Aibu to ask you what you feel primary schools are lacking in for your children?

[Inmyforties1980]

Hello 👋 🤗

So I'm a primary school teacher and yes I hate it but it's what I've done for almost a decade. I've been doing supply for at least 5 years.

So what I want to know is what you feel your child school lacks- education wise. What would make your daily lives run more smoothly?

If you home school primary aged children, what has proven very difficult either for you or your child?

I'm looking to create a digital course/product to help parents help their children.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

What do you mean ‘lacks education wise’? I’d like my children to do more DT.

I home educate. What most people are longing for are cheap opportunities to use expensive facilities 😂which understandably is a tall order. Rarely something pops up and we are all over it! Woodworking, sewing classes, engine repair, science labs, cookery lessons, all that sort of thing.

PE-style group games and bands/orchestras/choirs are also popular. We are now lucky enough to have all of those in my area, but many areas don’t have them. Oh, and cheap venues for youth clubs.

A rounded curriculum, with importance and skill placed on sport and the arts.

Currently far too easy to sideline both.

Well currently the thing my DDs school is lacking in is a fully functioning roof but unfortunately teachers can't do anything about that!

I would like more varied sports. More than just one term of swimming, sports exploring different skills not just running and ball skills... yoga perhaps, or introduction to martial arts.
And a proper foreign language education

DD’s (non UK) primary is generally great, I would love for her to do a day at forest camp or something like that though.

Holistic teaching - body, mind and soul.

Focus on sports and the Arts, and moral and spiritual guidance. This is lacking nationwide!

Less screen-based learning

What my children’s school is lacking?

Qualified, unstressed, happy adults with proper time available for the children. The lack of money for TAs has decimated all the nurture groups, intervention groups for maths, hearing readers etc.

Proper alternatives and special school places for children for whom mainstream education isn’t working.

Glue sticks

Agree with this!

More sports and arts opportunities. Smaller class sizes so teachers can tailor their teaching to the children more. Wrap around care, For after school clubs, they should be enrichment opportunities, not just childcare.

Not sure how a digital product can help a child, unless you mean running a code club as part of the enrichment after school.

Smaller class sizes, a TA in every class (at least until juniors and ideally all through), more breaks, continue a play based curriculum for year1 and maybe even year 2. Quiet areas SEN children can go, more art and music. Real stretch learning for the more able, not just do more of the same.
Admittedly I might be asking for a moon on a stick here as my daughter falls in that awkward gap of unable to cope with large mainstream classes but too bright for special school, but feel the above would help everyone.

My kid's school is what I looked for, and feel unbelievably lucky to find.

• Sensible approach to SEN, lots of nurture, break out/quiet spaces, intervention groups and retaining high expectations. They're so kind and invested in the kids.

• crazy levels of enrichment. We moved our kids from a school that did very little to a school that does everything. This week they've done flamenco dancing and a guitar workshop, and there's a school wide picnic this afternoon. This term they've done golf, had a science visit, and they do forest school too. There is ALWAYS something going on, and I think exposure like that is so valuable. It stops things being "for other people". Every morning my reception kid says hello/how are you etc in 7 different languages!

• Loads of school clubs too- art, chess, gardening, messy play, sports, languages and music.

I literally have no clue how the kids actually get any academic stuff done, but they do. My eldest is SEN and was failing badly in her first school, but moving her out was the best choice we could have made.

You can see a difference in the staff too, because it's such a fun and thriving school they're fully staffed and people who aren't there for the right reasons move on swiftly.

Play time 😟.

Thank you for all your replies. Seems like a more sports and arts are needed on the curriculum. The school curriculum is so heavily prescribed by the government 😭; and so much emphasis on the core subjects, there's very little room for manoeuvre. We need an education reform that needs to incorporate more outdoor learning. Unfortunately, there's not much I can do on that front but it's always good to hear other parents' views.

I see a lot of schools as a supply teacher and I see the norm of sharing TAs. Never mind a 1-2-1. Not sure whether it's because children are still awaiting their EHCPs or the funds are not enough to allocate.

Yes l agree with less screen based usage but we live in the digital age. I was hoping to create something to bridge the learning gaps of children when they enter Reception based on the curriculum. Some children enter without any fine motor skills and some knowledge how to write their names and alphabet I am hoping an educational digital product can minimise the educational disparity.

What do you think about that?

Thank you for all your replies .

In terms of screen usage, I would love to see coding lessons from a young age. Screens aren’t necessarily bad.

In the context of what you want to offer, I'm very puzzled about why you've referred to home education, of all things.

Though families do home educate in a huge variety of ways and for different reasons, it's quite unusual to follow the government curriculum in respect of pushing reading and writing on four year olds unless the child has expressed great eagerness. In my experience, fine motor skills followed on naturally from gross motor skills: playing, climbing, spinning, swinging.

These "learning gaps" you mention aren't relevant outside a group-instruction model. Kids who aren't at school can just learn whatever suits them at their own pace. They might be learning about bike riding and dinosaurs and money before they learn about the alphabet. It doesn't matter.

I think there could maybe be more emphasis on learning how to engage with other children?

My DD is so concerned with 'so-and-so isn't my best friend any more' (at the tender age of 5) that some days she can't tell me a single other thing that happened. I wish there was a way to help them navigate friendships that would set them up better for those dreaded middle school years.

I really wish my DD's school emphasised having GOOD friends / rather than BEST friends.

A huge (in my experience, unspoken) part of school is learning to be part of society - and if children spent less time in later years stressing about drama they could have been provided the tools to deal with, then they might be able to focus better on the academic/artsy side of things.

Being in a family only provides so much social education- turn-taking, not interrupting etc.

Edited for typo

Sen assessment and support. Partifularly for well achieving and quiet children.

Too much demanding homework- which leaves little time for meaningful family activities.

More Dyslexia training for all staff. Thousands of children are being failed by the system for dyslexia. Forget a waiting list for 2+ years, most children with dyslexic tendancies can't even get on the waiting list due to all the funding going to other neurodiversities. Parents have no choice but to go private at a cost of £500-1000 which is out of reach for a lot of parents.

You get the guff of not needing a diagnosis to get the help in schools, but as most teachers know fuck all about dyslexia it just doesn't happen.

Schools need:
more funding
teachers
qualified people to do intervention work

There's a huge amount lacking in my children's ofsted outstanding school but it's all the enrichment, sports, art, music and play based practical activities. There's nothing a digital course could help us with and nothing I would pay for either since there's a million reading, writing, numbers focused apps, especially for the reception to Y1 age group if that's what you're looking at. I couldn't be more fed up with my child's homework being a Twinkle worksheet of spellings and fill in the gap sentences followed by rote practice of flashcards. I certainly wouldn't pay for a digital course for my kids to do more of the same. I wish there was better quality holiday childcare that focused on filling all these enrichment gaps but I struggle to find it for full days to cover while I'm working rather than short workshops.

DC English primary lacked space, 30 kids jammed into tiny, overly decorative rooms. I found them overwhelming.
Otherwise better basic teaching and not crowd control while they try to cope with kids who shouldn't be in mainstream education.
Ideally more languages and music and sport, but that's irrelevant until basic issues are sorted out.

The dead hand of Ofsted needs to be completely eliminated. Any reform could well bring in some current or future batshittery which has little to do with seeing how well the children are actually progressing.
A lighter touch Schools Inspectorate which made reasonably regular but shorter inspections (yes, more funding needed) but without the dread and the blame culture would do much to help primary schools.
I'd also keep Ofsted well away from childminders and nurseries, on the whole. These could be inspected by health and safety bodies to ensure relevant regulations were being met, that children were happy and cared for and staff had up to date DBS checks. They don't need to assess learning in babies, IMO.

Practical things with problem solving like clay, how to sew