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?

Agree with lots of the others 20 minutes and even a combined 40 minutes is just not enough time.

It would also lead to a huge transition problem between primary school and secondary if they've only ever had 20 minute lessons.

the core of it must be academic education

Why?

It takes 20 mins for some of the kids at my school to just sit down and open their books. Even in y6.

Because we need a workforce?

So a school that excludes kids with autism and AFRID then.

As sure as day follows night..

I think your dream school sounds lovely OP. Sign my kids up please!

Obviously not designed by a teacher - same as those who wrote the National curriculum!

You'd never teach enough for children to actually progress. Parents would soon not be arsed about the quality food and daily mile and would be up in arms about the shit education their child was receiving.

Lunch is the only break for staff in my current school.

My dream primary school is one where there is sufficient funding to pay for all of the staff and resources needed to provide the kind of education and care that I know all school staff desperately want to be able to give the children in the school.

I agree with the sentiment behind your idea (ex teacher here).

Like others have said you’d have to first get rid of Gove’s Victorian National Curriculum though. So much pointless shit for children. Not to mention stressful.

Primary school should be about fostering a love of learning, yes gaining some literary and numeracy skills but also being exposed to music, art, drama, sport, life skills and play. Deep play. And lots of outdoor play. Also Life skills like you mention, basic cooking and cleaning their environment, gardening, small animal care that type of thing. Forest school activities.

Kids also need some downtime! When I was at primary school in the 80s we used to spend hours singing, being read to on the ‘carpet’, playing rounders, drawing, painting, watching television and sewing. Yes we did some maths and a bit of writing and reading but there was no testing, no obsession with assessments and targets and SATs. School was a stress free environment. Now kids are under SO much pressure from 4 years old 😞 We all managed to go onto secondary school, college and uni without any problems. Today the world is OBSESSED with starting them young on the academic route. I blame the government. They want to keep up with the Tiger Economies with no consideration for the fact that we as Brits are different. They are obsessed with STEM subjects to the detriment of creativity. I could go on….

Interesting thoughts.
My daughter's school had "tidy up time" from Nursery class upwards.
Put toys/equipment away. Throw any scraps of paper in the bin (or recycling). Books back on shelves or in trays. All stationary bits rounded up and put in their proper place.
We did that at my primary to be honest - back in the 80s.
I don't think you could go as far as getting the children to clean the toilets etc - because that involves chemicals and cleaning staff have to follow health and safety rules.
20 minute lessons is a bit nuts. In the younger years it's very much free-flow play and educational activities that are on a rotation so one group of children might be doing a counting game (aka maths) in the morning but another group is doing it in the afternoon.
Pretty much every primary school I know has always had reading time so that's there already.
Daily Mile. Meh. My daughter's school did it for a while. Running around the playground in blazer, tie and formal shoes was really ridiculous...so what's your opinion on uniform @LudlowStreet ?
I'd not have one or if I did it would be trackies/leggings/shorts, polo shirt and sweatshirt/hoodie with trainers.

20 minutes per lesson is way too short, but the time the teacher explains what they need to do it would be over. An hour per lesson if far better. I also don't send kids to school to run a mile (can do that at home) feed them (give them food at home) or prepare meals/set tables as they learnt that at home.

Mine are grown now and the standard school day worked just fine except Dd1 wished classrooms were quieter and preferred it sitting in rows (she's autistic and prefers order)

because it’s a school.

I would also have it that if children have packed lunch it shouldn't be a strict as it is now.
If I want to send my child with a jam sandwich, kit kat, bag of wotsits and flavoured water - I should be able to. It's my choice as a parent as to what my child eats and I would rather my child actually DOES eat than refusing food that they don't like and going hungry.

Academics alone won’t create a good workforce. Yes we all need to be able to read and write but we so desperately need nurses, carers, plumbers, joiners, electricians, shop staff, train/bus drivers, fruit pickers, farmers, construction labourers, firefighters, entrepreneurs, paramedics, refuse collectors etc etc. We also need innovators and creatives.

Yes the academic route is right for some people who may want to become doctors or scientists etc but this obsession with academia from age 4 is nuts and I believe damaging to too many children.

Not having to beg for glues!!! Imagine...

8x20 min lessons is 160 mins of class. It could be used variably rather than 20 min slots.

Currently once you take out things like PE / daily mile / you would probably get 2 hours class in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. So 240 mins. When I started teaching we had 20 mins quiet reading after lunch and 20 mins reading to the class at the end of the day so Ops plan would be about 40 mins short. But that time is going on cooking and chores which is also learning. So I'd be happy with this.

But if we're reimagining our "dream school" there's really no reason why it has to be academic at its core.

Academia is not the be all and end all. There's a lot of other ways to develop young minds and a million other productive and functional skills that they can be taught.

Show me a child who wants to eat shredded wheat 😆😆😆 disgusting stuff.

Your daily running around the school - aside from children with disabilities who get to sit on the side lines?

It doesn't sound like your perfect school is too interested in supporting children with additional needs to me at all, actually.

Let's face it - it sounds shite.

Children don't need to be pot washing after lunch.

Things that would be really important to me would be the food, no more feeding our children shit that they have to wofl down because they don't have enough time. Doing a daily mile/20 minute run. As I understand it, this is a British idea and has been show to have great benefits. The 20 minutes when everyone stops to read, including staff. I beleive this is a Turkish idea and hoped to instill reading as a habit. Cleaning the school, I believe this is done in Japan and I think is also about learning and taking responsibility for your enviroment.

@benefitstaxcredithelp most of the jobs you mentioned require more than just be able to read (how fluently and what level of comprehension?)and do some maths.

Everybody needs to be able to read, write, have numeracy skills, basic scientific knowledge and build cultural capital to be successful in whatever career path they follow. ‘Academic’ doesn’t mean you’re going on to do a PhD.

The purpose of schools should be to build that equity, no matter your background, to give everyone the best possible opportunities.

A lot of schools do the daily mile. A lot of schools do the reading part too in various forms. Local secondary has DEAR - drop everything and read.

Manageable class sizes, one-to-one's for all the kids with SEN, enough laptops, actual uninterrupted lunch times for staff, having enough adults in the classroom to be able go to the loo when you need to.......