The National Curriculum thingy.....do all kids REALLY learn the same?

[SlightlyMadSecretSoundWinner]

[nooka]

dd (in yr2, but 7) has done a lovely project on Florence Nightingale recently and did the Great Fire of London last term. But doesn't do French (there is an afterschool club for juniors, but that's it).

[SlightlyMadSecretSoundWinner]

The Nightingale Q was a 6yo Q (I assume Yr1)

DTDs did the fire last year, but they watched that episode and didn't have a clue of the guy who wrote iary (was it Samuel Pepys?) let alone the year he started writing it which was the actual Q.

[Ledodgy]

My dd is doing french in reception it's mostly songs amd basic stuff but they actually have a french lady called Madame salisbury who comes in to teach them I was !

[SlightlyMadSecretSoundWinner]

at french in Reception

[Christywhisty]

My DD did Florence Nightingale in Year 2 as well, unfortunately the Crimean war and the other work they did on world war 1 at the time really upset her and she was very worried about wars for a long time afterwards.
I noticed that work some of the other new year 7s are doing on the secondary board is exactly the same as my DS is doing , even though they may be in different type of schools.

[Christywhisty]

MY dc's did french at preschool, they loved it.

[AbbeyA]

Year 2's should do Great Fire of London and Florence Nightingale.All primary schools should be doing a foreign language now but they don't all start in the infants.

[Blandmum]

ds is in year 3 and has done Florence Nightingale. They did Mary Seacoal at the same time.

He's done French since nursery

[hippipotami]

My ds did Florence Nightingale and also the Great Fire of London in Y2.

He started French in Y3.

[Blandmum]

They don't do all the same stuff on the same day though, so there will be some variation.

[Twiglett]

DS did Florence Nightingale and Great Fire in Year 1

he does French in french club but that's after-school paid for .. the concept of bringing in modern foreign languages is for KS2 not KS1

[SlightlyMadSecretSoundWinner]

The great fire question on the show was for 6yos which I am assuming represents the end of yr1.

I thought the Nightingale Q was for Year1, but may have been Yr2.

DTDs did the great fire last year, I guess they will do Florence Nightingale later this year.

It just surprises me some of the Questions that come up that a ^yo (so theopretically my DTDs) should know. Quite often it is the depth of a particular subject they seem to lack rather than knowing nothing at all IYSWIM.

[MrsWeasley]

IMHO its not a question of all chldren learning the same its more that all teachers teach the same thing.

Some things just dont sink in. If a child cant relate to it they dont always remember it! Others of course can recall every useless fact they are told and can even recall when they were told it!!

My DS in year 2 hasnt a clue who FN is but I know from other siblings that they usually cover this in year 2 so maybe he has that joy to come!

[SlightlyMadSecretSoundWinner]

But DTDs are top of the class in most activities and if they have never heard of Samuel Pepys what hope have the rest of the class got?

[SlightlyMadSecretSoundWinner]

Oh and mine are also hte type

"I can remember what colour the hot air balloon I saw out of my bedroom window 4yrs ago"...so no problems recalling useless facts

[Blandmum]

Large amounts of ds's schooling passes him by, but when it sticks, god, does it stick!?

We have had endless comments on 'weather' over the last few weeks, as the topic has interested him and stuck. But he does go on a bit! Come to something when you are looking forward to ox-bow lakes for a little light relief!

[SlightlyMadSecretSoundWinner]

Yes DTDs favourite at ATM is partitioning, which is a lot less exiting than the weather .

I loved doing the weather though, I know a met office bod so I took loads of official weather charts and stuff in to show which really brought it alive

[Reallytired]

There is a bell curve of intelligence and one or two children are gifted where as a couple of children have such a low IQ they need special schools.

As I understood the national curriculum was to make sure children didnt do the Roman in years R, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ,6 and had a breath of education. The special school I work at follows the same national curriculum as the local grammar school.

The difference is that the grammar school kids learn topics in far more depth. Ie. the grammar school children will make predictions from their experiments and suggest improvements where as the the special school kids will probably just describe what they are seeing.

[Pollyanna]

my dd1 (in y2) did Florence Nightingale last term. I think she is doing the Great Fire of London next term.

Some children are just more interested in History. my ds has an amazing knowledge, but he gets history books out from the library, and has read all of the horrible history series. dd1 just does history at school and has little interest in it otherwise.

[pointydog]

Depends what topics they do, I'd've thought.

[pointydog]

Don't tell me schools in England all follow the same topics for the same year groups? That would be depressing.

[hippipotami]

Why is that depressing pointydog?

To me it makes perfect sense. If we moved areas, adn the dc had to change schools, it would be boring for them if they had to re-do topics which they had covered in their previous school the year before.
If all schools follow the same curriculum in the same yeargroups, then if a child has to change schools there is minimum disruption to his/her learning...

But there does appear to be variation. Last Monday I had lunch with two friends, we all have a child in Y4, all at different schools. My ds did Egypt in Y3 and Romans in Y4. One girl did Victorians in Y3 and Egypt in Y4, andother girl did Romans in Y3 and Victorians in Y4. So same topics but in different years...

[gladbag]

The National Curriculum states that in History at KS1 (Y1 and Y2) children should learn about the lives and lifestyles of familiar people in the recent past and about famous people and events in the more distant past, including those from British history. This could be anything and everything that a school chooses to cover in it's themes or topics. The government also publishes detailed schemes of work to support teachers' planning, which many schools choose to use, as it is easier, but they are not compulsory. The schemes of work for KS1 are.....

Unit 1. How are our toys different from those
in the past?
Unit 2. What were homes like a long time ago?
Unit 3. What were seaside holidays like in the past?
Unit 4. Why do we remember Florence Nightingale?
Unit 5. How do we know about the Great Fire of London?

So lots of children will learn about Florence Nightingale and The Great Fire of London, but some won't. In my last school we really tried to move away from those schemes of work as they did get really boring, and tried to develop new stuff based on the children's current interests. The key is ensuring that they develop the historical skills rather than just learning content and facts.

In KS2 some content is compulsory, so at some point between Y3 and Y6 they do have to cover a local history study, three British history studies (Romans, Anglo Saxons and Vikings,Tudors, Victorians or Britain since 1930) , a European history study (Ancient Greece), and a world history study (Ancient Egypt, Ancient Sumer, the Assyrian Empire, the Indus Valley, the Maya, Benin, or the Aztecs ) but schools can choose which and when they cover these.

So those content based questions are rather unfair, as not all children will have covered that specific factual stuff, and they don't have to have done either... Does that all make sense?

[SlightlyMadSecretSoundWinner]

So what you are saying Gladbag is that by the end of KS1 (as opposed to a given year) most children are likely to have covered those units.

Makes sense as DTDs have just one unit 1 on toys in autumn of yr2
They did the homes & fire of London ones last year

So I can expect holidays & Lady Flo by the end of this year. Although according to this terms plan they will be studying "famous oeople to include Edison, Braille, Henry VIII, QE I&II after half term) so no Flo there

I don't mean to get hung up about FN, it was just 1 example of Qs from the show they don't appear to have covered IYSWIM.

Gladbag are all key areas the same (e.g geography, numeracy, literacy etc.) ? There are core topics by KS rather than year group?

With regards to depth of study that is down to quality of school and ability of pupils?

[cory]

Ds was absolutely fascinated by the Fire of London. We went up to London at that time for an exhibition dd wanted to see, and when he was allowed to pick something for him he wanted to go to Pudding Lane to see where the fire started, and then he asked if we would have time to go and see where Samuel Pepys lived, he even knew the street name and roughly in what direction it was, though he'd never really been to London before. So the National Curriculum must have made an impression.