Pitch at primary

[Waterybrook]

I’ve returned to teaching after a long break and I am surprised at the high (and inappropriate) pitch of the work in the primary classroom. The children I am teaching are working towards and the work is so high level it seems crazy. Is this an adjustment after Gove’s 2014 curriculum? I have taught since then but I haven’t been planning in detail so hadn’t really realised…

The kids books look good and you wouldn’t necessarily know but they don’t understand much of what they are being taught it seems to me… going over their heads.

Thank you if you can cast some light on this

Yep the curriculum is no longer appropriate as well as there just being too much in it and then we wonder why behaviour is so much more challenging, school refusal widespread etc.

Totally this

Thank you.

i was a class teacher up til 2014. I used to teach and the children learnt. I worked really hard and planned appropriately for their level and they made good progress.

Now they are failing to understand. It’s really so bad for them. Poor kids. It also makes me feel like a bad teacher.

Couldn't agree more. I teach in a primary school with a deprived cohort. Gorgeous bright children.
We do 2 worksheets every afternoon (different subjects, history, science etc) in order to show that we're getting through the curriculum. Our academy likes to say that it can go 'above and beyond' the NC, so often pack stuff in that my generation didn't learn until GCSE (I teach Y3).
When I ask them to verbalise what we've learned, they can't, as they don't understand it. Never mind, just tell them what to write and get the sheet stuck in so that it's there for a book inspection and hopefully it'll trigger a memory if they're interviewed by an Ofsted inspector in the next 3 years.
Every day is a frustrating process. It is so sad, and demoralising for pupils and teachers.
I'm leaving at the end of the year.

@allnewfor2024 where are you going to go? Another school or a different job?

thanks for replying. I feel quite bad about how the wool is being pulled over everyone’s eyes. In the very short reading lesson I have to tell the kids what to write as the text is too hard and they haven’t got time to understand it. I don’t plan that, I am just supposed to deliver it. Not sure what the ethical thing is to do. Slow it right down and never move on? I’m sure I’d get in trouble

I’ve just left primary education after 26 years. I couldn’t deal with the bizarre shit I was supposed to teach: the subjunctive mood, multiplying fractions etc. I’d done 10 years in UKS2 and I’d just had enough.

I'm now in PMLD. There are some hard bits, it’s a massive learning curve, but I can justify to myself what I’m doing.