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!

So I didn’t mean a specific lesson for each thing a topic per term to work towards an end goal.. eg if it was budgeting - to plan a weekly budget/meals and 1/2 recipes or how to save to get a deposit with end focus on getting a mortgage; if it was about house and home, how to fix common diy problems or save on electricity etc

(In my head, the party etiquette idea was how to plan a birthday party/who and when to send invites/ what types of activities/inclusive meals and how to socialise with different groups of people. I’m not sure if you were question was meant sarcastically, but I wanted to explain what I meant).

This has progressed greatly since I was at school and makes me very happy 😊

I wasn’t born in this country and my parents were immigrants who had to start from scratch and learn basics for themselves.

i was lucky to attend a private school under a scholarship and have a good job in the NHS. I have an interest in children’s education and I know there will be many children whose parents may also be immigrants or just lack the knowledge to prepare them.. I went to university and many students took their washing back to their families or didn’t know how to boil an egg/mash potatoes when I was there.

I just wanted it to be discussed as an option but it does surprise me that so many of you are against the idea.

I’m not a mother (not for lack of trying) but I have looked after many children- both in my job and for those of my friends and family. I honestly think it would benefit every child to have the option to learn life skills at school, whatever their background.

There are children who won't ge these skills taught at home, but that doesn't mean it should become another job for schools. The curriculum is already rammed without adding extra bits.

Todays kids/teens/early 20s also have more or less anything they need to know available to them on this modern thing called the internet.

They could do a lot of this after gsces as school doesn't until mid July. May need to buy some outside help though if teachers are busy with post exam stuff.

The oeople who do flylady, Kondo, Mrs Hinch, know what they need to do but need "encouragement" to do it. No petition in the world will sort that. Its a hard no from me.

How about we fund social care better so the neglected children and their families are supported better so that parents are responsible for socialising their children and teachers are responsible for educating them.

Sorry but your second paragraph is hilarious.

I’m going to repeat an earlier question, please forgive me if you’ve already answered it, but I can’t see that you have. Children have a fully planned curriculum already, with no gaps. What would you like to drop from that curriculum to make room for this? Or would you like to extend the school day? How would you suggest schools pay for that?

The curriculum is already packed solid. We already struggle to fit it all in and often the enrichment activities get dropped, meaning children are getting less art, craft, sport, food tech, drama, etc as it is.

Life skills should be taught by parents.
Teachers simply don't have the time to do any more.

I get you are coming at it from good intentions OP but to be honest I think you need to look at why some people lack the life skills you are putting forward in your proposal.

It's not always through an absence of knowledge!

Before you start a petition to add to the school curriculum, check what's on the curriculum. As pp have said, finance and budgeting is already taught in PSHE.
Then think about what would need to be removed to add "cleaning a room", and also what might be a good use of lesson time.
Perhaps remove the petition?

Rules around pensions change, employers all give different contributions, even the most switched on off children I expect will find pensions a bit abstract at school. I do think there should be more accessible info for adults though- be it that workplaces have to do x or y to ensure people are clear, or some sort of workshops through libraries or whatever. Other things parents can teach, some children with feckless parents will sadly miss out so I do think there should be support in place for those anyway (I know there isn't but there should be)- so I don't think school is necessarily the best place personally, but as none of the other ways to support people will come to fruition I expect it will be up to schools to magic time and resources out of thin air to deliver it eventually.

Also people need to practice skills (at home). You can have a lesson on budgeting or using a washing machine but if it doesn't get practiced it will likely get forgotten.

Thank you for all your input; I’ve closed the petition as requested.

I think that's wise.

The main thing to teach a young person about pensions is just to get one as early as possible, however painful that might be at the time.

I totally agree with this and am raising money for a Charity that delivers a life skills programme to schools. The link will go live next week.