To think the primary school curriculum in the UK is too advance

[Kerry987]

I think the primary school curriculum in the UK is too advance for the majority of children. I think it it is OK for kids who are very academic and self learners, bright, but I think at least half of the kids struggle to keep up with it and need lots of support at school and home.

What do other parents and teachers think?

I had a meeting with the special needs person at my daughter's school a couple of years ago and she told me that I would be surprised to find out how many kids need help and support. This got me to think there is something wrong with the curriculum if so many kids need extra support.

Why are we overloading with so much information? We have been home schooling and there are things that my husband and I didn't see until secondary school

This is an interesting post.

I am a teacher and when the NC changed in 2014, I was appalled by how difficult it was. There were many gaps which needed filing and we all thought that the children would struggle. Over time, those gaps have been plugged and we are all more used to the expectations. I do still agree with you though, OP. Yr6 were learning the maths I learnt in Y9 last time I taught them!

I also agree with a pp about seeing lots of mistakes in newspapers etc which doesn't exactly make it easy to teach and use real life examples!

No. They start school too young when lots of them aren't ready. But later on they proceed slowly. I love the way children are taught in the UK - they learn how to debate, think for themselves, reflect on things. I was brought up in Eastern Europe, I had good(ish) grades and was the perfect 'sheep' , individual thinking was weeded out pretty early.

It is too advanced for half the children and not advanced enough for the rest. It is a happy medium.

This.

Languages we are possibly behind not other things , but then we speak a language that is spoken by a lot of the world
Germany / netherlands learn english as it is so widely used around the world , not too many places that speak german/ dutch.

SEN doesn't mean learning difficulty!

I agree. Whilst I was teaching I saw so many perfectly capable young children put off writing by our insistence on having children write so young. I would like to see play as the main learning situation (rather than desks) for most of primary school. Only when children are physically and emotional mature around 8yrs old should we be starting any significant formal work.

While I cannot say what the UK curriculum is, the primary school from Eastern European schools is (kids aged 7-10):

• native language, maths and foreign language every day
• natural science or similar (very very basic like why trees grow) once a week
• PE twice a week
• painting and art lesson (once a week)
• kids have 4 or 5 lessons a day, each lesson is 45 minutes

Then Kids aged 11-18 it gets upped in terms of difficulty and kids have 6-8 lessons a day.

DD has significant additional needs an a modified curriculum, but DS is following national curriculum.

I find the opposite, to be honest. Compared with continental schools, it's pretty basic.

@ohalighthen I was at school 30 years ago , they learn way more now than and that is what most of my friends think who were at school 80's, 90's .
I think how they are taught as well is so different like knowing a adverb etc, we were never taught this , bit were taught how to use and wrote correctly.

I was chatting with my sister, who is an English primary teacher, about the maths my nine year old is set in Italy and we were pleased to find that what she was covering with her children in year five was the exact same stuff he was learning, albeit using a slightly different methodology. I don't think there's much difference in the levels and DS surprises me every day with the absolutely amazing progress he makes at school. I think it is astonishing how much teachers contribute. I have really seen an enormous amount of progress over the four years. Children have an enormous capacity to learn.

I don’t agree it’s too hard.

I do think it needs to stretch from most able to students who need support, so more advanced is required at times for some and more help too for others

Also unless you have experienced multiple schools how can you say its one or the other? Its like when I see people say compared to others , exams are not the same so its hard to compare from one country to the next.

This is tricky, there are a wide range of abilities amongst children at any age. Something I've always believed though is that it can be just as damaging to not put enough faith in the abilities of children, because they pick up on that and start to believe it themselves. It's finding a balance between giving them a challenge where they can achieve more than they thought they could and feel proud of it, but not going too far and making them feel miserable and like they are failing.

I remember a friend years ago making a throw away comment about her DD - who was about 6 - and saying she would probably just end up in a run of the mill minimum wage type job when she grew up and be academically very unexceptional, and I just thought how shit it was to have such little faith in your child and to pigeon hole her so young with such low expectations - she was 6, hardy had a chance to prove herself yet. I have no doubt the child will pick up on that and develop the same low expectations for herself as her mother, because if your own mother thinks you'll never amount to anything much then what does that say? If you start off with low expectations of children you might limit their chance to shine. Balance is key.

Depends. It's way too simple for my bright child, and way too hard for my summer born child. With such big class sizes you'll never be able to work at the pace of each child.

It is very far from being advanced!

@QuantumQuality

I think there is a period around 4/6 where the expectations of kids in the U.K. are unreasonable. They’re too young to be forced to try and write, sit down etc. My oldest was at school in another country at that age and they start formal learning at 6 and basically cover in a year what British schools cover in 3, because it’s so much easier to learn to read and write at 6. In upper primary the U.K. curriculum is in no way too challenging.

I'd have to agree with this post. My DD is in Year 1 and some of the stuff they do seems so complicated and also a bit random! But then also ridiculously simple, one task this week was counting to 20! There is definitely room for improvement.

Well, OP, I think you are educationally misinformed.

If we want every child in UK to have choices in adult life then we must give them the very best possible start at primary school, in numeracy, literacy, language and learning skills.

Because that's what other European and Eastern countries are doing.
That's the world your children will be living in when you're gone.

Each person will look at this from their own perspective. Personally I think my DC were not stretched enough most of the way through primary school but I could see that others struggled.

Some teachers are better at differentiating than others and it depends on the resources available.

I would have hated the expectations to have been even lower but how do we then cater for a wide range of ability in each class.
I'm not a teacher so may be coming at this from a naive perspective but I think there is an argument to say that children should be taught in ability levels and not age groups. No idea how this could be managed but would be interested to hear a teachers view.

Not at all, if anything else, it's behind and whilst you are on the subject, the school days far too short.

There also should be a lot more emphasis on outdoor and physical activities. Now if you are wealthy, and can afford to send your children to multiple after-school clubs, it's fine. It's not a great solution though, is it.

Yes, we do need more teachers or TA, who could lead these activities, not add to the day of an existing teacher already paid very little!

Children should start later, or have a few more years of play-based learning but then we need to speed up. The level of foreign languages is also very poor.

but I think there is an argument to say that children should be taught in ability levels and not age groups.

Parents will never accept that, they will be mortally offended if their own child is not in the "top group". It's already unthinkable here to redo a year, there's an uproar if a teacher shares a funny mistake made by one among 30 or more children , parents are too precious in this country!

I don’t think it’s too advanced; I do think there is a lot of stuff that we (certainly I) wasn’t ever taught.

I was never taught any specific grammar, for example. I get what a ‘fronted adverbial’ might be by the examples, but I was never taught that. I was never taught using a number line either.

Two of mine have SEN so have always struggled, but one is bright and doesn’t at all. They all have their particular sticking areas though where may need a little extra help.

Hi Op
Quite interesting Thought Provoking Thread !
Good Post idea Subject !

I think its obviously interesting Compare Uk education to in relation to other Countries around the Globe world !

I also think from our day back in school obviously some things Subjects empthsis change /added on to ,
Other Subjects needed to be added on too are looong overdue or not emphasis enough on them,
Curious what other posters think on this particular subject though ? !

I disagree, the work my year 2 child is given is ridiculously easy and stuff he learnt before school just from life and being inquisitive. My year 4 child
is more challenged but only because they find it hard to focus, when focused the work again is not challenging for them.

The lessons have to be structured to an average child though.

DS loves science and English, is way above where he should be for those, maths, he is really struggling with, I am talking simple timetables struggling.

I personally would prefer a massive overhall of the system and include things like languages for much younger children and for older children, things like budgeting, healthy eating type things I am sure I can think of a few more things.

I wish they'd stop trying to teach kids to label parts of sentences and to write in formulas. I teach language A level and it's not as simple as 'x is a z'. Because once you start on grammar, you need to explain it fully, otherwise you have to start explaining why something 's a verb there but the same word is an adjective there. Kids come to high school able to label, sort of, but not able to write imaginatively or to take a risk. Some have never even written a poem or played around with words.
I want kids to be able to write in coherent, well punctuated sentences. Not overly arsed about handwriting, as long as it's legible.