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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

What would you like to see school's teach?

57 replies

Welshwoman · 17/04/2009 10:42

10+ budgeted nutritional recipes cooked from scratch
(I despair at having to pre-prepare all the ingredients for my son at the moment )

How to be a good consumer along the lines of how interest rates work on mortgages and credit cards and basic consumer law
( I know its taught in theory in maths but I would like a separate lesson on financial management the course should be written by Martin Lewis !)

OP posts:

jemart · 17/04/2009 13:40

Hang on a minute, surely we as parents should be teaching our kids life skills like cooking, budgeting, perils of credit cards etc? school is for teaching them reading, writing and other more academic stuff so they can get a job.

Shitemum · 17/04/2009 13:43

How to:
cook (not specific recipes but instill a general understanding of how to cook) , wire a plug, mend shoes, replace the replacable bits in a toilet cistern, weld, solder, use normal and power tools correctly, how to wash clothes in the machine without ruining them
uummmmm...

to be clean and tidy and civil at home and out in the street,

uummmmmm...

...loads of common sense, practical things really...

twinsetandpearls · 17/04/2009 13:46

I agree that parents should do it, although no harm in school reinforcing it with their peers/

Shitemum · 17/04/2009 13:53

Agree parents should teach all that stuff but many don't...

PrimulaVeris · 17/04/2009 13:55

I should add that if DD learnt her cake making skills from me and Dh she would be condemned to a life of making inedible lumps ....

itchyandscratchy · 17/04/2009 13:55

Yes of course parents should be teaching these things. But guess what? A frightening number of them aren't. And if we carry on ignoring this fact and we just 'teach to the test' and train the kids to pass exams, what happens to them when they go to college and they can't cope with not being spoon-fed any more?

At my last school (city school in not brilliant area), academic results were fantastic given the students when they first arrived in Y7. And many of them went on to further education. But the drop-out rate was well above average and the subsequent number going on to Higher Ed was negligable, again because they didn't know what to do or how to learn independently after they'd left school. That particular school at least recognised the problem and have sepnt the last 2 years developing a very comprehensive coures that runs alongside the academic subjects taught.

It's big problem and one which many schools are now trying to tackle, not before time.

twinsetandpearls · 17/04/2009 13:56

Yes am not sure what dd could learn from me about budgeting, luckily dp is good with money.

twinsetandpearls · 17/04/2009 13:57

Yes Itchy we have to work with the society we have not the one we wish we had.

JustGetOnWithIt · 17/04/2009 14:09

So who do we expect to teach them maths, English literature, science, geography, foreign languages and history and when do we expect them to do it?
All the other 'skills' people are listing here can be learned or picked up at any time in life or through life experience.

JustGetOnWithIt · 17/04/2009 14:09

I really don't care if my sons never bake a cake.

Original poster

Welshwoman · 17/04/2009 14:16

Lol at teaching budgeting at home - considering the mess the economy is in as the Gov and banking leaders being paid millions haven?t got a clue about budgeting and the fact that we have the highest borrow levels per head in Western Europe.

OP posts:

Original poster

Welshwoman · 17/04/2009 14:19

Borrowing

OP posts:

Original poster

Welshwoman · 17/04/2009 14:26

As for the ''time'' issue - what are they going to teach them now that the school leaving age is being raised? Just extending the current syllabus when this has failed many of the lower academic achievers already? This is a genuine question as not sure I have seen any concrete plans and there seam to be some fab teachers on this thread! Think my son?s school must be quite traditional compared to the ones you teach in!

Definite yes to the touch typing and DIY skills

Re the cooking - for me its not so much about cake making but kids being able to do basic preparation from scratch as my DS1 is doing supposedly ?enhanced? catering and we still have to pre prepare everything at home (I personally get him to do his own but know many parents who do it all )

OP posts:

jemart · 17/04/2009 14:30

It is sad that some parents are unable or unwilling to teach their children basic stuff like cooking and managing money but there is only so much that can be taught in the school day, if we fill up lesson times with life skills, when are our children going to learn maths, reading, science, etc?

donnie · 17/04/2009 14:32

'school's' ? pardon?

PrimulaVeris · 17/04/2009 14:45

Agree that academic stuff comes first - but there is still time in curriculum in early secondary for all this (different at GCSE though)

I went to a grammar where such skills were frowned on and not taught at all (Presumably our academic merits were supposed to get us either a career or rich husband to pay for staff to do this kind of thing). I think that was very wrong.

stillenacht · 17/04/2009 14:46

At my GS next year we are introducing 'food technology'. Also in PSHE lessons many many financial things are covered as well as sex ed, moral and social issues.

stillenacht · 17/04/2009 14:47

There really isn't that much time in the curriculum at secondary (even lower) as most of ours sit about 13/14 GCSE's and start prep for them in year 8/9

PrimulaVeris · 17/04/2009 14:50

13/14 GCSE's.....??!!!

jemart · 17/04/2009 15:13

yikes, I sat 10 gcses and that was loads....

abraid · 17/04/2009 15:18

Latin.
Sequential history, ie, not just jumping from the Tudors to the Nazis to the Romans back to the Nazis, etc.

stillenacht · 17/04/2009 15:29

yes most of ours have already done 6/7 by the time they are in year 10.

senua · 17/04/2009 22:35

Parents are saying, "we would like x,y & z taught" and the teachers are saying, "but we already do that".
So what would I like to see schools teach? - how about 'training teachers how to communicate with parents'.

mimsum · 18/04/2009 15:36

correct use of grammar ...

campion · 19/04/2009 01:49

Not sure which ingredients you're 'pre-preparing', Welshwoman, but I should think it's because there's hardly any time in the lesson to do it all. Practical lessons are a nightmare of not enough time in most schools.

Why is your son not doing the preparing? It should be regarded as part of his homework - planning,shopping, being organised as well as the physical skills. Often more demanding than sitting down to a Maths exercise.

Budgeting, meal planning, cookery, wiring a plug, doing the washing, understanding domestic equipment,kitchen plannng, safety and more used to be embraced in Home Economics. Unfortunately the subject was cancelled by the stroke of a ministerial pen and cobbled into Food Technology ( if you were lucky).

I agree about touch typing. It should be compulsory.

jemart - I find the ' school is for getting enough skills to get a job' argument deeply depressing. Education is not about weighing how many facts you can stuff into a child (IMO)

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