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!

Here's Rosen on Twitter explaining the 'forced' comment:

^Exercise book: "You need to use a fronted adverbial to make the sentence more interesting."
You don't. You don't. You don't. You don't.^

Which would be hilarious, if it wasn't so tragic.

Presumably, as you are an education professional, you understand the concept of washback. You understand that whatever is to be tested will become the de facto curriculum, particularly if teachers' jobs/salaries are potentially on the line, or the headteacher's job/salary or if the school risks being taken over as a result of poor results in these tests.

You understand that teaching materials will be written to focus on those specific points at the expense of other points also in the 'official' curriculum, because it is accepted that those points are now 'what matters'.

You understand that whilst dedicated teachers will attempt to teach the pupil and not to the test, the reality is that a great many teachers will or will have to teach to the test to ensure that their pupils pass - even if it is the test, and not the pupils, who are at fault here. Because the consequences - for the pupil, the teacher and the school - if they fail, are just too high.

Teachers will be forced to teach their pupils to include these points in their writing - because their pupils' written work will be evaluated on the basis of how many of these points they add in. (No matter whether or not they add anything to the specific piece of writing they are doing.) Nicky Morgan has already had to go on the record to say teachers won't actually be required to fill in a couple of hundred tick boxes for every single child, for every single piece of writing, after teachers complained - but she has yet to clarify exactly how pupils work will be assessed. So no teacher worth their salt will be able to allow their pupils to ignore this grammatical guidance.

Did you think he meant that Nicky Morgan was going to literally stand behind them with an axe or something?!

ReallyTired - I'm sure no-one wants to out mrz!

And hope whoever is feeling ill, recovers. :)

Glad to hear this is not in your lunchbreak - when I teach (not in primary, obviously), I certainly don't have the luxury of a lunchbreak spent on MN! And am pretty sure my dcs' teachers don't either!

Is that another example of Rosen having to clarify what he actually meant when everybody else has interpreted it incorrectly?

For an author that seems to happen to him a lot.

Well, if mrz taught my dcs, I'd be posting on MN about how rubbish my dc's teacher was! Don't think I'd be switching schools, as English is just one subject and there are only a few months left of this year.

Maybe mrz is fine when Michael Rosen, for whom she appears to have an intense personal dislike, is not mentioned. But given that to me, Michael Rosen represents all that is best about English at primary level - fun, creative literature that is perfect for its target audience; a sense of humour and mishief; encouragement that all children themselves can create wonderful stories and poems - I can't imagine that a teacher who objected to that is someone who would be my first choice as a teacher for my child!

You can have fun, a sense of humour, a love of books and decent English teaching. Michael Rosen is good at writing books for children, but that does not make him a teacher.

There is a very insulting quote: Those who can, do. Those who can't teach.

Sometime people who find something easy aren't the best teachers. Michael Rosen cannot appreciate that some child need direct instruction in order to learn to read. It's about getting the skills to read the gas bill rather than appreciate great literacy works.

Given Michael Rosen has spent his whole career focusing on helping children to read and write, I'm sure he's reasonably good at it. I'm not sure why so many schools invite him in if his contribution is so worthless?

Aside from his Oxford degree in English, his MA and his PhD, according to Wikipedia:

On 2 April 2010 Rosen was given the Fred and Anne Jarvis Award from the National Union of Teachers for "campaigning for education".[38] On 22 July 2010 he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Education (DEd) by Nottingham Trent University.[39]

On 5 April 2011 Rosen was awarded an Honorary Doctorate at the Institute of Education, University of London,[40] and on 20 July 2011 he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of the West of England.

So I think we can assume that mrz's view of his abilities or contribution to education is hardly shared by the teaching profession as a whole.

Exercise book: "You need to use a fronted adverbial to make the sentence more interesting."

Is he explanation of the forced comment that teachers are expected to stand in front of a class and spout that?

I don't feel at all reassured but thanks for trying ...IOE European centre for RR 😱

Michael Rosen has never taught a bunch of mixed ablity six year olds how to read. Although his qualifications are impressive, the are irreverent to teaching the basic skill of reading. Inspite of his qualifications he has no practical experience of classroom teaching or training in phonics.

Stephen Hawking is one of the best mathematicians in the world, but no one would expect him to teach six year olds arithmetic. A PhD in general relativity is as irrelevant to infant school teaching as Michael Rosen's qualifications.

It does not require rocket science or anything fancy to teach a child the basics of reading. Teachers up and down the country manage to do this everyday. Many of them manage to make the teaching of reading enjoyable as well as effective. Synthetic phonics is improving key stage 1 results up and down the country.

If my children were taught by Rosen and learnt to read and enjoy literature, I'd be ecstatic.

If my children came out of his class unable to read and write because he refuses to engage with methods he doesn't purposely agree with I'd be fuming.

And I think even Rosen would agree he doesn't have years of experience teaching reading. He does have years of experience in getting children engaged with literature which is a different thing.

Not sure exactly what toootired's beef is with mrz, but I wish she'd pack it in and stop derailing the thread with thinly-veiled personal attacks.

Totally agree.

When someone's posts are reduced to sniping about being glad you don't teach their kids, it's usually time for them to step away from the computer. 'How do you know I don't? Mwah-ha-ha!' is easily the best retort.

I keep seeing primary teacher friends sharing Rosen's articles with enthusiasm. Whatever his failings on phonics, it seems like he has a lot of support on this one.

I would love mrz to teach my kids too....

However I think it's gone too far with the focus on fronted whatevers etc. I'm not anti testing but I am anti testing something so irrelevant

My 7 year old was certainly taught "extended noun phrase" as when we were talking about something she came out with the phrase and I'd never heard it before at that stage.

This week she proudly told me she'd got to stand at the front of the class because she had highlighted the.most adverbs in the text and could read them out to everyone.

It doesn't bother her but it bothers me. More of her curriculum has become grammar and maths focused with yr 6 exams in sight and a lot less of the arts/drama there used to be at her school.

So yes in her school as many others I see the pattern that this rubbish at ks2 sats seems to be creating.

So er yes I seem to support rosen wholeheartedly (enough I wonder about home ending year 6 or part of it at times.)

Even though I disagree with him about phonics. Phonics has been a fab thing where properly taught.

Would it interest you G1raffe to know that "extended noun phrases" don't feature in the English Programme of Study?

However, they are in the Interim Framework for Teacher Assessment, mrz..

I'm sure you taught children to write "the big dog" or the beautiful garden" as I did long before this curriculum was created feenie which is all the interim exemplification requires. It doesn't require children or teachers to talk about extended noun phrases, just use them as they always have.

'Expanded noun phrases', sorry. Same diff.

Expanded noun phrases are not one of my bugbears in this whole ridiculous mess! But they certainly do exist n documentation.

Twice, I think Michael Rosen is very vocal politically and makes mischief. He knows nothing about phonics and was a pain in the backside for years about it.

He has also been very vocal about the mess that is this curriculum, it's implementation and the appalling assessment debacle.Some of his posts showed that he is a parent and not a teacher, because he isn't quite as well informed as we are ( which is much more, that's why we needed a clarification document, if all things). He's now shouting very loudly about forced academisation. I'm happy for him to shout as loudly as he likes. I agree he is politically motivated, but atm that is no bad thing imo.