Groups petitioning for changes to compulsory school age & flexi schooling

[Thetherapyshed]

Does anyone know of any groups petitioning for changes to the uk education system? We know that children thrive when spending their formative years with their primary carers and small group settings. Many children are not ready for a prolonged separation at 4.5-5 years old and flexi-schooling should be offered to those who want to continue to care for their children at home beyond compulsory school age. Furthermore, in many countries children don’t start until the age of 7 and the outcomes academically are no different to those who start at 5. However, what is different, is their future mental health. The evidence that learning through free flow, child led play until 7 is better for the child’s mental health is unequivocal.

The system here is focused on getting parents to work and not on what’s best for our children. It is archaic and we have so much evidence to support change is needed.

Let’s not forget that some children are ready for school at 4.

My youngest has been in preschool since 2.5 so 2 academic years of it. She will be 4.5 when she starts reception. She cannot wait. She can write her name, spell it out, knows her letters and numbers. She is just so so ready. If I kept her out of formal school for another year it would be for me and not her.

Its short sighted when you both part time and from home and have the luxury of being able to finish at lunch time to collect your kids to assume all parents can do that.
Im a nurse and if they bought in a 1:40 finish from school and didn’t start til they were 7 I’d have to leave my job. So would millions of other nurses/teachers and other women and men whose jobs don’t support those kind of hours. Of we’d pay so much in childcare that lower paid jobs aren’t worth doing.
great for you in your circumstance though, do start a petition.

I totally appreciate this. My suggestion would be all children are entitled to full time from 5 but that we had the option of half days until year 1 even if the child is 5 in September.

At which point they have to slot into a school system that they may be vastly ahead of - or behind; I'm sure for every engaged parent there would be one who has the kids at home watching nonstop YouTube

This is already under discussion in Scotland but unclear if it will actually happen: www.holyrood.com/inside-politics/view,could-raising-the-school-starting-age-to-help-scotlands-close-the-gap-on-some-of-its-european-neighbours

If there are children who only attend reception-yr2 half days it would mean they would miss out of class activities/learning when they are at home. This may lead to teaching staff having to run lots of 'catch up' sessions for those children so they don't fall behind. I'm sure some parents will try to deliver this lat home but again will you be asking the teachers to supply the lessons? Schools are very understaffed so these sort of requirements will put a lot of extra pressure on an already stretched workforce.
The child may also miss out on class outings/assemblies etc.
A nice idea (having a July child myself) but I think it's impractical in schools.

Effectively you want school to be childcare. You work part time so you think school is OK for while you work and then you should be able to pick them up. Can you imagine how disruptive this would be for the children and the staff? Lottie goes home at 12 on Monday, Weds and Thurs. Reuben only comes in on Thursday and Friday. Elliot just does mornings. Oh but mum has to go on a business trip so can he come full time next week. How on earth could the teacher then ensure that all the children are learning what they need to. Lottie's mum loves outdoor learning so they don't do any phonics. Reuben's mum employs a nanny who does phonics everyday. Elliot's parents don't follow any learning. They think he will pick things up as they live a busy life. What a load of nonsense. Either decide to home school yourself or take up a school place.

Ah yes - deferred start and flexi schooling are the current middle class exceptionalism. Guaranteed to fuck over kids that are disadvantaged already because their parents can’t or won’t game the system for personal benefit, and remove money from other areas that really need it.

So you would want lessons only in the morning, otherwise some members of the class would be permanently catching up.

State education has to work for the majority, not the minority who want something different.

If there is call for a part time school, the parents should work together to form it.

OP, you may find your dc enjoys being at school more than at home and asks for you to not take him out early before he is 5 if he realises he is missing out on time with his friends and teacher.

Where is your evidence? I would be interested to see it.
Parents have the choice to home school if they don’t want to opt in to the state education system.

So what you really mean is that you want your child’s education to fit around your needs.
Out of curiosity, how does a child psychotherapist WFH??? Do the clients come to you? Or are they all at school?

A couple of points about the Irish education system. Yes heading in the right way. However Junior Infants is a half way house from R to 1. Probably more like R. Although there are moves for school dinners this is not a tradition so lunch was always traditionally half an hour. And a 9am atsrt may be in the rural areas where schools finish later. It is 8.40, 8:35 in Dublin and with half hour lunch they essentially finish at the same time.

The problem with the English system is it should be play based for all KS1. That would be the greatest and most commendable overhaul that could be made. Year 1 was more playbased but with the 2014 changes that changed.

It's more like 1.

And a 9am atsrt may be in the rural areas where schools finish later. It is 8.40, 8:35 in Dublin and with half hour lunch they essentially finish at the same time.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'at the same time' @AuroraCake?
If schools start earlier in Ireland they finish earlier too. So a child starting at 8.40 am will finish for the day at about 1.20pm (junior and senior infants, age 5 -7 approx). Then, for the next 6 years they'll finish an hour later (so 2.20 pm) until they start secondary school.

If you mean the overall hours at school are the same as UK hours, well nearly, but not until the children are around 7, which is quite a big difference really.

Yes I did but forgot about the earlier finish. Which is unchanged for many years.

Again country schools tend to start later and finish later. Some do finish at around 3:30pm and then the infants at 2.30.

But in places like Devon lunches are longer and school finishes later.

As in Ireland, school hours need to be the same.

I think later school starting ages can work for some individuals, or at the masse level in countries where there are few immigrants/minority language speakers and the language has an easy-to-learn writing system. The problem with the UK is that there are a lot of immigrant families speaking other languages at home and the writing system is complex and it takes kids a couple of years to be able to read and write with a useful level of fluency. There is a risk of very large gaps opening up between children if you allow all kids to start school later.

School start ages can be misleading if they ignore the fact that kindergarten/daycare/preschool can effectively end up being something very like reception, even if it's technically called something else. In France, "school" may technically start from 6 but it's pretty much compulsory to go to preschool from 3.

As for Scotland, nothing about Scottish educational attainment makes me want to copy anything about the Scottish system.

Again country schools tend to start later and finish later. Some do finish at around 3:30pm and then the infants at 2.30.

It's usually not that late @AuroraCake as those times would correspond to a start time of 9.50am , which would be quite unusual.
I've seen 2pm/3pm though.

I am a child psychotherapist and I work from home which allows me to work around parenting as does my husband. He is also self employed and works part time. Furthermore I have two sets of involved and educated grandparents whom my child benefits from 1-2-1 time with. All I am suggesting is that people in my situation who want an extra year or so with their children should be able to without being forced to decided between full time home ed or full time school

Basically you are incredibly privileged and would like the whole system to be organised so you are even more. As for your child wanting to learn the alphabet at 20 months, again wonderful.

I was desperately trying to help a child over lockdown who has ADHD, one completely disinterested parent (borderline abusive) who didn't bother sending him because she could get away with it over covid, did no work with him whatsoever and now he's school refusing. If she could have kept him home doing nothing and shouting at him before school at 7, she would have.

I'd rather school was there for him.

Teaching in reception is very structured.

As already mentioned, in almost all countries where school age is 6 or 7, they have pre school. In order to be admitted to year 1 (usually the equivalent of UK Y2 or 3), children are often tested by a psychologist for school readiness. They are expected to have skills pretty much in line with those taught in EYFS/KS1. They don't start with 0 knowledge age 7.

This seems similar to children going home for lunch, when I was young.

Some mums missed their children, so a few were picked up lunch time to eat at home. Eventually, those parents realised their children were missing out on a massive part of their (non-educational) learning.

Play based/free flow in year R was not good for my hearing-impaired ds with ASD. The sensory issues he had in year R where he didn't cope very well all but disappeared in year 1 when they had a more formal structure and less things going on around when he was trying to work.

What is best for one child isn't necessarily best for another.