How (if at all) has your views towards primary education/school changed?

[LucyLastik]

Full disclosure: I am a primary school teacher but I am interested to hear if your views have changed about primary education since the lockdown,

I have a Dd whose GCSEs were cancelled, a DS in year 7 and aDD in year 5 and my feelings towards their education has changed somewhat.

I'm interested to hear different thoughts.

I agree textbooks make a big difference.
When pupils are in school doing exam courses, a textbook is a big benefit through the course and when revising. A revision guide is useful too. Hard copies are always more usable than electronic.

And for home learning, textbooks good too....not all the time, every lesson, but now and again. Doing some work in their ex book instead of online is a different way of working and it’s not good to lose the skill of speed and stamina for writing at length.

I know private schools sent students home with textbooks, spare exercise books and regularly posted packs of hard copies of resources, where a hard resource would work better than electronic. Teachers could buy new textbooks and post them out too. It’s the difference in resolving isn’t it.

For parents with secondary students in state schools, spending two or Tyree hundred pounds on textbooks and revision guides can make a big difference. Realise lots of families can’t afford this but some can and it can make a big difference.

Bingo! @Grasspigeons. My DS is strange, very bright. His vocabulary is way above his peers. 2 years ahead in maths. He enjoys learning, learning for learning sake. He would prefer his science to be just about large animals of prey or space. He enjoys world history and geography but these are things he isn't allowed to know at his age. He doesn't enjoy running around, because his two left feet won't allow him. He isn't a loner, infact he is popular with both children and adults, but he prefers his own company. He struggled in the state system and he still struggles at a private school. The state school was death by worksheets and the private school is not much better really. I remember being told to always write things down because that's how you remember them, so I always carry a notebook. But there isn't much of that now in schools it seems. There is some working out, I suppose. But what we used to copy from the board is now in worksheets/workbooks with short answers required. Although there are some fab topics which sometimes require deep research. I have never seen him happier since we've been on lockdown. We developed a homeschool curriculum which both DC love. He does his school lessons but because there is no commute, he now has a lot more time for his other passions. I have a lot more respect for him as I realise he is simply tolerating school. That he is still so well behaved even though he must be bored out of his mind, I've had to acknowledge. I really wish there was a school for him where they would let him learn based on his ability and not his age. We will see what his new school brings.

I was vaguely interested in the concept of home schooling before. We weren't planning on it but it was a vague back up plan if we were unhappy with the school allocated for Reception. Yet when they offered us a nursery place again at the beginning of the month we took it straight away. I imagine home schooling would be different if you could go out more, but I have decided it's not for us.

I was always anti term time holidays. I am less bothered now, certainly at infant age. My DD learns quite quickly and I don't think missing say a week a year will matter that much. I probably still won't do it, but definitely more open to it.

@ThinkAboutItTomorrow exactly! This has really shown up how catastrophic the move away from LEAs has been for primary education. It’s been a woeful response from many schools, I’m not at all teacher bashing (don’t send flowers) but definitely bashing gov education policy over the past decade!

I'm a primary school teacher with a child in primary school too.

We (my school) have provided loads more learning opportunities than my child's school did - 3 videos a day, no worksheets (assumed children only had 4g on a mobile phone and a pencil, and we provided a workbook to be collected), newsletters, class book read to them and so on, but we've done very little in terms of feedback because we didn't have things set up for that until recently (like, 2 weeks ago). It's been VERY hard work, I've worked long hours and it feels as if I've been shouting into the void. Any parent I've phoned hasn't really wanted to speak to me.

Child's school had Google Classroom. One video the whole time, of all the teachers doing a dance thing, so nothing for learning. Direction towards White Rose and BBC Bitesize, but that was all. Not sure what they were doing with the rest of their time. They responded to any work put up on GC over about a week (3 different teachers), and my child was really excited to see the dance video.

Seeing this difference and reading lots of different experiences on here, it's made me realise that there are HUGE discrepancies in school provision. Not just this online stuff, but everything. It's partly about money, but also massively about individual teachers and their drive for whatever drives them. In my school we'd never have done videos had I not got on the case and learned how to do it the first weekend. We've done a newsletter that I'd not have thought of either, but someone else is running.

Heads really know their cohorts/communities too - those that don't will have struggled in this. I feel bad for new heads.

Also, MATs are good for children I think, but crap for teachers.

Also, MATs are good for children I think, but crap for teachers.

I get this impression too. As a teacher I always avoided working for a MAT, but my dd's school turned into one between getting her reception place and her starting there. So I was kind of stuck with it.

Her school have been brilliant during this. Work set via Google classroom, and two other websites. Plus some physical stuff sent home at the beginning. Videos of her teacher reading stories have started going up over the last few weeks, and there's been weekly award assembly videos where her teacher gives three kids a certificate for an excellent piece of work that week. The headteacher has been doing a weekly assembly every Friday since week 1. We haven't had any calls but I don't mind that. The whole approach to getting kids back in seems to have been driven by a 'what can we do' attitude. They've got key workers' children in from all year groups, plus nursery, reception, 1s and 6s. DD is back in now and loving it, they have done a brilliant job getting them back in and into the new routines without scaring the kids - all of dd's bubble practically skip in to the classroom in the morning, they are so keen. The staff must have been working their arses off this whole time. The head teacher of dd's school is also head of the trust so I would imagine it's been a similar story in the other primaries and the secondary.

When I read on here how little some schools have been doing I'm shocked. I can't help wondering if the fact that dd's school is a MAT and therefore doesn't have to recognise the unions is part of it. I'm saddened if that's the case. I was always a union member and thought they were really important, but they seem to have been so obstructive during this.

I have learned that our state primary does not seem to have the time / resources to assess and cater for the children's individual abilities. My children's teachers greatly overestimated my daughter's progress and underestimated my son's, and I'm just glad that I picked up the issues where my daughter is lacking whilst homeschooling. I have also come to the conclusion that some teachers at our school put their own needs first.

We got forced out of the state system, into the private system (sin is severely dyslexic). I’ve always grudgingly paid the fees.
However, looking on what our local state schools have done (absolutely nothing - they encouraged parents to treat the time as a holiday, not even an occasional twinkl worksheet provided), I’m suddenly very glad we are at an independent school. I quite happily paid the fees as my son had an education, social interaction and structure in his day while I work.
Hopefully now, that many parents see just how financially starved the state school system is, something will change

I can't help wondering if the fact that dd's school is a MAT and therefore doesn't have to recognise the unions is part of it. I'm saddened if that's the case. I was always a union member and thought they were really important, but they seem to have been so obstructive during this.

No they weren't. Schools have gone back according to gov guidance. Unions had no teeth at all.

No they weren't. Schools have gone back according to gov guidance. Unions had no teeth at all.

Sorry, I wasn't clear - I meant more in terms of setting up online learning, providing feedback on work, that side of things, rather than the actual return to school.

It's made me sceptical about the national curriculum. One child has been set White Rose Maths and Oak Academy. Particularly the English seems very unimaginative and reductive. Too much emphasis on grammatical structures rather than creativity. Learning objectives and techniques rather than enjoying the story.

Grapefruits the new national curriculum and the new GCSEs have destroyed English. It is a horrible subject to teach (I was secondary English for twelve years) and to learn. It was one of the reasons I left teaching.

Blame Michael Gove.

Particularly the English seems very unimaginative and reductive. Too much emphasis on grammatical structures rather than creativity. Learning objectives and techniques rather than enjoying the story.

And follow the author Michael Rosen.

It's been interesting. It's reminded me that like any workplace, some staff go over and above whilst others do the bare minimum to get by, there has been a stark contrast between my DC's two teachers at the same primary.

Its also opened my eyes to the absolute shambles that the department of education must be. I had not realised at all that school have little authority to make their own decisions regarding what to do and the lack of a decision/communication/any sort of plan about what to do a few weeks ago was astonishing!

You could say it's been, well, an education!

Teacher and parent. I’m very glad I moved my y4 dc to an independent school last year. DC has had full timetable of lessons and loads of contact from teachers. friends at old school have had one maths and one English lesson a week. I’m impressed with how well most children at my independent school have coped, we won’t need to go through the work again. I’ve learnt how important school is, and how much dc has missed it, especially team sports. I would never want to homeschool!

I’ve always thought textbooks in secondary were a good thing and I think that even more now. All the evidence shows that learning from paper is better than screen and imo lower ability children are double penalised by having to revise from their (less good) exercise books and screens. I wouldn’t want to ‘teach from the book’ but they are such a valuable structure and support, useful for catching up missed lessons and revision. My classes enjoyed the break from screen work - read page in book, do questions. Most chose to write in their books and send a photo for marking rather than typing answers when given the choice.
Personally, I can remember most of my old text books - 25 years on. I don’t think people will remember powerpoints in 25 years.