Spoon feeding lessons

[CandOdad]

I am currently on PGCE. Every school I have been in most PPA lessons are just spoon feeding. For example I just observed a lesson of year six reading local landmarks from the board and this was "geography" they then went through a list and line by line wrote in answers as a class.

How is this education?

At least at my ds's school, golden time = happy children. Isn't that what really matters? He hates losing it, so he behaves well. I'm happy, and teachers are happy too, I think.

My kids didn't have golden time in early years, because they had free play most of the time anyway. For them, it started with the move into Y1. They generally do reading, drawing, board games or sometimes some of them put on a performance.

PPA time is music and religious studies from specialist teachers.

My dcs haven't enjoyed golden time since Y2. dc2 has spent his time in front of a computer on his own, like most of the other kids. It has been like this since the strat of Y6.
So yes I have to say, I can't see the point of GT done that way.

I DO think that hand massage done by one child to the other is a good idea! It actually teaches a lot of things and would be more productive than an hour playing an electronic game.
I don't thik dc2 (or dc1) before would have agreed though :)

Can re the PPA and the 'we have to be seen to have done xx' tbh a lot of it is like that. Teaching a foreign language when you can't speak said language is a good example of what should NOT happen and ends up as ticking box exercise.

Examples not evidence 😉

Irvine are you saying he wouldn't behave if there were no Golden Time?

Mrz, he is generally well behaved, but he is easily distracted and a natural chatter box. So, yes, if there was no rule, he may go wild. And he really loves reward system at school, like sitting nicely, etc.

In my experience of golden time 2 schools so i'm not generalising I'm just using my experience it is used for behaviour management but it doesn't work

Child loses golden time on a Monday morning -where is the incentive to behave for the rest of the week?
Golden time after assembly, assembly overruns and all children miss some golden time
Lots of children -especially in year 5&6 complaining that golden time is boring or their friends are in a different class so they have no one to play with and that's before year 6 have their golden time removed from Easter until sats week

Golden Time is one of those school activities-along with free reading-which means completely different things in different schools. Which is why discussions about both on here usually descend into arguments as different posters are talking about different concepts which just happen to have the same name!!

Have to agree with spanieleyes there, as I do on most things - and, by extension, I agree with mrz, who as usual is the voice of reason.

I understand and accept some teachers' explanation of golden time, but dislike it personally.

I take issue with the unnecessary personal attack on mrz - come on, people. Play nice. Mrz gives up her time to give sage advice unrelentingly, to many people and over many years. To call her 'smug' is small minded, mean, and ignorant. Just stop it.

I think I agree with spanieleyes.

The sort of golden time which is essentially an opportunity for off curricular activities and not linked to behaviour management at all, probably does have some benefit.

It's golden time as a behaviour management strategy that I would have an issue with. Especially with younger children and children with behavioural issues.

You'r right, Rafa - and again, as usual.

You're

Thank you, autocorrect, that was a particularly ridiculous intervention, even for you.

That's a totally random autocorrect. Did it think there weren't enough ways to spell 'you're'?

Innit, Rafa! We are having words. And not for the first time, either.

Restricting opportunities for off curricular activities to a hour or half hour at a set time each week?

Sorry Irvine but I think we should do our best to follow the rules without the need for rewards

Mrz, I asked my ds how golden time works, and I don't think it's really working as a behaviour management. He says same children are losing it all the time.

And yes, he needs to learn to do his best without reward, and I think he is getting there, but reward of golden times still works well for 8 year old! His normal slip up is chatting, but seems like he is keeping his mouth shut during lesson, he said he only lost 5 minutes of golden time so far this year.( IF he is telling me the truth!)

Id argue that if they can do it for Golden Time they can choose to do it without a reward/sanction and as your son has noticed some kids just can't. Many children can't remember why they lost Golden Time by the time it comes around so it doesn't change behaviour.

It's not ideal, but better than nothing, which might be the alternative is some schools. It wouldn't be what I would do if I had the choice. It wouldn't necessarily exclude going off curriculum at other times of the week or for whole days at points in the year.

It's not at all unusual for the same children to miss golden time every week. It tends to 'work' for those children that don't really need it. IMO opinion rewards and sanctions need to be linked to the behaviour and fairly instantaneous to be effective for many children. And as others have said, what's the incentive to behave if you've lost all your golden time by Wednesday.

I'm always reminded of the thread with the reception child with a behaviour issue. As usual she'd lost golden time but on the Friday decided that she was going to try her best with her behaviour that day. Which I think she did with some success. And for this she still ended up watching all her friends have golden time while she didn't. I'm sure the adults in the room made the connection between the loss of golden time and the previous behaviour incidents, she didn't. If all of those had been dealt with at the time and everyone had moved on, she could have received nothing but positive reinforcement for the effort that she had put in. Instead she came away with the message there wasn't much point because you get punished anyway.

I didn't realise I would open such a can of worms with these topics. I thinks it's great if they have something to aspire to but I just don't see it happen. Shouldn't it be about earning time rather than a loss of time? Wouldn't this link to the rewarding the expected behaviour that seems to be prompted at all other times?

But with worthwhile activities and not "film club"

I don't really know about golden time. What do children do when they lose it - do they carry on with their work while the others go off and play? And if so, does that make it seem that working is their punishment and therefore a bad thing?

Genuine question as I have no clue how it works. Don't think the DCs ever mentioned it when they were at school.

I just asked my ds. At his school, the children have to sit on the carpet, until their duration of lost time has passed, while others are allowed to play.

Oh I see thank you.

That is my other issue with golden time fuzz. I suspect in some schools it does involve carrying on with school work. Which is a terrible idea.

Surely all golden time as a behaviour management technique teaches them is that it's only worth behaving if golden time is there.

I.e behaving for its own sake has no value.

OP I've also seen some dreadful lessons like you described, so that their (identical) books 'showed' they'd learnt something.