To cry at the level of demand asked of children/ young people?

[SophieWantsABlokeyBloke]

I'm just catching up on the Grammar school programme via BBC iPlayer.

Just the level of demand overall, and the sheer amount of pressure that seems to be of these children.

It takes me back to the pressures of vomiting in the hallway during my 'SATS' before the end of infants (before going up to Year 4, I think). My mum wasn't even pushy.

I remember crying. And I was a tough cookie usually.

It also reminds me GCSEs are getting harder. And everything in general is just more selective.

Childhood and young adulthood is just so full of pressure.

I'll get my coat, I suppose

🤣😂🤣🤣🤣😂😂

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The programme featured a girls' grammar school. I would have loved to have gone there, it was a great school and the girls appeared to be very happy and confident.

This thread has it all..

I feel I ma getting old reading this thread, because I have read or heard on the news the same pronouncements whenever there are changes, or a new generation. Every generation has its own pressures. And some will benefit some children over others.

Hothousing a 6 month old. I've seen it all now!

Is this the stealthiest boasts to beat all other stealthiest boasts...?

'Hmm, my baby is a model. How do I get that out there? How indeed...?'

In days of yore, a SM student would not have been entered for O levels, but would have taken CSE. O levels were restricted to the top 25%, and only about 5% of school leavers went to university. Far more went to teacher training colleges, and many entered the professions via A levels and articles.

In the 1920s, my grandfather left school at 14 for an engineering company's apprenticeship and went into the draughtsmen's office. He acquired his professional qualifications at night school, and ended up very high flying in the aerospace world. It would not be possible now.

The world has changed so much; if you look at South Korea, as late as the 1980s it had a rudimentary education programme but is now among the most technologically advanced societies. The UK is going to have to work very hard to retain its first world standing, and that will ratchet the pressure up on all students. Globalisation, innit...

If your Chinese or African or Indian this is not pressure it’s the warm act no wonder our snowflakes are failing behind because most immigrant parents don’t see homework or coursework as pressure my nan had to walk to hours before she even got to school then the two hours home before home work then chores and I don’t mean making ones own bed I mean catching plusking a cooking a chicken she is from st Vincent
She got all her exams and went on to uni

She lived in a one bedroom house with bannana leaves on the roof

Is this the stealthiest boasts to beat all other stealthiest boasts...?

Maybe the most failed stealth boast.

OP you are totally right about the fact learning a language can help a lot of things (we know that bilingual children have a higher IQ for example, thatbthey see the work in a different way depending in the language etc...).
However this is about really speaking the language, not so much about an hour spend singing with just a few words in Spanish thrown around.

However, I dont think children here are particularly under a lot of pressure tbh.
Actually what I have seen in my dcs secondary is the opposite. And I very much wish they had more pressure put on them.
And it’s not an issue about work being competitive and them getting used to pressure etc...
It’s the fact that they need to work to be able to learn and that, unfortunately, very few of those children are able to do that wo someone pushing them badly to do so.
Instead, homework and work at home is often seen as ‘not compulsory’ by the students and with little risk if it’s not done. To be sure students do some sort of revisions, it has to be organised for them (revisions sessions at chocolate by the teachers) and even then it doesn’t always happen.
So yes, of course, you can call all those revisions lessons at the end of the day, at lunch time etc.. pressure put in the teenagers. I call that pushing them to do the homework they should be doing in their own.

I totally agree that we don’t seem to have pressure compared to other countries. It does worry me a bit in terms of teaching and modelling resilience that so many British parents seem to freak out at any kind of performance measurement on their children

This is bonkers OP!

You’re worried that childhood is too full of pressure and stress and yet you’re already stressing at 6 months old that you’re not doing enough.

That you hope modelling jobs (initially I thought you meant letting him play with clay/make models - would be more age appropriate!) will give him perspective, adaptability and experience?????! He’s 6 months old!

The language thing I can see the benefit of. I did baby signing classes with my lo from age 5-7.5 months and then carried in doing it at home. There’s alot of evidence about how it develops language centres in the brain and I can tell you at 3.5 years she’s very articulate for her age. Baby sign language came in very handy between about 10-22 months before she started talking properly.

Anyway I digress.

Chill out.

If you really want to help your child get ahead in life then back off and let them figure things out for themselves. Don’t fall into the micromanaging parent trap.

Read the book Simplicity Parenting and enroll your child in a forest school playgroup and stand back

^^ Agree - my DS has never had any pressure put on him right up to now doing his A levels. I can remember years ago on Mumsnet complaining because he wasn't given enough homework when other posters were saying their child was stressed out with so much homework.

Obviously depends on the school - and the child - but my DS has coasted along quite happily, passed all his GCSEs (average grades) - I just wish he would put some more effort into his A levels.

Reports seem to be full of meaningless expressions these days, and he recently got 50% in an exam but said that was 'one of the top scores' .

Sit him in a bath and wait for a fart is more appropriate surely?
@zzzzz mine craps in the bath if I wait long enough. Surely worthy of an A*

I’m hoping OP that you are just playing with us and you are not actually hot housing your little baby.

Interesting cross posts with a few poster suggesting that we need more pressure in schools etc.

If you look at the most successful (in terms of academic results.... and also child mental health and wellbeing) country in education: Finland, they have comparatively short school days, hardly if any homework, lots of extra curricular activities and less emphasis on pure academics

Didn’t take long before someone mentioned Finland

Do you cry all the way to the language class and photo shoots, op?

Sprinkles cause they’re doing it right!!!!!!

The UK, in comparison is not

www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanchi/PIIS2352-4642(17)30092-5.pdf

Baby modelling aside, I also caught up on that programme today.
I did the 11+ many moons ago I remember the pressure everyone was under but one pupil's parents were so confident in their ability they pretty much dragged them away from school on results day once they found they hadn't been selected.
Juanita reminded me of that because she thought or was led to believe (presumably by her mum who was evidently devastated) that it was grammar school or an utterly shit future. The prospect of grammar school gave her perceived certainty of success and a brilliant future.
That idea has got to change. But in certain grammar schools those views are encouraged, it is the norm "your dad works for my dad" etc. She must have felt dreadful. Hope she is enjoying her current school.

The grammar head made a good point about talking about failure and success though.

I've raised (step/own) children in Germany, Denmark and UK and can tell you the school process is by far the hardest here. Don't know about uni

But they’re a very different country to the U.K, and I find it problematic to compare. No works class universities, no pioneering silicone valley equivalent, little global influence. Now obviously you’ll say those things are not important outcomes of an education but unfortunately, that’s where the U.K. is at.

There is a lot more support for children and young people than there used to be.