Primary - is creativity not allowed anymore?

[Nuffaluff]

I’ve been primary school teacher for a long time. Been at the same school for too long probably.
We had a change of Head a few years ago and he loves schemes of work. We have schemes of work for everything and we aren’t allowed to do our own planning anymore. Some things are okay, but we have Ark Curriculum which is awful for the younger children - very dry, all work in booklets with very little hands-on, practical work and zero fun.
All the joy has gone and it is killing it for me, especially as my class are only Year 2! It’s even worse for the Year 1 teacher. The children don’t like it but, of course, most of my colleagues (the good teachers!) pretend it’s brilliant in staff meetings and then bitch about it behind closed doors! Opinions are not allowed unless you agree with the Head.
I miss the days when I could plan my own lessons as I’ve been trained to do.
What I’d like to know is - how is it at your school? Do you get to plan your own lessons still? Do you get to do fun stuff with the kids, e.g. make a mosaic when you’re learning about Romans?
Do I need to get out of teaching before I’m too old to retrain?

I have experience with this curriculum. It wasn't suitable for me to teach long term. I appreciate the aim but your vision has to chime with the organisation's in order for you to retain your integrity. Even now, in a different school, every activity has a learning outcome. There is no time to do anything purely for 'fun'. The primary curriculum is huge. There just isn't the time.

Last year, my year 6 kids loved art.

Art was torn apart in Mocksted deep dive. The curriculum has changed completely and our Mocksted guy is now happy! Yeah!

This year, my year 6 kids find art boring.

I loathe Plan Bee and Kapow and Primary Languages Network. Powerpoint after powerpoint and worksheet after worksheet. My poor 5/6 class. Everything is just so dull.

We don't use schemes but can dip in and our of White Rose, Classroom Secrets etc. But no, no more Roman tiles sadly. Because apparently it's not learning a transferable artistic skills like understanding texture or colour. I just don't think it makes any difference to how much children ultimately learn. I recently photocopied something from an old curriculum resource for a quick reading comprehension - the questions weren't what I'd write myself nowadays, but they still got the children reading and thinking about the text. That's what matters surely?

This is really interesting to read - I am a mature student (mid thirties) just starting my teacher training, and we have to obviously write thousands of lesson plans, but every lesson in ever class had already been planned out, with no wiggle room. I was also wondering if this is just standard everywhere now, or are some schools letting teachers have more autonomy?
I am still really enjoying the training, but boy - primary school aint like it was in the mid nineties!

Our curriculum is PowerPoint after PowerPoint too. All written activities in a booklet. Mind-crushingly boring and formal.
Childhood is so precious. These kids are not going to develop a love of learning.

It’s the lack of autonomy that’s getting to me too.
Just let me teach - I’m a professional, at least I thought I was supposed to be.

So many of the kids in our school hate History, hate Geography.

Nope...not allowed to be creative teachers anymore. This curriculum is sucking our souls dry, unfortunately! I teach Year 2, and in my school we even have to have exactly the same displays on the walls in every parallel classroom...right down to the individual word cards! We get pulled up on it if our parallel class even uses a different font!

We use schemes for everything and can't veer from them...our 'long term' planning is SO detailed that it isn't really 'long term' at all! We have to plan so far ahead, that it includes DAILY objectives in English for the ENTIRE YEAR!! So we were expected to map out in advance before September, what we would be teaching (say) on a Wednesday in June in a Year 2 English lesson. That's really not how planning works...or how linear learning is!! It's difficult some weeks to know how they'll do by Friday! 🤦‍♀️

So yeah...in answer to your question...creativity is a thing of the past! We are robots, churning out robots 😥

Jesus wept spring, that’s awful. Worse than my school.
I think I’m going to try getting a different teaching job somewhere else and find out if I can still be a teacher. I’m a creative, problem solver type of person, not a robot! I need to be allowed to think for myself more.
I just have a strong sense that I shouldn’t abandon the profession. It feels like abandoning children. I really care, you see.

Thanks so much for all of your replies.
I’m still keen to hear from other teachers.

Unfortunately, it seems like once Ofsted turned its attention to the curriculum, the managers sought to make the curriculum as rigid and dull as possible. It is such a shame as it has sucked a lot of joy out of learning.

I feel the same. I think it's all because it makes things easier to explain / show consistency for deep dives. I feel eroded.

The over-use of schemes and the decreasing thresholds in teacher training are partly to blame for this. Some experienced teachers have become deskilled over time because of they have either been directed to use schemes or have relied on them. They haven't had to create their own bespoke units of work and so aren't confident in their ability to do so successfully.

The thresholds to gain a teacher training place (and to pass) have lowered year on year to allow more people through. This has also meant that some people now teaching, quite frankly, shouldn't be. It's part of the reason the ECT framework was put in place and contains such ridiculous units as directly teaching your ECT to stand and survey the classroom or how to get the attention of the class.

There's a lack of trust in the professional status of teachers. Lack of trust leads to a lack of agency and a lack of creativity.

I'm so glad that I work in a school where teachers have a decent level of autonomy. Ofsted might not like it when they next come but it's absolutely the best thing for our staff and children.

Yes, I hate it. I'm a qualified teacher who visits different schools. The amount of Twinkl or Kapow or White Rose PowerPoints and worksheets I've seen is unreal.

I saw a teacher teaching fractions using a WR lesson. So a same-y PowerPoint where they were just staring at a board then a worksheet. I remember teaching fractions 10 years ago and using tubes of smarties or cutting up cakes or pizza. Hands on, practical, fun, memorable. Unlike these identikit lessons that every school now seems to use.

Sure, easier for the teacher just to download that day's lesson. But de-skilling the profession and making lessons far less engaging for the children. It makes me very sad to see.

It's getting like this in lreland too and it is so frustrating. I think all of us remember creative teachers who brought their own creativity to their lessons and awakened that learning buzz in us. Well it's being driven out of schools and it's awful. Maybe new teachers who will never know anything different won't mind but for us who loved the opportunity to bring your own personalty in it's soul destroying. But at the end of the day it's the children who are missing out.

We've just had Ofsted. It was an awful experience, and one of the things they said was that we should consider schemes for everything so that all of the curriculum is standardised.
It's not teaching as I know it

But they then say in the next breath that any schemes must be pulled apart and reassembled by the subject leads to ensure it's specific to your context and the aims of your school.

It's almost like consistency in inspections isn't a priority.

I couldn't read and not comment. My school is the total opposite of this. No worksheets. No twinkl. We plan our lessons in year groups (2 form entry school) and they are as practical and engaging as we can make them. SLT would be really unimpressed with PowerPoints being churned out over and over. More work for the teachers as we actually plan and make resources ourselves, but much more enjoyable and we cut down on work elsewhere e.g planning documents are very simple, marking is done in the lesson. Good schools and good SLT, who appreciate and respect their staff, still exist!

Thank you, you have given me hope!

Schemes have their place as a means of ensuring curriculum coverage, but to me, a scheme should be a basis for planning. Eg we use kapow for art. It’s good because it ensures coverage and progression and the teacher videos are great for staff who are not confident. But I would take that lesson and the skills/Knowledge and tailor it to my children.

@KatherineofGaunt surely that's not just a boring way of teaching fractions, it's a wrong way of teaching fractions!

Kids, especially those who aren't so "academic", need practical experience of number!

Teachers would agree...but in my school we have no choice sadly! We HAVE to use White Rose (just like we HAVE to use all the other bought in schemes for everything!) it's horrible...and actually takes more time as we are expected (bizarrely!!) to copy and paste the bought scheme ppts into new ppts, change the font to our 'school preferred font' and ppt colour, and remove any reference to 'the scheme' so that it doesn't look like a scheme 🤦‍♀️

This takes hours...and yet we are constantly told that we should be grateful that we now have schemes so we don't have to plan...and that they don't understand why we say we are spending time 'planning' 🤬

Not blaming the teachers at all! I know it's either experienced teachers who have been told to do it and follow orders due to worries of being managed out, or ECTs who don't know any different and/or are so keen in their new jobs that they don't question it.

Absolutely awful that your school makes you make it not look like a scheme. What a waste of time, money and effort.

Or, I suppose I should add, teachers who just don't mind either way and are happy to go with the flow or teachers who are lazy or who hate planning and think "hurray - I don't have to plan as much!"