Is primary school more demanding than in the 80/90s??

[RessicaJabbit]

My child is 6 and is UTTERLY EXHAUSTED from school since starting Reception.
My mum says she doesn't remember us 3 being like this after school... hungry, tired overwhelmed etc
Is it because school is more intense? Or maybe life around it is the cause, kids doing too many clubs etc?

My does football, swimming and rainbows.

I was born in the 00s so granted I don’t remember the 90s or 80s but my 8 year old has never been tired after school more so the complete opposite from sitting down most the days. I’d go to doctors and get bloods done

*most of the day

Comparing to the '80s, yes.
I did clubs, swimming, and plays and so on, but often at school with teachers who were leading them, not a lot of alternative sites or groups that were as large as a class size.
Sickness/absence feels as if it is more pressured as well. My parents were not a soft touch but if I had winter infections, usually ear or tonsil, then I don't feel they were scared of what time I was having off school, apart from the childcare aspect that they had to pull together.
My memory is of things having a lot more actively creative angles to them, even if they had side effects of better maths, scientific enquiry, and so on - such as making huge wall displays with diamond tesselation, junk modelling mad clocks for the real purpose of a prolonged topic on time telling, that kind of thing.

I started primary school in 1985; left in 1992.

We did very little. My memories are doing very little apart from maths; which was textbook based and we were supposed to work independently, asking the teacher if we needed help. History was sporadic and made little sense as there was no sense of context or knowledge about what came before or after. I remember being bored half to death by the aztecs in Year 5 and an endless project about the Victorians in Year 6, which mostly involved dressing up.

English was having a story read to us. Occasionally we’d do some painting or drawing but not a lot and with no real meaning - just ‘draw a picture of’

I do agree there’s a lot of pressure in primary schools now guy I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Definitely preferable to my primary school experience!

I started in primary in 2005 and remember endless projects I think we may have even done world war 2 twice (and then a third time in secondary school).

My eldest started school in 2022 I don’t think much has massively changed other than times tables being learnt via a computer game. He’s never come home from school exhausted in fact school days he comes home bursting with energy after sitting around for almost seven hours.

I think when I see posts on here by people saying their child is exhausted after school unless it’s the first month of reception they should go to the doctors and ask for a blood test

Well what does her typical day/week look like?

I’m all for high academic standards but the curriculum is just ridiculous now. When I was at infant school (mid 1970s) we had to do one writing task, one maths task and read to the teacher each day. Those of us who were bright had usually finished all of this by assembly at 11.00 and spent the rest of the day playing while the teacher worked with those who found it harder. I still think I had a better education than today’s kids end up with.

I remember having nap time in infants when starting school!! Now it’s sooooo much different. Plus there are more demands outside of school as well.

DS has been more tired than normal. I think he’s using mental energy on learning to read and on the other things and plus it’s five days a week: he did three days in nursery beforehand but I guess school can be a bit relentless. He isn’t that tired though!

The curriculum is more intense... But because kids are reading less, they aren't as advanced as kids from earlier generations.

The exhaustion can be ADHD/autism related as well, so it's not always a blood test thing.

Oh I don't know, they're learning stuff in upper KS2 that we didn't learn until secondary.

The maths and grammar in particular seems quite intense at too young and age and they get a lot more homework. I don't recall doing some of the grammar at all, ever (which I'm not saying is a good thing, a level/university is not the level that you want these things to be pulled up).

They hardly do art and hardly do music which is the saddest thing.

I wish someone would remind the government that some countries don't start formal schooling till 7 and doesn't seem to be detrimental.

My DD (8) has done dance, cubs, music lessons and swimming outside of school. Enjoys them all but is sometimes a little tired. My DS is older and has done stuff when he was younger but does a lot less due to interest levels.

There isn't the option of free/heavily subsidised music lessons within the school day at a lot of primary schools now. School swimming lessons will teach a kid to swim if they are lucky but not necessarily with good technique and confidence.

These things definitely did exist when we were kids but not talked about as often and perhaps not quite as common. My DH did lots of things, where as I did brownies for a bit.

School is 8:45-3:15 -; she does reading in the morning

Then other stuff during the week is
Monday 6-7 football
Tuesday 4-4:30pm swimming lesson
Friday 4:30-5;30 Rainbows.

Then she's at home around this (by 3:30pm)and home all evening - pottering about playing with toys, maybe the playground etc
Homework activities get done at weekend, usually Sunday afternoon.

Bed and asleep by 8pm

I think it’s the school curriculum and way of learning that has changed. Also the fact that a lot of children didn’t start school until the term after they were 5 and spend just 2 years in ‘infants’ (KS1) whereas the norm now is to start at 4 and spend 3 years in Ks1. Also all learning was done in school whereas some primaries issue homework these days (in my day, 80s / early 90s it was just reading done at home). I went to a private school so there were slightly longer days and out of school I had a pony so spent hours every afternoon riding etc, but also did gymnastics, athletics, swim club etc, which is equivalent to the amount of activity and sport my children do. I certainly didn’t just loll about at home watching tele apart from
maybe an hour on Saturday mornings and my kids are the same. I think a lot of children these days generally don’t do enough physical activity (just running about playing football in the garden or riding bikes) which can actually make kids more energised, in comparison to screens which make kids feel tired without actually getting their bodies tired. They might do clubs and classes but get driven to those and not do much in the way of physical exertion in them.

Theres a lot more screen time available to a lot of children now, and that in itself is tiring mentally although not physically and I think parents don’t realise how tiring that is for children’s brains. It’s the reason my kids don’t have tablets etc and we cycle to swim training or rugby practise. They also play in the garden and round our farm a lot.

When you say exhausted what are the symptoms? Are they sleeping ok? Are they getting to bed early enough?

My two children aren't exhausted by school (7yr old and 10yr old) and they go to wrap around until 6pm 3 days a week too. They are ready for holidays at end of term though.

She's just almost slumping with lack of energy coming out of school, easily upset, looks shattered etc.

We found at that age we needed to cut out after school clubs and move bedtime to 6.30 pm (lights out). It made a big difference for us. We moved after school swimming to the weekend. Some children in DCs class just needed more sleep and less stimulation at that age. We can get away with 7pm in summer as think they are also fighting less bugs and germs off so more energy and not fighting their circadian rhythm.

I left primary school in 1986 and there was no national curriculum when I was there so it was utterly random. I had some teachers who basically did FA, basically left us to it and I taught myself out of a maths scheme book and then the next year I’d get a super old school teacher who had desks in rows and it was all v structured.Basically there was hardly any tracking or accountability. I remember once the teacher telling us to basically write and illustrate a kids story and that was for a week. Some kids did one page and some did War and Peace 🤣. So yes it was less intense but the attainment gap was massive. Also even though my parents were very pro education and v educated themselves ( doctorates) they didn’t seem that bothered about how random it all was but as pp said I read a lot at home and they took us to a lot of museums and stuff so they maybe thought so long as I could read well and was doing maths at what they thought was about the right level for my age that I’d be fine….. to be fair they were right.

What time is bedtime? My two start getting ready for bed at 7pm and lights out at 8pm

We don't have tablets either. Her "screen time" (ime just sitting quietly doing basically nothing) is listening to audio books on CD, but often she does this whilst playing with her dolls etc.

Yes but there is also some truth to the fact that children now aren’t as prepared by daily life for school in the same ways as they were in the past. Eg if your child can’t reliably feed themselves / clean up themselves after the loo / can’t put on their coats (or their wellies / PE Kits) by themselves that can cause massive anxiety and so they have no energy left for learning.

It depends on the child surely. My child used to come in from school at that age, and fall asleep immediately on the sofa. My other child never did. This was the 90’s. None of my grandchildren currently at primary school do this or appear to be exhausted.

Same.

7pm upstairs, bath, teeth, pyjamas, into bed, read stories (she might read one to me first) lights out by 7:45, asleep around 8.

She's up around 7:30-8am.

That’s true, either way if it persists I think it warrants a trip to the doctors I don’t think it’s typical or just because the curriculum has changed