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.

Apologies you've said 8pm

The teachers now teach the children how to read anything using phonics, rather than relying on a child remembering words and then possibly being limited to only being able to read words they recognise. Perhaps that might be thought of as being more demanding, though it also makes reading easier in the end.

I suspect that we had longer playtimes and better school dinners.

Curriculum has changed and children are learning at a younger age.
I went to primary school in Scotland in the 80’s. We did half days until the October holidays and then full days in our 1st year of school. Only possible because most Mums didn’t work. There was no wrap around care so shorter days. I went to dance classes on Saturday mornings and an hour of Sunday school on Sunday afternoon. Evening activities didn’t start until I was about 7/8 years old.

My children went to breakfast club at 7.30am on the days I work and picked up at 6pm. They go to more activities after school. They also experience more disruption in classes. Children storming out of classes didn’t happen when I was in school. If you didn’t behave, you were very quickly sent to the local “special school”.

There seems to be lots of point collecting schemes in schools or warning traffic lights. My daughter is always on edge about the potential of getting a “flag” on the online system.

Sunday school was very common where I grew up. Usually an hour in the church hall or local community centre. Sang songs, read and answered questions about a children’s bible story, the finished with a quiz. My family weren’t even religious but I loved going.

Op I think you may be worth checking with GP. Or I wonder has your child got dyslexia or ADHD perhaps as think school may be way more tiring if the child has SEN

Is she energetic during school holidays?

I stopped teaching 13 years ago and I mostly taught year 3. From looking at what my daughter is doing (year 2) it’s definitely gotten harder. The spellings, maths etc. she is meant to know now is much more like what I was teaching in Year 3.

I had to use bbc bitesize to explain it to me so I could help. I spent years writing documents for a multinational company and never needed to know. They were 5 and still at the stage of spelling out c a t and guessing it as dog. How this is suitable education I don't know. Not the school's fault.

I do think there is more pressure on primary school children these days.

My 3 DC had homework / books to look at / read / spellings etc from Nursery onwards. The after school clubs were madness - and that didn't include private swimming lessons either. My younger two were really not bothered about school clubs, but my eldest did anything she possibly could - very often two on the same day if timings would allow! 😂

And then there were the dreaded 'projects' set at the end of each term, every six weeks, without fail. They were always in-depth and time consuming projects, that apparently "helped you to have quality time and engage with your child(ren)" 🙄 All the parents hated these projects, the children were usually not interested, and those with more than one child at school ended up tearing their hair out.

And then you had inspire days, non-uniform days, collections for everyone and their flipping Uncle.......

I think all children are different.
Mine is 5 and in year 1. She does after school activities every night except Friday (swimming, dancing, gymnastics, karate) and has done a lot since nursery but has always been fine. She also does wrap around at school (before and after) 3 days a week. She definitely has the odd pj day in 1/2 term or at the weekend but she copes well.
Whereas some mums in her class send pics of their children asleep on the sofa by 4pm. As I said I think they are all different. Maybe the activities are too much for your child right now. Could always go to the doctor and make sure it isn’t a deficiency is something? Move an activity to the weekend?

I do remember my three being pretty much wiped out when they started school in the 80s and 90s

Curriculum expectations are much higher. As a PP has said, there is not as much time for play, art or creatives. Also many children now attend breakfast club, after school club or have multiple clubs after school.

I went to school in the 90s, I remember there been free play if you finished your work and for bits of the afternoon. Everyone started at 9 (mum/.gran/ child minder brought you to school at 9 - no breakfast club), had a morning playtime from 10.30-11 and then lunch 12-1 then afternoon playtime 2-2.30 and school finished at 3.30. Then everyone went home (no after school club). If you were a lucky girl you went to ballet OR brownies (very few people did both), I had a friend who did both ballet and brownies and we were all a bit jealous of her because we thought she was very rich (her mum was brown owl). If you were a boy you went to cubs OR football at the football ground (again very few did both), I remember "Scott" at school did both because his dad was the football coach so his football practice was free. Barely anyone did paid for swimming lessons.

Almost all schools now have 15 mins playtime in the morning and 50mins to 1hr lunch. Some schools only have 40 mins lunch if they are on staggered lunchtimes to accommodate large pupil numbers. Afternoon break is almost non existent in many schools. Free play after finishing work is not really a thing any more from end of reception. I remember an Oftsed inspector questioning me (he was not happy about it and greatly disproved of free play) about why I had a sand and water tray, junk modelling and soft toys in my year 1 classroom. Basically as far as Oftsed were concerned, the reward for finishing your work early was more work. Set an extension task, then another extension task.

My DC is pretty good, but is now becoming nervous about making mistakes. I don’t think it’s always clear to her why other children get sent to other classrooms or are shouted at. Over half term, she read her books, did her maths, wrote about her half term, did her comprehensions, spellings, handwriting practice, worksheets etc. We didn’t finish the homework and I told her I’d just speak to the teacher and explain as I thought it was too much. She begged me to just leave her homework folder at home so she could finish it tonight. She will be worried at school today. The first part of the holiday was spent with a virus from school. Homework and school illnesses impinge on so many holidays.

We did after school stuff every day in the 70s- brownies, gym, swimming, ballet. And state junior school, though not infants, involved a fair amount of writing and learning. But, absolutely no homework til secondary.

Respectfully, I think it's very easy to sub-consciously don rose-tinted glasses when talking about childhood. I guess partially because we all yearn now for a time when we feel we had no real responsibilities or worries.

Having said that, I do agree that academic expectations on young children now are greater than 30/40yrs ago, as a lot of teachers on this thread have confirmed.

I also agree with @ColdWaterDipper about insidious screen time - personally I think this can be tiring for small developing brains (but I also know mine used to enjoy a bit of soothing Night Garden before bed so it's swings and roundabouts!)

One of my kids was like the drumming bunny in terms of energy during the day - he didn't get tired or grumpy - and then he'd take himself off to bed at a sensible time each night. He just had a body clock that told him when was enough!

The other one was the opposite - keen to do all the after-school clubs but then also desperate to stay up til late at home to do everything else too. He used to get so blinking grumpy! We had to be a bit more brutal about what we said yes to in terms of clubs and that definitely helped.

I went to primary school in the 90s and I definitely wasn't exhausted by it, always had energy to play afterwards and very often would go round a friend's house or they'd come to mine straight after school. I did clubs outside of school too - swimming, girls brigade, Saturday school and Sunday school. I remember primary school being quite laid back, lots of time for free play, doing various topics and it seems the teachers had more leeway to choose what to do, for instance I went on holiday (term time holiday without any trouble) and sent my friend a postcard from holiday, he took it in to show the class and the teacher decided the class would do a whole topic about the country I was in! (though I was gutted it was over before I got back so didn't get to join in)
I wonder if they still watch things like Look and Read - I remember being so excited when the TV came out and we got to watch Look and Read.

Yes, I was born in 1965 and aged 6/7 I did Scottish dancing, piano, brownies and Sunday school. School was much less pressured though!

I think that this is the crux of the issue. When I started infants at very nearly 5 I could read reasonably well - some books into the the Ladybird series already and I was not the only one. I could also add and subtract and do a bit of basic writing. DM was at home with me all day and I think found the challenge of teaching me alleviated the boredom. I went straight into a class with rows of desks that we sat at except in the breaks but I remember it being a calm and ordered space. DD started school at 4 years and 2 weeks so had it all to learn although she was lucky enough to pick up reading quite quickly but the constant rearranging of the classroom tables - rows for maths, blocks for reading, carpet time etc was very different to my experience at school.

At that age all I did was go to the park for a run around and then home to watch children's bbc, supper and reading before bed. Extra curriculars (except Sunday school) didn't start until 7 at which point I picked up piano, choir, Brownies and swimming outside of school and recorder group in it.

I did loads too. Brownies, swimming club, dancing, music lessons, after school extras. Not at five though, that was just swimming lessons I think.

I loved school and didn’t find it a chore. We had word tins in year R (class 1!) which were my teacher’s husband’s old tobacco tins. Roger Red Hat, Read It Yourself, Topsy and Tim.

Also loved watching TV (BBC) and playing with neighbours’ kids on the street, but later on I signed up for any clubs my parents would say yes to!

Mine watched L&R Spywatch at Primary, and loved it. My Look and Reads were Dark Towers and the spooky Boy from Space! Loved it.

Yes it's so different to what i remember in the 80's. Reception is still similar but in Yr one we used to still play all afternoon while the teacher listened to readers. We didn't have a TA but we also didn't have anything like 30 kids in a class. I remember in Yr 5 or 6 being allowed to do a project on anything we wanted - I chose fish for some reason - and spent loads of time just drawing fish and writing about them.

There was nothing like SATs and all the awful teaching for SATs that there is now. No one really thought about the future too much compared to now I don't think, no one was worrying that SATs led to sets and predicted GCSE results, I feel like we just lived much more in the here and now and took things one day at a time.

I never remember being tired though and was often busy doing different things or seeing friends after school and at weekends. I did piano, swimming, brownies and also had to walk up a huge hill to get home from school everyday. I was very fit as a result though!

Yes. The curriculum is a mess and the expectations are both skewed and ridiculous. One of the biggest differences is the opportunity to expend energy and be outside. More rigid time sitting inside at desks at primary age is exhausting in itself and perpetuates a cycle of fatigue, just like adults sitting at desks. My daughter can't believe we used to be able to go and take our jotters outside at school if it was a nice day.

I loved Spywatch! And I think there was one about birds or something, where I learnt about peregrine falcons and they became my favourite bird for at least a year.

French primary 1975-79
Very strict, mostly sitting at desks, old fashioned Teacher Dominated Learning. Very little creativity or sport. Weekly grammar and maths tests. Lots of discipline. Loads of homework. Awful school dinners.
US Elementary school 1980-81 - Much more relaxed, much more sport, pop quizes, more fun, friendly teachers, but we still sat in rows of individual desks, and were pretty disciplined, but i wasn’t terrified of the teachers.
English state church primary - by far the smallest school. Combined year forms, lots of projects, art, bit of music, PE during the week, swimming at local baths once a week (years 5&6), singing in assembly (older kids paid 75p to go and sing at weddings in the church). Fantastic traditional school dinners. Kind teachers. No homework. No routine testing, just an english and maths test to stream us before we went to secondary.

I don’t remember primary school as being hard, despite being young in my year. I did after school activities, but never loads, and, apart from swimming, not until I was about 8. Swimming was what we did on Sundays, and i had a weekly lesson afterschool midweek. I think that stopped when we went to the US - we had access to a pool there, and I taught my younger DSis to swim.

I’ve just asked my teens (y12,y9) - they said primary school wasn’t hard. They both went to wrap around club 3-4 days a week, so opportunities for extra curriculars were more limited. They still got plenty in though!

Extraversion vs introversion must make a big difference. Spending 6+ hours a day around 30 people with (by adult standards) seriously subnormal social skills is likely to be very tiring for a lot of kids!