Lessons you had in school that you’re not sure still happens

[Soubriquet]

I remember doing cookery, woodworking and something with a solder iron. I can still remember the smell of the solder burning.

I did those in year 7. I also remember having to rush to local supermarket with my parents cos I needed last minute ingredients for my cookery lessons

My dd is in year 8 but she doesn’t do any of these lessons

There is still cooking, sewing and woodwork - they come under DT. Im very surprised that your daughter hasn’t done at least any of it by now. Is she in a special school? Though even special schools do cooking, just more simple and much less theory.
there is also an option to learn about child development for GCSE - it comes under health and social care.

She wasn't at school during COVID so hands on subjects didn't happen.

I did sewing, cooking, metalwork and woodwork in the equivalent of year 7 and 8. (I'm 59, grew up in NZ). My year group was the first one where girls were allowed to do metalwork and woodwork and the boys cooking and sewing.

In year 9 I did shorthand typing - manual typewriters. Ping! Carriage return. Double spaces after a full stop.

My son went to a grammar and I think did minimal DT/cooking. Daughter to comprehensive school and had a rotation of all four. (They're mid 20s now).

We also had a ' language lab' listening to the antics of La Famille Marsaud through headphones in booths and repeating French back

Getting the glockenspiels out in music

Happy days

DD1 was continued it into Yr10 (Lv2 BTEC). Its a great bit of down time but still got a lot of work to do... quite a few dropped out within the first couple of weeks as they thought it would be an easy option and instead they threw a lot of theoretical stuff at them about welfare etc.

Left in 2004 we did wood work cooking and the 1 melting plastic made a light bulb work lol

I learnt to wire a plug back in the days when things like kettles and toasters were sold without a plug. But now everything is sold with a plug so I’m not sure how high on the curriculum it should be?

Everything else I did at school my dc learn today. The names may have changed but they still learn the same.

eta we did calculator maths at primary! There was only one set of calculators (enough for one class) so we had calculator maths on rotation with the other classes in the school 😂 this was the 80s

My sons (young adults now) did sewing in primary

I think some people did word processing for gcse but I didn’t

I think plug wiring might still be on the Science syllabus.

Its still a useful skill.

We had the same in my Italian secondary school in the '90s!! A 'language lab' where we listened to tapes in French or German or English. Another memory unlocked!

We did life skills in home economics which DC didn't do. We started with making tea and toast the first lesson, scrambled egg next week and on to basic meals. And mince pies at Christmas. We also ironed shirts, replaced buttons, changed plugs and cleaned. All very useful! We also learnt to maintain the typewriters we used to learn to type on (in 1991) which was less useful.

I was at school in the 70s We did Speech training , which was elocution lessons by any other name 😂

I learnt French in year 7 ( old year one) using the eclair books and magazines. I can still remember the lightning symbol on the pages and the cartoon drawings they had with people speaking to each other.

My mum went to a "domestic" secondary school so taught about cooking and cleaning and she also did mothercraft, her Sister was "clever" and went to a Technical school so she was taught typing and shorthand etc,

Our primary doesn’t seem to be doing a foreign language. They do BSL instead. I think it’s a shame as languages are so much easier when younger.
They do have French on the school website curriculum for half a term or so but in practice nothing is being taught.

My school taught basic mechanics for cars during sixth form! Extremely sensible - we all learned how to change oil and swap out a tyre

I’m 43, grew up in England, and learned typing on a typewriter! 🙈

In primary school we did embroidery (mainly cross-stitch) and drama. We also spent a lot of time working on our individual projects with the help of textbooks and other resources - one term it might be the environment and the next, the Aztecs. I'm wondering if older primary school children still do this type of work, or whether the curriculum is now so demanding that the teacher has to spend all lessons in front of the whole class trying to pump information into the children?

We used to do one period a week on Spelling. Just in First year though. The teacher used to give a small cash prize to the best speller every fortnight iirc. I need those lessons now. Predictive text has melted my brain. 😢

My dd didn’t learn a single word of French at primary school, despite formally starting weekly lessons in year 3. It relies on the teachers being able to teach MfL and that’s a skill many don’t have. So the lesson is basically waived and is totally ineffective.

I remember after the first term dd came home proudly and said “I can say a word in French now!” I asked what it was and she said “Orrev”. Puzzling. I discovered she was trying to say au revoir, but the teacher said “if they can’t manage the whole thing we just say to try the first little bit”. How pointless!

I think we learnt it more so we could change a plug. I can't remember if appliances came with them or not.

sex education where they told you about HIV and STD's not just how to be in positive relationships. (school in the 80's... sex was literally deadly!)

I was really surprised when my daughter had never heard about AIDS / HIV / STD's even having done sex ed!
(yes, we had the conversation...)

My DD is in year 8 and has done cooking (she’s bringing back apple crumble today!) and woodwork - though I’m not sure she’s used a soldering iron yet

Learning how to touch type is a good idea as the basic keyboard lay out hasn’t altered at all and makes it quicker.
Its funny how my fingers know where the keys are , but I can’t see a keyboard lay out in my head or where the keys are .. yet I can ‘ touch typing ‘ with muscle memory and I’m quite fast. It is weird.