do you have an opinion on this?

[Lacrimosa]

I am writing an essay on whats gone wrong with Primary education in Britain, I would love it if you would let me know what your thoughts are thanx

Does no one out there think that their childrens education is flawed at school?

has anything gone wrong, I mean is it really worse than it was in the 1970s, or have they cured what was wrong then and created a whole set of new problems?

I personally do not think that they have but I was just wondering what your major gripes were

The problems of the 70's have changed have been replaced with different and worse expectations Back in the 70's there was an expectation that you were a child and that the teacher directed lots of play as well as learning certainly through infants but now days ther is such an expectation for all work and little play From what I see our children are expected to become independent to early. ie carring food in the dining hall when most of us will not let them carry a cold drink around the house etc.

Bit of a hobbie horse of mine want my child to stay children as long as possible

I totaly agree with you mumbee! I was brought up in Italy and I have managed to find a nursery for my daughter that is run with the Emilio Regia approach though I cannot find a school with the same approach

I read an article in Readers Digest recently about how reading and writing skills are harder to master since they stopped teaching kids how to read and write by using phonetics (think thats what the gist of it was!?).
Not sure if thats the case yet since ds is only 16mo.

My boys are 6 and 8 and attend a fantastic (state) primary. The education they are getting is immeasurably superior (IMO) to the one what I got in the 70s.

Mine also getting a fab education. Both of their schools use a mixture of phonics, word and letter recognition, and both are storming ahead. The schools are fair less authoritarian, although respect for the teachers and each other is expected.

I'd agree with other posters - the one thing I do think is wrong is that they seem to be pushed more academically. Remember in Scotland we don't have SATS (do you still have them down there?).

Does teaching vary from country to country in the UK? If so, might be interesting to compare the different systems?

I'd like to see all children coming out of school with some first aid training though I'm not sure of the appropriate age. Think they could do it in juniors as St John Ambulance teaches that young I think

I think that the Wales are piloting the foundation stage until age seven? A bit more like the scandinavian model! Any Welsh mums?

The thing that is wrong is that they have forgotten they are teaching children, so many standards and forms and planning and observing. Time out of classroom for planning so classes are often left with teaching assistants...rant over!!!