School 'winding down' before hols and half terms

[MrsTruper]

My daughter's school seems to do a lot of winding down prior to every holiday and half term i.e. one week before each hol or h/t. In this time they do lots of colouring/"activity village" sheets etc and none of the usual numeracy/literacy classes. This is in addition to the usual mufti/sports/celebrate this and that days, which again are, as my daughter says 'just playing'. My dd says she wants to do more learning.

She has just completed year 2 at (state) school.

Are all schools like this? Is it just the state sector? Does it get less as they get to older primary.

Please do not tell me that "children learn from everything that they do blah blah" as I know that. She does lots of puzzzles, colouring etc at home - I expect her to be TAUGHT at school.

One of my best memories of primary school was taking the tables out under the trees.

i just think it's sad people think children can cope with so little these days

Not sure what you mean, Accuracy.

I mean children can't sit still at the end of term, everything has to be fun or they can't learn anything, they're exhausted by six weeks of fun lessons, learning is really hard and boring for them etc etc

no

i mean school leavers assemblies
a morning lost, plus stress to teachers, time in prep and so on
they're nice but there's no real point, they're just nice
it's learning time lost and when you look at how many children need that time then you can't justify it
it's just sentimental

you leave school, so what, why get them all worked up about what a massive deal it is

used to be just normal assembly, well done, have a lovely summer, good luck

no great stressy waaah

sports days have been made meaningless by schools, they don't prepare the children for the events and it's not about sports it's about I don't know what, faffing about with beanbags and hula hoops

children are less restless when routine is maintained
does that mean being boring and repressive? I think we all know it doesn't

I would hate to think that learning is hard and boring, and very much hope that children have had fun lessons throughout the year that have helped lots of learning take place.

(We did try to keep some structure by doing maths and literacy on Monday and Tuesday mornings. Children had to sit still for these lessons. But they were noticeably louder and more boisterous than normal, which is a sign of their excitement and apprehension.)

that's right, everything has to be fun in a contrived way
nobody seems to imagine that children can simply find learning fun and exciting
it's all got to be done in a metaphorical glitter pen

Leavers' assemblies are great. It makes children reflect on the last important 7 years' of their lives, what is important to them, the friends they've made and the step they are about to make into secondary school. It makes them feel proud of what they've achieved and reminds them of things they enjoyed.

Contrived? How? I really don't know what you mean. Why does an enjoyable lesson have to be contrived?

i've been to a few, I think they over sentimentalise in a rather American way

nothing against Americans but given British children need the extra time to learn actual stuff then I think they just add to the general disruption and lack of routine and mental displacement that all the teachers are talking about

it doesn't have to be contrived - I don't think it does at all

but brief simplistic example: learn these spellings by cutting all the letters out of magazines and putting them together, takes hours, disruptive, leads to chatter and biffing about

why not

learn these spellings

I totally agree. I would think cutting and pasting letters would be a dreadful waste of time as a way to learn how to spell.

However, I think (for example) learning about the Normans by acting out the Battle of Hastings, drawing the setting of a story before writing about it, organising a police investigation of Goldilocks' intrusion into the bears' home... these are ways to help children enjoy learning.

BlimeyI'm only talking about lack of routine in the last couple of weeks of the summer term, not all year!

hurrah! we agree on one thing, actually two as I like the story/drawing/setting also

but these are a waste of time I think

"about the Normans by acting out the Battle of Hastings, organising a police investigation of Goldilocks' intrusion into the bears' home"

most normal primary children don't need help to enjoy learning, they just enjoy learning, I think it underestimates the young child to assume it can't learn without enjoyment aids

also why do primary school children have to write so much stuff " as if it was a newspaper report"?

write the christmas story as if it was a newspaper report
write a newspaper report of the fire of london
write about your holiday in the style of a newspaper report

I think it's all because when the sats are over there's a feeling that there's no point teaching anything because it won't show in the results so the time might as well be used scraping the glue off the walls so the teachers can get a friday flight to alicante

actually I don't think the second part but I do really think the first part

by "it's all" I mean the early winding down before term ends, nto the newspaper report writing

i don't really get why teachers complain that the children are restless and boisterous because of a lack of routine when they created the lack of routine in the first place

it doesn't seem like a very difficult problem to solve

I think you just have a crap school.

I think that you just have to accept that it isn't a very good school, Accuracyrequired, and it can't be used as an example of all primary schools because it isn't. I know because I have been a supply teacher at many.

Accuracyrequired

Is your school in the 1890's?

why do you say my children are at a crap school?

is it because they've done leavers assemblies and asked chidren to write in the style of newspaper reports? do your chidlren's schools not do this?

they didn't

I think i've been the poster that's said least about my personal experiences of schools, so I think you're just saying that because you haven't anything else to say

too little is expected of children

There are leavers assemblies and leavers assemblies - you would have to see it to comment. Newspaper reports need to be used sparingly. Sports days are not all 'facing about with hoop and beanbags'. Learning spellings by cutting up magazines seems a complete waste of time! I can't remember the rest.