Primary school curriculum asking too much of children

[Ipsos]

Hi,

I wondered if I might ask what others think of the pace of work in the primary school curriculum in England the Wales?

My son has been struggling at school and I went to talk to the senco. I said I felt that they were asking too much of ds.

The senco agrees and says that she doesn't know any teacher who thinks that the current fast paced learning is healthy or appropriate for little kids of their age. She says people are always talking about mental health problems in young children as if it was some kind of mystery where it comes from, when in fact it's obvious that it's caused by the school system.

She said there is little that the school can do to shield him from this as they have to meet targets or they will be marked down in their ofsted assessment.

I feel really sad for ds that he is being put through this in his early years, which should be a time of free play and freedom to think and develop naturally.

I wondered if anyone might have ideas on how to solve this problem? If people generally agree that the curriculum is too fast paced, could we perhaps start a petition or something?

Thanks!

I have two able DC. The new curriculum is easy enough for them. That said, it would be fine from my perspective, if children played till a later age and only started the serious "learning" at 6 or 7. I think by year 6 they would be in the same place anyway. What they've had is the worst of all worlds. They didn't get to run around and play, and when they did have to sit still and learn, it was slow and boring. The new curriculum won't be a panacea for them either. It will still be easy, and the teacher will have less time for enrichment stuff that tends to be good for all levels because she will be drilling the middle and the bottom like mad.

I appreciate that setting can be bad for the bottom, but moving everyone in lock step is bad for the top. It can perversely make able children seem like a "problem."

I recommend reading Michael Rosen's blog here: michaelrosenblog.blogspot.co.uk/ or his facebook posts on the madness that is the SPaG tests. Fronted adverbials, anyone? Exclamation marks?!!!

Agree with a PP about the need for a petition. It is truly appalling what this govt. is doing to education.

I recommend taking Michael Rosen with a huge pinch of salt ...sensationalism isn't fact but makes more headlines.

I have the opposite problem and it is causing us major problems at the minute. He has just started refusing to go to phonics as its boring and he knows all the sounds. Maths they are doing things like doubling, halving and number bonds to 10 (year one) which he picked up no problems first time round in reception, maths used to be set on ability groups but now it's just in classes. its escalated to the point where ds is having major meltdowns at school most days and school are having to provide one to one support. He is being assessed for asd so that's part of it but if he could just be pushed on abit and given some more stimulating work I think that would help. I do very little extra work, other than the homework and reading, at home as this is only going to mean him getting border later on

There isn't any reason why he can't be extended.

He is abit but I'm not sure if it's enough especially in maths. Anyway things have reached crisis point so Im hoping he'll get a bit more with his 1 to 1 which is short term but will get us through to Easter I hope then I have paediatrician appointment so will see what they say

On the contrary, mrz, Rosen understates the problem - and I say that as a linguist!

The content of the SPaG tests simply cannot be defended.

They are at best an atrocious waste of class time and at worst deliberate attempt to ruin the writing skills and enjoyment in reading and writing of a generation of state-schooled young people (needless to say, no private schools are mad enough to put their pupils through this travesty).

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It also seems reasonable that all children make progress. I do not see it as an obsession. The problem is that the bar for making "good" or "expected" progress is higher than before. This was always going to cause problems to children who are "below expected" progress, possibly SEND and PP children, and their schools."

I think that the expectation that pupil premium kids will be below expected is child abuse. Most kids on pupil premium have average intelligence and some of them (shock! horror!) are brighter than the rich kids. In the past academic atainment has had more to do with Daddy's ablity to buy a house in the catchment of an outstanding state school than anything else.

"They are at best an atrocious waste of class time and at worst deliberate attempt to ruin the writing skills and enjoyment in reading and writing of a generation of state-schooled young people (needless to say, no private schools are mad enough to put their pupils through this travesty)."

My year 2 daughter and many of her classmates love writing. The emphasis on phonics has given these children to the tools to express themselves. At home she writes her own stories for fun. (Showing off emoticon!!! Dd got 24/25 on a practice year 1 SPaG test)

I have to admit I have not seen the key stage 2 SPaG test.

Who are you quoting, ReallyTired? (Funny we're both tired!)

And are you sure PP refers to pupil premium? Rather than say, kids on P scales?

It's far too much pressure. My 8 year old was in tears last night because she has to write with cohesive conjunctions in an argument about whether the rainforest should be cut down. She's going to the toilet to avoid being in class.

I talked with her about the rainforest and she had great ideas. But then she said 'but mum, I have to use fronted adverbials and I can't even remember what those are!"

I'd rather she was learning to love writing than knowing the precise terminology. Who ever needs to declare that a passage has fronted adverbials?

The new SPaG tests are a farce - quite 1984 in their attempts to define what language may be allowed to mean and how it may be allowed to be used.

A child who claims a sentence is an exclamation will fail that question - and potentially be labelled for life as having failed to meet the expected standards for their age - if the sentence they designate does not begin with the words What or How. So a child who claimed the sentence 'Oh no!' or 'Fire!' was an exclamation would have their answer marked wrong. That is clearly bananas.

He's another example. Someone, somewhere, has come across the phrase 'fronted adverbials' and liked it so much that they are determined that not only will all children at primary school be required to identify them (in Year 4, ie aged 8 or 9, according to the National Curriculum), but that their use arbitrarily improves a piece of writing, no matter what it is or what the text is intended to say. (Do you actually know what a fronted adverbial is? Do most educated adults? Have we ever needed to know this?)

This displays such a poor understanding of English, of linguistics, of the process of writing, of pedagogy, it makes me want to weep.

Our poor children.

lougle - tell your dd she's brilliant and tell her to tell her teachers politely to stick their fronted adverbials up their posteriors. Which is what I've told my 9-year-old DS, more or less. Who now 'hates' English as a result of these changes to the curriculum.

On mumsnet pp can stand for previous poster. I assume that bojorojo wasn't referring to fernie who appears to have excellent literacy skills.

My impression is the majority of dd's class are coping quite happily with new curriculum. There are problems with slightly older children who have had most of their primary education on the older curriculum and changing to the new curriculum has left them with big holes.

I think we need to be careful about labelling children with SEN who don't have any clear medical issue. Is there any unfair predujice with diagnosis of SEN. Ie. the middle class kid who cannot read is deemed dyslexic, but the kid off the rough council estate is considered to be low ablity. In particular children with dyslexia have been the victims of low expectations in the past. As a country we need to become better at identifying children with dyslexia and supporting them.

I am more concerned about the over prescriptiveness of the EBac. I am in favour of children doing rigorous GCSEs, but why does the MFL have to be a western european? Why not offer Urdu or Polish or BSL as a GCSE within the Ebac? Why does Religous edcuation not count as a humanity? Why make every child in the land do GCSE Geography or History?

Phonics are great, and I agree they have given my yr1 daughter a great tool to be independent in her reading and writing. The yr 1 phonics test on the other hand is an utterly pointless exercise.
They have very little to do with the SPag curriculum however which is a farce.
Do a search online for yr2 or 6 assessment exemplifcation material. Look at some of the ridiculous stuff they're expected to know.
Being able to name all the bits of grammar doesn't make you any better at using them.
I would say the same goes for being able to name a split digraph. It doesn't make you better at reading them.

The year 1 phonics test has done a lot to raise the standards of phonics teaching. Before the phonics test the teaching of phonics was pretty shit in much of the Uk. The test also acts as a cheap way to screen for children who might have dyslexia. If a bright child fails the test then it should ring alarm bells in the school. Often bright dyslexic children get by in the early years with strageries that fall apart at secondary or even university.

What is annoying is that every child in year 1 has to take the test in the same week. I would rather that a child took the test when they are ready than be set up to fail. A very able child might be ready to take the test at the end of reception, where as some children might need more time and be ready to take the test in the autumn term of year 2. A child with major learning difficulties might be ready to pass the phonics test in year 6.

I would like there to be a second phonics test to show that a child needs no more phonics teaching as they have mastered all the complex phonics.

I might have agreed with you about the yr1 phonics check an couple of years ago. It's turned out to be very necessary to ensure children develop the skills they need to help them read and write.

It might have been nice if it hadn't been needed.

A slightly simpler one at the start of year 1, then a more complex one in yr 2 or 3 might be an option, reallytired

I agree, the amount they learn at such a young age now is huge! My 5-year-old comes home telling me things I remember learning in middle school, or things I don't even know! They seem to cram so much into one day as well. He seems to be coping with it but is generally exhausted by the end of every half term. I have no qualms about taking him out for an odd day if he really is shattered because the pressure on kids today is ridiculous, we took him out a day early at February half term and afterwards were sent home a pile of work they'd be given to do during the holidays! Safe to say we didn't do it, holidays should be just that and I'm pretty sure he got more out of learning about Canarian culture and traditions, picking up some basic Spanish, swimming every day and making new friends than he would from finding split digraphs in a huge list of words. OP, I think in your case your best option would be to home ed but obviously it depends on whether you are in a position to do so. The government are intent on this 'schoolification' of children from an early age unfortunately :(

@ReallyTired -

Do you know what a fronted adverbial is? Do you usually use them consciously in your writing? How about a subordinating conjunction and a co-ordinating conjunction - can you tell them apart?

Could you when you were 8/9 (introduced in year 4)? If not, do you think your ability to write good English has been irredeemably harmed? Do you really think that time spent learning this sort of thing is more useful than time spent reading a great poem or story? Or writing one themselves?

Personally, I find the new curriculum indefensible.

I think it may depend on individual schools. DS school is very laid back. In yr 2, no homework except reading and sometimes spellings. They seem to do a lot of craft and drama and the teacher reads them stories a lot. If they're cramming them with grammar then they're super-geniuses at doing it without the kids even noticing. DS would like more academics mind you, can't please 'em all.

Why isn't learning fun, why cant doing maths and reading be as enjoyable as 'playing'. I just dont get this negative attitude to learning. My DC have recently finished primary and there was far to much playing, wasting time, doing irrelevant things and not enough learning, they were bored.

If a parent is teaching a child that homework is a bad/boring then that is exactly what the child will learn. Homework can be one on one time with a parent to read wonderful stories and playing fun number games. If you dont like the curriculum then home school then and move out of the way of children who do want to learn.

"Could you when you were 8/9 (introduced in year 4)? If not, do you think your ability to write good English has been irredeemably harmed? Do you really think that time spent learning this sort of thing is more useful than time spent reading a great poem or story? Or writing one themselves?"

People on mumsnet constanly slag of my spelling and grammar. Usually when they don't agree with me.

I only know about the new national currciulm up to key stage 1 and I think it has been an improvement. There is a strong focus on getting a real grasp of the basics and I believe it will stand the children in good stead. However I believe that there are huge problems in key stage 2. Maybe some of the SPaG knowledge is irrelevent. However the SPaG test that my son sat in 2013 as a year 6 student did help his writing. I beleive that the content in new SPaG test in year 6 needs revamping.

I think that a lot of creative activites like Art, Music, drama, PE or child initated learning are benefical as well in the early years of primary. Its about balance and good schools provide academic rigor as well as a balanced eduation.

One of the big differences I notice is the quality of marking. When ds was in year 2 his homework got a smiley sticker and was marked good. Dd is told what is good about her work and where there is room for growth. I believe that the higher standards of marking has improved learning more than a new curriculum.

Agree with Bolognese. I am lucky that my two DC are able, and both love learning, at school and at home. There is no reason that learning new things academically shouldn't be fun for them, in a different way obviously than playing sports or at the park is. It is worrying if too much parent or teacher pressure is put on a child to learn - this would probably be detrimental to them enjoying it.