AIBU to think there is too much pressure and expectations put on infant school children

[BazilGin]

This may be a huge cultural difference that I will never get over. I started primary school at the age of 7. I move to the UK 10 years ago and my August born daughter started reception just after her 4th birthday. This in itself is wrong, but I am honestly shocked at the curriculum the teachers have to follow. She has just started year one and is given spellings every week that the teacher tests on Monday morning. AIBU to think this is too much too soon? She is doing well academically, but said she is sad they are not allowed to play and "in the morning it's literacy and we just have to get on with it". At this age I though they are just learning through play! Clearly not !! I honestly believed that infant school will be more play based, but they were doing lots of writing/ready ng etc even in reception. DD went to a wonderful Montessori preschool and somehow I thought that infant school will be just extension of that, sadly not. I wish the whole system was different. If my circumstances were different, I would home school as it breaks my heart.

[pinetree22]

Really? You think kids have it tough here in the UK? In the country where I grew up, lessons start at 7.40 am, we had a 45 minute break at midday and left for the day at 3pm. When we got home we had to homework and study. Oh and there are no countless half-term holidays. I thought kids had it too easy here. I had to study and do some sort of learning activity during my summer holidays. I went onto university and post grad studies, how could I do that if I didn't have a good education? I speak 3 languages and know the difference between you're and your.

[AdaLovelacesCat]

" I speak 3 languages and know the difference between you're and your."

What is you're point here exactly?

[Ohmuther]

Pine Tree - I had a 1970s british state education, Primary school was lots of fun, relaxed and inquisitive with lots of time for the home corner as well as excellent story-times, music, singing & school plays. I was late for school almost everyday as my mum is scatty. I managed to get an excellent MA & post grad. My school friends now work in a number of jobs including a primary school teacher, university professor and a leading post doctoral researcher. What our education gave us was a love of learning and the confidence to pursue our own interests. We are self motivated and still as inquisitive as we were back then. My DD (clever, creative, inquisitive like we were) has said she 'hates learning' & 'hates school ' since year 1. She does not respond well to the pressure or the stress and I am SICK to the back teeth of this government's educational agenda.

[swissy56]

pinetree

[Verbena37]

ohmuther ditto exacty for myself and my friends.
Like you, I hardly remember any academic work at primary......I remember most singing assemblies, school plays, the home corner was the best thing, story time, playing in the sand and water table etc.

All lovely things that our children should also be loving.....only my dd, now 14, exactly the same as yours. Very academic but absolutely hates school and suffers with bouts of depression and a lack of love for anything.

Very sad.

[AdaLovelacesCat]

ditto Pinetree, another Brit educated person here. Guess what I did uni and post-grad too! and obviously I know the difference between your and you're, it is kind of basic.
Also, half term holidays are not 'countless' are they?

[QueenOfAllBiscuitsandMuffins]

YANBU. My DS started in state and I refused to do the homework in reception, he was summer born and knackered at the end of the day and weekends were family time. In yr1 they were split into 2 classes, one teacher gave spellings each week, the other teacher said she didn't give spellings as she didn't see any point of the children learning spellings/words out of context at this age and luckily DS was in her class but she got A LOT of grief from parents who thought their child would be left behind compared with other class (they weren't).

We then moved to private and just as we did the private school got a new headteacher who doesn't believe reception/yr1/yr2 need any homework apart from reading with a parent as much as possible. I realise private might give her the freedom that a state school doesn't have to implement this. Some parents still request that their child is given homework!!!

[Natsku]

YANBU OP! I am so glad I moved to Finland and DD gets to go to school here. She's five and a half now and spends all day playing. I'd think there was something wrong with a child that would be bored in play-based education under 7 as play is the most natural thing for children. They call ages 2-7 the 'play age' here as that's what it is for.

Teachers here are good at differentiating once they start formal school and with the latest curriculum there's a big emphasis on learning through doing and no numerical grades in the first few years.

[deadringer]

That sounds crazy! In ireland they have to start junior infants by age 6, (most are 4.5 to 5.5) and they dont do spellings until first class when most of them are turning 7. No system is perfect but 4 is just so young.

[m0therofdragons]

Dtds, youngest in their year, came home week 2 in year 1 with spellings and my heart sank. However, they love having a go and write them on wipe clean boards. I agree it isn't right for all dc but mine are fairly average so that kind of suggests half the class is ready to do them and it's good to practice writing letters and words. Our school is more focused on the words being phonetically correct than actually correct. I guess it depends how it's presented so it's fun but maybe we should stretch/challenge our dc.

[JacquesHammer]

Isn't the issue that the UK focuses on a one size fits all approach.

I would welcome reform but not wholesale change.

How can you tell people who's children work better - and happier - in a formal learning environment that that's the "wrong" way.

Another reason I am so glad we fell into private education.

[teacherlikesapples]

This will not change until the Government changes. The pressure comes from needing evidence of "measurable impact & outcomes".
Totally frustrating when all of the research & evidence says that introducing formal learning so early is often counter productive & that conversely a play based approach fosters a love of learning. The pressure certainly sucks the joy right out of teaching to. Sigh. Anyway, You are definitely not being unreasonable.

[MuseumOfCurry]

I agree that reception through years 2 is essentially government daycare.

When my children were very young, I always felt terribly for the August-born kiddos in particular because they were too young to be in school all day. The whole thing is silly.

That said, my youngest is now in Yr 6 and he is more than ready for his fairly rigourous curriculum, and enjoys about 90% of his homework (he has about an hour a night). Seems to be working very well.

[LyndaLaHughes]

As a teacher I am devastated by the destruction that has been wrought on our Education system over the past few years. The arrogance of politicians who ignore all evidence and professionals to push an agenda which is having a negative impact on children and causing huge mental health issues is just astounding. Teachers are leaving in their droves and the majority of those who remain are unhappy. That's not a climate any parent wants for their child but unfortunately until parents start to rally and protest nothing will change. I mourn the Education my children could have had but will lose out on thanks to those who send their own children to a private system where this does not apply. The hypocrisy is astounding. The teachers unions are absolutely useless and there are too many of them. I have stepped down from senior leadership because I refuse to lead a system I do not believe in or contribute to destroying staff morale any further. It makes me utterly furious.

[ScarfForAGiraffe]

I am massively envious of the childhood and education some private schools are giving children. I do realise others have them at desks doing formal learning in reception so Its not all rosy!

My little one loves reception. I'm miffed my yr 3 girls comes home talking of tests but she enjoys the topic work etc.

[Eolian]

As long as people place such an emphasis on data, statistics,progress measures and all the other jargon, this madness will continue.

As long as people make their judgement about a school based on it's Ofsted report, this madness will continue.

This^. My favourite quote on this subject is "Measuring your pig every day does not make it fatter". League tables should be banned. Schools should not be in competition with each other. Education should not be run like a business. Children aren't products.

From what I understand, not only are schools in Finland happier places for both children and teachers (and yet still more successful in their results than here). There is also very little difference in results between the 'best ' schools and the 'worst' schools. Presumably this means pretty much everyone is happy to just send their child to the local school, so the local community has a common interest to support its school. Schools aren't vying with each other for pupils, and parents aren't vying with each other for places.

How have we got it so wrong? I'm a (secondary) teacher and have very bright, academic dc, but that doesn't mean I want a rigid, joyless, data-driven education for them. There is no reason that more creative or play-based learning should bore a bright child if it's done well.

[Natsku]

eolian yeah most schools are equally good here in Finland as equality of education was always the aim, not excellence although that naturally followed. Its changing in Helsinki though as middle class parents try to avoid the schools with lots of immigrant children which is creating differences between the schools. Its a shame and I hope that attitude changes before they fuck things up there.

[Memoires]

When I was at primary from Y1 up we were working hard, sat at our desks, learning and being all the time. We were doing geometry in Y2, indices and logs in Y5. It was not unusual for girls to be in tears in lessons because they couldn't cope with whatever test we were doing then, and they'd be ignored until the end when they'd be shouted at and get some sort of demerit or be sent to the head, thorough disapproval would be shown, and woe betide any pupil who showed sympathy. At the boys' school they had the ferrule and the cane.

So having remembered my school days, I can see that primary school nowadays is a dream. Mind you, every single one of us passed the 11+.

and we lived in a cardboard box in middle o' road

[waterrat]

I completely agree!!!

It breaks my heart the sudden transition from Reception to Yr 1. No toys/ no free play/ no special outside space - why the hell would a 5 year old suddenly want to sit down all day jsut because they have become a yr 1 student.

People keep telling me 'oh it's all play when they start' - well yes for the first year then it is a steep decline towards tests/ learning grammar etc all totaly wrong for young children

my son is lucky - he is in Reception in a very play-focused forward thinking school. However - he is exhausted and confused at being there from 845 till 3.15 - where is our faimly time? Like many / most parents I work until 6 three days a week - so now I only have time with him for a few hours each week - how have we allowed this to happen to our young children?

4 year olds need to rest after a busy morning - when we are at home there is no way my son would play/ be stimulated constatly from 845 till 3pm - it's unnatural and against the flow of a young childs natural energy.

[0ellenbrody0]

Please don't bash teachers as 'lazy' for printing display banners off Twinkl!

Thanks to the ridiculous amounts of pressure we're under and the immense amounts of totally unnecessary paperwork we do, creating a beautiful banner, woven from yaks milk and lentils is the least of my bloody priorities!

Thank god for Twinkl.

[Chopstick17]

The infants have to knuckle down and learn their spellings so that the Y4s can write like robots using fronted adverbials and so that everyone can correctly underline the past progressive tense in Y6. Without that, the year group test percentage drops, ofsted arrive and the school needs improving.
When parents stop choosing schools by sat results the madness may end

This is the truth!

[Chopstick17]

There are parents who try to push their DC to do even higher spellings because they believe they should be pushed. I see this happen at the school I work in. Learning a word from memory and regurgitating it at the end of the week is not the same as using it and spelling it correctly in their work or understanding the meaning and context. Most teachers I work with believe it's all too much too soon but it's not just Ofsted it is some parents too.

[Chopstick17]

Please don't bash teachers as 'lazy' for printing display banners off Twinkl!

Would rather a teacher spent time marking and planning than making their own borders/banners!
Thank God for Twinkl!

[Green18]

Try getting a very immature 5 year old to write a few sentences to decribe a setting using interesting adjectives whilst simultaneously trying to coax the thumb out of their mouth long enough to grip a pencil. This is how I spend hours at work as a TA in year 1. Cheers Ofsted!

[iamapixiebutnotaniceone]

Absolutely agree with you! My daughter is the youngest in her class (year 2) and she is struggling so badly it is killing her confidence. She's just not the right mind yet to do well academically, she is a beautiful, creative soul and the way things are going with school right now it could easily ruin her entire experience of education.