To think 'no pen Wednesday' is a silly idea?

[Dancergirl]

I don't know if other schools do this - at dds' school last week they had 'no pen Wednesday' which meant all the children and staff couldn't use pens, pencils or other writing implements for the day. They had to be creative and think up ideas that didn't involve writing, eg in English they did drama.

I hope I'm not being a misery and I know it's only one day and a bit of fun etc but both dh and I feel that they've really missed out on a day's education because of this. Dd1 is in Year 6 and is working hard preparing for 11+ exams (which start in 6 weeks), as are most of her class as the majority of the schools round here are in a consortium which requires a Maths and VR paper. The school don't help prepare the children at all for these papers as apparently there isn't enough teaching time, however they manage to find time for no-pen Wednesday.

Your thoughts?

What is money management eupehmia? I presume you mean problems involving money (eg 7 bananas cost £2.30, how much do 3 cost?)? Or something else?

Sorry - can someone please point me at the evidence of this terrible sudden nosedive in Literacy and Numeracy standards? I must have missed it.

But then I don't read the Daily Mail.

Euphemia, I also live in Scotland but am not Scottish and the system baffles me. The non- streaming really worries me, I honestly do not see how it benefits anyone and I honestly think it has a lot to answer for as to why Scotland, has, as I mentioned the highest proportion of children in pretty much Europe leaving school with extremely poor literacy and numeracy.

What is the point teaching money management when the children are unable to count how much money they have to begin with? I know the directors of the Housing Association I work for are dreading the universal credit coming in for this very reason.

balia- have a look at, for example, Scotland's More Choices, More Chances Strategy- official Government report. It is a good starting point.

But that report sets out how to improve things doesn't it?
Much is being done in Scotland to improve education - and don't overlook the links between poverty and poor performance/destinations. The middle class kids continue to do very nicely in Scotland, thank you!

It's late - have read the first 6 pages of the report which appears to be about young people who leave school but don't go on to college or find a job - can you give me a hint about where the details of crashing literacy/numeracy standards are?

We loved no pens day, even if it was very hard work! And today, 6 of our little 6 year olds stood up in assembly, and, without any practice and a 4 word introduction from us, told 400 other children the exciting things they'd done: drama, interviews and recordings; story-telling; reading; pictures NOT using pens, chalk or crayons. We were chuffed to bits.
It's all about oral communication, which is needed wherever you work and whatever you do. You can always do your extra 11+ practice in the evenings!

And, on the subject of the 11+: it is abundantly clear from results published in the local press that children from leafier schools (many of whom are tutored) are more likely to pass the 11+ than those in urban schools. These results range from a 60%+ pass rate to a

How many Wednesdays in the year though? Sounds brilliant for a one off or once a month thing, but a bit slack for every week. By the way your 'no electronic' day sounds fab.

As the parent of an SN child with very poor pencil grip - I saw no pen Wednesday as a one-off opportunity for the whole class to try to learn in a different way. I hoped that - for once - my DS would shine. I was excited that DS classmates might find a way to improve their skills by working in a different way. I was chuffed that DS teacher might learn some techniques that will help her work with my DS and all other children in the future.

Its once a year Dex

At least find out what something is really about before having a moan.

"No Pens Day Wednesday is a national speaking and listening event from the Hello campaign, encouraging schools to organise a day where learning and assessment takes place through speaking and listening activities, rather than writing.
Ofsted are increasingly highlighting the importance of speaking and listening for good teaching and attainment and as a common denominator in the most successful schools...
No Pens Day Wednesday is being organised by The Communication Trust as part of the Hello campaign, the national year of communication. The initiative is backed by Jean Gross, Communication Champion, and has strong support from curriculum experts including Sir Jim Rose, Andrew Pollard and Mick Waters.
The aim of the day is to see a positive impact on all pupils and enable speaking and listening to be used as a vehicle for learning across the curriculum."

From the www.hello.org.uk website.

No pen Wednesday sounds like a great idea, teaching children to "think outside the box" is a very valuable lesson.

I would be seriously pissed off though if teacher time was spent on preparing some children for an exam that not everyone was taking.

YADNBU. The narrower you focus their tiny primary school minds onto the relentless demands of tests, tests, tests, the more and more pressure and focus you can exert, the more chance you have of creating a maladjusted mathmatical genius with no creativity or joy. Isn't that the whole point of education? Under no circumstances must they be taught how to think, only what to think.

I think this sounds like a great idea. Really gets them thinking.

On the other hand it seems to be "no pen" 24/7 at the primaries which feed my Aussie school, so many come to secondary with very poor handwriting, and are when it becomes clear, that for English, at least, handwriting is the default setting. All exams are handwritten, so developing a swift and legible script is essential, the sooner the better. Also, they need to develop mental cut and pasting of paragraphs, and of course, weaknesses with spelling don't emerge as easily with wp writing.

Interestingly, the vast majority of parents are mightily relieved to see a push on handwriting, it's the teachers who love the word-processed stuff. To be fair, it's much easier to mark.
It's with a heavy sigh that I say to my exam groups, all exam practices must be handwritten, and I hand them back if they're not. Harder work for me, but essential for them.

That would be just terrible for my dyslexic son, but I assume that here are exemptions for those who have handwriting problems? To be honest I can't really see the pint in forcing children to write by hand when adults don't actually need to do so - I can't remember the last time I wrote anything other than notes by hand.

My children are at school in Canada now where there is a strong emphasis on verbal skills. Lots of presenting, verbal quizzes etc. They've got a lot more confident about talking through their ideas which I think is a very valuable skill (Canada also scores very well in international literacy tests).

Handwriting problems have to be quite marked to gain an exemption in my bit of Oz. I haven't come across a dispensation for dyslexia yet.

As I said, it's the exam system which drives the handwriting.

I'm saying nothing particular about your son, but most complaints about not being able to handwrite are due to lack of practice, in my experience.

Australia also places a very high value on verbal skills. too. The two are not mutually exclusive. However, high level reading and writing skills are still in demand, wherever you go. There will always be the outsider, e.g. Jamie Oliver, who succeeds in spite of the odds, but he is an exception.

clowntrousers is echt, of course.:o

I love the idea of this!

I have to assess some of my pupils verbally as a matter of course due to various needs (they have the ideas but can't get them on paper) and think it would be great to show those pupils who rely on writing only how they can do things differently!

Oh I'd love for someone to be able to teach him to write in a legible and comprehensible way (as would he)! It just seems a slightly odd thing to insist on given that very few people write very much by hand anymore. My brother (also dyslexic) uses a word recognition program now, and my nephew (another dyslexic) did all his exams using a laptop.

I wasn't implying that speaking was more important than writing, just also important, as the OP seemed not to rate it very highly, whereas Id consider it one of the basics really.

That does sound like fun, I will suggest it at the next PTA.

Ah,nooka it seems the days of the handwriting exercises are long gone:) They're not, actually, you can download them.

However, not knowing the nature of your son's dyslexia, I can only suggest a dyslexia-trained tutor for developing handwriting skills, but if you're in a system which allows a laptop, then go for it.

We're getting him reassessed at the moment, so we will see what happens after that. I think his current teachers find it difficult to think of him as being dyslexic as his reading is now excellent. We do have a good school here, but some of the promises of assistance don't seem to actually materialise (although better than in the UK where the SENCO wrote us a pretty stinking letter after we had him privately assessed).

Luckily with most of the men in our family having dyslexia he has plenty of successful role models to aspire to.

If the whole idea is to improve oral communication then it's even sillier than I first thought.

Children learn in a huge variety of ways these days, including loads of partner/group work, discussion, speaking to the class etc where oral communication is necessary. At my dds' school I would say they do as much, if not more, overall than written work. It's completely pointless to ban pens for the day to concentrate on something that they are already doing! You may as well ban speaking for the day

Have you actually read the comments on this thread, dancergirl?