What is a skills based curriculum?

[skewiff]

Our primary school says one of its aims is to make the curriculum more skills based?

What does this mean?

I think times tables are a good example - the children need to learn them by rote so that they can do simple sums in their heads, and then they need to do lots of problems and exercises where they will use the times tables knowledge, and they need to go back and forth lots of times between problems and the rote knowledge until they know what eg 9 x 7 is without chanting 9 x 1, 9 x 2...

I think part of the problem is that when you say 'rote learning' a lot of people will picture a whole class being drilled in the same piece of information at the same time. For example a whole class chanting thier 9 times tables together.

In that period of time you would have a group of children who were aquiring the next piece of knowledge they needed. You would have another group who were practising the skill of not kicking off while the class did something they couldn't access and yet another practising the skill of coping with being bored while the rest of the class learned something they already knew. To spend much time like that would be pretty bad practice.

I'm not saying therefore the principle of children learning key pieces of knowledge by heart should be abandonned, but that it is not as simple as saying 'this week I am going to teach my class their 9s'.

It is also an issue with phonics, which is why many schools run cross-year ability groups for phonics.

obviously you work in a very specialised school but might be interested in www.oecd.org/document/42/0,3746,en_2649_39263231_49477290_1_1_1_1,00.html
OECD study finds countries that stream pupils into ability groups at an early age tend to have lower levels of achievement ... which is obviously what is happening in lots of phonics lessons

I wasn't advocating streaming. Just questioning how schools can justify deliberately spending lots of time delivering teaching that the teacher knows isn't leading to any learning in a significant proportion of the class.

Some of the time it's going to be unavoidable, but surely it should be minimised?

You are right though, I have been out of mainstream for a very long time and am very happy only ever teaching 1-1 or 1-2 or 3. Maybe I have become somewhat unrealistic idealistic in my views.

Just been reading through this thread - all very interesting and some good links - thanks!

Mrz, I agree that streaming is not necessarily the answer, having taught the different streams- worked fantastically well for the higher achievers, but it was like wading through mud for the less able

And equally a "whole-class" approach can meet nobody's needs in the way EBD describes.

Actually, not a lot of rote-learning happens "in" school - it needs to be done every day at home for it to really stick - times tables are practised at home for a test in school, although the children will also be given all sorts of sums and real-life word problems to practise applying the knowledge.

EBD, me too! Though I get to "class teach" too - my class of 6 or 7 chldren of enormously widely differing needs and abilities

bigTillyMint - you see, there's my problem. My DD gets lots of rote-learning homework (times tables and conjugation) but it doesn't stick unless I make her do all sorts of exercises where she practises the skill of applying the knowledge she is acquiring.

I was worried for a while and thought she might be thick, but was reassured when I finally talked to other mothers, all of whom are busy inventing homework exercises for their children in order for "rote" homework to stick

I think lots of schools are so hung up on teaching phonics phases they are streaming very young children in nursery/reception and creating problems. If I recall you also work in an EBD school don't you BTM?

That is an interesting paper though.

A certain amount of early streaming goes on in my DD's school and, although I am not against it, it is quite a blunt instrument. The pupils in the top streams mostly make extraordinary progress compared to all the other streams, so there is much angling by parents to manoeuvre their children into those classes.

Bonsoir, we had the same with our DC. We listened to a lot of times tables CD's in the car, and DS used to read his times table poster before going to sleep at night
At their school they did speed tests on recall (which seemed to be quite motivating for my competitive DC!) - that might be something to try at home?

Yes Mrz - it's a specialised setting, but we are getting quite a few children with major learning/SALT difficulties too, so the spread is truly enormous.We can do proper personalised learning, but it is also clearly obvious how much the less able children get from being taught with the more able - higher expectations plays a part too.

Yes Bonsoir - I am seeing that at DD's school which streamed her year group and led to similar "angling".

Hmm. I just feel it is quite challenging for 7 year olds to have to learn the conjugation of irregular verbs by rote, eg je dis, tu dis, il dis, nous disons, vous dites, ils disent (plus faire, aller, avoir, être) and then to be tested on it next day with a dictation like this:

Elle va chez son amie. Nous faisons un gâteau avec maman. Elles ont trois frères. As-tu aimé le film?

Etc

Yes, the politics at our school are quite something! There is a lot of discrimination covert prejudice against children who are really fluent speakers and readers of English (always by virtue of having an Anglo parent or two) and they get "disadvantaged" so they don't upstage proper French children!

I am alarmed that some teachers are so hung up on the phonics phases in the very early stages they don't get around to teaching the initial 44 phonemes to some children. "They couldn't remember a, b, c so they haven't had the chance to try to learn x,y,z" type situation

But Bonsoir, the secondary French (and Spanish) teaching, in DD's school at least, doesn't seem to involve any conjugasion - it was a revelation to DD when I taught her how to conjugate avoir and etre...... She is a high achiever in MFL. We need those exercises

Yes Mrz, been there, seen that with the least able

I agree that children need to learn conjugation by rote, but while that is a pre-requisite for knowing how to use and spell verbs, it is not sufficient.

No, definitely not! But DD is supposed to be using past and present tense in her "essays" and they haven't even taught them to conjugate. They are just teaching them to jump through hoops IMHO

Oh crikey! Your poor DD. It is quite impossible to learn to write French or Spanish (even for native speakers) without ploughing through conjugation exercises.

Can you get her a tutor?

Mmmm I can help her with the French at least!

I have warned her that I am going to speak to her French teacher in French at Parents Evening - she keeps telling me that her pronounciation is how her teacher said it though she had a native French speaker as her teacher last year, and her Spanish teacher is a native speaker. Maybe that's why she prononuces so many French words with a Spanish accent

I wonder how MFL teachers get any job satisfaction at all...

Camicaze is right when she says that not all primary schools advocate rote learning of tables. I agree that it's possible to teach nearly all children their times tables and I am sure there are teachers doing just that. I think it might help parents more if they knew what their children were learning every couple of weeks. Reinforcement is essential at primary school age and I am sure it's fair to say that even the most amazing teachers can't devote that much attention to each pupil in the class. Foreign parents at my DD's school are surprised children don't have work books as this would give them an idea of how they were doing and which areas they could help with. BTW I am not suggesting children should just have lots of worksheets and sit silently before I get flamed!

I am sorry to hear about your son mrz.

Streaming for young children is not necessary but there is a place for it later on (definitely at secondary level and from the age of about 7 or 8) but a good teacher will make sure that children can move up when needed. Mixed ability teaching really doesn't work once they children are in secondary school.

mrz - at my DD's school they are teaching phonics across years 1 and 2 for spelling purposes. Do you think this is a good strategy?

I'm not sure why you are interested in my opinion magdalene

I can see things have got a little heated mrz and I do apologise. Obviously we have quite different views so perhaps it would be best if I just didn't contribute to any of the threads you are on.

I am not a horrible person, I just don't like to be talked down to. Perhaps that was not your intention but that is the way I have taken things