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.

I'm moving classrooms so although he has seen the room how it is now it will hopefully look very different in September which is part of the problem. He has his own toilet /changing facilities and carers so some things will be constant.

well yes i have a down on schools for not teachign children enough stuff

You can speak for all schools can you? How do you know what they teach?

we have many badly educated young people

I can only think that you read the Daily Mail. We also have many extremely well educated children. People have always written about badly educated young people from Roman times up to today. They always will.

i would have thought even a teacher would believe that to be an unfortunate state of affairs

I am in a position to know that your school is not typical because I have been into many, many schools in 6 different LEAs as a supply teacher and so I know the good work that goes on and the many very bright and talented children. In addition my own 3 have been all through the state comprehensive system and have been able to have all career doors, that they wished to have,open to them. The youngest has just graduated from his first choice university with a 2:1. They haven't suffered from a wind down at the end of term- a time when privately educated DCs would already be on holiday anyway.

you can't really respond but it will be nice to see you try later

I have responded-I dare say that you don't like it-but I can't think of much more to add except to read the posts from Flexy,teacherwith2kids, mrz and others.
My middle DS couldn't cope with change and he certainly needed the transition period.

I think recognising that children are affected by transition is one of the great leaps forward of recent years - it means that we never have children we have to peel off parents at the beginning of the academic year!

I think cynics have to understand that we are actually dealing with little people who really don't know what life is going to be like in 6 weeks time - and 6 weeks to a little person, seems like a lifetime! I am the last person to be fluffy and huggy, but I do see that a well-managed transition results in a class of happy, settled children.

accuracy - it may be that in the past no-one paid any attention to transition from year to year in primary school, but IMHO that was a mistake. At my school, we have lots of transiency, and we know that a child has to feel secure before s/he can learn properly. It has been recognised that children often take about 6 months to settle into a new school. Some of our children only stay for a year or so. Therefore, we have to settle them as quickly as possible, so that they can make optimal academic progress whilst they are with us.

Because of our focus on assimilating children in the school, we are very conscious of the importance of an effective transition to a new class, which, after the long summer break, is like joining a new school for some of the younger children.

One of my pupils has been very clingy for a few weeks even though he has had a transition week with his new teacher and visited his new classroom, seen the toilets, knows where to hang his coat, where he comes in and where he goes at playtime. It came to a head this morning when he sobbed he didn't want to go into Y3 and he had "toothache" and wanted to go home.

I think that you can underestimate how difficult it is for some children. My DS was going over the playground to the junior school with his class remaining the same, and several visits, and yet he was still in tears.
I think it is one thing that is done well now-there was nothing when I was at school.

I agree exotic. I think it was swept under the carpet in the past. Everyone took the attitude ' they'll get over it'. Well, the children probably did get over it - eventually. In the meantime they lost valuable learning time because they were worrying where to put up their coats, when to go to lunch, where to line up for playtime, etc.

You can speak for all schools can you? How do you know what they teach?

why do I need to know about all schools to know that many thousands of children are not being educated well enough?

I see that you deny that many children are poorly educated while we collapse down the education tables of the world

do you think British children are stupider than children from other nations? you must do

I am in a position to know that your school is not typical

you don't know anything about my school

let me tell you about one of them, great teachers, marvellous demographic, very pastoral, children happy, slavishly followed the NC and introduced lovely child centred stuff like massage, all the parents content

mediocre outcomes

With lots of people who cant use punctuation or capital letters.

sorry i am passionate about this subject but a bit laconic about mn though i have finally plonked my fat arse down here after much lurking i can't get excited enough to punctuate

must do better

So what have the mediocre outcomes got to do with the winding down at the end of term, accuracy?

It's the National Curriculum and general low expectations. There is plenty of time to teach most children what they need by age 11 but if it's not used well enough then you get the outcomes we have.

Accuracy, all teachers have to meet challenging performance management targets, which (most likely) include a target for pupil progress. If performance management is being implemented properly, no teacher within the state sector is able to have low expectations of their pupils. Children's targets early in the new year (many are challenging) and we have to answer to the HT and governors if the targets aren't met.

Do you have children at school accuracy? Are you worried about their progress?

that's all very well flexy but tens of thousands are not achieving

should and ought are admirable but let's look at what is

my children are older, i have experienced NC and non NC education and I know which is better tbh, I think things are improving now, particularly since the targets are being reduced and limited to more academic areas

by reduced I don't mean lowered, I mean reduced in number

here's an example

children used to learn their times tables by seven, eightish, now they're considered incapable of learning 12 at all and don't seem to finish 9 till y 6

reading

now there's "no need" for children to have one on one reading with a ta or teacher every day despite the fact that children are leaving school with the literacy of a sun reader

apparently because they read every day doing school work that's enough
well no, plainly it isn't

Accuracy,

Which children are leaving school - and I presume you mean secondary not primary - with the reading age of a Sun reader?

What proportion?

And how does that compare statistically with THE WHOLE COHORT in the past (not just the people you know - remember all those who left school without qualifications at 14 or who went to the many 'special schools' which no longer exist)?

My pupils - year 3 - know all their tables, to 12. Normal state primary, 50% SEN in my current class....

I also don't recognise the picture of school reading that you describe - we do guided reading for every child every week focusing on specific objectives, and the 50% on the SEN register get daily reading every day 1 to 1 plus additional work on whatever is causing the barrier to their progress in reading.

How much time do you spend in schools to see what is really happening?

Accuracyrequired

We begin teaching timetables in Y1 with counting in 2s. By Y4 most children know them all (up to 12x12) and certainly by Y5 - in my experience anyway. When I was at school in the 70s and 80s - we needed to know our tables by Christmas in Y5 (equivalent). So pretty much the same.

Children read 1-2 times a week "officially" for the reading diary but also have daily phonics which involves intense reading and writing for 20-30 minutes a day, often in small groups. We never had this when I was growing up but did read for 2-3 minutes to an adult. There were no TAs when I was at school, it was normally a parent volunteer.

I would like actual facts - you seem to assume that if one school does something they all do it or that all children are the same. A yr one DC who is reading Harry Potter doesn't need to read to someone every day, a 7 yr old who has difficulty will need to read everyday- and probably does.

no i mean primary, and no I don't just read the Daily Mail, the statistics are available

My pupils - year 3 - know all their tables, to 12. Normal state primary, 50% SEN in my current class....

that is fantastic, absolutely marvellous, well done

I feel heartened by stories like that because it shows that things really are changing in some areas and with some teachers

I think in the last two years the emphasis has begun to change but if the stories on this thread are anything to go by, with six weeks a year of non academic activities, or even non learning activities - there's still a long way to go

Exactly, Hula. i would much rather have phonics lessons that really focus on LEARNING to read (not just practising it) for 30+ minutes, plus once or twice a week for every child to have a reading lesson for 30 minutes in a small group with an expert adult...and for every child falling behind to have daily 15 minute reading slots... than to have 2-3 minutes rushed individual 'being heard read'...

I don't think it is 'changing' - I do what is normal practice in my school and has been for as long as anyone can remember...

please don't make me link to stats

but two years ago 115 000 children left primary with the maths or english ability of an 8/9 year old

that sort of thing

I have been teaching too long to mention - tables have always been taught a d children are expected to know them. It isn't 'fantastic' - it is perfectly normal- there is no change.