What do you expect your children to get out of primary school?

[Anice]

I'm not doing any research thesis thing here. I have had a few problems with my DCs school and I am beginning to wonder if I was unrealistic in what i expected school to be. I thought it would be like the primaries I went to in the 1970s but without the corporal punishment and a bigger emphasis on health and safety. Maily I thought it would be about learning the 3Rs plus a bit of other subjects and social interaction in the playground.

What i am getting is that its first and foremost about health and safety issues. I would swear that the head would get much more upset if a child were to eat a bar of chocolate than if they were to leave the school without being able to read and write or do everyday arithmetic. But my Dcs school is not a good one.

What about your DCs school? Does it deliver what you thought it was going to deliver when you enrolled?

a lot more than that!

My children have a great time at school. They work hard, enjoy professional theatre groups, learn to get on with other children and get excited about different subjects.

That's just a typical primary school, isn't it?

The main thing I want them to have is a love of learning. Also an exposure to a variety of different subjects. To be excited by new things and what to find out more.

Oh, and I guess a "basic" knowledge of the 3Rs - probably the expect NC Level 4.

my children are happy enough at their school, although DS2 likes learning so he's a bit bored these last few months as he's spent them revising (he is 7!).
But they do spend a lot of time working towards the school's eco award or skipping competition or doing sponsored things for charity. Its all good but not at the expense of the 3 R's.
Am I being very old fashioned?

I want my children to develop a life long love of learning.

nits.

:)

I look around at children and with a very few notable exceptions, they are all engaged in the minutiae of their lives and eager to get stuck into a lot of good stuff. I expect that to be enjoyed by the teachers and exploited so they can all learn.

I expect my children to not have their time wasted! To be taught how to work together, to be taught self discipline and self reliance, but also to be taught how to work and just not have their time wasted. There is a hell of a lot of potential not being fulfilled or used nationwide (and I am no way a pushy middle class parent, believe me).

I'm really into flexible curricula and pupil-led learning, and I do understand why you can't have this in a free-at-source, national school system, but my god they don't half know how to play to the lowest common denominator sometimes.

Euphemia - I went to Scottish schools too but my children go to school in England., although my nieces and nephews are at school in Scotland.
Obviously things have changed in 40 years but I still have the impression that England is more "experimental" than Scotland and perhaps that is why the difference between what i got and what my children get is huge.

For example there is a whole government drive for ages 4-7 to take their lessons outside in the playground, which to me is bonkers when its so cold from November to February. Is it the same in Scotland?

As to the testing, I wasn't paying any attention to the political or education system when all this was introduced but am I right in thinking that it was developed out of the government's mistrust of teachers that they will teach?

Love of learning, confidence, a reasonable (for them) level of 3Rs, and some very good friends.

So far (Y2 and Nursery) so good