renting from council, money was earned, allocated for the bills, any left over went into bank for holiday. If there wasn't enough for whatever purchase wanted, you didn't have it. Money was not discussed with children or in earshot beyond that. It was not a subject for 'little ears' .
'Interest rate' meant how interesting something was. 😅

I did compound interest in the 60s - in pounds, shillings and pence! Fortunately decimal currency was introduced just as I was preparing for O Levels which made it easier.

You do realise your issue is with the minister for education rather than 'schools'.

Why do people always use Oxbow Lakes as an example of something useless? It's not as if a whole term is spent on this one thing. It's a small part of learning about rivers and I, personally, found it fascinating.

Actually I think I do know - its because it's something they actually remember.

Sadly most mainstream get paid per student and unless a sen student. They expect one way to fit all.

In reality, that if course doesn't work and it is too overwhelming for many.

Good news coming :
if you push in the right format, your child can reduce the amount lessons and do 5 gcses instead of 8 or 9 and be much happier well being wise. As we did this with my granddaughter who is a non sen student but her mental health was effected by the social and work load expectations.

She is 14 and yes it took some meetings and following a plan and the student showing a huge difference in work life within school hours. But it cam be done.

Just helping a friend do the same in a different school with her girls, also overwhelmed.

What do you think "teaching religion" looks like? I teach cultural literacy so my students know that if they are friends with or work with someone from a religious background they may want to take into account their dietary preferences or dress needs or that they will be fasting. We think about why people may be pro choice or pro life, for or against euthanasia, what religions really think about sex equality, homosexuality. Why do people believe in God despite evil? Why is any of that a waste?

Gcse maths is full of pointless theoretical nonsense very few people need in real life. Apart from those who are going on to A-level or degree level maths, everyone should be taught proper useful maths eg functional skills. So many kids and parents are massively stressed trying to pass gcse maths because it's regarded as necessary when in fact it's not.

@171513mum The thing is, unless you’re going to have a society with no scientists or engineers (good luck with that…) some children are going to have to learn more difficult maths-and from fairly early on if they want to be able to access A level or degree maths at 18. This means that it falls to the teacher and/or parents to select which kids will study the more difficult material, and, in practice the kids picked will always be the ones from more ‘middle class’ or privileged backgrounds with everyone else being relegated to ‘functional skills’.
Social mobility is already practically stagnant; why would you want to implement something that just makes it worse?