Anyone else think parts of primary are largely a waste of time?

[OuiOuiMonAmi]

I work in Y4... we just spent a whole week on getting one paragraph written. If I taught DD 1:1, we could get this done in an hour. They practise it... they write it... they edit it... they edit again... they rewrite it... they write it up in best... god, it's so depressing and prescriptive. Takes all the joy out of writing.

Sounds opposite to the school I work in. We are a Talk for Writing school and it's fast paced, effective and above all, very fun!

Sounds lovely, NannyP! We use TFW in KS1 but not KS2... it's so depressing.

I send my kids to school so they learn to make friend and how to deal with people. Anything else is a bonus really.

schools is a very cheap and efficient way to teach large groups of children what the country feels they should know.

At an individual level its really slow/inefficient way of learning.

Why don't you use TFW in KS2? I use it in year 6, not for everything and tweaked a little but it still works. Last year's class had very little imagination and I don't think they would have got ANYTHING on paper if it weren't for TFW.

In a good school I don't think much of it is a waste of time. I think even learning to cope with being a bit bored and doing a repetitive, unexciting task is a life skill. I certainly have to put up with that as a teacher!!

I do think things like sitting there waiting for other kids to behave so the teacher can teach/ sitting through group bollockings etc is a waste of time for many. In a good school hopefully this wouldn't be happening much.

schools is a very cheap and efficient way to teach large groups of children what the country feels they should know.
At an individual level its really slow/inefficient way of learning.

This. So much this.

It might inefficient for those children who have someone who has time and ability to spend 1:1 with their child or money to pay for a rutor. Depending on the family the pupils may not get reinforcement or practice of skills. Is there a mixture of some writing like that and some purely creative writing?

Is there a mixture of some writing like that and some purely creative writing?

No creative writing - it's all prescriptive :(