My Dream Primary School

[LudlowStreet]

8am : Breakfast club for those who want it. Food available would be porridge, fruit, Shredded Wheat, milk, water, scrambled eggs, brown toast. No crappy sugar cereals.
9am : Registration.
9.15am : The daily mile. Running/walking a loop around the edge of the school. Doesn’t have to be a mile, just 20 minutes of running, whole school takes part, including staff.
9.40am : First lesson
10am : Second lesson
10.20am : Third lesson
10.40am : Play time
11am : Solo reading/book. All children and staff, have a 20 minute break to read whatever they want/look at a book or magazine
11.20 : Forth lesson
11.40 : Fifth lesson which is children helping set up, and older children helping prepare salads/easy foods for lunch.
12.00 : Lunch. Lunch is proper cooked on site food. No UPF at all and little choice salad always available and fruit, main course and pudding served on a proper plate. Children then help clear and clean up after lunch.
13.30 : Sixth lesson
13.50 : Seventh lesson
14.10 : Play time
14:30 : Eight lesson
14.50 : Story time
15.10 : With help, children clean and tidy the school ready for the next day.
15.30 : On site after school club until 6pm for kids who need it. Kids can just watch TV or do activities or just play. Extra curricular could be hosted on site at this time, such as Scouts, drama clubs, sports etc for those who want it.

Lessons could be combined together into 40 minute slots as needed. Music, drama, art etc would not be neglected. Cleaning of the school and helping cook/set up/clean away lunch could be done by different classes on rotation during the week while other children have ordinary lessons, gardening/basic grounds maintenance could also be done in this slot. There would be no tuck/snacks apart from milk in the morning break and fruit in the afternoon break. Apart from milk, only tap water to drink.
What do people think?

NOTHING will get taught in 20 mins 😂

Oh, and there would be no homework!

Well you combine to longer slots.

20 minutes! Gosh they'll have practically no time to work after they've got their books out and written the date!

See above 😊

My point still stands. The timetable laid out just wouldn't work.

Why not?

In the morning, one hour and 40 mins of education, and one hour 20 mins of education in the afternoon, so 3 hours a day ?
yet some of the children are there from 8 am until 3 30 pm

I am so glad I was not a child there, I would have died of dehydration, I have a milk allergy and I do not drink water.

Is lunch the only break for staff?

You would die of dehydration now too because DD is only allowed water at school.

So….less than 2 and a half hours of actual teaching and learning of curriculum subjects?

Presumably the National curriculum doesn’t exist in this school either, otherwise you have NO CHANCE of fitting everything in 😂

and I did not pay £'000's for my child to clean.

nor as an adult would I ever want to work in a school where I had to participate in the daily mile

Because they are children they need time to learn and to take things in, they need time to practise and apply their learning, they need time to transition from one subject to another.

p.s. who is cleaning the scrambled eggs bowl / pan ?

You would only be able to do this twice in your day. And even 40mins is barely any time.

It’s a lovely idea to have all the extras but at the core of it must be academic education and there’s just not enough time there.

Lots I agree with you on and I’m lucky to work in a great school which does quite a lot of this very well!

Why wouldn't you want your child to help clean the place they spend much of the day?

Also, daily mile, you could just walk.

In Japan it is standard for the children to clean the classroom at the end of the day.

As an aside have you ever taught primary? What do you think you can get done in 20 minutes?

Some good ideas but I'd make lessons 50-60 minutes.

This would only be possible if a great deal of content was hacked out of the National Curriculum. Gove's overstuffed curriculum has really damaged primary schools. I do think that many children would benefit from a slower pace across the day with more opportunities for both activity and quiet time.

Are you a teacher?

I think it sounds pretty good. Rather than saying lesson 1, lesson 2 all 20 mins, if you could just call them teaching time or something then I'm sure everything could be fitted in.

I think it sounds great OP. I wish children got more involved with doing chores at school. I think it would make them feel more invested and less like customers or victims, passively being ‘done to’ all the time. Although it sounds bad, if you give a child responsibility for things (such as keeping the school clean), you help them find their power and their work ethic.