How would you reform primary education?

[Hobbleouchouch]

I found the secondary education thread really interesting.

As a soon-to-be-primary-school-parent, I would love to know your thoughts on what would make the perfect primary school!

Thanks!

That's a huge amount of assumptions and declarations. Do you have evidence to back it up?

No teachers I know think they are above accountability. They do however recognise that complaints can be malicious and unjustified so want to ensure correct procedures are followed to safeguard children and staff.

Like @Sherrystrull I'd like to see your evidence for that LlamaNoDrama.

I have worked with hundreds of teachers over the decades (starting before OFSTED were invented, when we had HMI) and I've never met a teacher who doesn't think they should be accountable or who think they are above oversight.

What everybody who knows anything about education (incl Early Years and Child minders) knows is that what OFSTED do is the polar opposite of improving educational settings and keeping people safe.

What we need is for someone to get Bridget Phillipson to read this thread.
Or, in truth, just go and meet teachers in schools - or, perhaps more importantly, all the millions of teachers who have left schools.

I'd have classes having qualified teachers only half a day, one teacher has two classes, to do the formal academic teaching.

Then all the other work that schools have to do done by less well paid staff, who are often doing it anyway, but the day is structured so the class has a teacher all day.

Not because I think it's particularly desirable, but because it would save some money and help with the teacher shortage, but actually some "other" staff in schools are really very good, e.g pastoral staff, sports and art coaches, intervention groups.

If this were to happen then we would need to raise the bar in terms of the qualifications TAs have to have before starting the role. In too many schools, TAs are left supporting the neediest pupils or those who have SEN, and yet they only have very little understanding of educational and learning theory.

We put all out new TAs through an apprenticeship (whatever their age and experience). Costs us nothing except their study time and the quality we get at the end of it is really noticeably different to the old ways.

I'm interested in your comment about the jam packed curriculum-are you saying have more free/unstructured time? Or for the teachers to have more flexibility to teach what that particular class needs?

There is too much content to cover-you are always rushing, then moving on to the next thing because there isn’t enough time to cover the huge amount of subject matter in the NC in KS1/2.

This means that things don’t get covered well, and takes the joy out of exploring subjects the children love or don’t understand. Why? Why can’t we just do things properly?!

I also want to have time to sort out playtime disputes and find out why X was crying or why Y seems really quiet today, but I don’t because there is no wriggle room in the timetable-it’s literacy, then phonics, then assembly, then maths, then catch up groups, pre-teaching, interventions-there is literally no give.

I notice that one of the founders of the Exit the classroom, leave teaching and thrive Facebook group has composed a long and excellent letter detailing all that is currently wrong in teaching to send to Bridget Philipson which is worth having a read, if you’re interested,

Better pay for teachers and TAs
Smaller classes
More teachers
Less admin (or more support for teachers for this)
Scrap SATS completely
Start school at 6 years old instead of 4

More SEND funding.

Extensive SEND training to be mandatory in all teacher education pathways.

I'm interested to know what you think teachers should be paid. These are the current rates for classroom teachers with no additional responsibilities e.g. subject or year group leads. They don't seem that bad to me.

@Sherrystrull and @NewName24

See the attached photo from Twitter. I cba to go trawling for Ofsted ones but happened to be able to,e to get this one quickly as it was only a couple of weeks ago.

Why would I bother lying though? There's no benefit for me to make untrue claims about this.

Just about every primary teacher has responsibility for subjects, often multiple ones-this is unpaid. The Ofsted Deep Dive model has caused endless amounts of stress for subject coordinators.

I absolutely agree with this!

Some teachers are bullies. I'd be curious to know how to handle that especially as they behave completely different in front of management.

That being said most teachers are amazing and they put their soul in their jobs

An entrance questionnaire asking the parent whether they tell their child 'no'. If you want to do extreme gentle parenting you can home educate your own entitled brats. Too many parents expect teachers to do so much parenting. Know of parents who have sent their children not potty trained, refuse to do any 'homework' with them because 'they're not teachers' and all sorts. Parental engagement makes a huge difference.

I think we do too much, too young and have really crappy resources to do it with.

I definitely agree with more play based learning for longer. It's really resourse heavy to get this right. Particukar in terms of number if teachers/TAs.

Agree.

Also agree with posters that homework for primary school should be scrapped. 9am to 3pm is long enough for school work. I'd rather my DS had the time to do extracurricular sports and hobbies, or even just have time to play when he comes home. He's too exhausted to start yet more sums and sentences.

I think we do too much, too young and have really crappy resources to do it with.

Completely agree. Overfull curriculum, class sizes too big, paperwork expectations too high, too much testing, Ofsted expectations are insane and the workload expectation on teachers is far too high.

I also think there is too much focus on phonics which doesn’t suit a growing group of children. Phonics is brilliant and effective most, but if you don’t ‘get’ phonics, the solution shouldn’t just be more forced phonics. Lots of children who don’t get phonics can learn to read using sight words-this should be fine to do, not something staff feel they should do in secret.

Curriculum resources should be freely available online (eg a free phonics scheme like Letters and Sounds) not something that individual schools are forced to pay for. Individual school budgets across the country shouldn’t have to be decimated to line the pockets of publishing companies just to provide the basics. Ofsted shouldn’t be tearing schools to bits and putting them into a category just because their reading scheme books (which they can’t afford to replace) has words in that don’t exactly match the phases of their phonics scheme (which they were forced to replace at a cost of hundreds/thousands). How does this help anyone except the publishing companies?!

@LlamaNoDrama

It seems that poster isn't talking about not accepting any complaints but just meaning the correct procedures should be followed, e.g the school and police.

Sweeping statements can be very misleading when enhanced with opinion.

I disgaree. They're clearly stating they don't think the TRA should accept complaints from parents. Not that they should be more careful with how they handle complaints

That's right. As the correct way is first to approach the school.

I don't really see how a Twitter poster saying they wish complaints to be approached in the correct way has been interpreted as not accepting accountability.

I think we do too much, too young and have really crappy resources to do it with.

Exactly this!

I have dc in primary, and older dc who’ve been through the state school system in England and am getting increasingly radical. This is my fantasy:

Rebuild everything that happens in school around what we now know about neuroscience - put physiology first.
Centre the curriculum around movement, nutrition (with fresh food onsite for everyone), green space, a sense of purpose, and building meaningful connections with each other. This would massively improve children’s ability to learn and they’d be lots healthier.
Lots of learning outdoors, free play, creativity and risk-taking to build a sense of confidence, agency and problem-solving.
Play therapists to help address the current mental health crisis while the new curriculum gradually shifts things.
Give teachers autonomy to work out what projects and curricula would work best for their locality and cohort.
Reduce classroom time.
Ditch homework unless it’s independence projects (like those suggested by the Let Grow movement).
Teach children practical skills they’ll need to adapt to a rapidly changing climate.
Put the arts back.
Community-based school projects like veg gardens/school allotments.
Tie maths and science to practical projects.
Parent support projects situated on school campuses to help build community and support families. (Eg welfare rights officers, housing people, repair cafes, etc.)
I think children would do 1000x better by every measure, but I’d ditch testing anyway.

Again, that's not what they've said is it. They didn't say the TRA shouldnt accept complaints from parents until the school process has been completed, they've stated they don't think the tra should accept complaints from parents.

You asked for the evidence it's right there. You arguing they meant something different to what they actually posted isn't washing.