Curriculum for Excellence

[onestarrynight]

I have a DC due to start school soon and I feel like I keep hearing negative things about CfE (things like too much emphasis on group work, muddying of boundaries between different subjects, not enough factual knowledge, too nationalistic, etc) but I don't know anyone with primary age DC who can tell me about the reality. If you have primary age DC, how have you found it? If you have particular complaints about your DC's experience, what sort of things have been poor? I'm not really sure how worried to be.

DC1 did a mix of play and sit down old style learning. He is now in P6 and it was brilliant. His year group did and continue to do well generally. By contrast dc2 who is a few years younger did play bass P1 and it was rubbish. All play, no boundaries, no rules, no routines and virtually not learning.

Dc2 regressed behaviour and emotionally wise as the kids were treated like 3 year olds. He learned virtually nothing all year. I did feed back into the school how poor I thought P1 was for him and as did a few other parents. He is now in P2 and has a wonderful probation teacher who has also done some overseas training and she is amazing. She does play based learning to an extent but it’s proper learning and fun and I can see the benefits. She also will get them to sit and read, write, do phonics etc every day. The kids are excelling including dc2. She has boundaries, rules and treats them like the own age. The kids adore her. Unfortunately for a lot of kids who did play based P1 by P3 they are behind academically unless there family are doing huge amounts of home learning. I am not a fan of CFE as it’s a great idea in theory but there is not enough not funds, training, understanding, Boundaries or classroom rules for it to work.

Open plan and play based makes it very hard to concentrate. It feels very wooly with over emphasis on emotions when some children are eager to learn. This said we seem to have been lucky with a great teacher who is now pushing my child on. Hoping the scots language focus has been for burns night and will be replaced by French or another useful language.

All play, no boundaries, no rules, no routines

That would have been a nightmare for my dc and many others. He needs structure to be provided.

Yes, my DS did much better in the years he had teachers who were known to be strict but actually had routines and expectations. That was two years out of seven.
He started secondary school last year which is much more structured, and the difference in his behaviour is noticeable. He is just much happier and motivated to learn.

My DC are all having issues of one type or another and I think the lack of structure is the root of the issue. DD in particular is very wilful and despite being capable (which we have confirmed at home) given the choice of work or play she will never choose work as she’s too easily distracted and wants to play with friends. DS wants to do well but the lack of clear expectations are very stressful for him and he’s never quite sure what he needs to do. A set curriculum would help massively but isn’t available. I agree there seems to be an overemphasis on emotions and social things, leaving the basics behind.

Is there a difference between private and state with regards to CoE? Are they both running the same curriculum or do the private schools do their own thing?

@TheBelmont I don't think private schools do CforE. My DS is at a private school and I've never heard it mentioned.

Some private schools are in the Scottish exam system, some in the English exam system, and some do a mixture of both.

Ds2 who did playbased P1 behaviour became so challenging which was not like him as he is well behaved child normally.

We are quite structured and have set boundaries at home so the total local of them in P1 caused him confusion. It also meant a significant amount of his peers were finding the lack of structure difficult and the behaviour of his whole year group was pretty poor generally. Unfortunately the teacher also had her favourites which didn't help and seem to reward the wrong things.

I really don't know still what he learned in P1 but his P2 teacher is phenomenal and he has learned so much. He goes to school with a spring on his step, excited to learn and comes home telling me what he learned. By the end of P1 he could barely read any letters and I couldn't get him to be focus at home as he said he didn't need to because he could choose to play at school so should be able to at home. He is now half way through P2 and can read books himself. Obviously short ones for his age, write sentences, write stories and will sit and do his homework happily. His teacher doesn't really buy into playbased learning thankfully

Play based learning should still have structure and boundaries. If it doesn't it's being done wrong.

There's a lot of misinformation here. Scottish Advanced Highers are challenging and candidates who have studied AH biology for example will find themselves well placed compared to their A level peers. AHs are accorded more UCAS points than A levels. Many of the subjects are akin to first year at university level and develop self learning and management skills that are very useful for university. Scottish pupils with good Advanced Highers will face no difficulty in gaining university places in England for example. The issue in Scotland is that some schools with a less prosperous or academic catchment offer little choice of subjects.

Sorry, wrong post!!