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 :)

Latin is not necessary in state schools. The majority of students don’t go into medicine or languages. In an overstuffed curriculum Latin is not relevant to the majority of state schools. Some kids can’t even pass GCSE, imagine if they had to do Latin😂

25 years a secondary teacher. It is not relevant in todays society, apart from a specialist area. Media studies is much more relevant than Latin.

One thing I don’t think has been mentioned so far and you can’t google, is employment skills. I mean really basic things like being on time, dressing appropriately, don’t be rude to the receptionist etc. I remember doing a careers course at university and a lot of students didn’t get this stuff. Most sixteen year olds would be even less clued up.

I say this after having spent the evening moaning to DH about the summer student we have taken on. She turns up at 9am but then starts to eat her breakfast. She starts work at about 9.30 after watching me juggling a million things for half an hour. When given specific instructions she follows them for one day only. The next day she does something else that she’s been told to avoid but is easier than what she was told to do. Sometimes you have to do it the easier way because something else came up so I can’t say never, but when you have time I’d expect it to be gone the better way. It’s just all really basic and would mean that I’d never give her a perm job when she graduates but she, like many teenagers, just doesn’t have a clue. A bit of careers coaching that covered this stuff at school would be much appreciated!

I don’t think Latin should be compulsory but most state schools don’t offer it at all. It’s not required for medicine but it is useful for anyone who wants to study languages generally and lots of state school children do.

Technically that's what primary school is for(and then extends into secondary and hopefully life). Turn up on time,wear the appropriate uniform, be polite, say please and thank you, look after your things and resources/school property, be polite to all staff etc. I often tell kids I'm not their parent so I won't pick up their stuff off the floor or look for it. We also had a (nearly whole)class that wouldn't say please and thank you to the dinner ladies, that also got sorted pretty sharply.

Not entirely sure Latin would be taught at a good /high enough level to offer all these opportunities people hope for or be the gateway language to others. French, Spanish,Italian etc at a high level would do the job just as well, particularly on the grammar side and would be a lot more familiar to the chidlren.

I couldn't disagree more. One really big problem for state school pupils is the relatively low expectations placed on them. Why shouldn't they at least be given the basics, which would then enable them to decide whether they want to take it any further? Latin is entirely relevant to any pupil who wants to study a modern foreign language, for instance (or, for that matter, English). Taught properly, it fosters skills which go far beyond knowing how to decline 'amare'. Media studies doesn't begin to compare.

@Penfelyn if you work in any front line area of work sign language is far more relevant than French. I'm speaking from experience as a nurse, never have I needed French or Spanish to communicate effectively...sign though? Loads. And I would have loved to learn sign in school.

www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-more-students-to-learn-ancient-and-modern-languages.

I learnt Latin at my state school up to year 9. Just checked - it's still what they do and they offer it at GCSE and IB too.

My niece starts a Latin A-level at her state school in September.

I taught at one of the top 25 state schools in the U.K.. Leafy suburb, Ofsted outstanding. Aspirations were extremely high thank you.

Media Studues is more relevant today as we live in a digital world, full of communication and …well… media.

And the parents at my school were more into. Art/Drama/Music than other subjects.

^^ 30 years on from leaving school, this was by far the most useful thing I learnt (voluntarily alongside doing A levels)

And also not that many go onto to study languages A level. Just one small class for each language was normal at the school l taught in. This is in a 6th form of 270

Typing. Can't believe it's taught already given all the interactions with a keyboard we have nowadays.

Don't they teach typing? My 11 year old has been learning it this year. Seems quite likely they would teach it elsewhere too.

I would like schools to offer children more opportunity to do project work in which they get some choice, instead of teacher-led and instructive task and homework that last 30 minutes to an hour.

Nothing, primary teachers already struggling to cover 13 subjects. Please don’t ask us to to teach anything else when we are barely getting children to read enough. Ridiculous.

I'd like PE to be more about finding a form of exercise that you enjoy, so you'll be more likely to carry it on when you leave. Forcing children to do rugby, cross country running or netball when they absolutely hate it just puts them off exercise for life.

Quite a lot of this stuff is stuff that should be taught by the parents though. It isn’t cool to demand that schools become responsible for absolutely everything that a young adult might need to know.

I would like it if all children had the chance to study Latin but I understand that it isn’t always easy to get Classics teachers.

I think comedians should visit schools and teach everyone how to have a sense of humour 🤣 to see the bright side of life 🧐.

The kids are comedy enough. They used to make me cry with laughing when l was a teacher.

A lot of the skills mentioned could be included as part of the curriculum in many existing subjects, if we weren’t so hidebound by the academically-leaning National Curriculum.

For instance, a good primary school teacher will see the value in teaching times tables by way of 10p, 5p and 2p coins; you can then advance to bases by way of hours, minutes and seconds (and if you really want to stretch the brightest year 6’s on Victorian day you can give them some old money to play with. 😯😂 ) There’s no reason secondary maths shouldn’t include something on compound interest and some basic finance lessons.

Likewise, English lessons could include writing a decent CV and covering letter (more useful than essays on fox hunting), Drama can have some interview role plays, History always has included some level of critical thinking…you get the idea.

Networking, how to talk to senior people at work, framing your 'elevator pitch' and introducing yourself. Email etiquette (so many of our students treat it like Twitter or WhatsApp).

I remember learning about compound interest in maths in year 10 or 11, surely they wouldn't have dropped it from the curriculum. And we learnt how to write CVs and covering letters in some lesson or other, can't remember which.

@Natsku Compound interest is on the Foundation maths GCSE syllabus.

I am quite pleased that my kids' very average state school is teaching pretty much all of the things mentioned, including Latin, although that is an optional club rather than a compulsory subject.
Selfishly, I would most like my kids to learn things I can't easily teach them, so I am happy with a broad curriculum of academic subjects for the most part. I can teach them to cook (although they do do that at school), about money and I can even teach them telephone skills if they need that too!
What I would really like is more sport, more diverse sports and more team sports for all levels. PE seems to fall by the wayside a bit as kids get older so I would really like options for all kids to do exercise they enjoy whether they excel at sports or not.
I am also thinking that just because things are taught at school doesn't mean the kids will learn it or remember it. Or even act on it. So you could teach all sorts of things that parents/adults think are important but the kids won't remember a month later. So while BSL is a great thing to learn, how many people will remember much about it ten years later if they don't use it?
So I think that just because an adult doesn't know something or does not know how to do something, that does not mean that they were not taught it at school.