What would you like to see taught in schools that currently isn't?

[EllieRosesMammy]

I'd like cooking to be taught, when I was in school it was taught till year 9 and then optional after that. Plus when it was taught we were making something like scones or bread - not something you'd make every day.

I've met so many grown adults who can't cook and waste a fortune on crap and takeaways, I think teaching people basic cooking skills throughout school would help to prepare them for when they move out :)

Definitely more about finances and financial responsibility. Feels like in this day and age, many don't think twice about loans, credit and such, often (sadly) in an attempt to keep up with the Joneses.

I didn't have a clue about mortgages when I bought my first house. So many different terms and acronyms, I felt really stupid!

BSL
Makaton
Firstaid

Personal responsibility for your life and choices.

Yes I like this one!

My mam is terrible with finances so obviously set some bad examples for me growing up. She also has no clue about loans, credit etc so I had no financial advice as a young person. I'm still getting to grips with it all now 😅

Agree with both posts. Cooking and definitely money management, budgeting etc

Also maybe gardening / growing your own food. I haven't got the foggiest and although people tell me it's easy, I just can't get my head around it

Also just basic things like speaking properly on the telephone, etiquette etc. I may sound snobbish but I feel as though standards have fallen immensely lately

Ooh very good answers, I'd love to of been taught all of that in school, such important things to be able to know!

First aid.

Cooking is parents responsibility imo.

Finances 100%. Household budgeting, savings, pensions, loans, mortgages, investments, interest rates.

I left school with no concept of any of that and to be honest only have the loosest grip of it now at near 40. I know some are taught that stuff by their parents but growing up with a single parent without a penny to spare, investments and mortgages were never a topic of conversation.

It is but then what about those kids who's parents barely cook for them? It would be like the blind leading the blind 🤦‍♀️

How to stay mentally well. Maybe some CBT training (basic things, like different ways of thinking), meditation, yoga. How to deal with critism or unkind messages on social media etc. I'm sure if we were taught some basics of how to have a healthy mind there would be much less need for counselling later in life.

On threads like these, I always wonder why people think it is the job of schools to teach life skills like this. I know that some parents are a bit useless but broadly speaking, most children shouod learn this stuff at home.

To me, it is my job as a parent to teach my children the basics of cooking and ensure they're doing it regularly. I prepare food for them every day anyway, so it make sense that I would do that. Same for personal finance. I see it as my job to teach my children about money, credit, bills, pensions etc. Same for basic DIY, how to be healthy, personal hygiene etc.

I want expert teachers to teach my children things like history, science, maths and languages that are outside my field of expertise.

So what would you miss out to fit those things in? I actually did Cookery, dressmaking, budgeting, working out gas and electricity bills, compound interest and elocution in my 1960s Grammar school but I dropped all science after what is now called year 9. I don't think that was a good thing.

Touch-typing.

@glamourousindierockandroll I see your point, but what about where the parents themselves lack those skills to pass on?

In fairness being taught about investments & pensions at school would have done me much more good in real adult life than learning about the Tudors or Picasso.

@glamourousindierockandroll you are not wrong, but do you have any idea how many parents do not understand this?

You would have a shock to the system if you worked in my school, which serves an incredibly disadvantaged area of the UK. Don't assume that all parents can or want to teach their children life skills in the way that you do. It's a vicious circle, where generation upon generation are now being raised with very little in the way of a good role model.

DIY
Healthy Vs unhealthy relationships
Traditional values

Sign language

All those sound way more useful than the dreadful French lessons we had to endure. I can confirm I speak absolutely no French😂 if they're going to force language lessons then surely choose something more practical, like sign language.

I would argue that when people assume that teachers are there to teach these basic life skills, then it seems far less incumbent on the parent to ensure their child has that knowledge and absolves them of responsibility.

It's easy for you to say that now but are you suggesting that a lesson on investments on a wet Tuesday afternoon in Year 9 would have changed your financial affairs forever? I think it's an ineffective way of addressing it.

It's not the schools job I just think a lot of people have parents who don't teach them this stuff, and if they're going to be at school they might as well learn something that'll benefit them in day to day life!

I can confirm I remember nothing taught in History, because it was boring and 15 year old me had no interest in learning about the First World War 😅

I learned French too and, although I did my O Level in 1971, I can still get by if I go to France. It was mainly science I was lacking.

Not everything is a school's responsibility- a lot can be learned at home - if it is really important to you talk to your children and show them - there just isn't time is an already crammed curriculum

How to recognize abuse - financial and emotional as well as physical.

I absolutely do understand these issues, and you have no idea of where I work and the families I have supported, but I don't think that putting all of these things on the curriculum is a very good way of ensuring a good grasp of these skills.

I've taught PSHE lessons on and off over the years. The scope is so incredibly broad that everything is touched on relatively briefly. They're good as a supplementary thing, but on their own they're not enough, and I certainly wouldn't remove other learning to make way for more of it.

Yeah the science thing is a shame! Is that because they didn't teach it to girls or was it everyone? My mam really wanted to do woodwork and metal work in school but got told it was a boys class and she couldn't do it, and was instead forced to do needle work and hated it 😅