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?

So a special school? That would be separate to this wouldn’t it?

Only if you exclude disabled children.

Bot the dream wouldn’t include them would it?

I wouldn't want my child to be cleaning, because they are there to be educated. Tidying up
After themselves, fine. Cleaning is for the cleaners!

This is beyond ridiculous. Op started an arbitrary, conversational post about what a good primary would look like to her and because she doesn’t caveat everything with inclusion for disabled children you’re all piling on her? Utter madness

If it's a discussion, why aren't we allowed to disagree with her about her perfect school? Weird that you think that asking about how she would be accomodating disabled children is a pile on.

Her idea for her perfect school is reminding me of the book the demon headmaster.

Are you a teacher?

Wrt "come in PE kit" - here, PE kit is kept in school for the entire half term, or people will keep forgetting it on the 2 PE days per week.

I think it sounds pretty perfect LudlowStreet. Completely agree with you about the high quality food, the 1 mile a day run for all children and staff and cleaning/tidying away. I just think the lesson times would need extending to 40 min. I am a teacher.

I didn’t say you weren’t allowed. I said it’s madness that rather than take on the overall message - fresh air, decent food, a little personal responsibility- you’re nit picking about something which is clearly secondary to the core message to make OP feel like some kind of hideous bigot by omission.

This happens on every thread, no matter how well intentioned the OP is, if somebody dares not to caveat for special needs everyone jumps down their throats.

It’s deeply unfair and kills the discussion absolutely needlessly. In fact it comes across as a bit bullying.

You have a really low bar for what you consider bullying.

Thats why I said ‘a bit’.

Nothing I've said is the least bit bullying.

Im sorry if people pointing out casual disablism in hypothetical situations is a problem for you. I'm curious to why you're so upset by people saying "but what about kids with disabilities?"

My dream primary school would have no awards like 'star of the week' or similar.😊

I think parts of it sound good but the daily mile sounds a bit nazi youth, could you not “dream” a bit of variety in there, like a dance class, yoga etc which would be a bit more inclusive.

I agree though that the school would immediately be graded inadequate by Ofsted as they likely simply wouldn’t be getting through the curriculum. Plus the cost of this would probably mean that the school would be forced into an academy or similar as after a couple of terms it would likely be in 200k deficit. State schools at least are run on an absolute shoestring so you’d have to cost all of your plans.

Having the whole class prep lunch and clean might be a bit like herding cats.

Some SEN kids might find this a bit challenging, like the 20 min free reading etc.

Plus when do the teachers get to do lesson prep and grab a drink.

Why?

You can’t commit disablism by casual omission.

Our primary did the daily mile - it's not at all Hitler Youth-y. It is running/ jogging/ walking around the play ground for 20 mins. It's not a measured mile that they are timed over. The whole point is it doesn't need any equipment, no time is wasted getting children changed into PE kits and the doesn't need any special knowledge from the staff unlike yoga lessons etc.

Prepubescent kids jogging for 20 minutes don't end up stinky anymore than they do from playing football at lunch time.

It is inclusive because each child goes at their own pace and covers their own distance. DS did it on crutches for several weeks even though he could have sat out and was far from a 'sporty' kid.

I think you'll find you can.

Daily mile sounds like a great idea, until you look at it from the perspective of a reception child who has just walked a mile or more to get to school. The last thing you want is people bringing their children to school by car so that they're not too tired for the daily mile.

Why?
Oh, because most schools fit broadly into one of three categories:
1/ Star of the week shared out completely evenly: the kids cotton on to this quite quickly.
2/ It's used to reward positive behaviour from kids who don't always show it and so the other kids end up having to applaud the kid who's thumped them twice this week and tripped them up in the playground.
3/ It's used to reward the high-achieving, perky kids and the others feel demoralised because they can't reach those standards.
Between us, we've worked in/attended all of the above types and my kids have been on the right and wrong side of these cultures.
I don't think the positives of these systems outweigh the negatives.
Now, back to the food!

If you think somebody briefly outlining what they think would make a good school without mentioning caveats for children with special needs is ‘disablist’ then you’ll find virtually everything is. This is a casual chat site, not a meeting at the Board of Education.