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Education

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What changes would you make to the national curriculum if you ruled the world.

48 replies

reallytired · 06/12/2011 16:25

I would scrap all homework in reception/ keystage 1 except for reading.

I would allow plenty of play based learning in year 1 and year 2.

I would start children when they were ready rather than an arbitary birth date.

I would allow more flexiblity in the secondary school curriculum. The special school I used to work at had skills groups with mixed age classes. A child was weak at particular area like hand writing or PE or social skills then they could have 5 lessons in their area of weakness a week. I am sure that skill groups could be used to challenge gifted children as well,

OP posts:
tectime · 29/12/2011 00:24

I would leave the school weeks and holidays unchanged. But, I would like to see more traditional rigour brought into each year group, especially in English, Science and Maths. We must bencharmark the educational standards for each year groups with the best educational countries in the world.

Deargdoom · 29/12/2011 00:43

I'd trace of remove every trace of religious instruction and make sex education compulsory along with relationship advice and parenting skills.

tectime · 29/12/2011 01:13

Deagdoom

I do not want to see SexEducation in Primary School. It should be in Year 7, and should focus on procreation. Touchy feely stuff ("relationship advice and parenting skills"), and other left wing trendy stuff should be brushed aside and ignored. Sorry, but I am a social conservative.

As for religion, I take your point. I am an agnostic, but I feel the common morality elements of all religions need to taught to all children - but againb, after Year 7.

Deargdoom · 29/12/2011 12:22

I don't see how advice on relationships and parenting are "touchy-feely" or left wing. We should be looking to other European countries which have much higher standards of living and child well being for inspiration.
It is absurd to advocate the teaching of religious morality, while writing off the idea of preparing children for the most important aspects of adult life.

cinnamonnut · 29/12/2011 13:25

Less of the crap that is "learning to learn."
I get the point, but the way it's done is useless and not right at all.

onceinawhile · 29/12/2011 18:03

Here here cinnamonnut.

At primary school I would love school to focus on teaching children to read and write and do maths.

I am more than happy to do everything else with them as part of being a parent. I don't want them to learn about values, morals and behaviour at school, which includes religious teachings.

onceinawhile · 29/12/2011 18:04

PS Of course I expect my children to behave at school, but I expect them to be going to school with manners and take it as my responsibility to teach them manners if they fail in demonstrating any!!!

racingheart · 29/12/2011 21:56

tectime don't you find it odd that the toughest things we enter into - marriage with a view to lifelong partnership and parenthood are the two things which are almost taboo as teachable subjects? We're supposed to just intuit how to deal with the challenges they raise. I'd have loved some proper teaching on this stuff. Not touchy feely soft option tat but proper examination of what qualities and values help people sustain strong marriages and happy, secure families.

Toddlerone · 30/12/2011 21:49

Remove religion
More foreign languages, including latin
More music

ravenAK · 30/12/2011 21:58

'And getting disenchanted 15 year olds to read Sophocles, Homer and Shakespeare? They are absolutely stark raving MAD! They've got to go!'

Well, Sophocles isn't a bag of laughs, I'll grant you, but I don't have too much difficulty engaging any 15 year old with the Iliad or Romeo & Juliet Grin.

I'd get rid of any crappy BTEC (Work Skills anyone?) that basically consists of cutting'n'pasting a bookful of bollocks, scores the school a few Brownie points & is sold to the kids as 'equivalent to a grade B' when the poor bastard form tutor 'teaching' it (ie. me) knows damn well none of the local FE colleges actually count it as a qualification...

Mominatrix · 31/12/2011 08:48

Change school hours for an earlier start and earlier finish, so 7:45/8:00-2:30+.

Have the age of starting compulsory schooling be 6 and having good quality state funded pre-schools available to all starting age 3.

bradbourne · 31/12/2011 08:58

Have a longer school day at secondary - say until around 5.30pm - but no homework.
Completely agree that ICT as it currently is is a complete waste of time. Leave it to secondary level and then leran about programming, databases, the componenets of a computere and so on.

BuckminsterFullerene · 31/12/2011 09:15

Yes! To Pozzled " Overall I think that children should be taught to ask the questions- active learning, not just sitting there passively waiting to be taught."

I spend my entire life trying to get them to actually engage. If you know how, please cone and demonstrate to my 'consumers'. Really, please!

But I need the holidays, so do the kids. When else can we plan/play/revise? (3 hrs planning/marking/prep time each week for 22 lessons? Hmm)

knitknack · 31/12/2011 09:20

Lots of media studies- enable children to objectively evaluate what they read, see and hear, especially with regards to bias and the agenda of the writer.

HISTORY! In a history teacher and this, right here, is WHAT WE DO!
Interpretation and evaluation are two of our core skills... and yet we're the only country in Europe that allows students to drop history at 13! Please, history is SO much more important than media studies!

BuckminsterFullerene · 31/12/2011 10:01

(we do it in science too knit)

andaPontyinaPearTreeeeee · 31/12/2011 10:23

More practical stuff - budgeting/finance, cooking, sewing, gardening/growing veg, electrics/plumbing/DIY. All the stuff it's hard to teach yourself if your parents don't teach you.

More media savviness - awareness of advertising manipulation, being happy with who you are and what you've got, instead of needing to be a materialist drone.

More about the history/politics of the world and our country - I loved history in primary, but in secondary (pushy grammar) it was all about evaluating sources and hardly any actual learning about important events!

More play-based child led learning at KS1 - we are lucky as DD's school does this :)

Less HW for youngsters and less pressure about the 3 Rs.

More cross curricular approach.

andaPontyinaPearTreeeeee · 31/12/2011 10:25

I agree about ICT, it was patronising nonsense when I was at secondary. It should be much more practical.

BertieBotts · 31/12/2011 10:43

Scrap the whole thing and redesign it from scratch. Focus on skills instead of arbitrary subjects, which you can argue forever about which are important, really, who says that history and geography and RE are more important than media, psychology or sociology? Who says which bits of history (for example) are important enough to be taught? Why are the sciences so important that we have three separate subjects and yet only one technology subject can be taught at a time?

Each subject could then be incorporated into the lessons which teach the skills as an example or exercise on how to implement those skills. I'm talking about things like interpretation and evaluation, bias, objectivity, experimentation, how to use various information sources, modern skills such as the basics of how a computer actually works (not just how to use the programs, they are easy to pick up once you know the basics), how the body works and how to take care of it, including some stuff on mental illness which is not talked about enough, self respect, self esteem could be part of this too, etc. Confidence and how to be your own person, encouragement to follow own interests (especially using the skills you have learnt)

Primary school should be about instilling an interest in learning by introducing exciting and engaging concepts such as experimentation and practical learning, and following a study lead which you have chosen yourself, and then secondary should expand on those, offering more advanced and refined techniques, and exposing pupils to a wide range of directions for them to take their own learning in by covering a large range of "subjects" (as we have now).

Media is just modern history anyway, if you're looking into things like how communication has evolved from the telegraph to the radio to the phone to TV to internet & social media. There is no need to separate these things out, it just causes arguments!

hocuspontas · 31/12/2011 10:46

Drop praying in school. That's a must.
Make Spanish the primary MFL instead of French. Who needs French?

knitknack · 31/12/2011 10:57

ooh Bertie I'd love to teach like that! Let's do it!

tectime · 31/12/2011 18:35

I realised years ago that the NC was substance-light.

I have therefore set up a regime where my children undertake supplementary learning at home with a traditional and rigorous approach to English and Mathematics. As my resources are more interesting and stretching, my DC do not undertake any school homework.

I welcome changes in the NC, as I believe they (the Government) have an intention to provide a robustness that can equal the world's best education systems.

tectime · 31/12/2011 18:54

PS.....to Knitknack

Media Studies should be expunged from the curriculum, as well as PHSE.

Trendy and vacuous subjects that wittingly give thick students the impression that these are worthwhile vocational courses.

BertieBotts · 31/12/2011 23:54

PHSE is't a vocational course with a qualification, it's just about teaching the relationships stuff/drugs awareness/sex education etc. Surely those should stay in schools?

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