Can I ask for your child's typical day in primary school as I'm at my wits end

[BlackMirror]

My son hates school as he says it's all writing and maths (he's yr2). I don't remember primary being like this, I remember doing art and music and other stuff besides English and maths.

He's currently being assessed and finds it hard to sit down and write/read for long periods. I meet with the school regularly and have made adjustments for him outside of the classroom.

I am going to ask the school if I can see what he does on a typical day but thought I would ask MN about their kids' experiences first as maybe this is normal now? If he's doing English and maths for hours and not much else I may consider home schooling him part time so he does other things like music, art, science etc. I've seen his science book and it's just writing worksheets on science.

What does a typical day at primary look like in your child's school? Thank you

We were given a timetable at the beginning of the year - maths and English before lunch is entirely accurate. This is what they were doing at the start of the year (not much free flow/play):

Register 9.00-9.15
English 9.15-10.15
Guided reading activities10.15-10.45
Break 10.45-11.00
Maths 11.00-11.55
Lunch 11.55-13.00
Register 13.00- 13.10
Assembly 13.10-13.35
Break 13.35-13.45
Topic 13.45-14.45
Phonics 14.45-15.05
Story/Poetry 15.05-15.15
End of the day

I don't know about DD2 (Y2) but in my school a typical day will be:

8.45-9.00 register and handwriting
9.00 - 9.45 class reading
9.45 - 10.45 maths
10.45 - 11.00 break
11.00 - 12.00 English
12.00 - 12.50 lunch
12.50 - 1.00 register
1.00 - 1.15 maths meeting
1.15 - 2.30 context / PE / Science / computing / phonics
2.30 - 2.45 Assembly
2.45 - 3.00 class story
3.00 home time

Sorry, just RTFT and saw you said Y1.

For year 1, class read should be substituted for phonics and spelling in the afternoon 1.15 - 1.30.

Ds1 is at an independent school so not sure of differences. in ks1, he had
Maths lesson daily
English daily + spelling lesson weekly
Science, French, games , music each 2 lessons/wk
history, geography, art, re, pshe, library, wild learning 1 lesson per wk
1 assembly and 1 chapel per wk
School day might be longer, in ks1 is 8.30-3.30. increases to 8.15-4 from yr3.

Some schools which are part of certain academy chains only do maths and English. They might base their afternoon teaching on a topic but it will still be maths and English.

We do assembly, phonics, literacy and maths in morning. Afternoons are topic, art, pe with a bit of reading/ catch up intervention groups.

This is in a yr 1 class

Year 6 teacher here. We do maths, English, reading and SPaG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) all morning. We do two lessons of foundation subjects in the afternoons.

At the infant school I work at it does vary though there is a lot of English and maths - most mornings.

So this week, a typical year 2 day (though maths and English may swap around) and daily mile varies when it happens too. But it does vary a bit anyway and things change depending on events at school such as visitors coming in, special eco or science days, etc. Often the topic sessions include writing.

Monday - register, phonics, daily mile, English, playtime, maths, handwriting, lunch, art, playtime, assembly, story, home

Tuesday - register, phonics, daily mile, English, playtime, maths, handwriting, lunch, topic - science, playtime, assembly, story, home

Wednesday - register, swimming, playtime, maths or English , handwriting, lunch, topic (inc history, Geography, etc) playtime, Singing, story, home

Thursday - register, phonics, daily mile, English, playtime, maths, handwriting, lunch, computing, playtime, phse , story, home

Friday - register, phonics, PE, playtime, maths or English , handwriting, lunch, topic, playtime, assembly, story, home

I missed the fact that he's in y1 not year 2.

Our y1 classes do similar stuff but shorter stints in many sessions and there is more time given to choosing - though those activities are linked to the topic, English and maths. There's water and sand trays, and various choosing activities they do when they've finished their set tasks. Or they do things on a carousel with a teacher or ta working with them part of the time and the rest independent activities. There is a lot less writing involved and more evidence via photographs.

@Aragog Wow I love that the DC do the daily mile. Not to derail the thread but what exactly does it involve - do some kids walk it? How long does it take?

In answer to OP in Y1 the kids started off the morning with free play during which one at a time would be called to read to the teacher or TA. They'd do literacy or maths for about 45 mins a piece each day but sometimes broken into smaller chunks. Then they'd also do PE/science/geography/French/Music/History which may have involved some writing but was a bit more hands on.

Ours is a bit different. We have:
9-9.15am Morning circle
9.15-9.30am breakfast
9.30-10.40am Maths/Language
10.40-11.10am break
11.10-11.20am circle time
11.20-12.20 Theme
12.20-1.20pm Lunch
1.20-1.30pm circle time
1.30-2.45pm Mysic/Forest school/Theme/whatever
2.45-3pm end of day circle
3pm Hometime

@HolesinTheSoles

For us it involves talking the children outside
For Approx 15 minutes most days to run or walk around the playground. It's supposed to be fun and social, and inclusive, there is no insistence on them running. Staff are encouraged to join in too. They are supposed to keep moving though.
The children know that x number of times around the playground equals a mile.
We don't do it if the weather is truly awful, and it's often not done on PE days as they're already doing extra exercise those days.
On the whole the children enjoy it.

8.55 registration
9.05 assembly
9.25 maths
10.25 playtime
10.45 handwriting/spelling
10.55 English (&phonics Y1)
11.55 toilet break
12.00 lunch
12.20 playtime
12.55 registration
1.00 depending on day any combination of two of these - topic work, art, dt, re, pe, swimming, cooking, music, drama, French, library, guided reading, spelling test, interventions.
2.30 playtime
2.45 storytime
3.05 show & tell
3.15 letters/announcements/reward points/birthday song. etc.
3.25 home

I wish our primary did Daily Mile in school time. It is on offer three days a week but you have to get to school 15 mins early, which means the sporty families do it and the kids who really need more exercise don't. I can see the pressure schools are under for time though. My oldest and youngest are 7 years apart and there is a huge difference in expectations. Even in YR there seems to be much less time to play. Y6 was just miserable for my eldest with total focus on SATS. He is much happier in Y7.

Ours does wake & shake at the end of assembly every day.

10.55 English (&phonics Y1)

What?

Different schools work differently. Some like a formal, sitting at desks all day approach from year 1 (some even start this from the Summer term of Reception!), others more play based.

Here is my school's year 1 timetable for comparison.

15 minutes Maths input.
All children into free-flow, teacher/ TA work with small maths groups while children are playing inside and out. 9-10.30.

10.30-11.30 All children Phonics/ Literacy.

Lunch

Topic input 15-20 minutes.
All children back into free-flow complete and activity linked to topic/science/art/ etc in small groups.

Same in year 2, but a little more focused.

Works brilliantly for some children, others prefer a more structured setting. Maybe there's a school near you with a more play-based approach?

What what?

Why only Y1 phonics?

Because OP's ds is in Y1

As said before many times in this thread, my experience echoes the norm: Maths, Guided Reading, Phonics and Writing dominate mornings in KS1 and KS2. Afternoons reflect the full breadth of the curriculum plus Assembly and Collective Worship, also half an hour of "Golden Time" on Friday afternoons. My children don't always talk about the whole school day, mind you, but at parent's evening I could see for myself the weekly History, Geography, Science, RE, French, etc. in their books. V impressive. The school is also great on termly class trips, visiting speakers to assemblies, special days and a Science Week. This is the times better and more varied than when I was a pupil. I think it's amazing that teachers do so well, teaching a dozen subjects and making it as engaging as they can. On top of this the school - average sized, I guess - offers 20+ after school clubs through the year. Most are just £1 per week, some are totally free! School also offers a free "Magic Breakfast Club" every day during term-time. Also, holiday art/craft/sports clubs and occasional Saturday events are offered for free or just £2 per child. I don't know whether this is typical, but it seems pretty awesome to me and my children (one girl, one boy) are now struggling to think of anything they would add to improve things. (Son says "an ice-cream van at playtimes would be a bonus"; daughter says, "maybe an outdoor library in the playground"!) I will add that my two can't wait to get to school on a Monday - so what more can I ask for?!

Reception is a massive transition for a lot of children, I work across early years and KS1.

from year 1 up our timetable looks like this:
8.35 Gates open (handwriting sheets/quiet reading as you come in)
8.55 Register
9.00 English
10.30 Break
10.45 Maths
12.15 Lunch
1.15 Register
1.20 Topic or PE
2.20 Music, RE, PSHE, Art, Golden time. (I don't think KS2 get golden time)
3.10 home

Reception in my school do the same subjects but much shorter lessons with free flow activities in between while the teacher and TA work with small groups/listen to them read. The moving round helps break it up a bit.