New Fred. It nearly ended in tiers.

[Cismyfatarse]

Sorry. Lost track of what was proposed. Hope this will do.

@ anon444877 agree 100%. The poorly funded one size fits all sausage factory model of schooling really doesn’t benefit that many kids. Yes they get a basic education but it could be so much better. The parental engagement act seems like tokenism tbh

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel no need to do that - you're welcome and I am genuinely glad you're ok. Most days I think I'm ok too, it depends how much sleep I've had. We probably need to all find some jokes to post.

Have you seen the dig on Netflix? There is a hilarious take down of it on twitter by Kieran Hodgson, the best thing I've seen in ages. I love the Sutton Hoo and any historical discovery really, but the dig seems to be made by people that found it boring and stuck several silly made up dramas in. The team that did the detectorists should've done it!

There's a parental engagement act?

The Scottish parent councils are pointless ime.

Mandatory school age in Finland only starts at 7. That is a very big move away from FT nursery from age 3 being implemented atm. Neither our primary nor our secondary have anything other than tarmac in the playground.

I have no objection to DC out playing in the cold. However it rained almost every day last Autumn term. Finland has about 1/3 of our rainfall. Not only do our schools have inadequate outdoor play access they also lack room and facilities to dry the DC off when they come in.

Finland has an ever decreasing number of children.

Imagine how much it would open up teachers' options too if parents had 1 or 2 days of 'teacher funding' a week to hire a specific tutor for 1-2 hours, or a social skills tutor, or a specialist tennis coach.

So much more could be achieved for individual children with more parental choice.

good point dinna it's a little known fact that the antarctic is a dessert as they're classified by rainfall, so of course similar would be expected to be true in Finland, more snow, less rain.

Our old P1 class didn't even have enough space for the kids to take their coats off without queueing 3 small people deep.

Thank you. The thing is though, I'm mostly ok, but doom-filled threads make me feel not quite as ok. That's why I didn't join in for a while, it sort of threatens my piece of mind. Like about 98% of MN threads right now!

I

OMG I loved The Detectorists so much! I'll have to have a look at The Dig.

@LetItGoGo completely toothless. There’s some great examples of good practice out there but ultimately the decisions and authority all lie with the HT of each individual school so they need to be quite visionary in their approach

Sorry should have been proper weather lady and said precipitation. The Finnish 1/3 includes their snow so actually very little dreich damp drudgery comparable with ours. Presume we get more day light. Now off to google their school terms etc. I can generally persuade myself to research the nth degree out of anything to stave off lockdown psychosis - choosing to view it as polymath tendencies.

I don't think the thread was particularly doom filled before, more just railing at stuff we couldn't do anything about and asking why and generally having a laugh. I think it's more doom filled when people want to counter the railing by giving what they see as the facts or justification (i.e. you shouldn't rail because x scientist says this and the figures say z) and then trying to cheer people up by telling them they should do more stuff to be cheery and it's better for you - it probably is but saying that isn't going to help. I bit like telling an angry teenager to calm down. :o

God if someone on here told me to cheer up I'd get banned for life by answering them

Cheer up ssd

Just kidding. Telling me to cheer up when I want to tell the world to do one is never a good thing!

I used to get told to cheer up at lot as a teenager, usually by older men....bit of a fucking nerve now I think about it...

It might never happen ssd

Finnish school children get 11 weeks of Summer holidays. Suspect there is not quite as much outdoorsiness as advertised in the Winter but more semi-hibernation. Like most of the frozen North they don't sleep all Summer to make up.

include if you love detectorists, I hope you've seen 'don't forget the driver' it's so good as well.

I agree @WaxOnFeckOff the thread seems to have really taken a turn for the worse. It's no longer a place of safety to have a bit of a whinge and a laugh and some light relief.

11 weeks of summer holidays? and what do parents do with their kids in the holidays? No wonder the number of kids is falling!

See we'd need to look in detail at the Finnish system to fully understand what could be replicated and was worth replicating dinna sounds like you're the person for the job!

I am so bored. DD3 took full advantage of her last day of Feb holiday to read for 2 hours while she was meant to be getting dressed. Then she went off and drew pictures for an hour. Eventually I chucked her out front to improve her snowman. She is now happily contenting herself with I have no idea what (no tech involved). Everyone else is working and shushing so housework and all my noisy hobbies are out. No enthusiasm for a walk on my own on the ice after my exertions consulting on snowman construction yesterday.

anon you prodded me to actually read the link above.

Scotland already has "unstructured learning" till age 7 in most nurseries and schools. We have no formal tests pre Nat 5. CfE gives parity of esteem to non-academic subjects (even if the resourcing seldom reflects this). Teachers all have specialist teaching qualifications. Playtime morning and afternoon and lunch plus daily mile and outdoor PE when practical plus walk to school means my DD3's outdoors is much as described. Not much more Finlanding we can do here.

The school day in Finland is an hour shorter so that would be on top of the school holidays. Used to be a MN poster in Finland who was all for leaving DC to walk home to an empty house from age 7. Not sure I am in favour.

I still read the good news thread for a bit of positivity, (posted once and was told off! 😄 Fair enough.) I do whinge on other threads.

I thought that too dinna, what we should be doing is improving the quality of the outdoor experiences they're having, and the quality of their play based learning (hello quality of outdoor spaces again).

And of course it's the kids with overcrowded city schools that do need their outdoor spaces improved as they live in cities with limited green space. Of course the most expensive bit of finn-landing to do.

What a shame that there isn't a place in the thread for an opposing viewpoint without it coming across as telling posters their feelings aren't valid.

I genuinely don't think that was anyone's intention.

Are you in Edinburgh? Anon? It's funny, people always think of Glasgow having less green space but we have a lot.

Just to cheer you all further. I was thinking about the practicalities of quarantine. I actually know a couple of early retirees who generally split their year between UK, Portugal and S Africa. They will be largely unaffected by any of the new rules. Hotel quarantine cost and time would be a minor inconvenience. However it is also a completely unnecessary imposition because in all 3 places they maintain a fully staffed household perfect for managing quarantine. They are already vaccinated.

Does make you wonder what the rules are really about.