Does Your Child Go To A Proper School Or An Academy?

Janepig

suki1001 wrote: »

As a parent I wish we worked the same way as on the Continent. See this:

"Finnish pupils start formal education at seven and then enjoy 11-week summer holidays - and they end up with the highest educational standards in Europe."

:eek::eek::eek: I stopped reading at that point and had to have a lie down!! I can't cope with six weeks as it is, and DD has been in tears on several occasions because she misses her friends and school in general (DD/DS's school has a wide catchment area so none of her friends are "local"). I think they should have shorter 2/3 weeks holiday spread over the year.

<makes mental note not to go and live in Finland>

Jx

Welshwoofs

GobbledyGook wrote: »

There are lots of factors, but I strongly believe they've lost sight of the importance of the basics. Not having those basic building blocks instillied at primary school will impact throughout their entire education - if their English is poor then they'll struggle with French or German, if their basic Maths is poor then sciences like Physics will be more difficult etc. Getting in people like me to work with them for 15 minutes a week is never going to make up for all of the missing bits.

Do they still give a word list every day to pupils in primary school? When I was a kid, every single day we were given a list of 10 words to research and the next day we had to demonstrate that we could spell them and use them correctly in a sentence.

I mention this because it's often quoted that an elementary school student in 1945 had a vocabulary of around 10,000 whereas today's elementary school student has a vocabulary of around 2,500. If that's the case I'd imagine that it must be down to less reading (in school and out) and less exploration of language.

Mr_Toad

DecentLivingWage wrote: »

Oh No... I can't believe this... you haven't even heard about the new 'Primary Academies' have you... God, they sure kept that one quiet! Yes, lads and lasses - unbelievably i truly meant 'learning to read' as in Reception! HeadsUp everyone...opening soon on a site near you (or just changing your school's name sign!)

I certainly have and they hold no terror me. Hundreds of thousands of children are taught to read every year by cheap unqualified teachers, they are called parents.

This world is full of these 'parents' and I've met plenty of them that I would happily let teach teach children to read.

Sadly, Judging by your poor typing and lack of capitalisation you aren't one of them, despite your qualifications.

peachyprice

Welshwoofs wrote: »

Do they still give a word list every day to pupils in primary school? When I was a kid, every single day we were given a list of 10 words to research and the next day we had to demonstrate that we could spell them and use them correctly in a sentence.

Not a new list every day no. A new list every week, starting at 10 words in yr1, going up to 25 ish by year 6. But yes, they have to spell them correctly and put them each into context in sentences, then a spelling test at the end of the week.

Reading, they have a reading record and are encouraged to read for half an hour at home every night and in DD's primary they read every morning after registration, either to themselves, each other or the teacher/TA, plus 'guided reading' in small groups 2-3 times a week.

kelloggs36

dizziblonde wrote: »

I've sat and cringed at the spelling mistakes on display work in some classrooms (not talking about the children's work here either - but the labels and lettering) - especially the "shove an apostrophe in anything that ends in an s just in case it needs one" strategy the KIDS use (which has had me hopping up and down on the spot on a few occasions)... from the blooming teachers.

Now I'll admit that on forums in particular my written English slides somewhat - but I always double and triple checked anything going on the walls, or anything going out to parents or being photocopied into worksheets (because you bet the kids would gleefully find any errors!), and when the kids asked me for a spelling and I wasn't 100% sure (I'm very much someone who needs to see a word written down to "see" if it looks right) I'd scribble it in a corner of the whiteboard and double check it in a dictionary.

You just don't put crap like "Our Class Rule's" on the wall!

Mind you then I'm a crusty old fossil who never did politically correct pen colours either - stuff marking in green - I usually marked in a highly rebellious sparkly purple or orange (at the kids' request)!

I am a teacher in a primary school. Bad spelling and punctuation are one thing that infuriates me so much. In a school I once worked at, the deputy head put up a quote which read: "A school is only as good as it's staff." I put my hand up and said (jokingly, but also seriously) "There is no need for the apostrophe because you have stated it is rather than its for possession." I was hauled into the office to be told off that it was inappropriate to correct somebody on their punctuation.

Whilst my comment was meant in jest, I also highlighted a serious point: if a deputy head who teaches can't use an apostrophe correctly, what chance do the children have?

I do not agree with the idea of emergent writing and leaving children to use their phonics knowledge to spell. I have always taught my children the correct spellings of the words they use, otherwise I believe that they 'learn' it wrong as they are praised for their use of phonics rather than the spellings and then believe that their spellings are correct. Later, when more phonics has been taught, children just don't make the connections of the different sounds that many phonemes make, so they revert to the one they have been using from old; in short, they can't seem to 'unlearn' bad spellings because they have used the wrong ones for too long - get them early! I believe strongly that we should teach and correct them all the way to get the correct spellings and punctuation ingrained into their brains.

kelloggs36

Another bugbear of mine is the fact that there are many TAs out there who are, I'm afraid, illiterate -they don't know the difference between there, their and they're or your and you're, yet they teach small groups of children on a daily basis! I have seen this so many times, they don't know that it is could have and not could of either. These TAs are in many cases taking children to BOOST their performance, whereas in fact they are only making it worse for them. Try telling senior management and they aren't interested because they are (on paper) doing the right thing by providing an intervention for the children which proves that they are trying to do something to improve the children's learning.

I'm not for one moment suggesting that all TAs are illiterate, but I have seen some in EVERY school that I have worked in and it scares me to death to think that this is allowed to go on. As well as having basic standards for teachers, I believe that this should be extended to TAs also, to prove that they have a good grasp of the English language; they don't need a degree, but should have a basic English test to sit.

kelloggs36

peachyprice wrote: »

Not a new list every day no. A new list every week, starting at 10 words in yr1, going up to 25 ish by year 6. But yes, they have to spell them correctly and put them each into context in sentences, then a spelling test at the end of the week.

Reading, they have a reading record and are encouraged to read for half an hour at home every night and in DD's primary they read every morning after registration, either to themselves, each other or the teacher/TA, plus 'guided reading' in small groups 2-3 times a week.

You would be surprised that the number of children who do not learn any spellings at home at all - it is evident from their spelling tests at the end of the week; many get 0/5 yes, only 5 spellings to learn and they still get zero. I'm talking about the high frequency words here too, such as girl. I now give the children (who don't have SEN) spellings detention if they don't reach a target. I have often heard the excuse that they don't have any time to learn their spellings, when in reality you don't need lots of time, just the odd few minutes here and there to keep writing the words - I strongly believe that writing the words down many times helps to seal it into the brain, it is no good being able to just read it, many children can read the words but can't write them down. Sadly for many children, their parents don't spend any time with them either, so they don't make progress as quickly as they may do otherwise.

GobbledyGook

kelloggs36 wrote: »

You would be surprised that the number of children who do not learn any spellings at home at all - it is evident from their spelling tests at the end of the week; many get 0/5 yes, only 5 spellings to learn and they still get zero. I'm talking about the high frequency words here too, such as girl. I now give the children (who don't have SEN) spellings detention if they don't reach a target. I have often heard the excuse that they don't have any time to learn their spellings, when in reality you don't need lots of time, just the odd few minutes here and there to keep writing the words - I strongly believe that writing the words down many times helps to seal it into the brain, it is no good being able to just read it, many children can read the words but can't write them down. Sadly for many children, their parents don't spend any time with them either, so they don't make progress as quickly as they may do otherwise.

It's the same with reading. The amount of times you see children with a signed reading diary and then it becomes clear as soon as they start reading to their teacher or TA that the book hasn't left the bag at any point. A number of the schools that I was in simply didn't have time to do reading every day so the children would only read aloud two or three times a week which simply isn't enough if there isn't strong back up at home. Then there is the ones who learn to read it parrot fashion. If she can read the reading book from pages 1-9 without opening the book then that isn't 'reading' it is 'remembering'. If she can't start from page 2 then she can't read it!

My final "I've had enough moment" was when I sent home some work for a child to do over the four week period before I seen her again was returned with a scribbled note saying "Don't have time for this nonsense". Now the child was already considerably behind her peers and this was a few pieces of basic maths just to keep her on track during the time before we worked together again and her parents just weren't interested in facilitating it. They just didn't grasp that until she got the very basics she cannot catch up.

kelloggs36

I had a child in my class (of 30) who never read at home - the mother worked shifts and couldn't possibly spend any time listening to her child read, and the woman's mother was 67 so how could she be expected to listen to the child read??? Why didn't I listen to every child read every day? I shall tell you:

there are 30 children in the class, if I spend just 5 minutes with them each plus writing down any notes, that makes 6 minutes each child. 6 X 30 = 180 minutes which is half the teaching day. Take out lunch and break time and I am left with only 125 minutes to teach maths, English (writing and reading), History, P.E, Art, Music, DT, French, Geography, PHSE. Now clearly we can't teach all subjects every day, but there is not enough time as it is to do it all justice, without giving up half the day to listening to children read. It doesn't need to take a long time at home, 5 minutes for one child is just that - 5 minutes. 5 minutes in a class situation is per child!

GobbledyGook

You are forgetting though Kellogs - the other children are not anywhere near as important as THEIR child! Jings, you should just make an exception and listen to their child, nobody cares about the other 29 lol.