Primary school curriculum concerns

[Lola36]

My DS is in his final year of primary and I'm concerned he's not doing enough core work and is doing things like music and drama, arts and crafts, outdoor visits and outdoor play rather than maths and english and learning to focus and complete tasks before he moves up to high school after the summer. I feel if I raise my concerns with the head she becomes defensive and suggests we do homeschooling, which we do do on a Friday with him. I'm concerned that the school has more emphasis on wellbeing and less on knowing times tables, how to construct sentences, am I really behind the times? I understand the essence of the CofE but I am concerned that the kids are being let down by not being taught, rather they set their activities, for instance last week he was cleaning out the school gym cupboard and I can understand that this could be a lesson in responsibility and good behaviour but it's the balance between activities like this or playing in the local woods for the morning, and more traditional learning activities that I'm concerned about. I will address the head and the parent council when the meetings come up but just wondered if anyone else was feeling similar with their kids' schooling in Scotland?

I find it odd that you are home schooling but haven't read up on specific outcomes for each subject. Literacy/numeracy/HWB have outcomes in every curricular area with defined assessments. All of these have been shared with parents for a number of years. How come he's reached this stage and you are still unsure about how assessment works in his school?

@LadyMacbethssweetArabianhand I am aware of what my DC should know in terms of their level, in the sense that I have now read about the outcomes and the workbooks/ additional materials we're using at home are produced for their age groups from school material, so should match in with their school learning. I'm just surprised that often, when we do home schooling with our DD she seems a bit rusty on some of the maths systems and doesn't appear to have covered it very much at school, but maybe I'm reading too much into it.

There have been threads before on the CfE, and I have to say it sounds like a bunch of woolly nonsense. Can you afford tutoring?

@LadyMacbethssweetArabianhand I also feel, again it's maybe my paranoia, but parental contact about progress reports doesn't seem to be very forthcoming. I've just realised that the second parent interview for this academic year is in June, but I feel that's a little too late in the year to adapt to any of the concerns the teachers might have as there's only a couple of weeks of term left after this. Normally, in the past, there's been the second parent interviews in March but it seems that this year they've been pushed back, with no explanation. The ones in November were almost cancelled also ( I can't remember why, I think it might have been bad weather) but there was talk of them not going ahead. I just feel that sometimes it's quite difficult to get a handle on your kid's progress as there aren't very many organised meetings with teachers and, if you do require one outside of the parent interviews, it's like you're making a fuss over nothing, especially when the teachers are so overworked and I don't want to cause undue burden for them.

@user1477391263 no, we looked into it but was v. expensive. That's why my DH has given up his Fridays as we felt it was more economical for him to teach them through using standardised workbooks and other teaching aids than employing a tutor.

I'm a teacher in England. The Scottish CfE is totally different to the English NC2014. Around the same time out curriculum became hugely prescriptive, the Scottish one became much more woolly. I would imagine it is much harder to gauge if your child is at the right level.

I agree that it's very difficult to gauge where you'd child in terms of progress. The expectations of each stage basically says may reach this level by end of p4 but may not. Its difficult to know whether she should be being pushed more or not.
It seems to be that if they're not struggling then they're achieving.
And yes you need to keep questioning and state your concerns. Your headteacher does sound very defensive which is not good. Ours is too but covers it up better.

CfE does have expected levels, there are many documents which go into details. Look at the Es&Os as well as the benchmarking documents. Schools will have planners they use which break down the Es&Os further but these are for planning purposes.

On your child's last report, how did they let you know what level they were working on? Was it phrased as on track/not on track, S1/S2, anything like that, for numeracy/literacy?

@roughtyping I honestly don't remember, I'll have it somewhere but can't find it at the moment. It was from the last academic year, June 2022. I think maybe I didn't really completely understand the levels as it seems strange that they can be working on a level for so long, years. I guess most parents just want to know if the child is achieving according to national statistics ie: how does he or she compare to kids from other schools as those will be the peers they'll be with throughout their education.

The benchmarks are very low. To be on track is not difficult. Especially when it says it can be achieved by a certain year by some or later for others. It's very vague and gives no indication of when to worry they not be on track.

My experience of the CfE is the only time you’ll find out how ‘on track’ your kids are is when they do their Nat 5 prelims. Before that it’s all smoke an mirrors. And yes, the month before Christmas and the last month of the school year are a total write off with kids spending the whole time messing around with social activities etc. the stage where the private schools really start pulling ahead of the state schools is P4 onwards, where the private schools teach and inspire academic aspects, and state schools put a lot more emphasis on getting the weaker students up to a basic acceptable standard. If you want your kids to thrive, keep up the home schooling.

Sorry, you're saying it's not structured and the children are able to choose what is taught? I highly doubt that is true. Look at the second level curriculum. What council are you in?

But you said earlier you hadn't looked at the second level curriculum?

As a P2/3 teacher dealing with the fall out of the play pedagogy in P1 and P2, if my child's school had expanded it to 7 I'd be moving them in an instant.

Also this is wrong regarding the CFE. For example, in P6 there are set benchmarks the children should be able to do. This is the same for all years, I'm just using P6 as an example as you said second level.

I too feel the CfE is a bit of woolly nonsense and as for getting info as to how your child is doing well the report cards are so vague regarding level of attainment that they are practically useless.
@Awumminnscotland you are right.
Just found my daughters P3 report card. For Reading, Writing, Talking & Listening she is graded as: Working within CfE level - FIRST
In fact for all the grading she is in level: first

And in the explanatory notes, Level: First is described as
"To the end of P4 but earlier or later for some"

As can be seen from the attached pic, First covers P2, P3 & P4 which is a huge range of ability especially as it could cover a gifted P1 and a struggling P5 too and still be within expectation

The kids sit tests. I have asked time and time and time again for the results. The school flatly refuse to give them. When trying to guide your child’s interests, it’s vital to know these sorts of things. If they are below average in primary school tests there is no point in telling them they can be vets or doctors etc. if we had this info we could guide them appropriately, but we don’t. So enraging.

'A struggling P5' won't be at the expected level though as they should have completed first level by the end of P4. It's simply stating that some won't achieve first level by P4.

I would say you are 100% accurate in your observations.

Your headteacher sounds unprofessional and unable to satisfactorily answer your concerns. I would move my daughter elsewhere.

The CfE is appalling. I think the original idea was laudable but it has been badly implemented. It consists of incredibly vague, nebulous experiences and outcomes which are open to individual interpretation. This leads to a lack of consistency and coherence across different classes, schools and education authorities. Upon entering high school, the gaps in basic knowledge can be quite astounding. This means high school teachers are often trying to build on foundations that don't exist. Play is valuable but not to the exclusion of academic rigour.

The only way to ensure your children have a solid base upon which to start high school is to:
A) Hope you get lucky with a decent primary school.
B) Fill in the gaps yourself or with a tutor.
C) Pay for a private school.

You'll get nothing but meaningless platitudes about your child's progress.

The English curriculum is helpful to look at for something more comprehensible to give you an idea of what should be achieved at each stage.
I am a teacher in Scotland and I despair sometimes.

@Cfe wow, what an indictment of the Scottish Education System. I will heed your words but secretly hoping there's some learning going on!

@Staggie Fife

@Cantseethewoodforthetree I get it, it's hard to comprehend because it's so important, as they say, your potential is linked to your first seven years of life so how you go through primary is key to how you perform throughout your academic career and saying that you can catch up later on, is difficult.

As a "shadow schooler" (I live in a non-English-speaking country and do English with my kids at home), I don't waste time wading through a bunch of high-winded word salad in the form of actual curriculum documents (the English curriculum is long and wordy enough; the Scottish one is a bunch of hot air - never seen such a pile of bloody waffle).

I just buy textbooks and workbooks and work through them (I mostly use Galore Park with CGP where necessary), supplementing with my own materials and ideas a bit. Job done.

Homeschooling, shadow schooling and supporting your own child at home are not the same as designing a scheme of work for an actual classroom (thank goodness!)

Agree with CfE upthread.

What's the point of "We're going to do lovely play for half the school day" if the kids just wind up stuck in tutoring over their evenings and weekends? So depressing.

If the OP's school wants children to engage in more healthy play, their first port of call should be stop kids going on devices; can't believe the kids were encouraged to mess about on phones during school time.

There are plenty of excellent teachers but I think they are excellent despite the curriculum rather than because of it.
The focus on soft skills, well being and play can lead to a lack of knowledge/facts being taught. Some children will have that gap filled at home by concerned parents but some won't, which will widen the attainment gap still further. I feel that children's self esteem and well being are increased by knowledge and academic success but my views are out of kilter with the current zeitgeist in education.