Teaching life skills to children at school (petition)

[hopeful777]

chng.it/7cBXSdNK

please sign if you agree to petition for change to UK syllabus to teach life skills to children at middle school (things like savings/pensions/first aid/budget/cleaning your room/etiquette for parties etc)

thanks for your support!

Hi there OP,

just to let you know we have moved this to our Petitions board as this is where Mumsnetters can post petitions!

Thanks for sharing this important petition!

What would you propose dropping from the curriculum to fit this in?

I think that's a parent's job. Schools can't do everything but more and more parents seem to expect it.

What spottedzebra said. For everything you propose adding to the curriculum, you need to take something out. What things are you proposing to remove.

Also, why is ‘cleaning your room’ on there? Does that not belong on the parents should parent their children not leave overworked teachers to pick up the pieces of their poor parenting petition?

There is some financial education at secondary school.
Life skills are the responsibility of the parents.
Schools have enough to do without doing basic parenting.
Tidying your room?!!
If parents aren't doing basic parenting then maybe social services need to be involved.

(I think most areas don't have middle schools any more, though of course some do.)

I definitely think food and nutrition need to be back properly.
Not lip service once a year, woodwork and making skills could do with being on full time as well.
money management yes absolutely.
how courts, police and judiciary work government and MPs yep.

not sure on party etiquette or cleaning - and I’ve got issues on both so could have done with the lessons.

Tell me more about this party etiquette lesson though! What sort of party?

I agree with most of your examples, OP, but party etiquette and cleaning your room…..not so much.

We cover First Aid as an Outside Provider topic for Yr 5 and 6, the other stuff slots into PHSE. There are some good resources out there to do with money (and how companies try and part us from it!) and I suppose room cleaning and general thoughtfulness comes under Personal Reaponsibility/Thinking Of Others/ Community, so we already do this. The time is there already on the curriculum.

I would reiterate what others have said about what you would like to have removed from the curriculum in order to put this in. This is a genuine question and not meant to be purposely argumentative, but time in schools os already full.

it may be very well that in order to prioritise these things others are judged as being less essential and removed as being relatively less enriching or useful - but is that a reduced focus on literacy and numeracy; removal of music, art or drama; fewer opportunities for sport or fitness; or is time for everything eroded to the point if lip service?

I think most of these things are the responsibility of parents, I would be uncomfortable with them being taught in schools, particularly at the expense of actual school topics.

Savings, pensions (which is also savings really) and budgeting are maths. I agree perhaps it could be better taught that understanding the maths of these things are very helpful for day-to-day life and future planning.

But Party etiquette and tidying your room - what are you on?

Well I teach a bit of key stage three PSHE and so far this year we've done lessons on UK parliament, saving and budgeting, healthy diets and exercise, how to deal with an emergency, friendships, personal hygiene and mental health.

Also the trouble with teaching it at middle school (y5-8?) is it is too remote from adulthood to seem relevant and it will get forgotten anyway.
Then when you get to GCSE years unless it is examined it will be seen as a doss subject that pupils muck about in.

To be honest, I think the best time would be at 6th form with an optional 'active citizenship' programme with a certificate on completion. If DD's college had one of these with an hour weekly I'd encourage her to attend.

I’d rather have a petition to have it a rule parents have to parents this…. Stop expecting schools to raise your kids

Parents should be doing this. Teachers have enough on their plates

Money, yes. Both economics and e.g. how banks work, mortgages, credit, interest.

Everything else is not school's responsibility.

We do all this in my secondary school, but pensions etc seem like such a far off thing, even in 6th form, I don’t think any of it goes in tbh.

It's the parents responsibilities

Economic education is part of the PSHEE curriculum already.

Parties and cleaning your room are part of your own family values. If you can't do this, send them to Brownies etc.

Thanks for all the replies. I don’t have children but this idea came from an article stating that most pensioners will be relying on the state pension when they retire and not have planned for their future.

I have done very well academically at school and can still recite poetry, prove mathematical formulas and do what I think of as theoretical things. But I feel that school lacked in preparing for practical things so it’s a proposal.

what I’ve suggested as options are just that. Obviously it would need a board to discuss and consider which life skills would be deemed appropriate.

i agree that parents should take responsibility for certain skills- but there isn’t a perfect family unit where this can always be assumed. Lockdown has highlighted the sad cases of neglected and abused children at home so what about those kids? Are they just expected to not know how to save for a house or how to start a business or how to save and invest in their future?

making things like pensions a part of mathematics might be an option- but I really think as a group of skills, it would be worth addressing and starting early. I’m sorry that so many of you find my proposal preposterous. There are many things we study and I’m not saying one thing is more important than another but I do feel passionately that it would be good for kids to be introduced to these things early on

Lol to clarify cleaning rooms/hygiene- the children I’ve met have a varying amount of responsibility and not everyone makes their beds or puts their clothes away/ so I meant general skills in terms of being organised and tidy. If these were all skills parents should teach and everyone should know; then programmes like Marie kondo or Mrs bunch on instagram wouldn’t be so popular currently.

What is assumed or what was passed down the generations in the past hasn’t always made its way to the current generations- is it so bad to want to educate children to plan and prepare, not just memorise and be able to pass an exam?

(Maybe party etiquette was an odd suggestion; but I have seen some awful behaviour by some kids at parties and parents pretending not to see or just allowing it to happen- it was just an idea)

With that list of parents’ jobs, why not just drop them at school when they’re 5 and collect at 18 and be done with it?

@hopeful777
But I feel that school lacked in preparing for practical things so it’s a proposal.

no, that was your parents letting you down, not school

No. Absolutely not. This is a parental task, not a school task.

It's clear you don't have children! Most of those things are on the PSHE syllabus. Adding stuff like tidying rooms and party etiquette I'm afraid makes you sound a bit mad sorry!

Yes some kids behave awfully at parties - those kids also behave awfully in other places so why are you just concerned with parties?