Primary education for the modern world

[ThinkingForward]

Discussion on how to reform the primary school offering to make it suitable for modern britain

> benefits of having more directed hours of experiences and learning
> more diverse educational offering
> societal benefits: broader opportunities for parents, families an the economy

I am a father of a 6 yr old dc, and both my wife and i work full time, she works for the NHS and i run my own business(es). We have elderly parents, who also require our input and limited family support (our son gets picked up by my mum 1 day a week and she has him for 2-3 hrs).

The need to better provisioning of early years childcare is often highlighted, however there is little public discussion about the effects of a Victorian timetable on modern society, especially at primary school level.

This touches nearly every aspect of society,
a) educational regression of pupils after long summer holidays
b) lack of holiday provision for students and family's that receive pupil premium (from school meals to welfare checks)
c) discriminatory effects on women's earning, career progression and pension provision. Furthermore the effect on families/ relationship stability as a consequential outcome.
i. on breakdown of relationships this can lead to loss of homes and employment, in some case lead to problems of homelessness and addiction for the parent without the children
ii compounds disadvantage, for children especially if extended family support isnt available.
d) environmental impact of a 5 day vs 4 day week for example (additional heating, travel etc), if the current level of funding was capped then a shorter week with longer days may provide additional opportunities for parents to gain good quality employment
i. economic impact of the mismatch between typical holiday allowance (4-6 weeks for full time adult) and 13 weeks school holiday.
f) impact from unauthorized absence due to rigid holiday patterns and consequential high prices of travel

Forster introduced the education act in 1870, even at this stage the need for continuous evolution was recognized in the introductory speech. The timetable is probably one of the only recognisable elements of the schools system from 150 years ago. So much of our society has changed and the persistence with this timetable reinforces discrimination and could be seen as a root of many negative outcomes especially for women. Impacting short and long term earnings as well as pensions in retirement, but this also changes the dynamics of the economy, family life and even the environment. The academic literature indicates that long holidays are not to the children's benefit, with the loss of skills over these longer breaks. The travel industry becries the seasonality of holiday, and justifies its crazy pricing as a result of this.. So who actually benefits from a 150 year old timetable?

Almost every section of society would benefit from reviewing the school timetable, it would be ideal if there was more funding for more provision, but there seems to be almost no loosers from having a more fit for purpose timetable. Different funding options for the short, medium and long term could be considered. For example use of the tax free childcare allowance. As schools provides good quality educational options and childcare at a lower cost than the private provision (typical outside funding rates are around £4.20/pupil per hour with most priviate provision being 25-50% more for "just childcare"). Furthermore the marginal cost for increasing this provision would be modest as there would be mainly variable (additional direct staff and minimal additional overhead).

Working patterns have been brought into sharp focus following C19 and the working from home revolution. There are plenty of opportunities to look at different school and working patterns, for example a 4 day school week with longer days. This might allow those that work around school drop off and pick up to improve their employment opportunities, cut there travel costs and the school to only heat the school 4 days a week . Similarly a 45-46 week schedule then most 2 parent families could manage childcare with their normal holiday although this would be a challenge, but would not create such dependence on family friends, private provision etc to be able to manage the holidays.

So what problems do people see with changing the current victorian timetable to one which fits with modern life.?

I'm not arsed if you think my response is trite.

You've written a post that ends "Its just makes everything much harder to understand and more long winded," but that very post is absolutely impossible to understand.

I think you're talking about the difference between childcare and school? In which case, I'd personally say that school is a form of childcare, but it's primary purpose is to educate and schools should focus on education first and put convenience of families second, though bearing it in mind. Whereas pure childcare is for the convenience of families, with a secondary focus on education.

@RedToothBrush Disrespectful too. If parents want to work, or have to work long hours, they need help to stay in the workforce. Not be told they don’t like their children!

@LolaSmiles yeah im aware they are at 97% of target and 74% i think this year
Yes, and they've also been adjusting targets year on year as they keep not hitting them. Almost hitting and spectacularly missing targets that have already been downwardly adjusted whilst they're losing vast numbers of staff isn't a good thing.

Things are unlikely to substantially improve in schools until teaching becomes a valued and desirable profession. Teaching is not going to become a valued and desired profession when on one hand schools are forever papering over the cracks caused by decades of underfunding relevant services for families, and on the other there's a narrative that schools should be glorified childcare offering long days for 40+ weeks of the year so that parents don't have to trouble themselves with their kids.

Disrespectful too. If parents want to work, or have to work long hours, they need help to stay in the workforce. Not be told they don’t like their children!
I see what you mean, but the narrative is rarely about ensuring there's a national strategy for high quality, professional childcare that is appropriate for children from baby-Year 6.

It usually gets boiled down to "schools should open longer because it suits my work pattern, schools should have fewer holidays, schools should run to accomodation an infinite number of working patterns".

Yeah ok. 😚

@LolaSmiles I do agree the narrative is narrow but many schools do provide extra wrap around care by outsourcing. I think the op thinks it wasn’t good enough and didn’t meet what was sold to parents.

However I don’t think Dc need a full array of educational opportunities after school. They do however need safe childcare as a minimum for working parents. If schools will organise this, great. I’m sure most of us don't expect teachers to be involved. The op did. However you could try and find “volunteers” or classs leaders for extended school and this might suit some. It would have been great if my DCs music, brownies and dance had been at school! They were not. Working parents either didn’t sign Dc up or other parents helped them out with lifts for Dc. It got sorted out as far as possible.

Pre school is a whole different ballgame! Different costs involved.

TizerorFizz I see your points.

It's important not to muddy the waters on this because as you say, different people have very different expectations.

I'd be in favour of a properly funded childcare system from birth to 11, with appropriate government funding, good staffing ratios, and it would go hand in hand with improved flexibility on working conditions for all (because it's not just parents who'd benefit from flexible working).

I'm less convinced with moves to suggest schools should run long days and wraparound and have longer holidays because some parents think it's an easy solution. It strikes me as a simple but wrong option.

@LolaSmiles Im with you there. However we have so many calls on taxpayer money it difficult isn’t it? We hear about cost of living and far too many people think children are a lifestyle choice! They don’t think we need these children to work, pay tax and ensure we get the lives we all want., so we need to help that process.

Flexible working doesn’t always sit well with productivity. Staff can grumble about parental leave. Many self employed people do not get parental leave at all. Who pays for them not working? Lots to think about.