British childhood/schooling versus elsewhere in Europe. Is it really so bad?

[Rosacharmosa]

This morning I saw an Instagram post describing a British 5 year olds morning vs a Scandivian childs morning. It said that the British child will have a rushed and stressful experience being pushed out the door at 7am for school, whereas the Scandinavian child will have a slow morning looking at the frost on the grass outside before heading off to forest school in the afternoon.

I only have one European friend (as in still living abroad) with a same age child as me (4-5) and yes her child doesn't go to formal school but she goes to nursery which starts at 8am and finishes at 5pm because my friend and her husband still have a full time job.

The messaging seems to be that British children are locked away inside classrooms studying while their same age European peers are frolicking in the forests all day. For those who were schooled or whose children are schooled abroad, is this really true?

A school day here is only 6 hours with constant school holidays, seems like plenty of time for frolicking in the outdoors yet I constantly read that British children are shut away indoors, writing at desks and consequently have a miserable childhood. I'd love to hear about some of the differences abroad from those who have lived it, in terms of time spent outdoors/independence/attitudes to play vs academics etc.

The reading and writing later thing is really interesting! I can imagine it would really suit some kids (especially boys) to push that back a couple of years, especially if the research shows they catch up to the same level quickly.

My own daughter is in reception and is loving learning to read and write her own stories so waiting until 7 wouldn't have been great for her but all children are so different. It's a shame there aren't different options available to parents within the same countries.

The reading/writing late thing can be downright dangerous.
Privileged children start their first year (age 6) able to read, write, do basic maths (year 1 level about).
Less privileged children often can’t do any if these things.
3 years later decisions on university streams are made. Who do you think will get into this streams? only children from a privileged background, how clever they are is pretty much irrelevant as their starting point is often years beghibd.

British kids out the door at 7am?? We are not even awake by 7am! I don’t know any school in the UK that starts so early! Most school start 8:45-9:00 and finish around 3:00!

As for getting outside, it depends on the parent rather than the country. My kids go out daily, they have after school activities they enjoy they’re certainly not cooped up for days on end!

Constant school holidays? Really?!

Having streaming decisions made after just 3 years of school definitely sounds dangerous! That's not enough time to know if a child is academic or not. Much prefer the system in Finland where it doesn't split until 15/16 years old and the decision is a collaboration between student, teacher and parents - if the student doesn't have the necessary grades to get into academic high school they can do an extra year of comprehensive to get their grades up. And its possible to do both academic and vocational at the same time (double degree) or do vocational after academic (can also do the other way round but its a bit more complicated but you can do academic high school at any point in your life at an adult high school). So there's so many opportunities to change your track.

The reading/writing late thing can be downright dangerous.
Privileged children start their first year (age 6) able to read, write, do basic maths (year 1 level about).
Less privileged children often can’t do any if these things.

Streaming decisions don't start to happen here til grade 7 (age 12) and are not set in stone until year 9 (age 15). And even then, even if a child doesn't get a place in gymnasium (academic focused high school leading to university) they can go to a less academic high school for a year and then transfer, if they are prepared to work hard. So the opportunity is there to go wherever you want, if you are prepared to work hard.

Some kids start school already able to read and write, some don't. Nothing to stop kids who want to learn earlier, the resources are there for them to pick it up at pre-school if they show interest, but no-one pushes it. None of mine were literate when they started, but they all kept up fine in 1st grade, because it is pitched at a level that assumes they don't know yet. The main danger here is that kids who can already read are going to be bored in 1st grade.

We were both raised in England, my husband hated English education, poor grades due to dyslexia and a lack of support. I was ok with English education. Mainly due to my husbands experience he didn't want our kids to go through school in England, he spent some time in Denmark when he was younger and loved it. So we moved to Sweden.

I am happy with their schooling system/education so far though our youngest is still in preschool (more like English nursery really, all play based, no formal teaching, he only did 15 hours a week until January when I requested he do more to help prepare him for school and learn Swedish better).

Our eldest is in 'primary' school, they start the year they are due to turn 6, which is reception year, so they have shared tables and a more formal setting than preschool but still more play based than fully formal. So truly formal schooling starts the year they are due to turn 7, which we are very happy with as we do think formal schooling begins too young in England, our personal opinions.

School days are shorter than in England according to OPs post (we've long forgotten how many hours we attended primary school for), they seem to get a bit longer (maybe half an hour) each year, so in year 1 he started school 8.15 and finished at 1pm, 4.45hrs a day, now he finishes at 1.30 so 5.15hrs a day (except Mondays where he starts at 9 so only does 4.30hrs). He does do after school a few days a week for a couple or hours at a time, but that's through choice to help him with his Swedish.

I was raised in Spain. In primary school, we had a 3 hour lunch break, during which we could go home.
In secondary school, it started earlier but finished at 1pm, and we could leave the school grounds at break time. We also had 3 month long summer holidays. So yes, we did get much more free time outdoors, with thanks to the good weather.